A New Year… Finally…

Publishing Didn’t Move Much in 2024…

In general the industry didn’t move. Writers and indie publishers moved a lot,

Kickstarter became even more welcoming to indie publishers, Shopify added some features to help us all, and BookVault spent the year trying to smooth out the wrinkles from their very fast start.

But overall, with the exceptions of a few more tools for indie publishers, nothing changed. And what is left of traditional publishing in fiction is not worth even mentioning any more. Sadly, a lot of writers of fiction still lose their dreams and hopes into that churn of myths. Nothing at all any of us can do to help them until they decide they want to start into the real world of publishing in 2025.

However, that said, 2025 shows a lot of promise. Let me give a few observations, only my opinions.

— I think BookVault will continue to do spectacular books POD, and get on top of their issues. Wow can they produce beautiful books.

— Ingram is doing better and better with epubs, especially into libraries. And if you set the discount and prices correctly, bookstores including B&N can get your paper books through them. Indie writers just need to stop being afraid of their discounts and return policy. Get full copy returns and if a book comes back, use it for a special promotion or something. Use your imagination.

— Amazon is just slowly continuing to decline, and I expect that to continue this coming year. Their expanded distribution is worthless and their “Select” program is still just using authors for advertising and not helping authors besides with a check to build readers or a career.

— Author stores are taking over more and more sales of books. Readers really love going direct to authors when they can. And the Shopify stores are cheap and offer a vast amount of cheap marketing flexibility to writers, limited only by imagination.

— Author and publishing merchandise will grow by leaps and bound this coming year as more authors learn about their own brands. Since through Shopify stores, merch is free to put up and sold as POD, there is no ceiling on this area of money for writers learning to market their own brands.

— Kickstarter book campaigns will lead through the new year in how indie writers and publishers start the promotion cycle of a book or project. More exclusives to stores will also help with promotion. Standard ad promotion is pretty much dead unless done selectively and correctly.

— And sadly, writers coming in will continue to blame the wrong reasons for small sales. Small sales are expected in any start-up. Discoverability is critical, but the product must be in the correct genre for the reader, must have good sales copy that is not plot driven, and clear and clean covers that instantly tell the buyer the genre. And promotion will not help if you only have five books. Doesn’t work that way ever.

— AI in fiction publishing with both art and writing is still mostly controlled by companies that stole copyright from artists and artists. Hopefully those lawsuits will but those crooks out of business. Editors and magazines will continue to avoid at all costs anything done with AI because it has no copyright attached and can’t be licensed. AI is changing a lot of industries. In fiction, it is weeding out the lazy and stupid which is fine for the rest of us.

My opinions. I think there is so much positive going forward in indie publishing in 2025, I am excited to be a part of it.

Learning and Such…

The codes for the 12 Day Holiday Sale are still active and will be for a few more days. See my post from Sunday for the full 12 things being offered. Best classes to take in my opinion are the three Advanced Craft Classes starting on January 7th. Advanced Craft Rule of Three will jump your writing forward in ways you didn’t even know you needed.

My Writing and Publishing…

I announced my challenge and all the publishing sides of writing a story per day yesterday. I will start on the 1st. So the first story will be done before I go to bed on the 1st and waiting for Kris to read I hope when she gets up on the 2nd.

Tonight, here after all the fireworks, I am going to celebrate being out of one of the worst years of my entire life by being in my office and getting ready for tomorrow.

One horrid thing from 2024 for me is the 20 pound weight gain, all around my stomach which is a family trait. 2025 will see me lose that and maybe a little more. The weight gain came from the shoulder surgery and me sitting for months and eating far, far too much.

So here is a picture of me in my writing chair tonight. Actually two pictures. One is me playing around with a horror look which I think is just stupid, not horrific at all. (grin)

Tomorrow right here will be the first blog about the writing process of a story I have no idea what it will be.