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Kristine Kathryn Rusch » free nonfiction

The Business Rusch: The Book Trade

The Business Rusch: The Book Trade Kristine Kathryn Rusch    It’s amazing how hindsight makes things clearer. Actually, the changes in publishing have brought a lot of things into focus for me. Then I think about those things, and remember conversations or moments when I felt simply astounded at something, but let it pass, not realizing its significance. Let me explain. On January 13, the chief executive at Faber, Stephen Page, had an essay in The Guardian. I noted in a blog a few weeks ago that Page’s clearheadedness startled me, particularly when so many in traditional publishing have done everything they can to obfuscate the changes in the publishing world—and their own culpability (and obligations) in that change. In his essay, Faber listed several things he believes traditional publisher must do to stay in business. … Read entire article »

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The Business Rusch: Readers

The Business Rusch: Readers Kristine Kathryn Rusch As we came into the new year, I evaluated—as I always do—the things I do as part of my business. My business, for those of you who don’t know, is writing. I have been a published writer since I was sixteen years old. I have made a living at writing since I was in my early twenties, first with nonfiction and then with fiction. Along the way, I’ve also owned two publishing companies, been an advisor to several more, and worked for half a dozen of them in some non-writing capacity. That doesn’t count the hundreds of publishing companies I have worked with as a writer. My writing is my career. I have made the majority of my living in traditional publishing. But I have also seen … Read entire article »

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The Business Rusch: Bestseller Lists and Other Thoughts

The Business Rusch: Bestseller Lists and Other Thoughts Kristine Kathryn Rusch On Tuesday, in my morning business reading, I came across a rather startling statistic: the claim that it only took 20,000 sales of paper books to hit the paper bestseller lists. I’m also assuming the statistic means paper; it might mean that it takes 20K to hit any bestseller list, which is still shockingly low, if you think about it. Now, I have no way to verify this statistic. It comes from a deliberately anonymous source in the middle of a PandoDaily article on the future of publishing. However, reading the entire post makes me think that Anonymous here truly is in publishing and truly does know of what he/she speaks. It also confirms a sense I’ve been having for a while, but … Read entire article »

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The Business Rusch: Why Not?

The Business Rusch: Why Not? Kristine Kathryn Rusch On TV’s most popular drama series, NCIS, the main character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, walks through the office, and if he hears a stupid statement, he slaps the speaker on the back of the head. Now, this is fiction, mind you. In any real office, military or not, he’d probably be fired, brought up on charges, or forced to have sensitivity training. But that’s not my point. My point is: I can relate. I walk past writer after writer after writer, and as I hear what comes out of their mouths, I want to slap some sense into them. Because words don’t seem to be working. Which is odd, considering that writers use words as their stock in trade. The biggest problem writers have as a class isn’t that they … Read entire article »

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Recommended Reading List: December 2011

With this, I’ll be caught up on all of my Recommended Reading lists for 2011. January’s should post in the first 10 days of February. I’ll have one more overall reading post, a numbers post, in a week or two, and then I can put 2011 behind me. Here’s the list, with everything on it written sometime in December. ————— What a weird year. I’m glad it’s done. I ended up with a lot of time to read this month—and please note that I’m not recommending everything I read here. I never do. But I did notice something. Unless the book/article/story is in paper, I’m having to read past some errors. This isn’t just an indie problem. In fact, most traditionally published e-books are worse. I’m just finding some fascinating errors. If the … Read entire article »

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The Business Rusch: Writers: Will Work For Cheap

The Business Rusch: Writers: Will Work For Cheap Kristine Kathryn Rusch Here’s something that has nagged at me since the start of the indie publishing revolution: writers—published writers—dismissing money as a factor in publishing their work. The argument goes like this: Traditionally Published Writer A says she’ll never self-publish. When told that her $5000 advance is the only money she’ll make on that book, she shrugs and says, “I’ll sell more copies if I go traditional,” as if that’s a fact rather than a supposition.  And even if she does sell more copies of the book through her traditional publisher than she would in the same period of time if she published the same book herself, the traditional publisher will take the book out of print after a year or two. The indie … Read entire article »

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Recommended Reading List: November 2011

I’m doing my best to catch up on the Recommended Reading lists, so that I can be on schedule in 2012. Here’s the good stuff I read in November. All that you read down there, I wrote in November itself (or early December).  *** I wish I could say that things settled down more in November. They didn’t, really. Thanksgiving snuck up on us. As I write this, on the second day of December, we’re still reeling from the fall. But I did manage to read more and write more, partly because things were inching toward normal. After Thanksgiving, I launched into my Christmas reading with a vengeance. Clearly I want this year to end. But I’m also ready to move forward. I’ve even organized my to-be-read pile.   What I did read in … Read entire article »

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Recommended Reading List: October 2011

I got very far behind in posting my Recommended Reading lists in 2011. I’ll try to do better in 2012 by posting the month after the list was compiled. However, I have to catch up on 2011 first. So here’s October. Everything you see below was written then. Enjoy! —— We had about six emergencies in our life in October, some involving health, some involving the estate. I made three impromptu trips, had to cancel a planned trip, and I managed to make it to the Yukon to teach. There wasn’t a lot of writing time, but I did manage to sneak in some reading time, mostly while waiting for something or someone. Fortunately, most of the reading was good. Here’s the crème de la crème.  October, 2011 Best, Lyz, “The Call From Flight 93,” … Read entire article »

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