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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing… #5: Printers are Distributors
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… #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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My Best Selling Books (That I Can Claim)
Or at least I think these are my bestselling books. I have just over 16 million of my books in print (that I can count) under all my names, but these five, I think, were the top five sellers that I can claim. A couple of them I can’t and don’t count exact numbers. I’m doing this because, to be honest, I got a couple of comments from people wondering how I could give such advice like I knew what I was talking about. One guy thought I was an accountant just working with writers. Not kidding. I say in my short bio (that needs reworking) that I have sold…
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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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The New World of Publishing: The Assumption of Agents
After that head-shaking article by Don Maass, and the funny response by Joe and Barry, I decided it was time to update a post I did about a year ago in this series. So here it is… Among all new writers these days, the myth is strong that they need an agent and that agents are just here and a part of the new book world. It seems to radiate through every word I hear from writers lost in the myths of starting up as fiction writers. It’s like you bought a house and someone is living in the basement and you believe without ever a question that you must…