The Road To Publishing Is Paved In Paperwork

Before Newcastlewest Books can release its next work of fiction, there's a great deal of work to be done.

There's reams of paperwork to be managed. There are contracts to vet and sign. There are tax documents to be filed. Operating a business, whether it's a start-up publisher or a plumbing contractor, requires reams of paperwork.

Here at NWC Books, we'll be using Lightning Source as printer, and as our subcontractor, they're not moving until we assure them we'll be paying for their printing work.

The problem we've run into is that all three of the partners work day jobs, and that leaves little time for the busy-work that any business requires. It means that I'll have to set aside some of the spare time I use for writing and turn my attention to filing the required documents.

Why go through all that? Most novels now being released go straight to e-books, and e-books are outselling hard copies.

It's because hard copies endure, no matter how much technology changes.

Where will e-books go when Apple or Microsoft or some company not yet in existence develop something different? Where will e-books be in one hundred years?

A hard copy of a book will still be there, the pages gone yellow and brittle at the edges, but there's no need for batteries or devices to pick up a book with an actual, physical existence, and read it.

So for that reason I'll sit down and finish filing the necessary paperwork, even though I know that e-book editions of our novels will far outsell the hard copies. To date, no one's come up with a different way of providing good books to the reading public that has proven to be as enduring.