I Gambled on an Ebook Revolution. It Hasn’t Happened.

When I wrote my first novel 23 years ago, I followed the time-honored steps toward publication. I sought a literary agent. I found one. She agreed to represent me.

Her Sisyphean task of pushing my manuscript up the mountain to publishing editors proved doubly difficult since neither my new agent or I lived in New York City. We lived in Northern California. Not being at the literary world's nexus was like awaiting your big showbiz break without ever setting foot in Los Angeles. But my agent had other clients, so I trusted her.

While waiting for my manuscript to wend its way through the publishing netherworld, I took the sage advice of many experts. I wrote another novel. And then a third.

Rejections came one after the other, but I expected that. What I didn’t expect, however, was that my agent would become so fed up with the publishing industry’s merry-go-round of editors - they seemed to come and go every quarter, she said - that she got off the carnival ride and quit being an agent.

To her credit, she tried to find new representation for me, but all the other agents kvetched about existing clients and couldn’t possibly take on another. They also all seemed to be broke and frustrated.

Middle age was well underway for me, so I grew impatient to see my works - by then three novels - collecting digital dust on my computer. So I took a gamble.

Ebooks were not yet a thing. The Kindle hadn’t yet been invented, although a product called the Rocket Ebook had. I believed ebooks were not far away from mass appeal, and I wanted to be ready when the new wave hit the shore.

Self-publishing was considered a mortal sin at that time. No respectable writers would ever whore themselves to such depraved depths. But I saw what Amazon was doing. I bet that it was only a matter of time before they disrupted the publishing world in the same manner as Netflix and Apple Music. Technological change was brewing.

I began publishing my own ebooks and paperbacks through CreateSpace, the precursor to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). When the Kindle hit the mainstream, I felt confident I’d made the savvy move. Screw the traditional publishers! I was joining the mavericks!

I watched as streaming TV services disrupted television, and I thought, ‘Pretty soon, that’s what’s gonna happen to book publishing!’

I watched Apple Music and Spotify disrupt the music industry, and I thought, ‘Pretty soon, that’s what’s gonna happen to book publishing!’

I watched how podcasting gave everyone their own radio show, and I thought, ‘Pretty soon, that’s what’s gonna happen to book publishing!’

Nope. It hasn’t happened to book publishing.

Well, yes, it has, to a much lesser degree, but the general public hasn't joined the revolution. Neither have the traditional publishers. The dinosaurs still dominate the book world. And entree into that closed society is the same as it has ever been - agents and editors control the drawbridge.

Hardcover and paperback books are still more popular than electronic books. That makes no sense to me, because nearly everybody now reads all day long on electronic devices - phones, tablets, and laptops. That’s how you’re reading these words, for Chrissakes.

For one year, I worked at a popular Bay Area independent bookstore with a large customer base and over two dozen employees (which is a lot for an indie bookstore). Here was a dirty little secret among those of us who worked there: Most of us owned Kindles.

One of my pals wrote a memoir that he entered into a contest sponsored by the Huffington Post. Of all the countless entries, his manuscript was selected for publication. I was happy for him. But HuffPost would only publish his memoir electronically. No physical copy - neither hardcover or paperback - was created. Even so, the electronic version sold quite well. But my buddy didn’t own an ebook reader. So I bought him one for his birthday. He didn’t seem to comprehend what he might do with it. I told him, “For starters, you could read your own damn ebook!”

Given all the technological advancements people have willingly adopted in recent years, as well as what’s coming soon (hello, electric vehicles), I’m disheartened that ebooks lag behind other innovations. The larger issue, in my opinion, isn't just having to drag the average book reader into the 21st Century. It's also the entrenchment of traditional publishing. No one has come close to upending their Victorian-Era business model, although Amazon has tried. Delivering content electronically, instead of shipping physical products that might not sell, just seems more logical. Look at how that changed the music industry, as well as movies and television. Yet we get more of the same old same old.

I gambled. I electronically self-published 15 titles over that past 21 years. My gamble didn’t pay off like I'd predicted. I bet that DIY publishing would evolve and the dinosaurs would be extinct by now. I was wrong. They might never die. But should they ever get struck by a meteor, my ebooks will survive.