Writers are curious creatures. We’re a mix of insecurity and ego. The ego is there whether we admit it or not. Why else would we write stories and put them out into the world? Deep down, we believe that other people want to read these stories. For some of us (all of us?), we believe that our stories will be read by millions of people […]
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 […]
Business Musings: The Big Five (2017 in Review)
This post is for the hybrid writers, the ones who want to be part indie and part traditional.
What will you get if you go with the Big Five? Not money. Your book might become a Netflix series. You might become a household word. And you’ll probably still need your day job.
Recommended Reading List: November, 2017
November flew by for reasons I have yet to figure out. Almost all of my reading was wonderful, and I really had to work to find time to list everything. I started some of my holiday reading early, not because I want the year to end (which is different from last year), but because some books arrived that I couldn’t wait to read, so I […]
Business Musings: Rip Van Winkle Syndrome
I remember how overwhelming it was for me to make the transition to mostly indie. I’m not entirely indie. My short fiction is still hybrid, as is all of my work in translation. But I can’t see any situation where I would ever go back to a traditional publisher for my novels. The contracts are awful, the lack of support profound, and the benefits nearly nonexistent.
The traditionally published writers who are being cut loose or who are being offered terrible deals are just beginning to realize this. And they’re at a complete loss as to what to do.
I feel for them. I really do.
Recommended Reading List: June, 2017
Wow. I didn’t even have a reason to start up this list until mid-June, and I’ve been reading a lot of stuff. Most of the magazines I’ve read have been of the entertainment or self-help variety; no great articles in any of them. The books, well, the books were a disaster until June 15 or so. I read about a writer who had published a […]
Business Musings: Brand Loyalty 1 (Branding/Discoverability)
Brand loyalty—name loyalty—is something that we writers desire, but it’s not something that we can simply will into being. And it certainly doesn’t come about by bribing your reader.
Business Musings: 2016 Disappointments
As I write this in early January, fourth quarter numbers for all big businesses are just starting to trickle in. The whining about 2016 has commenced, some of it justified, some of it not.
The numbers aren’t just in for the major publishers; the numbers are in for indie writers as well. And the writers who crunch numbers are having varied reactions, often depending on years of business expertise.
I have a hunch that when all of the numbers arrive toward the end of this month or so, we’ll find out that 2016 was truly a mixed bag….
Recommended Reading List: November 2016
Back on schedule, more or less. I’m scheduling these recommended reading lists as I start them, so if they seem a little incomplete, it’s because they go live whether I like it or not. No more tinkering! I’m still adding recommended books from my one-year hiatus. I’m not marking which are which, but you might be able to tell. Also in the past year, I […]
Business Musings: Authors Guild 2016 Letter
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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