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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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The New World of Publishing: The Seasons of Publishing
I’ve been resisting doing this article because of a host of factors. But with the last pricing article, it became clear that I needed to at least say something about this topic. Why would I hesitate at such a simple and obvious topic? For that very reason. It just seems too simple and obvious to me to spend time talking about. Then someone (my wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch) reminded me I had been living inside of publishing since 1975 and what was obvious to me wasn’t to most people. And most indie publishers are not seasoned veterans of publishing, but new writers coming in. As she said so clearly to…
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Think Like A Publisher #11… Electronic Sales to Bookstores
Just over a year ago now, Kris was standing at the end of an aisle in a Safeway grocery store as I came around the corner from the deli section. She was staring at one of those huge end-caps of gift cards that tend to fill all major stores these days. I figured she was looking for the iTunes gift card, since that’s how she controls her spending buying songs by doing one gift card at a time. “Look at this,” she said and pointed at a gift card. It was a beautiful gift card for the musical “Wicked.” It had the poster for the musical on the card and…
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The New World of Publishing: Books Are No Longer Produce
What in the world do I mean books were produce? Well, they have been. And before you go shouting at me because I just insulted your golden book and said it was a banana, let me try to explain what I mean. For a long time, since about the time of the First World War, the release of a book has been treated as an event. The book would have a set release date, and all the push and promotion would be aimed at selling as many copies as possible in the first week or few weeks of the release date. (Bestseller lists are built on velocity of sales, meaning…