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電子書時代 作家加速生產
In the Age of the E-Book, Authors Must Feed an Insatiable Beast 【By JULIE BOSMAN／陳世欽譯】2012/05/31
The e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing. Authors who once wrote a book a year are nowchurning out short stories, novellas or even an extra full-length book each year.
Readers have become used to instantly downloading any e-book they want, and publishers are nudging authors toward greater productivity in the belief that the more their names are out in public, the bigger starsthey will become. 
“Today the culture is a great big hungry maw, and you have to feed it,” said Lisa Scottoline, a best-selling author of thrillers.
Publishers and booksellers are desperately looking for ways to hold onto readers being lured by other forms of entertainment, much of it available nonstop and instantaneously. And the Internet has allowed readers toenjoy a more intimate relationship with their favorite authors, whom they now expect to be accessible onlinevia blogs, Twitter and Facebook.
Some of the push comes from authors themselves, who are easing their own fears that if they stay out of the market too long, they might be forgotten.
The British thriller writer Lee Child is now supplementing his hardcover books with short stories in digital-only format.
“It seems like we’re all running faster to stay in the same place,” said Mr. Child.
Even John Grisham, who used to write one book each year, now does an additional series aimed at middle-grade readers, the popular “Theodore Boone” novels published annually.
Publishers say a short story, timed six to eight weeks before a big hardcover comes out, can entice new readers who might be willing to pay 99 cents for a story but reluctant to spend $14 for an ebook or $26 for a hardcover.
That can translate into higher preorder sales for the novel and even a lift in sales of older books by the author.
Jennifer Enderlin, the associate publisher of St. Martin’s Paperbacks, said many of her authors saw a big uptick in hardcover sales once they started releasing more work.
Scott Schiefelbein, a lawyer in Portland, Oregon, wrote a favorable review recently on Amazon.com of “Second Son,” a short story by Mr. Child that Mr. Schiefelbein read after buying the writer’s “The Affair” on his Kindle.
The new expectations do not apply to literary novelists like Jeffrey Eugenides and Jonathan Franzen, who can publish a new novel approximately every decade and still count on plenty of high-profile book reviews.
Authors don’t seem to be writing digital-only short stories for the money. The low-priced works (usually $0.99 or $1.99) don’t produce much revenue.
And even though authors accept the new regime, some still find the extra work taxing.
“I have been known to be a little grumpy on the subject ,” said Steve Berry, a popular thriller writer whose short stories are released between books. “You don’t ever want to get into a situation where your worth is being judged by the amount of your productivity.”
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