Comments on: The Business Rusch: Hurry Up. Wait.

By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kristine Kathryn Rusch — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:31:11 +0000

Great! Congrats on the book, LK!

By: LKWatts

LKWatts — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:21:44 +0000

Thanks for clarifying something which I have suspected all along My second book will hopefully be out by the end of August – so wish me luck!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:48:46 +0000

Good advice. It’s taken me a long time to get to that stage, but I’m so glad I found the confidence to fly solo!

By: Omar Luqmaan-Harris

Omar Luqmaan-Harris — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:49:42 +0000

As an Indie publisher of 4 novels to date with 25,000 copies sold collectively over 2 years, I couldn’t agree with you more as it relates to the need to continually produce new content. The difference I have seen is that you have to look at this model from both the publisher and author perspective. As an indie author myself I experienced the pain of the hurry up and wait side of the fence, except this is all part of my defined marketing model. I expect to be selling more copies on month 12 than month 1 and my tactics follow suit (i.e focus on giveaways and reviews months 1-4 post launch and then begin spending money on bigger types of promotions post month 6). For example, our first title, Sellout by James W. Lewis had sold only 400 copies in the first 6 months, and then in the next 6 jumped to a whopping 5,000 copies sold. Our model is built to tip the scales in the authors favor over a longer period but it does demand a ton of focus on marketing and promotion over the long term. I think of it this way, for every hour a writer spends promoting their current work, they should spend at least that much time on their next project. This will do 2 things: 1) Stop them from watching the water boil, and 2) Prepare their next product offering.

Thanks for the provocative post…

By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kristine Kathryn Rusch — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:10:26 +0000

LOL. Thanks, William.

By: William Spell Jr.

William Spell Jr. — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:31:45 +0000

Being obsessive-compulsive? Annoying. Being anal retentive? Downright unhealthy. Never having to hire a copy or line editor? Priceless.

By: Suw Charman-Anderson

Suw Charman-Anderson — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 14:18:30 +0000

I needed to read this today too! It has really perked me up. My sales were pottering along quite nicely, but then last week I got three 1-star reviews that were really quite mean-spirited, and now my sales have noticeably dwindled. I can deal with criticism, but it can be hard to ignore nastiness.

This post reminds me that I just need to carry on with my current rewrite, get it out to my trusted readers, and keep going. It’s a marathon, after all, not a sprint.

By: Katya Starkey

Katya Starkey — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 13:28:27 +0000

Yes that clears things up, thanks. So I won’t actually be re-writing my whole novel once I get it back from my copy-editor, I’ll just be fixing any errors. Tidying it up for publishing.

By: M.J. Rose

M.J. Rose — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 07:02:56 +0000

Of course it has to be a good book! I never suggested that you could solve the books problems with marketing or promotion. And while you say that readers can buy books they never heard of before by reading an excerpt – yes but that’s not what I mean. What I am talking about is discovery – the number one issue for every author self or trad published. Someone has to notice the book. You can wait till they find you… or you can go find them. Its basic marketing.

And we’ll just have to disagree on the books in print issue. I know many many mid list authors whose books are in print after a dozen years.

By: Mercy Loomis

Mercy Loomis — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 05:26:04 +0000

Also, when you send your stuff out for copy editing, do your copy editor a favor and send along a house style sheet. Mine includes things like “use serial commas” and “don’t capitalize words in the names of alcoholic drinks, i.e. bloody mary” and you should also include the spellings of your characters’ names for that project. This will save you and your editor a lot of time.