Copyright lasts 70 years past the author’s death. This idea intrigues and bedevils me. For most people, your work provides for the needs of the world today–and often the foundation upon which future work will be built. This is true of janitors and CEOs, nurses and engineers. You are part of Project Humanity. For a famous few, your work rises… Read More
How Self-Publishing Empowers Female Authors
https://weheartit.com/entry/304757961ON BEING WONDER WOMEN **International Women’s Day** Kobo.com–one of the retailers I sell books through–invited me to write a post for their blog on being a SELF-PUBLISHING WONDER WOMAN! They wanted to know how self-publishing empowered female writers. Did I have something to say about that? YES I DID. Even better, once I sent in my post, they wanted to… Read More
Doing The Marketing Today
When I first started writing almost 10 years ago, I was quickly consumed by the need to write All. The. Time. It was an addiction, this putting words to page, creating characters and worlds and living in my own fully-interactive fantasy. I mean, really? How is this even legit work? Of course, my idea of what’s work and what’s play… Read More
Yes, You Can Be Smart And Read Romance
“I’m here to tell you that you can have a brain and still enjoy books with kissing in them. You can also have an economics degree from Yale and write romance novels. You can build a career on entertaining smart women and men with uplifting storytelling.” – Sarina White Bowen Oh yes you can. I’m enamored of this Kobo Writing Life… Read More
On getting out of the business… of giving advice, that is.
The indie publishing industry is changing. Of course, it’s always changing, but there’s a seismic shift happening in the indie publishing community right now. Many authors are pulling back from public engagement (with other authors), retreating to smaller groups for more intimate connections. The industry is maturing. The scammers are multiplying like rabbits, and there’s a turn toward more and… Read More
ON GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
I’m finally putting some “smart” in the data collection for my author business (some visual basic scripts to make it faster). With 35 novels and a host of short fiction across 2 pennames (each of which is a business of its own), I’ve surpassed the catalogs of some small publishers. I’m Nora-Roberts-level prolific, which means the catalog is going to… Read More
My 6th Anniversary as an Author… and Kindle Turns 10
Kindle is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Nov 1st was my 6th anniversary as an indie author. *Does Math* Yep, I’m a “veteran” in this indie publishing game. When I look back, it’s fantastic luck that I decided to become a writer when the indie game was just spooling up. If I’d been forced to go the traditional route, even if… Read More
KEYS FOR SUCCESS IN INDIE PUBLISHING*
*including bonus swears 1 – DO YOUR HOMEWORK – read my books, study the bestsellers, invest the time and money it takes to do that. To REALLY do that, not a five minute glance at the bestseller charts and assuming you know what they’re saying. Construct your own graduate-level Indie Publishing course and get a damn A in that class…. Read More
ON MAKING MONEY
I DON’T JUDGE YOU BY HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MAKE I feel like I need to make that very clear. Whether you make your money in sales or cleaning or even by viewing Sportsbooks.ag and other betting related websites.. we don’t care. We get constant (and I mean CONSTANT) messaging that money is a measure of the worth of someone… Read More
SELL THE EBOOK FIRST
I’ve said for a long time that everything flows from ebook sales – audiobook sales, paperback sales, foreign rights deals, agents, print-only deals – all the “markers of success” that authors often seek. If you sell enough ebooks, the rest will come (not always – a lot of the world is crazy random, especially when tradpub is involved). You’re not… Read More
BEING OBJECTIVE ABOUT YOUR WORK
By popular request, I’m reposting this from my “Ask Me Anything” thread. Harlow Cyan Fallon had a SPECTACULAR question. Here it is along with my response. Harlow Cyan Fallon: “Is there a way to recognize whether your own writing is good or not? It seems I don’t have the capacity to discern it myself. I may write a story or a novel… Read More
“All in, all the time.”
“All in, all the time.” “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” “The only easy day was yesterday.” –Navy SEAL slogans that apply to writing and publishing We want to hedge. We want to be “smart” by playing it safe. We want to minimize the chance of failure. I’m here to tell you that if you’re not MAXIMIZING your chance of failure, you… Read More