Elmore Leonard To Publish E-Novel

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Elmore Leonard said Thursday that he will release his next thriller as an e-book for the Internet site Contentville, becoming the second major author in the last two weeks to bypass traditional publishers.

Dean Koontz recently agreed to issue his next book through a new digital imprint at Barnes & Noble.com.

Leonard, author of ``Rum Punch,'' ``Get Shorty'' and many other crime stories, is coming out Jan. 17 with ``Fire in the Hole.'' The new book brings back the character U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, featured in the novels ``Pronto'' and its sequel, ``Riding the Rap.''

``He was sort of in between publishers, and his agents were really interested in getting into the e-market,'' said Heather Byer, executive editor for Contentville.

Leonard's previous book, ``Pagan Babies,'' was published last fall by Dell, a division of Random House. Contentville serialized the first two chapters.

``I don't feel that writing an e-book is at all different than writing a story for publication, apart from the fact that I won't be able to read it â€” at least not in my home â€” since I don't own a computer,'' Leonard said in a statement.

Although the e-book market remains tiny, some publishers worry that the new, instant technology will encourage writers to seek other outlets for releasing their work.

Barnes & Noble.com will pay 35 percent royalties on e-books, a major concern for many authors and journalists. Among traditional publishers, Random House is believed to pay the highest royalty, 50 percent on net sales. Barnes & Noble will base royalties on the list price, a more generous calculation.

Annik La Farge, e-publisher for Contentville, would not give an exact royalty rate, but said it was competitive with Barnes & Noble.com. Last summer, Contentville announced freelance writers would receive 30 percent royalties for old articles resold through its site.

``Fire in the Hole'' has a suggested retail price of $7, well below what major publishers charge for e-books.

``Authors are going to experiment and will go where good opportunities exist,'' La Farge said. ``But in the long term, we're not a real publisher and we can't offer what a real publisher can â€” meaning publicity tours, meaning book signings, meaning schmoozing and hand selling.''

So far, there are no great e-success stories. The most notable try was by Stephen King, who last year serialized the novel ``The Plant'' through his own Web site. With sales declining, King suspended the book, but he called the experiment exciting and worthwhile and said he would try again.

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On the Net:

http://www.contentville.com