E-Books
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Ten Bold Predictions for 2014: An Analysis
Digital Book World has a list of ten bold predictions for ebooks digital publishing in 2014. Some of them delve into brave new world territory, but for those of us who have been around for a while, who can remember the days before you could carry a device in your pocket that can make phone Continue reading
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Inmates, Asylums, Etc.
Noreen Malone provides a fascinating look at Simon & Schuster’s Jeremie Ruby-Strauss, The King of Trash Publishing: He was the very picture of civilized, a quality less abundant in the books he acquires. Ruby-Strauss had just come from the set of the “Today” show, where he’d shepherded three new authors, the young women behind the Continue reading
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On Digitization, Democracy, and Dignity
Several times now we’ve referred to the dignity of small audiences in arguing for self-publishing as a worthy endeavor, which should be celebrated rather than stigmatized. I’m glad to see the great Jeremy Waldron (incidentally a former professor of mine, and one of my favorites) has come out with a new book on the subject. Continue reading
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Independent Publishing: What Would Stéphane Mallarmé Do?
Steve Moyer provides a fascinating look at the intersection of technology and publishing in nineteenth-century France. As Moyer observes, Stéphane Mallarmé not only excelled in poetry, essays, and translations, but in reconceptualizing the nature of the book: He was given to imagining new possibilities for the book, and in the 1870s and 1880s, he worked to 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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Marketing Self-Published Literary Fiction
So much to agree with in this James Campbell post from 2012: A quick summation: yes, there is a difference between genre fiction and literary fiction; no, genre fiction is not necessarily ‘lower’ than literary fiction or mere escapism; yes, literary fiction has just as many cliches and tropes as genre fiction; and yes, there Continue reading
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Self-Publishing Progress Update
Drafts complete: Yes (five) Extensive revisions complete: Yes (four) Assessment to move forward: Yes (two) (both novellas) Website operational: Yes Beta reader feedback incorporated: Yes (one draft, multiple readers) Editing complete: Yes (one) Formatting for Kindle finished: Yes (except for back matter) (one) Cover design: In progress (one) Preview on Kindle device: None Uploaded to Continue reading
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Writing and Writers: The Levels of Financial Success
Level 1: The Lottery Winners Riches beyond compare. This is the land of writers with amusement parks based on their characters, ownership of professional sports teams, etc. Level 2: The Serious Earners Writers can pay all their bills solely from their writing. No financial support from spouses, parents, savings. Level 3: The Hacks Same as Continue reading
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Streaming Television and Digital Publishing
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has an interesting perspective on television viewers and their desire to have control over what they watch. He starts with a historical analogy: “Two hundred years ago, a lot of fiction was written for magazines. It was a serialized format for novels. And then book manufacturing got cheap enough where you Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 