tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67827131278244781762024-02-18T22:05:10.476-08:00Indie AuthorFollow my adventures in both self-publishing and traditional, trade publishing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-79228315592723514632015-03-20T10:00:00.002-07:002015-03-20T10:21:14.764-07:00Authors: Don't Scream "Piracy!", Then Turn Around & Pay Thieves To Represent You Or Your WorkIt happens again and again: authors, both indie and mainstream-published, crying foul over piracy of their work. They grab their virtual torches and pitchforks and take to social media to spread the word and their righteous indignation over this or that file sharing site offering their ebooks for free download.
Imagine my surprise then, when I found at least a few of those same authors paying toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-74347375250928774102014-12-18T12:30:00.001-08:002014-12-18T12:54:34.952-08:00Artists and Personal Responsibility, Or Why There's Nothing "Terrifying" Nor Even Surprising About Sony Pulling 'The Interview'RE: The Interview, here's a comment I posted in reply to Chuck Wendig's blog post Art Held Hostage: Why Sony Not Releasing “The Interview” Is Scary. This is my response to those who say Sony's decision to pull the Seth Rogen / James Franco comedy film The Interview, in which two hapless celebrity interviewers get an interview with Kim Jong Un and are pressed into service by the U.S. government toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-29309971769414516432014-04-03T17:31:00.001-07:002014-04-03T17:31:35.897-07:00Facebook Fan Page Reach: No, It's Not All Over For Free Promo On FacebookIf you've been promoting your brand and books on Facebook via a Fan Page*, then stories like The Free-Marketing Gravy Train Is Over on Facebook (from Time Magazine's site) may have you in a tizzy. Don't be.
Those articles are either intimating, or stating outright, that this is some kind of plot on Facebook's part to force Fan Page owners to either pay to "boost" their posts or pay for ads in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-79408623483858172262014-01-18T09:39:00.002-08:002014-01-18T09:42:04.331-08:00Why I Like HorrorIn a recent email exchange, a friend expressed surprise that Horror is one of my favorite genres in fiction. Here's how I explained why:
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I have an odd fascination with archetypal good vs. evil (or, God vs. Satan) stories. I guess it's because, even though I don't really believe in good and evil in the Biblical or religious sense, others' unwavering belief in them seems like the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-26242775304506788522014-01-09T14:08:00.000-08:002014-01-10T07:21:05.738-08:00How To Sell Your Integrity, $470 At A TimeHere are two new questions authors need to add to their vetting process when considering hiring out for costly author courses, services and how-to books:
Do you have an affiliate program for this product or service I'm considering, and if so, how much of the sales price will be paid to the affiliate advertiser?
Imagine that the answers to those questions are, "Yes, I do have an affiliate Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-33223390810297215602013-12-30T13:35:00.000-08:002013-12-30T13:36:02.107-08:00On Breaking Up With An Author: An Open Letter To Stephen KingI originally posted this open letter to Stephen King on my Facebook page, but it generated such a lively and sometimes heated discussion that I've decided to share it here. Let me preface what you're about to read by saying I've been a big fan of Stephen King going all the way back to Carrie. Granted, I was only 8 years old when that first book was published, but I started in on King at the age Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-72246573227121157962013-12-09T19:18:00.002-08:002013-12-09T19:18:27.946-08:00Don't Be Too Quick To Shut Down That Author BlogAs many of you already know, my Publetariat site was offline entirely for close to two months in the early part of this year, and then it was back online but laying more or less fallow for several more months while my work continued behind the scenes to ensure the site was secure and functioning properly.
