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The Secrets Issue 136: Serendipity

The Secrets Issue 136: Serendipity

I just released the most recent issue of my newsletter, The Secrets. This issue is titled Serendipity. In it I go through the thought processes that shaped my recent story Chance Corrigan and The Tick-tock King of the Nile. (It will be coming out some time this year from DAW—I’ll post on its availability when […]

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One more story down

One more story down

This ended up being a good week. Today I finished up the first draft of Chance Corrigan and the Tick-tock King of the Nile. The story is destined, I hope, to be included in the forthcoming anthology from DAW called Steampunk. Jean Rabe is editing it with Martin H. Greenberg. The story was a lot […]

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Higher Prices: It’s not the Author’s Fault!

Higher Prices: It’s not the Author’s Fault!

An article in today’s New York Times talks about a potential backlash among ebook buyers in reaction to plans to increase pricing for books to the $12.99 to $14.99 price range. Readers are quoted as saying that they’ll just spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere if prices rise too high. Fair enough. What disturbed me the […]

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Authors Can Be Stupid: Price War Motives

Authors Can Be Stupid: Price War Motives

It has been suggested that the battle between publishers and Amazon over ebook pricing actually had two motives. The first was to prevent Amazon from establishing a “monopoly” over ebook sales. The second was to create a “sustainable price model.” I’ve suggested a third motive: greed. Monopoly: Amazon never had a monopoly, wasn’t going to […]

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Authors Can Be Stupid: Agency Model Pays Authors Less…

Authors Can Be Stupid: Agency Model Pays Authors Less…

An excellent post by April Hamilton over at Publetariat.com got me looking at the actual numbers on the money paid to authors under the old system for the Kindle, and the new Agency Model. Under the old model, ebook royalties were still connected to the cover price of a physical book. Under the agency model, […]

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Authors Can Be Stupid: $500 ebook design for free!

Authors Can Be Stupid: $500 ebook design for free!

One of the things that keeps being said about self-published ebooks is that they lack professional book design. This is short for “they look like crap.” As you are aware, I have two ebook readers, and I’ve purchased commercially available ebooks from traditional publishers. Those designers are no great shakes, for reasons I can’t fathom. […]

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Authors Can Be Stupid: A Brief Note on Self-publishing

Authors Can Be Stupid: A Brief Note on Self-publishing

It strikes me that in long essays, certain facts get lost. I wish to break them out here. 1) The purpose of writing for commercial distribution (electronic or print) is to make a profit. This means you have more money coming to you than you have flowing away from you. As with any business, you […]

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