Yesterday, fellow writer Joe Konrath announced that the next book in his Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels mystery series, Shaken, would be published through the Amazon Encore program.

What makes this interesting, for those of you who might not be familiar with Joe’s career, is that the last six books in the Jack Daniels series had been published in hardcover to a fair degree of success by Hyperion. Joe is also an author who has taken advantage of the ability to make his backlist available to readers via the Amazon Kindle and has been having great financial success with that strategy, earning royalties of more than $4000 per month as a result.

Having already had success taking matters into his own hands with regard to his backlist, Joe apparently decided to pursue the same course when New York passed on the eight book in his popular series. As he says on his blog, “Traditional publishers had a chance to buy Shaken last year. They passed on it. Their loss. Their big loss. Their big, huge, monumental, epic fail.”

As far as I know, this is the first time that the Amazon Encore program has been used to publish original fiction, Previously, it has republished works that had been previously self published by the authors themselves.

Joe has been vocal in his stance that publishers need to change in order to keep up with the changing face of publishing, given the rise of ebooks, ereaders, and the many ways authors now have to bring their works to the readers who enjoy them. While he won’t discuss the specifics of the deal itself, Joe does say “that my terrific agents have been involved from the very beginning of negotiations, and have been essential in getting me a very favorable contract. I couldn’t be happier.” Given what he publicly admits to making with his self-published Kindle books, I imagine Amazon must have cut a nice deal with him for him to say he “couldn’t be happier.”

I admit I’m intrigued by this development. I’d certainly love it if my Kindle books would sell as well as Joe’s are selling currently and I suspect that this move will really boost his sales, both for his current titles and for Shaken itself. Being on the front end of a big new wave is always a good thing. Is it sustainable? I don’t know. Will Joe do this for the rest of his books? I don’t know.

I do know it will be interesting to watch and see.

Tell me, what kind of implications do you see resulting from something like this?

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I’ve always been a fan of both diversification and experimentation when it comes to my writing career. From my soon-to-be-launched cell phone project to making my work available in a variety of digital formats, I’ve tried to examine different ways to bring my writing to the people who value it the most – my readers.

2010 is going to be an adventure in living out that belief; I’m going to try different things and see just what folks respond to the most. And I’m happy to say that I’m here to announce the first of these experimental ventures – The Mirror’s Road.

The Mirror’s Road is a novel I’ve had hanging around in the back of my head for awhile. It’s such a mix of genres that I’ve never even tried to sell the idea to a publisher – it would probably give the guys in the marketing department fits as they tried endlessly to pigeonhole it into one genre or another without success. But it’s a story I want to tell, one I want to share with all my fans, so I’ve been looking for a way to do just that.

I found it through a little site called Kickstarter.

You see, Kickstarter is a site devoted to doing just what its name implies – kickstarting projects with the help of others. People pledge money to a project in return for cool rewards and a behind-the-scenes look at the development process from beginning to end. The site is backed by Amazon.com, which provides an appropriate measure of security to the entire process. It’s all or nothing funding, too; if a project does not meet its financial goal in the timeframe set (between 1 and 90 days) then no money changes hands.

I’ve turned The Mirror’s Road into a Kickstarter project, as you can see from the widget below, and I want to invite you all along to share the ride with me. If you decide to back the project – and there are various levels of doing so from $5.00 to $100.00, with appropriate rewards for each – you’ll get to participate in the project with me, providing suggestions on everything from character traits to plot lines. You’ll get to follow along from development of the intial idea to the actual writing, from the production of the cover art to the final printed product. And regardless of the level of backing you chose, you are assured of getting a copy of the completed book as my way of saying thanks for supporting the project.

So what’s the book about? I can tell you it’s an urban fantasy novel, full of things that shouldn’t exist in a world that doesn’t quite believe in them. And it’s a road story too, about a young man on a journey, searching not only for his destiny but also for the almond-eyed girl that appears in his dreams each night, the girl that calls him on through the darkness. Who they are and what they mean to each other? Well, I think we’ll find that out in time.

If you want to get involved, and I really hope you do, simply click on the widget above which will take you to the project’s home page. There you can read the first chapter and learn more about the project. If you discover that you’re interested in supporting it, simply click on the pledge level you want, select your reward, and follow the Amazon check out process.

And remember, the pledge period runs until April 16, so your card won’t be charged until then and only if we meet our goal.

I’d love to hear what other people think about taking this type of approach. What do you like about it? What do you dislike? Share your thoughts in the comments.

As you’re no doubt aware by now, I’m always watching what’s going on around me, both in and out of the publishing industry, looking for ways I can expand my general readership and the success of my writing projects.  By paying attention and then reaching out when I think it appropriate, I’ve added all sorts of new endeavors to my list of publications – from comics to role-playing games to independent film productions.

Later this week, I’ll start sharing a series of posts related to an entirely new endeavor, one that I hope will take my career to the next level.

The reason I’m telling you all this in advance is because, just as I did with the recent series of posts where I walked you step by step through the process I use to secure foreign rights sales for my novels, I’m going to take you right into the heart of this new project.  I’m going to give you an inside look at the process as it unfolds step by step – from the original development of the idea to the pitch to the contract negotiations and finally the launch.  Most importantly, I’m going to be showing you how you can take advantage of similar opportunities should they come your way.

Contracts are currently being signed, press releases are being written, and I should be able to take more freely about the entire project in just a few days.  In the meantime, let me just leave you with a title:

Hellstalkers: The Series

(Stay Tuned!)