"The times, they are a-changing," Bob Dylan sang back in 1964.  In 2000, Stephen King fired the first shot over the bow of traditional publishing when he published his novella, RIDING THE BULLET exclusively in ebook format.  I met Stephen when I was on tour for my novel, THE 24TH LETTER.  Stephen was definitely far ahead of everyone more than a decade ago.  Although at the time, a spokesman for Simon and Schuster was quoted as saying King's bold move "could change the model of publishing."  He was right.  It has.

Welcome to publishing eleven years after Stephen saw the vision and acted on it.  Today there is an exciting and dramatic shift in the business of publishing.  In the traditional publishing world, an author seeks an agent.  This can take months.  Once an agent is on board, the agent submits the author’s manuscript to a publishing company.  This can take months.  If a publishing company buys the manuscript, it can take 18 months to bring the book the readers.  It’s not uncommon for a new book to take four or five years before it’s made its way from inquiry to publishing.  Once published, the author’s next book usually takes a year or more to reach you.

Now there’s a much better way.  Digital.  Digital publishing, whether it’s delivered in the form of ebooks or books that are printed-on-demand, is reshaping the publishing landscape.  For the writer and more importantly—for the reader, this is a landscape with a far-reaching horizon.  Digital publishing and global distribution allows for lower costs and lower priced books.  Writers can publish work more frequently, and readers don’t have to wait a year or so to read the next book by their favorite author.

I have enormous respect for editors, publishers and agents working in the area of traditional publishing.   Unfortunately, it’s a business model that dates back to the era of the Great Gatsby and writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway.  If Hemingway were writing today, I’m betting he’d set his publishing sites on global digital distribution.

So am I.  My next novel will soon be available wherever ebooks are sold.  This includes Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, Google Books.  And now you, the reader, have options.  You can choose whether to quickly download a book and read it on your mobile device anytime anyplace or you can order a print version and have it shipped to your home.  Some of the best news is that it cost you less money.

Now writers and the readers have a unique new way to connect in a better, more efficient way. To that end, I’m thrilled to offer you my first indie ebook and trade paperback.  It’s called THE BUTTERFLY FOREST.  And it's available right now. I hope you enjoy the story.