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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing… #4: You Need An Agent to Sell Overseas
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… #3. No One Buys New Writers
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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Writing in Public: Month 8 Summary
Month #8 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. March 2014 This was basically a month of recovery from a long winter and a slow start at ramping back up. Not a fantastic month, but sure a lot better than I had during the winter. Wow. Today I got four of my novels author copies for my shelf. All four novels came out in the first three months of this year. Images at the top of the page, available in just about any store. And I got a proof to look over for yet another novel, plus a nonfiction book. And Smith’s Monthly #6 is out in electronic and the paper…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: #2… Self Publishing is Easy
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: #1… Can’t Get Indie Books into Bookstores
Myths ignore facts. Myths are 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 list…
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The New World of Publishing: Can’t Get Books Into Bookstore Myth
It Has Officially Hit Myth Status When some of the biggest supporters of indie publishing and indie writers start going on about how they are giving up paper books to New York, I finally just shook my head and assigned all the silliness to myth status. So, since I have the book Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing now out in both paper and electronic and available, I suppose it’s time I start into the next book: Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. And Sacred Cow (myth) #1 is that indie writers, with their own press, CAN’T GET THEIR BOOKS INTO BOOKSTORES. A complete myth.…
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The New World of Publishing: Reversion Clauses Again
When and how do you get your book back when you sign a traditional publishing contract? That simple question will be the one aspect of your contract that in twenty years you will still be swearing about, long after the validation of being published by a “big publisher” has faded. I am NOT going to go into specific language of reversion clauses. That is the clause (or clauses) in your publishing contract that tells you when you get your book back. Every clause is different from contract to contract and from publisher to publisher. You need an IP attorney (not an agent) to tell you what each clause means from…
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Writing in Public: Month 6 and Half Year Summary
Month #6 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. January 2014 Made it through Month #6. Actually, I think you could safely say I limped through Month #6 and got to the end of it. I also had ten zero-word days, most because of travel. So only 21 days of writing and most of that was limping due to a ton of other stuff and getting my sleep schedule badly out of whack. Of the six months of this challenge, January was the worst month in the fiction writing. After a bad December and a bad November. I’m just distracted and having far too much fun and learning on other things.…
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The New World of Publishing: Having Fun… Again
(Note: I wrote this in July 2013 and am posting it here again up front (without a word changed) because, to be honest, I’m getting a lot of certain types of questions from writers. This works as an answer to those questions. So here it is again. You might want to read it again, even if you remember it from July.) Having Fun Yeah, I know. A weird topic for a blog: Having Fun. Over the last week or so I had the fantastic pleasure of being in a large room for a week with thirty-five very-well-published professional writers, all excited about writing and publishing and having fun. That’s right. In…
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Think Like a Publisher 2014: Production and Scheduling
As traditional publishers grab for more rights and become even more difficult to work with, more and more writers are moving to indie publishing. As they make the jump, they ask basic questions on how to do it, how to be treated with respect as a publisher, and even how to do simple things like setting up a publishing business. And questions such as how they get their books into bookstores. You can do that. Honest. I’ll talk all about it in coming chapters. But the key on almost everything these days is that you, the author, are starting a publishing company. An indie publisher is still a publisher, the…