The U.S. is the sixth country in which Sex, Bombs and Burgers will be (or has been) published in, joining Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (fall 2010) and South Korea (ditto, in Korean), and it's obviously a key part of any book's world domination plan. There will soon be a seventh country joining the list, with more details coming soon.The U.S. is a particularly important country for any Canadian author to be in, given our shared culture and media. Any media exposure there is likely to be picked up here, so a U.S. deal can also be very good for Canadian sales.
The deal with Lyons came quite literally at the eleventh hour. As regular readers of this blog know, I was just about ready to push the button on a self-published ebook through Amazon, Apple and the others. Like many Canadian authors who have pitched their wares southward, I had received a pile of rejections from U.S. publishers. I wasn't disheartened by the situation too much because, as I've written about before, the publishing world is changing quickly and dramatically. While self-publishing has traditionally been something of a dirty word, I really do believe that the ebook world being ushered in by the likes of Amazon will elevate it to a level of respectability.
Here's how the old publishing world works. Writers pitch their work to publishers. Publishers accept books they think are good, then go about trying to sell those to the public via getting coverage through the traditional media (print, TV and radio). The media covers books they think are good.
Here's how the new publishing world is likely to work. Writers publish their work through Amazon, then go about trying to sell it to the public via social media (Twitter, YouTube, etc.). The public then decides if the book is good and sales happen accordingly. Obviously there are a lot of middle men cut out of the equation, which has benefits and detriments.
We're at a pivotal time right now where that new world is just starting to take off. I was actually quite excited to throw my hat into the ring, to experiment and see what would happen. To some extent, I believe that authors who can get in now might be getting in on the ground floor of something amazing, sort of like the guys who invented eBay or YouTube.
It's still pretty risky though, and it's definitely going to be a lot of hard work for anyone trying it. It wasn't an easy decision for me, but it ultimately came down to whether I wanted to work on selling my book myself. Under the old system, having a so-called cultural aggregator behind you actually does half the work for you - despite self-publishing's improving image and the potential of social media for promotional purposes, the fact is it'll still be years before the traditional media accepts such books. There are still several layers of cultural aggregation any book must go through to become a big success. As exciting as the potential of a self-published ebook is, I haven't seen too many such authors pop up on The Colbert Report. Yet.
I'm as big a fan as anyone of the democratizing power of technology, and I too long for the day when the system is more fair and open to all. I suspect it won't take too long to get there, and my hope is that I have a little bit of a name built up for when we do arrive because it'll make the work that much easier if I choose to go that route.
In the meantime, I imagine I'll be just as giddy when I get my first U.S. hardcover as I was when I got my copies from Penguin Canada and Allen & Unwin. A few things will be different for the U.S. edition - it looks like the subtitle is going to change slightly to something like "How War, Pornography and Fast Food Shaped Modern Technology." There is also the possibility that we'll have yet a third cover - I had one designed and ready to go for the ebook, and will be talking to Pequot about whether they want to use it. And given that it's not coming out till the fall of 2011, I'll hopefully have a chance to update it, possibly with some extra content.
One last thing: in light of the anti-Canadian rant I went on the other day, I'm proud to say that every success Sex, Bombs and Burgers has enjoyed so far has come without a lick of help from the Canadian government or our regulators!
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