We Write!
Alma T. C. Boykin I almost said "bad review" but that leaves a lot of wiggle room: unfavorable, badly written, for the wrong book/recording, totally ignored the entire plot of the book ("I didn't read it but the author is a terrible person so this is a horrible book.") What I mean is a negative... Continue Reading →
There are several articles I came across over recent weeks that I bookmarked for potential use as source material for blog posts. I haven't been able to do so yet, but they're too good to leave alone: so I'm going to put them up here, and recommend that you click over to the source and... Continue Reading →
Traditional publishing was always - or at least for as long as I had anything to do with it - a two tier affair. If you were first tier you got bells and whistles, and felt the love from the industry, its sycophants and establishment. You got your book advertised widely, your book got launched... Continue Reading →
We've had discussions over the years about what a classic is, and isn't, and can there really be 'instant classics?' (spoiler: no, absolutely not, that's an oxymoron) I'm not so presumptuous as to think I could write a classic. I'm also fairly sure that most classics were not written to be classic. It's something ineffable... Continue Reading →
In past articles, I've frequently commented that the market for books is only one element of a much broader market - that for entertainment as a whole. Books compete with movies, TV programs and series, computer games, etc. for a share of the consumer's entertainment dollar. Increasingly, books are getting the short end of that... Continue Reading →
Once upon a time, in trad pub, books that were perennial midlist sellers were re-issued every 10 years with new covers to keep up with the changing trends, but otherwise left alone to continue making money. Books that didn't sell weren't reprinted, and the rights were reverted. If another house wanted to make a stab... Continue Reading →
While US numbers are kind of odd at the moment, a Vienna, Austria-based analyst started looking at European (EU) and British book sale patterns, including e-books, pricing, and audio-books. His big "take-away" is that baseline patterns have sped up, most notably for e-books and what consumers are willing to pay. Those of us in Indie... Continue Reading →
Ve know your trope makes ze genre tick, ja. But ve vill interrogate it until its resistance is exhausted and is it villing to TOCK!" I happened to read yet another critic saying that a book in a competition lacked what its competitors had - They defied classic genre conventions, interrogated tired tropes, and celebrated... Continue Reading →
First, times are a changin' as we all have seen. This can be good for writers, this can be bad for writers, this can mean we're swearing off any book with cove-copy that starts with "after a microbiology lab accident went terribly wrong . . ." What are some of the things indie writers have... Continue Reading →
A day or three ago, I started to see some interesting signs on social media. Comments about the big ebook distributor, Draft 2 Digital. Then I saw the actual link, and boy, did it catch my attention. I'm afraid I waxed rather sarcastic in my initial comments about the whole thing in private. I shouldn't,... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 