Yeah, yeah, I was pretty disparaging of the old ways to promote books back fifteen weeks ago, when I was just digging into this series. And there’s a good reason to disparage the way Things Have Always Been Done. But here’s the catch: The old ways work. Occasionally. Sometimes. When done right. They usually aren’t done right. In fact, most places—including traditional publishers—use all the […]
The Business Rusch: With A Little Help From My Friends (Discoverability Part 11)
When we set up the anthology workshop that we held last week, Dean Wesley Smith told everyone that they would have a great opportunity to network. After all, 50 professional writers whose work runs the gamut of the fiction genres would be there from all over the world. A few of the new attendees worried about that admonition because, as introverts, being in a new […]
The Business Rusch: Social Media Part 2 (or Discoverability Part 10 continued)
Boy, there are a lot of misconceptions among writers about social media and a few of those misconceptions cropped up in last week’s post. If you haven’t read last week’s post, please do so now, because I’m not going to recap in this post. I’m just going to continue forward. First, the misconceptions (or at least those as of the weekend before this post goes […]
The Business Rusch: Social Media (Discoverability Part 10)
As I got deep into this discoverability series, I promised that I would examine marketing strategies from passive to active. I have to abandon that promise now, because most everything we’ll discuss from here on out will be active. By active, I mean you’ll have to do something—write something, design something, or pay for something—and you’ll have to do it several times. You had to […]
The Business Rusch: Blogs, Guest Blogs, and Blog Interviews (Discoverability Part 9)
Before I get too deep in this week’s blog post, I’m going to point out a few things of my own that will be part of future blog posts (and also touch upon past posts). First, I’m participating in the first of three book bundles. This kind of bundle (there are several other kinds, which we’ll discuss) combines the fan bases of eight different writers. […]
The Business Rusch: More Passive Marketing (Discoverability Part 8)
This week, Hugh Howey put a funny post on his website. Titled “One-Man Operation,” Hugh’s post profiles—if you want to call it that—the man who runs Nautilis Publishing in Taiwan. Nautilis publishes Hugh, and according to the post, has existed since 2010, and has done two books per year. They’re always bestsellers. Hugh says his book has sold 50,000 copies in Taiwan alone. Apparently, the […]
The Business Rusch: Marketing And Readers (Discoverability Part Who Knows)
Here’s the great thing about writing this nonfiction series in public: you folks let me know when I’m not being clear or if there’s something I need to explain. I’ve worked in so many aspects of business, and owned so many different kinds of companies, that some of the knowledge I have which I take for granted most people don’t understand at all. This past […]
The Business Rusch: Pricing Part 2 Or (Discoverability Part 7 Continued)
As expected, I couldn’t answer e-mails or work long on my blog last week. I may take that tactic this week as well, because you folks had a much better conversation in the comments than you would have had with me involved. Besides, I don’t like talking about pricing. Yet here I go with the second part of this series. Some of you e-mailed me […]
The Business Rusch: Pricing (Discoverability Part 7)
I dread writing this blog. Every time I discuss price, free, or discounts, I get carpet-bombed by people who treat price like a religion. Whether that price is free, a 99-cent e-book, or a $45 hardcover, writers seem to “know” what price is too much and what the market will bear. They base this knowledge, not on a study of pricing, but on their gut […]
Ten Little Fen: A Spade/Paladin Novel
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The Chase
The Chase, the latest Diving novel, answers a lot of your questions about the series. It also might cause you to ask a few more. Click here to find out more.
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