2/16/2024
Vanity, Thy Name is Author
This is number ninety-nine in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
SEVENTY-FOUR BOOKS. I recently compiled a folder of all the covers of my books and discovered there were a total of sixty Devon Layne titles and fourteen Nathan Everett titles. I only need one more to average a book a year over my life so far.
I was a pioneer in the world of eBooks, traveling to writer conferences and book conventions in 2000-2005 to convince writers, readers, and publishers that the future of books was digital. I’d already spent twenty-five years working in one way or another in the publishing industry. I was an early adopter of desktop computing technology for publishing.
I traveled around the United States training publishers and would-be publishers on the new and revolutionary desktop publishing technology, starting in 1986. My client list included major retailers, like Nordstrom, technology firms like Xerox, Intel, and Aldus, huge publishing operations like Hallmark Cards and USAA.
What a heady time!
And after fourteen years of that, I found myself working for a high tech giant promoting eBooks and eBook technology. I worked on the ePUB specification and was asked to finalize the spelling of eBook, with a lower case e and a capital B.
But through all that time and more, I’d considered myself primarily a writer. I wrote my first novel in 1979, but had hundreds of pages of other stories, plays, and non-fiction instructional books even before that.
Finally, in 2007, two partners and I created a boutique hybrid publishing company called Long Tale Press. As part of our launch, to show we were for real, we each contributed one of our own novels for editing and correction by the other two partners and published that book. So, my first paperback book, For Blood or Money by Nathan Everett, was released to the public. And it sold a few hundred copies!
All of my Nathan Everett novels since have been produced in paperback. No matter how much I promoted eBooks, people still considered real books to be printed on paper.
But people weren’t as willing to purchase paper versions of Devon Layne’s erotica. In fact, eBooks opened up a huge market for erotica (even among men) because readers no longer needed to hold a book with a bodice-ripper cover and let everyone know what they were reading! So most, though not all, of my Devon Layne books were produced only as eBooks. And all seventy-four titles are all still available as eBooks at Bookapy—both the Devon Layne and the Nathan Everett books.
After noting that the last couple of paperback erotica I created sold only the five or so that I ordered and gave to friends, I quit producing erotica in paper. But I’m seventy-five years old, and it bothers me that I don’t have a shelf that holds a copy of each of my books.
Yes, vanity, thy name is Author.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, the big business of vanity press became popular in the publishing industry. It had been around for some time with Vantage Press, Exposition Press, Dorrance Publishing, and Pageant Press making their mark as early as the mid-fifties. You might know I wrote my first full-length novel in 1979, and I was subscribing to everything I could get my hands on that would help me get published. The Writer’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, The Writer’s Market, and others as they crossed my path. Every issue had huge advertisements from vanity publishers.
“We can publish your 200-page manuscript for just $2,500! Become a published author today!”
The entire process was looked down upon by the reputable ‘publishing industry.’ It was considered the last resort of those whose work was not good enough to attract a ‘real’ publisher. But the process had been well-known for centuries! It might surprise you to discover Charles Dickens paid to have A Christmas Carol published in 1843. Walt Whitman paid to have Leaves of Grass published in 1855. Even the great patriot Thomas Paine paid to have Common Sense published in 1776.
The list goes on and on: The Joy of Cooking, Swan ‘s Way, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, To the Lighthouse, Gadsby. All proof that vanity press was used for more than the author’s vanity.
Of course, there is far less stigma attached to ‘self-publishing’ these days. In fact, the commercial publishing industry with names like Macmillan, Scholastic, Penguin, and Random House, has not grown significantly in the past twenty years, when compared to the number of books published in the US, topping two million a year. The vast majority are self-published, usually in eBook form.
That brings me to my great vanity project. Over the next several years, I intend to release a “Signature Edition” of each of my books. Each of the paperback books will include a digitally signed photo of the author as well as an exclusive interview, found only in the Signature Edition. In the interview, Devon Layne describes what inspired the particular book, how it was developed, and some background about the author’s life.
The first book in this Signature Collection released this week, appropriately on Valentine’s Day. You will be able to purchase the Soulmates paperback on nearly any online platform for just $25. I’ve already bought my copy. So far, I can confirm the Soulmates paperback is available at Barnes and Noble. Amazon, in its usual obstructive way, released the eBook a day early, but held the paperback until the 14th. Nonetheless, you should be able to acquire Soulmates Signature Edition at most vendors in the world once they catch up with what has been released by Ingram. That means it can also be ordered from most brick and mortar bookstores, too.
Soulmates is a new release. I have a total of 74 Devon Layne and Nathan Everett titles so far and am continuing to write. All new paperback editions will be part of the Signature Collection. I will continue to release new editions of the rest of my books at the rate of about one every other month. Sometimes more frequently if I’m inspired. For those books that have already been published in paperback, I’ll remove the previous version when the signature edition is released.
Is it vanity that leads me to make this new collection?
Absolutely. I invite you to purchase your favorites, but once my copy is on my shelf, I won’t be paying attention to other sales. I thank you for your continued support, whether through this new collection, through purchases from eBook retailers, or through patronage on Patreon.
Speaking of interviews, I was interviewed this past week by Mark Sawyer of Twisted Vet USA and that interview is up on YouTube now. Next week I’ll talk a little about the interview process and answer some of the questions Mark never got around to asking.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
