Two weeks later, a New York publisher bought the hardcover rights and released "Lip Service." My first appearance as a published author was on the "Today" show the day the book hit the shelves.

And I should have known at that point what was in store. Because Katie Couric didn't want to talk about the plot of "Lip Service" or chat about the novel's characters. Instead, she wanted to hear about how I'd done it all myself on the Web. And could other authors do it on the Web? And what was the Web going to mean to publishing?

Soon authors everywhere had read about me or seen me on TV and knew my Cinderella story. Did they buy my book? Well, some did. But more wrote me e-mail. They wanted my help. They wanted me to tell them how to self-publish and strike it rich -- or at least how to get in print.

So many people wanting help, so little time. So I wound up writing another book -- this time with Angela Adair Hoy -- titled "How to Publish and Promote Online." I figured that would stop the flurry of e-mail and I could get back to writing fiction.

Ah, I was wrong.

This winter, Pocket Books published my second novel, "In Fidelity." It got some really wonderful reviews, but that's all been overlooked because I've become "the poster girl for e-books," according to Time magazine.

And to make matters worse, I've dug myself in even deeper by covering the e-publishing phenomenon in a weekly column for Wired.com.

All this adds up to a very confusing career.

I am a novelist, but no one wants to talk about my fiction. People want to talk about my facts: how many e-books sell, how many people read e-books, which e-books are popular, what authors can do to promote their e-books and what publishers can do to promote their e-books. Boy do they want to talk about these facts.

During one recent week, I started out in Washington doing an interview on the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." We spoke for one hour about e-books.

Then I drove to Maryland and went to a reception for a librarians convention I'd be attending the next day. For two hours I answered many questions about e-books.

Wednesday morning I did two back-to-back sessions on e-books for the librarians.

Then I rushed back to Washington to do an interview on NPR's "Morning Edition." The subject, of course, was e-books.

"But will you at least mention my novel on the air?" I begged the reporter.

"Of course," she said.

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"