Publishing
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Self-Publishing Update: Moving Up the Ladder of Success
Now that The Race: A Novella has been available for sale for a little over a week, it’s time to check in on our Levels of Financial Success for Writers. As you may recall, the last time we did an update I was still absorbing the blow of shelling out 250 bucks for a block… Continue reading
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Self-Publishing Literary Fiction – A Ray of Hope
Oh, it’s hard times for literary fiction in general, I know. (People don’t read it any more!) And for indie publishers, there is the stigma. (Who do you think you are? You need to have someone else decide whether your book should be available to readers…) But there’s hope! As David Gaughran, guru of marketing… Continue reading
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Self-Publishing: How To Get It Done!
Readers! I’m pleased to announce I’ve joined the ranks of writers who have managed to complete all the steps to make one of their books available to the world. And with actual sales! Hooray! But this is not about me. It’s about YOU. You may be sitting there, as I was, wondering how in the… Continue reading
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The Case for CodeX
Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich argue for the need to replace the word “ebook”: We need to embrace digital reading as its own medium, not just a book under glass. That means imagining a new language for reading as an experience, starting with a new word to use instead of book. Their solution comes from… Continue reading
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Self-Publishing Update: Rocking Digital Marketing
Another great podcast from Simon over at Rocking Self Publishing. This time it’s an interview with Kevin Leigh, indie author of Gollup the Woods, Twin Power, a book for young adults based on stories his father used to tell the family about Ireland. In his real life Kevin handles digital marketing for a chain of… Continue reading
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Self-Publishing: On the Dignity of Small Audiences, Part II
Previously we wrote about the small readership Alice Munro had for the first fifteen years of her publishing career. Next up: William Carlos Williams (of “The Red Wheelbarrow” fame) whose 1935 collection of poems An Early Martyr sold just eight copies its first year. Recall my modest goal for my novella (available now!): just ten copies… Continue reading
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Self-Publishing: On the Respectability of Small Audiences
I was still feeling the afterglow of the Alice Munro announcement, so I headed over to Munro’s Paris Review interview. One of the things I was struck by was her description of the first fifteen years or so of her career: MUNRO I was about thirty-six [when my first book came out]. I’d been writing… Continue reading
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Independent Publishing: What Would Dr. Johnson Do?
Okay, let’s see. What do agents and publishers have to offer a new author? Free editing? Nope. Marketing, surely? Not much of that either. So… you edit everything yourself, before it gets to the publisher. Maybe you even hire someone to help. Then the book comes out and you are left to your own devices… Continue reading
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An Open Letter to Laura Miller
Dear Ms. Miller, We have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past. And my tone was perhaps inappropriate. However, I will try to do better. I think your heart is in the right place and I have long appreciated your devotion to good writing and good literature. I am a fan of yours when you’re… Continue reading
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Berlatsky the Hack: A Word of Encouragement
Cheer up, Noah Berlatsky! Your self-described life as a Hack puts you on Level 3 of our Ladder of Writerly Financial Success. Not a bad place to be! And it puts you in some esteemed company. Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 