In addition to being interested in reading, I was always interested in book publishing too. As a teenager and in college, I spent countless hours in bookstores browsing – and buying when I had the money. And, I eventually ended up working for several bookstore chains – Waldenbooks, Books A Million, and Barnes & Noble.

The literary agent that I worked for was extremely diligent at pursuing rights reversions. And, I was the one tracking when books went out print, and writing the letters to book publishers requesting that they revert the rights to the author. FYI – for those who don’t know all the ins-and-outs of book publishing, when an author sells a book to a publisher, they’re usually selling the publisher the right to print and sell the book – they’re not selling the book outright. And, when the publisher decided not to order any more reprints, we would swoop in and immediately request rights reversions.

Interestingly enough, towards the end of my stint at the literary agency, many book publishers were starting to realize the impact that eBooks could one day have, so they began dragging their feet on reverting rights. Before that, most publishers would respond quickly to reversion requests.

So, what’s my point re: rights reversion? If an author still has an active and interested fan base, and they’re sitting on 5-10-15 or more novels that have been written, edited, and previously published, then those authors are sitting on a potential, passive revenue stream.

JA Konrath, a successful novelist who has published a series of suspense novels, recently blogged about his experience uploading and selling several old, “trunk” novels via Amazon’s Kindle. He’s selling the novels for $1.59 each. In May, Konrath made $1,250 on his Kindle sales. Now, no one is going to get rich on $1,250 per month, but that’s not Konrath’s only income. He’s writing and selling traditionally published too. An extra $1,250 per month could definitely come in handy for many writers.

However, any published fiction – or non-fiction – writer can attest that they often have ideas that they can’t sell – despite their existing success. In the past, writers would often have to either give up on those ideas – or try to sell them under a pen name. Now, if a writer is passionate about a book that their current editor and publisher doesn’t respond to – they have an option. They could publish that novel via Amazon Kindle – and other eBook platforms. Don’t forget – Google is planning to launch their own eBook platform for selling eBooks, and Sony has promised to also make writer-submitted novels and stories available for Sony Readers in the future.

If you’re an author with a fan base, or even an “expert” or “guru” with manuscripts or novels you’ve already written, you may want to consider selling them via Amazon Kindle.

One note, as Lee Goldberg, already pointed out. This isn’t going to work for everyone. If self-published authors who’ve never sold a novel to a traditional publisher flood Amazon’s Kindle store with half-baked, poorly edited, 10th generation ripoffs of James Patterson or JK Rowling, then Amazon will be forced to police the novels submitted directly from authors.

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Meanwhile, the latest Fortune magazine has a glowing cover story about Amazon’s Kindle, and the launch of the Kindle DX – a large-screen Kindle.

Despite Amazon’s success with the Kindle thus far, the Kindle’s only differentiation at this point is wireless connectivity. Admittedly, the ability to instantly download a title that you’ve heard about on NPR or read about in your morning paper drives unbelievable impulse purchases. And, those impulse purchases, are surely adding to the Kindle’s financial success thus far.

But, that wireless advantage could be short-lived. Ultimately – in the next 18 months – a competitor, Plastic Logic or Sony, will introduce an eReader with wireless connectivity. And, lurking in the background, is the 500 pound gorilla of well-designed consumer electronics – Apple. There have been plenty of rumors about a much larger iPod touch scheduled to be released. Regardless if Apple launches a larger iPod touch, as netbooks continue to grow, smartphones continue to grow, Apple will eventually release a device akin to an iPod touch with a larger form factor.

As eBook devices proliferate and eBook availability continues to expand via Google’s new initiative and others, will consumers continue forking over $359 for an Amazon Kindle? I doubt it.

Who is certain to lose regardless of how the eBook future unfolds? Sadly independent bookstores.

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If you’ve read much of this blog, then you know that I’m very interested in the book publishing and especially eBooks. In the mid-90s, before I moved into public relations, I worked in the book publishing industry. I worked for a literary agency in NYC.

This morning, I read a blog post Some eBook Observations by Mike Shatzkin at his Idea Logical blog. I left a comment on his blog. I think his comments are moderated, because I haven’t seen my comment appear yet. But, I also thought my comment would be of interest to people reading this blog too. So here it is.

“Mike,

I have to respectfully disagree with you. I would wager that if you walked into a bookstore today and asked 100 random people to name three specific publishers, you’d be hardpressed to find 10 who could give the names of three. Sure, bibliophiles know the names of HarperCollins, Penguin, or Random House. However, the vast majority of the buying public don’t buy books based on publishers. Instead, they’re interested in buying the new Stephen King, the new Dan Brown, etc. Consumers buy specific authors – or titles – not publishers.

Re: pricing, I also disagree. Many technology pundits have started warning publishers, “Rethink, rethink, rethink, rethink your pricing for books, and if you can’t bring yourself to radically examine your pricing, then you’re headed down the same, sad road as the music industry.” As smartphones continue to multiply, as netbook sales increase, and as the eBook industry continues to grow, the book publishers’ Napster is not far off. Hackers love cracking code, and if eBook prices don’t dramatically decrease, hackers will gleefully crack the eBook DRM out there, and distribute the latest bestsellers via an eBook Napster service.

Sure, there’s printing costs, and sure there’s fixed costs for publishers, but we all know that distributing a digital eBook file costs less than a penny. That’s a concept that someone with zero knowledge of the book industry can grasp, because just about everyone sends attached files via email these days.

Why can’t publishers follow the instincts of the master retailer himself – Sam Walton? I’m paraphrasing, but Walton often said, “I’d rather sell a million pairs of socks, and make a nickel from each pair, than sell 100 pairs of socks and make $100 per pair.” Publishers could dramatically lower the price of eBooks and make up the difference in volume.

Why not sell backlist paperback titles for $1.00 a piece in eBook format – and split the net profit 50/50 with the author? The $1.00, $2.00, $3.00 price point is such an affront to publishers, they won’t even seriously consider it, and they try to justify – with a straight face – charging a trade paperback price for a digital file that cost them basically nothing to distribute.

Realistically though, I don’t see that type of adventurous pricing happening. Amazon is taking a loss on just about every hardcover title they sell on the Kindle for $9.99. Publishers aren’t budging on prices. And, as publishers try to justify their eBook pricing with elaborate explanations and justifications, the hackers are eating pizza, sleeping under their desks, coding around the clock, and the eBook Napster gets closer and closer.”

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