I used to train radio news announcers. I trained them how to read live and on air, a skill I learned myself while still in college. In 2021, I took a voiceover class from an impressive-as-hell studio here in Las Vegas, with the full intention that I would somehow get my books into audio. I had hoped to hire a voice actor or two, or […]
Business Musings: Direct: The Year in Review Part 8
On January 6, 2023, Michael W. Lucas made a rather important announcement on his blog. He wrote, in all caps: AMAZON IS NO LONGER MY BIGGEST INCOME SOURCE. It’s not that he added a consulting business to his writing income, or started doing in-person speaking gigs. He didn’t get a day job. Instead, he’s been, in his words, disintermediating. He’s been consciously moving his readers […]
Business Musings: The Future of Audio 2019
Surprisingly, for me, one of the best panels at the Business Master Class this year was on audio. We’ve done audio panels in the past. They’ve dealt with audio books, podcasts, and a whole variety of audio options. Except that in the past, there weren’t as many audio options. The game changer for indies was Audible’s ACX. In the beginning, it was truly wonderful, because […]
A New Nonfiction Book, A Bundle, and It’s Almost Time To Ask Me Anything
WMG Publishing just published the Writing With Chronic Illness book that I wrote earlier this year. I excerpted sections on my blog…or rather, I wrote sections in public on my blog. A number of you said you wanted to know when the book appeared. It has now. And…you can get it as part of the annual Spring Writing Storybundle. So rather than pay full price, […]
Business Musings: Audio (Planning For 2019 Part 4)
Initially, I started this post as a highlight reel of things that we need to pay attention to in 2019, but which I don’t have the time to explore deeply. I started with audio, and although I don’t have the time to explore audio deeply even in this post, just explaining where we are took more words than I had planned. (Please note that I […]
Business Musings: Sales (Planning For 2019 Part 2)
The biggest issue for the latter half of 2018 was book sales. Indies and traditional publishers both complained that book sales were down, and that a crisis was imminent. Their ideas of crisis were different, but they come from a similar source, which is the current state of disruption in the publishing industry. I wrote about where we stand on the macro level in the […]
Some Writing Goodies
Writing has a pattern, particularly in the fall, particularly if you’re still new to writing. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which writers try to finish a first draft of a novel. Then the holidays hit, and the writing goes away for 31 days. January rolls around, and writers make resolutions to write even more, maybe publish some of it, and get really […]
Business Musings: Popcorn Bunnies (A Process Blog)
I could spend the next seven days on promotion and feel like I’m working at my writing full time. Seriously. I have the Fiction River Kickstarter to promote. I’m in a Storybundle with a Diving novella that might get more readers to the next book in the series, which will appear in mid-September. I have a brand new story in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine that’s […]
Business Musings: Bookstores (2017 in Review)
It is no longer possible for an independent bookseller in the United States to remain in business based on in-store book sales alone. Okay, maybe a handful are doing it in high traffic areas with low rents, but not many at all. The old way is no longer the new way, and unless the bookseller understands that, the bookstore goes out of business.
But readers do want their paper books. And readers love browsing bookshelves. Sometimes readers “window,” meaning they look at books on the shelves, then order them online. Readers recognize that they will discover books that are new to them in person more often than they’ll discover them while shopping online. So book people venture into any place with books.
Business Musings: Beautiful Books
I got really weird about a book recently. Dean and I stopped at the mail on the way out of town for a day off. On our days off, I often go to Starbucks and read a paper book. Why not read on my Kindle or iPad? Because my days off are no-screen days. Otherwise, I’ll obsessively check my email or text some friends […]
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