There was a time, when legacy publishing houses decided what the public read, that legacy review periodicals ruled the publishing marketplace. Then print on demand technologies happened and vanity press took a back seat when indie authors sought economic and environmental options for their publications. Lulu, CreateSpace, BookSurge and others burgeoned.
Since sitting the other side of the desk again, I’ve been struck by the common traps in which so many writers are caught. In the interest of keeping my promise to the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, I thought I’d list some of those traps here.
It’s been about a week since we uploaded our book list to Smashwords. It’s a decision I don’t regret.
Of late I’ve been often asked how it is I work environmental detail into my writing. Up until now I’ve never really thought about that much, partly because of the way I write (very tightly-focused character-driven stories) and partly because of major influences on my writing, which, if closely analyzed, will reveal…
If you’re going to be a writer of any kind, you have to research. No escaping it. Fail to and a reader somewhere in the world will catch that one inconsistency and call you on it, and for them, because of that oversight, the story will most likely lose credibility.
A departure today in remembrance of those who have served, and those who have died serving, the countries they love. Whether that service was by choice or unwilling conscription makes little difference after the fact.
I’m not sure how many other authors are greatly influenced, or not, by music. For myself, music plays a very important role in helping me to visualize the environment I’m creating, as well as set the tone of a particular scene.
With the proliferation of social network services and instant gratification, it seems more and more questionable consultants have slithered out from the reefs, people willing to monetize your virtual socialization outreach, maximize the lateral and vertical interconnectivity of your website, and, if you’re involved in the arts, people willing to create blockbuster…
I’ve been schleping Five Rivers’ books now for a year and have discovered some rather startling facts about the retail book industry, the sort of thing that isn’t written in agreements or contracts, the insider sort of thing a person only learns through experience.
Sometime last year I signed on with Goodreads (www.goodreads.com), a virtual book club where people fill shelves with virtual books and more often than not rate and write reviews. These are not critically acclaimed reviews, and are often disparaged by legacy publishers and authors.
Recently a discussion came up among fellow writers about the legitimacy of self-publishing versus legacy publishers. Some of the comments from my colleagues left me, frankly, startled.
Discussion among some of my colleagues arose a little while ago regarding naming practices in fiction. I must admit I was a little appalled at some of their responses. One writer chose to take an ordinary name and spell it backward to give it a funky, other-world sound, thus David would become Divad, or Susan become Nasus.
Here I am, two days before my reading/signing at Indigo in Burlington, Ontario, and you’d think by now this would be old hat. Well, it is. Sort of. Yet it remains that for several weeks before every gig I obsess: did the books arrive? I check the shipping confirmation for the 20th time.