Now that I've got it up and running again, with new material being posted there five days Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-67174418448330623112013-09-27T23:19:00.000-07:002013-09-29T19:05:03.977-07:00Goodreads Review Policy ChangesAs part of a recent policy update, Goodreads implemented the following change:
**Delete content focused on author behavior. We have had a policy of removing reviews that were created primarily to talk about author behavior from the community book page. Once removed, these reviews would remain on the member’s profile. Starting today, we will now delete these entirely from the site. We will also Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-1809460950193568272013-07-14T23:20:00.004-07:002013-07-14T23:32:33.407-07:00My New MemoirAs many regular readers of this blog and visitors to my Publetariat site already know, in 2010 my life more or less imploded. I blogged about it at the time, and based on the encouragement of family, friends and readers, I decided that eventually, when the dust settled, I'd write and publish a memoir about that horrible time and my recovery. Here it is, at last:
Here's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-65969976250243743922013-05-20T15:21:00.000-07:002013-11-17T16:32:42.710-08:00Why You Should Be Paying More Than $50 For Ebook Formatting & ConversionI just posted this in response to a service provider who commented on my earlier post, Ebook Madness: Don't Confuse Ebook Conversion With Ebook Formatting! In his comment on that post, this gentleman said he only charges $40-50 for the typical formatting AND conversion job, and asked if he's not charging enough.
My answer was an emphatic YES, and I'm reprinting the full response here Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-38411311526667794652013-04-22T15:26:00.003-07:002013-04-22T15:28:46.102-07:00Amazon's Ebook Returns Policy Is A GOOD Thing. Here's Why.Recently some indie author friends have become so outraged by ebook returns that they're trying to organize and bring pressure to bear against Amazon to eliminate its 7-day return policy on Kindle books. There are other vendors who allow returns as well, and I'm sure this same group will be targeting those vendors in due time.
The main reason why this group of authors is so upset is that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-5855559232949332792013-04-19T17:29:00.001-07:002013-04-19T17:29:23.381-07:00Publetariat UpdateI still have a blog post in me about this incident, but I'm not quite ready to write it yet. In the meantime, here's the update:
Writer and web developer Shawn E. Bell has very generously volunteered his time to resurrect Publetariat for all of us.
Shawn also offers author services for indie authors and small imprints; please consider him if you need help with your books.
I also wish to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-86450895165049091912013-04-16T20:41:00.000-07:002013-04-16T20:41:00.780-07:00Hackers - 1; Publetariat - 0. We All Lose.I will write a more in-depth follow-up as soon as I can calm down enough to do so, but for now, I'll just reprint what's supposed to be displaying for anyone who visits Publetariat.com right now. It isn't displaying as I write this, because the site is so trashed that nothing works there anymore.
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As regular site visitors already know, Publetariat has been repeatedly Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-13253890708475181362013-03-16T21:34:00.000-07:002013-03-16T21:34:50.870-07:00Big Publishers Forming Imprints With ASI: You're Doing It Wrong. Here's How To Turn The Titanic AroundI have been VERY vocal in my criticism of the many mainstream publishing outfits who've decided to form new, vanity publishing imprints in partnership with Author Services, Inc. (also known as "ASI" and "Author House", among many other aliases). This begs the question: if those vanity partnerships are so wrong, what should publishers be doing instead?
I have the answer, and it's pretty Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-41771672720094698852013-03-08T12:38:00.000-08:002013-03-08T12:38:15.094-08:00Simon & Schuster / Archway UpdateToday I received a follow-up email from a different S&S staffer. It reads:
Hi April,
Veda forwarded your e-mail to me. I manage Archway Publishing for S&S, and would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about the service. There are a lot of options available to self-publishing authors today, and we believe Archway delivers real value. Please let me know if you'd be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-68944129945899093712013-03-06T15:49:00.000-08:002013-03-08T21:34:58.888-08:00Simon & Schuster Is Trying To Bribe People Like Me...to refer people like you to their new vanity imprint, Archway, which they formed in partnership with AuthorHouse (aka "ASI") late last year. A couple of days ago, I received the following, kind of astonishingly brazen email from a Simon and Schuster staffer:
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Simon & Schuster recently launched Archway Publishing as a new type of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-10653596699459342512013-02-24T16:37:00.000-08:002013-02-24T16:41:48.294-08:00The Free Kindle Book Ride May Be OverMany authors have been taking advantage of the Amazon KDP Free Book promo option ever since KDP Select was rolled out, and many a bookish website and blog has sprung up specifically around promotion of free Kindle books.
