[LeeGoldberg]

No, my friend Joe hasn't changed my life. But he has opened my eyes to the potential presented by the Amazon Kindle for mining the untapped revenue in my backlist.

My out-of-print books were earning me nothing, they were just forgotten relics of my past, gathering dust in the garage. But thanks to Joe's inspiration and great advice, I discovered those out-of-print books still have plenty of value.

I've also learned from his promotional/marketing skills and discovered the greatest benefit of the e-book...the ability to make adjustments on-the-fly, to not be married to things like the book title or cover art. By changing the titles and cover art on some of my old books, I reinvigorated their sales potential. It was something I never would have considered if Joe hadn't bet me that he could boost the sales on those books if I let him change the titles/covers.

But I fear that too many bad writers, wowed by Joe's success, are going to put their swill on the Kindle because they see it as a short cut to a pot of gold...which it isn't.

It's a big mistake to self-publish a book that isn't up to professional standards. Just because you can self-publish, doesn't mean you should. And I'd hate to see Amazon become inundated with rejected manuscripts from the publishers' slush piles. Often there's a good reason those books were rejected by publishers, editors and agents... because they sucked. Putting them on the Kindle doesn't make'em suck any less.

Lee