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Think Like a Publisher 2015: Chapter Two… Expected Costs
Chapter Two: Expected Costs The first chapter was “The Early Decisions” which included picking a business name, setting up checking accounts, and so on. There were no real costs at all in those early steps unless your state had a small fee for registering a business name. Checking accounts are free, so are PayPal accounts, and so on. So, the question on this second basic business-planning chapter is: “What are your expected costs?” For those of you with a basic understanding of business, you can now see the structure of how I am setting up these chapters. Before starting into a business, there are certain things that need to be…
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Think Like a Publisher 2015: Chapter One… The Early Decisions
Here we go again. It’s been over four years since I wrote the first version of Think Like a Publisher. And over a year since I updated it into a 2013 edition. Stunning how time goes by. Since those first words all those years ago, the indie publishing world has gotten by the early years of the “gold rush” thinking and has now settled into a new normal that should last for years, if not decades. 2013 was the first year of that new normal. Yes, things are still changing, but massive changes are now going to take place on the traditional side as major publishers scramble for their lives. Also,…
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The New World of Publishing: A Metaphor for Publishing
A Metaphor for Publishing Here in the United States, July 4th is a major holiday. And I live on the Oregon Coast, which is a major tourist area and Highway 101 is the major highway out here that runs along the Pacific Ocean and right through the center of our little town. In fact, over July 4th (and the weekend closest to it) our little 7,000 person full-time population town swells to well over 100,000 people. It is a zoo. Locals, if not working out in the zoo, buy food ahead and go home and stay out of the way. And for some reason people think it’s cool to come here…
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The New World of Publishing: Who Really Cares?
Who Really Cares? I did most of this as an answer to a good question on a recent post about traditional publishing and what is happening to it. Actually, the question was about my opinion if traditional publishing was going to collapse or not. Here is my expanded response: Big five traditional publishing, as Passive Guy says, is in the middle of disruptive technology, and the big five are not responding in any sane manner. That’s really the problem. We are seeing a shift in the very nature of the business itself. And so what you are hearing are the people invested in the old ways of doing things. So…
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Writing in Public: Summary of Month 11
Month #11 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. June 2014 Once again, as with last month, this was a pretty solid month, all things considered. I didn’t pick up speed as I hoped to do, but that’s all right. Still fine. Smith’s Monthly is going right along. #9 came out just fine. Electronic copies were shipped to subscribers and paper copies will be going out shortly, just slightly late due to a printing and shipping issue. If you didn’t get an electronic copy and should have, please let me know. I also got #10 back from the proof reader and I started working on flowing it in already. I had another novel…
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The New World of Publishing… The Time of Great Forgetting
The Time of the Great Forgetting Six months ago on the first of January, many, many, many thousands of writers around the world decided to start up their writing, give it more attention, get stories out, and so on and so on. You all know… the “New Year’s Resolution.” So now, here we are coming up on July 1st and it’s a great time to restart the year. A good halfway point. So I’m going to give a few suggestions on how to restart that dead resolution and help you get to the end of the year with some real progress. But first, some reality about this time of year.…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: #10…There is Only One Way to Publish a Book
Myths ignore facts. Myths are often beliefs built from fear or past actions. In this series, and in the previous series of Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, I call the myths that control writers “Sacred Cows.” Writers hold onto myths like lifelines that are keeping them from drowning in a raging river of information. Sometimes sane people in the normal world will follow a publishing myth that makes no sense at all because it has something to do with the publishing business. And they follow the myth without thought. So this new series is an attempt to help the new world of indie publishing with the growing…
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Money Always Flows to the Writer
On John Scalzi’s blog there was a great discussion on Yog’s Law (coined by Jim McDonald a very long time ago), which is basically “Money Always Flows to the Writer.” And how indie publishing has not changed that law. Writers still have a writing business. (Here I am always trying to get writers to think like a business person.) When deciding to indie publish, writers set up a publisher, which is a second business. That publisher must spend money, but the money still flows to the writer. As Scalzi said, in indie publishing, the control of the money remains with the writer. The moment you give away the control of…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: #9… You Must Sell Books Cheaply
Myths ignore facts. Myths are often beliefs built from fear or past actions. In this series, and in the previous series of Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, I call the myths that control writers “Sacred Cows.” Writers hold onto myths like lifelines that are keeping them from drowning in a raging river of information. Sometimes sane people in the normal world will follow a publishing myth that makes no sense at all because it has something to do with the publishing business. And they follow the myth without thought. So this new series is an attempt to help the new world of indie publishing with the growing…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: #8… I’ve Missed the Boat
Myths ignore facts. Myths are often beliefs built from fear or past actions. In this series, and in the previous series of Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, I call the myths that control writers “Sacred Cows.” Writers hold onto myths like lifelines that are keeping them from drowning in a raging river of information. Sometimes sane people in the normal world will follow a publishing myth that makes no sense at all because it has something to do with the publishing business. And they follow the myth without thought. So this new series is an attempt to help the new world of indie publishing with the growing…