Let’s start with some really cool statistics. The first is reliable. It’s based on daily data received from 70 million retail locations all over the United States. Here it is: In the first quarter of 2013, brick-and-mortar bookstores saw a 27% increase in foot traffic over the same period in 2012. Combine that with the […]
Continue ReadingIt is the last day of February, 2013, and by now, traditional publishing should have mailed its holiday cards with the gleeful misquote attributed to Mark Twain on the cards’ interior: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Not that there were actual news reports of the death of traditional publishing. But if you […]
Continue ReadingOver the last couple of years, a number of writers have written to me to ask how to get the rights to their traditionally published novels reverted back to them. These requests increased while I wrote the most recent short series, “Why Writers Disappear,” and finally, one of the readers mentioned via e-mail that I […]
Continue ReadingToday I had hoped to write a blog about something other than traditional publishing contracts, but events have conspired against me. Cory Doctorow published a column on Publishers Weekly’s website about a new contract demand that might be coming from Hachette. Apparently, Hachette has decided to ensure that all of its e-books have some sort of DRM. […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Royalty Statement Update 2012 Kristine Kathryn Rusch Over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about the fact that my e-book royalties from a couple of my traditional publishers looked wrong. Significantly wrong. After I posted that blog, dozens of writers contacted me with similar information. More disturbingly, some of […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Writers and The DOJ Lawsuit Kristine Kathryn Rusch This week, the Department of Justice filed its lawsuit against Apple and five publishers. Three publishers settled immediately with two, as of this writing, going forward—Penguin and MacMillan. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot comment on the filing. A few have, including […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Writers and Traditional Publishing Companies Kristine Kathryn Rusch Once upon a time, not so very long ago, writers had limited choices if they wanted to publish books. Sure, the writer could spend thousands of dollars self-publishing, and wind up with thousands of books in a garage and no place to sell them. […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Sea Changes Kristine Kathryn Rusch A lot of readers have commented on my blog posts of the past two weeks. For those of you who missed this while on spring break or family holiday, I wrote about some discrepancies I found in royalty statements. I checked with other writers and publishing […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Royalty Statements Update Kristine Kathryn Rusch This morning, I got another royalty statement. This one came from a medium-sized national publisher, not one of the erroneously named Big Six. I stared at the statement in shock. After the week I had just experienced, I forgot that royalty statements could be […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: Royalty Statements Kristine Kathryn Rusch Imagine this: Pretend you run a very large business. The business has a lot of built-in problems, things not easily fixed. You’re aware of the problems and are trying to solve them. A decade ago, you actually had hope you could solve them. It will simply […]
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