First, go read this thing from Kevin J. Anderson.
Seriously. It’s not that long, and it raises some interesting points.
Okay. Got it? Ebooks. Backlists from people who have been writing professionally for years and have an established fan base are coming.
Which raises a question for me. I’ve always known, sort of back in the back of my head, that my books didn’t have to compete with just people who were writing today – with just the podcast fiction people or the self-pub people. My writing has to compete with Dickens. With Shakespeare. With Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, and Burroughs’ Mars novels.
But I suppose it didn’t occur to me that I would be in competition with KJA’s backlog. Or David Farland’s. Or who knows who else’s? Which is pretty silly, when you think about it. But…
You can’t worry about it. In a sense, yes, you’re competing against EVERY OTHER WRITER WHO EVER LIVED. This is always going to be true. Can’t let it stop you from writing, though.
It does make me think, though. What can I bring to the table that other people don’t? Is there something unique that I can put INTO my books to appeal to readers? Something they aren’t getting from someplace else?