All of that may be about to change, thanks to an Amazon Associates agreement revision that's set to take effect March 1 of this year:
March 1, 2013 version The following Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-66080032093505884902013-02-06T20:03:00.000-08:002013-02-10T12:04:45.517-08:00Let Your Writing Lead You Where It MayMany of those who are reading this are facing the harsh reality that author royalties may never be enough to support yourself and your household, or at least the only slightly less harsh reality that while you're waiting for lightning to strike, you've got bills to pay.
I am living proof that writing can be a great career skill and a surprising stepping stone; you can make a living with your Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-49944418158038268422013-01-16T16:37:00.000-08:002013-01-16T21:47:08.138-08:00New Scams Preying On Writers Who Are Struggling FinanciallyMaybe "scam" is too strong a word, but I'm not sure what else to call it.
I'm seeing more and more marketing materials specifically targeted to indie and mainstream authors who are struggling to earn a fulltime living as writers, or finding it impossible to make the transition from day job to fulltime author. Whenever a demographic that contains many disappointed, disillusioned and possibly Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-77067908056246437302012-11-04T19:23:00.000-08:002012-11-04T19:23:29.489-08:00Indie Author vs. Indie EntrepreneurAs you may have noticed, it's been a LONG time since I've posted here. There are good reasons for that, like the fact that my former house was foreclosed in August and I had to move on short notice, plus some divorce-related challenges that I can't really detail for you here.
But I've been thinking about this post for weeks now, and I'm sorry to tell you that it won't come as a welcome insight Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-67483944877001508082012-08-11T22:09:00.002-07:002012-08-11T22:26:14.876-07:00RE: LendInk - Please Stop Fiddling, Rome Has Burned To The GroundLendInk is dead, yet I am still fielding tweets, Facebook messages, and emails from people who seem to think my blog post, "Congratulations, You Killed LendInk..." was somehow misleading with respect to lend compensation. This is the last I am going to say about it, and it's the same thing I've been saying about it all along.
As I said in my update to the blog post, I do not understand why someUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-501096402874411332012-08-06T18:48:00.000-07:002012-08-06T19:04:09.215-07:00Do Readers Of Different Genres Have Specific Craft Preferences?Okay, I'm taking off my crankypants now to write a rare post about craft. Let me open by saying this post will contain some gross generalizations, and I know such blanket statements can't possibly cover all situations and will certainly be untrue in many cases. I'm only working with blanket statements here to address a larger topic, so please try to bear with me on them and focus on the larger Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-1436815268510958572012-08-03T17:15:00.000-07:002012-08-09T11:45:22.091-07:00Congratulations: You Killed LendInk And Denied Your Fellow Authors Their Lend RoyaltiesFair warning: I am angry, and this is an angry post. When misinformation has the power to kill totally legitimate, above-board small businesses, it's time to stop being nicey-nice and start getting down to brass tacks. When the business in question directly impacts authors' livelihoods, it's time to take action.
UPDATED ON 8/6/12 TO ADD: I really don't understand why some people who've read thisUnknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-25603498025131819682012-08-02T17:20:00.000-07:002012-08-02T17:20:20.904-07:00Taking The Author Out of Self-PromotionOne of the major obstacles facing indie authors and small imprints in commercial publishing is discoverability: getting the word out about their books to prospective buyers. As more and more indies enter the sales arena, each new indie book is being released into a sea of print that's only getting larger every day.
While I've always been a strong advocate for the DIY, grass-roots approach to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-39312754764931176002012-07-29T16:51:00.001-07:002012-07-29T17:30:36.822-07:00Fifty Shades of HypocrisyWhen it comes to books like Fifty Shades of Grey, the Twilight series and The DaVinci Code (huge commercial successes that are pretty universally acknowledged as poorly written), outrage among authors who haven't been as successful in finding a monster, dedicated fan base is generally off the scale.
I'm not going to reduce this to a simple case of jealousy, though jealousy is certainly a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8