The author of Ecclesiastes, traditionally thought to be Solomon, when commenting on the overall futility of existence wrote, \u201cof the making of many books, there is no end.\u201d (Ecclesiastes 12:12) He saw the abundance of books as a further illustration of futility: one can never read all the books that one would care to read, and no matter the number of books written, there are always more questions to answer and stories to tell. <\/p>\n
\tAs an author, I find myself overwhelmed by the number of books I am currently working on, as well as those that are hopping up and down in my head demanding to be written, like excited third graders in my wife\u2019s classroom, shouting \u201cpick me, pick me\u201d upon being told that one of them will get a Popsicle.<\/p>\n
\tI have two books that are substantially done and are in the hands of my first readers\u2014only one of whom has reported back to me, and then on only one of the two books. I\u2019ve incorporated the recommended changes and found a few other bits and here and there that needed adjustment that I noticed in correcting the flaws my reader found. But I have two other novels, one science fiction, one historical fiction, that are in need of some serious rewriting before I\u2019ll allow my first readers to gaze upon them.<\/p>\n
\tOn top of that, I\u2019ve got books that I\u2019m processing for publication as e-books, which require proofreading and formatting before they\u2019ll be ready, not to mention the designing of the covers. So far I\u2019ve made fifteen books available for purchase as e-books on Amazon. Currently, I\u2019m averaging about one book sold per day, which works out to about a hundred fifty dollars per month. Not a huge amount, admittedly, but more money than they were generating sitting on my hard drive. And, theoretically at least, the numbers are supposed to go up as time goes on\u2014if those who encouraged me to do this are right. Based on their experiences and the experiences of the many, many other authors that they know who have done this, my books appear to be falling into the predicted pattern, given the number that I now have available on Amazon: 15 e-books. <\/p>\n
\tSo far I\u2019ve allowed three of the books to go on promotion as free downloads, each for about two or three days at a time. The number that went for free ranged from a high of 440 to a low of 95; one book ended up number one for \u201csales\u201d on Amazon during those two days\u2014though in an obscure subcategory. I don\u2019t get any royalties for the books when they are going for free; but it seems an inexpensive method of advertising, since it doesn\u2019t cost me anything out of pocket. So far, the experiment in indie publishing seems to be working.<\/p>\n
\tConsequently, from Solomon\u2019s perspective, I\u2019m certainly guilty of \u201cthe making of many books.\u201d But I also think about his words from the standpoint of a reader. In my <\/p>\n
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