I started this year’s Year in Review blogs with traditional publishing partly because that Department of Justice anti-trust case produced such juicy tidbits that I couldn’t ignore them, and partly because I have always started with traditional publishing. Back in the day, I saw all of us (writers, readers, and publishers) as creatures that emerged from traditional publishing. Now, I see a lot of writers […]
Business Musings: The Sad State of the Traditional Publishing Backlist (The Year in Review 3)
A quietly astonishing moment happened on November 9, the first day of 20Booksto50K, in a panel titled “High-Powered Authors.” Multiple New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin said something that caught fire when the video of the panel went live. At least three people sent me the video and pointed me to that moment, about 38 minutes into the panel. For those of you who […]
Business Musings: The If-Only Lawsuit
So, last week, I had a blog deadline and nothing that I could really write about quickly, nothing that tickled my fancy. I did a process blog. Since you all say you love process blogs, I figured I was covered. I still felt a bit let down—by my lack of time, by my own inability to schedule properly. Then, three hours later, after I had […]
Business Musings: Traditional Publishing Stupidity
I’m in the middle of putting my “Rethinking The Writing Business” posts on licensing into a book, having blown past my deadline because I require sleep every now and then. It looks like I’ll have that, plus the additional chapters and material, done within two weeks…. If the world would get out of my way. I mean it. Seriously. Every time I look at the […]
Business Musings: The Growing Importance of Intellectual Property (Planning For 2019 Part 6)
If you don’t understand copyright and you consider yourself a professional writer, then you do not understand the business you are in. If you have published a novel, traditionally or indie, and you do not understand copyright, you are volunteering to get screwed over and over and over again. I say this often, and I’m saying it loudly again, because the trend for 2019 and beyond is that every organization you do business with will try to take a piece (if not all) of your copyright on each and every one of your projects.
Business Musings: Surviving The Stupid
I sometimes think I live in a constant state of outrage because I read the news. Every day, there’s something new. I occasionally divorce myself from the constant barrage by going on a news-holiday or a Twitter-holiday, so I sometimes miss the current stuff. Imagine my surprise, as I scanned through Twitter a few weeks ago, to see a writer I follow go after Tor […]
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.
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