I want to support what the Authors Guild is doing here. I really do. I believe this “conversation” needs to commence. Writers—particularly writers of the Take Care of Me school—need to understand that their publishers and their agents are not their friends. Those two entities are in business for themselves and will devise contract terms to benefit them. But…
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This morning, I found out through the magic of Facebook that four of my sf novellas, translated into Italian, are four of the five bestselling titles in my Italian publisher’s bookstore. As I mentioned in my blog on translation a few weeks ago, that’s not due to me. That’s because I have an excellent translator. […]
Continue ReadingI’ve been watching the reactions to John Scalzi’s 3.4 million dollar book deal with great interest. If you’re not familiar with this particular news story, it might be because you have a life, and because you were doing something with your family on Memorial Day weekend instead of watching the publishing trades. But this one […]
Continue ReadingIn the past two weeks, I wrote two year-in-review posts, “What Traditional Publishing Learned in 2014,” and “Things Indie Writers Learned in 2014.” Those two posts came after I started this one. I’ve been writing bits of this one off and on since October, as the year has become clearer in my brain. Usually, I […]
Continue ReadingIf you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably think I make a business decision every time I sit down to write. You might assume that I have audience-tested my ideas and have planned my next works in excruciating market-approved details. And if you think any of that, you would be wrong. When I […]
Continue ReadingI’m in deadline hell for the next several months, since I took on a project that crammed everything together. Plus I’m teaching a lot, so I’m unusually busy, even for me. All of that goes a long way to telling you that I’m behind in letting you know the current news and links. My bimonthly […]
Continue ReadingI’ve been a bit lax in letting you know about my recent nonfiction. My bimonthly column just appeared on the Grantville Gazette website. This column deals with the influence of teenagers on the formation of both fandom and conventions. You can find it here. The other bit of nonfiction isn’t really mine so much. It […]
Continue ReadingThe trade paper version of the Freelancer’s Survival Guide is now available. I know a bunch of you mentioned you wanted it before Christmas, so I’m announcing now. It’s only available on Amazon.com at the moment. It has what is called a slow roll-out. It’ll be in regular bookstores by the end of the year. […]
Continue ReadingI’m finishing my third huge project in as many weeks (with the time out for the aborted trip to LA) and have lost track of posting on my website. As a result I’m a bit behind. So here are two things for your enjoyment. First, a new Notes From the Buffer Zone column on the […]
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