A few weeks ago, at our weekly professional writers lunch, a writer mentioned a private listserve he’s on with other writers, all of whom are traditionally published. According to him, that list has been discussing an abusive editor, one who is tearing apart her bestsellers, making them revise their books repeatedly while telling them that […]
Continue ReadingEven though I posted a business blog on Tuesday, I couldn’t let a Thursday go by without a blog post. Especially since this week marks the fifth anniversary of the Business Rusch (and the business blog that came before it, The Freelancer’s Survival Guide). Yep, I’ve hit every single Thursday for five years, without a […]
Continue ReadingAs I started this post on a Monday night over two weeks ago, my Kris DeLake novel, A Spy To Die For, ranked #1 on two Amazon bestseller lists. Both are subgenre lists: 1. Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Science Fiction 2. Books > Romance > Science Fiction And #6 in another: […]
Continue ReadingYeah, 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 […]
Continue ReadingI read 250 manuscripts by professional writers this month. All of the stories were good. Some fit anthologies better than others. We held a writing workshop where six of us edited for Fiction River. You will see some tremendous upcoming stories, not just in FR, but in other magazines as well. Because once the editing […]
Continue ReadingWhen 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 […]
Continue ReadingAs 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 […]
Continue ReadingBefore 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 […]
Continue ReadingI started the year reading a super big book, the first in a trilogy. I couldn’t put the damn thing down—and then, suddenly, I had slowed to a crawl. I think the problem was me: the front part of the book dealt with historical crimes in the Deep South; the latter part was standard hugger-mugger, […]
Continue ReadingThis 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 […]
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