In the middle of all of this moving, I managed to finish what I was calling “The Branding Book.” Last spring, I wrote a series of posts on branding for authors, and like so many topics I explore on my publishing blog, this topic grew and grew as people asked questions. You can see the original posts (in a slightly different order) with the comments […]
North by Northwest Bookstore–Kickstarting!
A few weeks ago, I teased in my business blog that we would be doing a Kickstarter for our brick-and-mortar bookstore, North by Northwest Books, here on the Oregon Coast. We’ve been planning the Kickstarter since we bought the bookstore in August…
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 […]
A Nifty Book Trailer and News
I’m working really hard on a big Diving Universe saga, which is taking 99% of my brain power, it seems. I forget to do basic things, like letting you know about all the various projects of mine that have appeared. I’ve finally put Promo!!! on my daily calendar, with a specific assignment to see if that’ll work. It’s working tonight. I finished my pages on […]
Business Musings: Blogging the Business Master Class
Every year, we hold a Business Master Class at the Oregon Coast. We gather a lot of knowledge and boot-strap information. All of us are indie or hybrid, and we’re looking for ways to improve our careers. And some of this is for me, since traveling to a big conference like NINC is exceedingly difficult for me (I can’t fly any more) and I’d […]
Writers And Snot-Nosed Aliens, Among Other Things
I mentioned a few posts back that I would have a lot of news this fall. And I do. It stuns me. First, let me thank all the people who have supported the Pulphouse Kickstarter so far. As I write this, we’ve hit two of our stretch goals and are halfway to the third. The first stretch goal guaranteed an extra electronic issue of the […]
Business Musings: Tempest in a Bestseller List
There’s less reason to game the Times list now, however. The list has bifurcated so much that you can climb the top of one of the many lists with sales that my first novel (which didn’t even sniff at the list) blew out of the water in its first week twenty-five years ago. Big publishers don’t make a lot of money on 5,000 copies. Indies do, compared to expenses. But big publishers do not.
So, the amount of work that someone had put into placing Sarem’s book on the bestseller list made no sense to me at all. Where was the profit here? What was the point? Bragging rights are nice, but unless you have money to burn, ordering 18,000 copies of your own book is pretty expensive.
Business Musings: Expand Your Target Audience 2: Slow Growth (Branding/Discoverability)
Writers always believe that they can become a bestseller if they only goose their sales properly. I actually had a brand-new writer scream at me once about this very thing. Back in the early days of Amazon’s Kindle, she had “sold” 50,000 copies of her only novel by giving it away for free. “I’ll take my 50,000 sales over your sales any day,” she […]
Business Musings: How To Build A Brand 2: The Intermediate Stages (Branding/Discoverability)
So when I write these posts, I feel a deep frustration. Because my brand, in almost all of its forms, is extremely messy.
These posts, as I said from the beginning, are for me, writing to myself about all the various things I can do to improve my branding or, in most instances, take control of it.
If I were in the lucky position that most of you indies are in, I could define my Rusch brand from the beginning as something that spans genres, that uses a multitude of styles, that promises quality of a certain type, but never compromises on some things….
Business Musings: Bestseller Lists and Other Dreams
In March, Marie Force announced she would no longer chase the bestseller lists when she released her latest book title. She wrote a great, honest, and direct blog about her thinking, and I urge you to read it all. In the blog, she describes a trajectory of obsession and disillusionment that is very familiar to me. I’ve gone through that range of emotions several times […]
A New Diving Novella
Remember Dix? I told you how he died. But I lied…Read an excerpt here.
A New Kris Nelscott Novel
My latest Kris Nelscott novel begins a new series, following the adventures of three strong women as they protect their world, one person at a time. A crime novel set in 1969. Available in ebook, trade paper, hardback, and limited edition. For more information, click here.
A New Diving Novel
The latest Diving book follows Boss on an adventure in the Boneyard. If you haven’t read the Diving novels yet, you can start with this one. Click here for more information.
Get Early Copies of the Thursday Business Blog and More!
Best Mystery Stories of The Year!
“The heroine of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s ‘Christmas Eve at the Exit’ struggles to make the holiday meaningful for her 10-year-old daughter while the pair are on the run….There isn’t enough Xanax in anyone’s medicine cabinet to calm the jitters these 20 skillful stories will unleash on a worried world.” —Kirkus
Fiction River Readers Pick Their Favorites
Fiction River readers chose their favorite stories from the first four years, and those include my Kris Nelscott story, “Combat Medic.” Click here for lots of great reading!
The Year’s Best Novellas
I am honored to announce that Paula Guran chose my novella “Inhuman Garbage” as one of the best novellas of the year. To order some wonderful novellas, click on this sentence.
The Year’s Best Science Fiction
I am honored to announce that Gardner Dozois chose my novella “Inhuman Garbage” as one of the best science fiction stories of the year. To order the novella and some wonderful fiction, click on this sentence.
