Absolutely. Some interesting thoughts by Seth Godin on the Kindle that relate to this.

And…

No problem at all. Commenters are welcome to tout their own efforts as long as they are adding substantively to the conversation. Which you most definitely are.

It also means that a lot of folks are confused about what all these changes mean for credibility of presses, for reaching potential readers, for making money, etc.

The sci-fi/fantasy (thank you, Doctorow!) and romance genres are on the cutting edge of this. I’m an early adopter of the eBookWise, but I realize this may change as digital content becomes standardized a la mp3 formatting and a universal ebook reader becomes available. The .oeb format I offer is the open-source standard being worked toward, which is why I offer it.

I have no doubt this will grow out to other genres, other sectors, but very very slowly and it will NOT take off until there’s a universal device and a universal format.

Doesn’t this month’s Ensign talk about sharing the gospel via the internet? If we’re that technologically savvy with the gospel, I don’t see why we can’t be that savvy with literature/nonfiction/fiction.

I intend to be on the forefront of that.

I fixed your URL for you.

—-
CL:

Looking back exMos is definitely the wrong term to use. A better might be Sunstone/Signature supporters or something like that. Not that those folks don’t overlap with what Zarahemla is doing, but I think there’s a difference between seeking out The Backslider and the work of Brian Evenson and reading On the Road to Heaven. Some readers enjoy both. But my guess is that some don’t.

I could be wrong.

To respond to both comments: I pretty much agree. At the same time, I think what the two of you (and others) are doing electronically is the best that can be hoped for right now.

Whether its Mormon literature or atheist literature or any other yet emergent market, the issue is not just the viability of the market as an interesting-category-for-authors/readers, but also the major changes that are disrupting the traditional publishing/marketing models. Sure, such disruptions may create opportunities (I think it’s very cool that Moriah’s B10 offers a .zip file with 7 different digital formats), but it also means that a lot of folks are confused about what all these changes mean for credibility of presses, for reaching potential readers, for making money, etc.

I think the biggest challenge for Mormon lit is the Deseret, etc., vertical-and-horizontal monopoly.

I completely agree with that. Any other outlet is going to have to build itself from the ground up (e.g., Zarahemla), which takes a long time and a lot of money. Authors who want to publish more edgy things might still have an issue with an unproven press.

My press is about as untried as you can get. I know I won’t ever get books onto Deseret Book’s shelves, but I do hope eventually to grow a big enough crossover list (with authors whose work is good but can’t get bought by traditional LDS publishers) to get it into digital distribution and onto mainstream shelves. There is nowhere to go in non-Deseret-approved Mormon lit but mainstream and THAT is going to be a long, hard row to hoe.

Chanson, I read your post about book reviewing and I’ll comment over there about something that’s happening in my genre that I think is analogous to the atheist literature invisibility.

This statement kind of surprised me — mostly because ex-Mormons are not a market. You Bloggernacle veterans should know that a group’s Internet presence doesn’t necessarily say much about the population at large. At least the faithful Mormons have a brick-and-mortar organization numbering in the millions. With exmos, what you see (on the Internet) is what you get. Sure there are plenty more, but for the most part they’re either not interested in being part of the cultural Mormon community or not aware of it.

Then, about exmos not supporting Zarahemla Books: what am I, chopped liver? ;)

I’ve just put up a post describing my adventures in book reviewing so you can see for yourself.

I think the biggest challenge for Mormon lit is the Deseret, etc., vertical-and-horizontal monopoly. It soaks up so much of the demand from the core audience that it’s hard for anything else to take root. But correlation isn’t necessarily conducive to literature. If Deseret were kind enough to voluntarily chop itself into a set of independent bookstores and small publishers, that would probably eliminate the bulk of Mormon lit’s obstacles. It would also mean the LDS-interest publishing industry would start tacking dramatically in the direction of Sunstone, Dialogue, and the Bloggernacle. Inactives and even exmos would probably start darkening the doors of LDS bookstores to buy some books. Good or bad? Depends on your perspective…

No, I was hardly ever there. In fact, if you press me, I can’t even place a time. Perhaps I’m making it all up? It’s possible. I’ll hold to my illusion for now, though.

And not only that, I know who you are too! And it would be a stretch to say that you and I are close friends. I doubt you even remember meeting me.

Although, I did get a wee smile on my face a couple years back when that little controversy irrupted on Popcorn Popping over my play, “On the Romance of a Dying Child.” One individual tried to hurt my feelings by saying that I was a nobody anyway so why should she care about me, or words to that effect. She must have googled me or something because she came back later and said that I wasn’t so much a nobody after all.

She apparently found out that I have seven or eight friends.