For decades publishing has been a stagnated industry, relying on fifty- and sixty-year-old methods to sell books. Most of the practices within the industry are also at least fifty or sixty years old. Sure, the industry has made some modifications to accommodate innovation, like the ebook, but those are minor tweaks. Those tweaks do not take into account the actual changes in the world. What […]
Business Musings: Holes in the Economy
I just saw an article this morning—which of course, I can’t find now—comparing the amount of news pouring at us right now to a DDoS (denial of service) attack. There’s so much news, every hour of every day, that we can’t keep track of it. I’m keeping up, as best I can, on the virus and vaccine news. I’m scanning the political news, because I […]
Business Musings: Time and Money (Again)
And so it begins. I received three different emails this week from writers, wondering what to do about delayed or non-payment. These writers are smart enough to ask. I have no idea how many others aren’t asking at all, but believing all will be Just Fine Eventually. At the end of April, I wrote a blog post titled “The Trainwreck.” It’s mostly about traditional publishing, […]
Business Musings: Shock, Survival, and Forgiveness
In the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I was in a serious car accident. A tow truck, racing another tow truck, went the wrong way on a one way street, blew a stop sign, and slammed into my boyfriend’s tin-can of a car. I can still tell you many, many details about that night. I had just turned sixteen. My […]
Business Musings: Creativity (Yet Another Damn Process Blog)
Shortly after the lockdown started here in the U.S., I asked my readers and Patreon supporters to send me examples of creativity going on while artists were stuck at home. In the first week or so, it was pretty easy: Patrick Stewart reading sonnets, musicians playing with their fellow musicians on Zoom, artists giving master classes, theater companies offering recordings of free plays, and so […]
Business Musings: The Sads
I had a serious case of the sads yesterday, and for once, I couldn’t pinpoint the source. I mean, I could in general. I know we’re all feeling an undercurrent of sadness at the deaths and the changes and the suddenness. It is grief, as I wrote earlier, but grief comes in waves, and sometimes I can find the trigger, for me, anyway. I tend […]
Business Musings: The Trainwreck
I’m sure you’ve all gotten the question lately: How are you going to survive as a writer with the crisis in the publishing industry? Every news outlet —well, at least every news outlet that reports news other than the latest virus statistics—has done at least one story on the decimation of the publishing industry. And let me be honest here: The traditional publishing industry is […]
Business Musings: Three Kinds of Writers (Rethinking The Writing Business Part 14)
In the middle of September, an article on Medium.com went viral. In an article titled “How To Lose A Third of A Million Dollars Without Really Trying,” the writer managed to blame everyone but herself for her stunning ignorance of the business of writing and publishing. I wouldn’t normally link to that kind of ignorance, but I feel it’s important here, for this blog post, […]
Business Musings: Expect Failure
Not too long ago, I made a suggestion to someone I’m working with. I thought we should send our project to a Big Name Magazine, for consideration in one of the many things they’re doing. (Yes, I’m being deliberately vague.) The response I got from my partner on this project was purposely discouraging, questioning my desire to even try because Big Name Magazine gets thousands […]
Business Musings: Money 3 Deal Memos (Contract/Negotiation…and…Rethinking The Writing Business Part 12)
Yes, licensing can bite you. And it can bite you when you only look at the money, and not at the rest of the deal.
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