• Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part 11

    Expectations… I say this little introduction to each new parts… New fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing, with indie writers in charge. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new era lasting about 50 years and…

  • Challenge

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part 10… More Myths

    More Myths on Both Sides… Part Three… I say this little introduction to each new parts… New fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing, with indie writers in charge. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part 9… More Myths

    Myths on Both Sides… Part Two… I say this little introduction to each new parts… New fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing, with indie writers in charge. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new era…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part 8… Myths

    Massive Numbers of Myths on Both Paths… I say this little introduction to each new parts… New fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing, with indie writers in charge. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad for New Writers… Part 7… More terminology

    Outdated Terminology Continued… As I said before, ew fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing, with indie writers in charge. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new era lasting about 50 years and the transitions lasting…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part Six… Things Change

    The Changing Terminology… New fiction writers coming in now are really torn between all the myths and hype of traditional publishing and all the myths and hype of indie publishing. But as I said back in the first post of this series, the paperback era of big publishing is pretty much done, and the distribution of fiction is changing over to the electronic era of indie publishing. These kinds of major shifts in fiction distribution to the readers has happened four major times through the history of this country, with each new era lasting about 50 years and the transitions lasting about 25 years. Again, see my first post. New…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part Five… The Upside

    The Choice Between Two Paths… This entire series has been talking about the choice new writers coming into professional fiction writing have between the old methods of traditional publishing and the new world of indie publishing. If you have not read the first five parts of this series, please do so now. This will make more sense if you do so. So in this chapter, I want to quickly go over what is possible for success on both paths. Traditional Publishing… For many, many, many writers, simply having a book published by a traditional publisher is the success. Period. And many writers don’t ever want to leave their professional job…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers… Part 4

    The Failures on Both Paths… In fiction writing, the only time you fail is if you stop writing fiction. Period. There is no other marker. You stop writing, you fail. It really is that simple. So in this series, I have been talking about the choices of paths new writers can take to get their books to readers. Traditional path and indie path. So what forces in those two distribution paths make a writer think they should quit writing and thus fail? TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING… On this path, the dreams can be crushed in a number of points along the way, causing maybe a great writer to stop writing. Understand clearly……

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Feel Bad For New Writers…

    Coming Into Fiction Publishing Right Now Is Confusing… And I do mean really, really confusing. As I said a number of weeks back, we are solidly in the middle of the transition between traditional paperback publishing and indie electronic publishing. So writers coming into fiction publishing now have no idea what to think and are faced with a million myths from both sides. When I came into fiction publishing back in the 1970s and 1980s, there was only one way in. We were flat in the middle of the 50 year run of the paper traditional publishers. Everyone around me knew the way in. It was hard work, sure, but…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Dare To Be Bad

    A Great Catch Phrase… Following is a post I wrote almost exactly ten years ago. Very little has remained the same in publishing in ten years, and especially through this pandemic, but I figured it would be a good time to bring this forward, touch it up a little bit. Many of you have heard me talk about this concept, and it is an amazingly freeing thing when applied. And my gut sense is that this would be a good Pop-Up topic to really dig into it for those who might need this. Anyway, here is the original post from ten years ago. Dare To Be Bad Kevin J. Anderson…