Tag Archives: self-publishing
How Random House Can Save Itself!

How Random House Can Save Itself!

Tom Dupree alerted me to a Wall Street Journal article (the article is behind a subscriber screen) that indicates that Random House has opted out of the agency-model deal with Apple. Their books will not be for sale in the iBookstore, though they will continue to talk with Apple. Random House expressed fears that ebooks […]

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Why Do Consumers Think Book Prices Are Too High?

Why Do Consumers Think Book Prices Are Too High?

As Publishers and Bookstore chains fight for their lives and even just their relevancy, there seems to be some frustration with the public’s apparent desire for lower prices on books—especially ebooks. Ebook readers have protested the raising of prices, occasionally and erroneously targeting authors as being “greedy,” when authors have no control over the prices […]

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Ebook Math New York Times style

Ebook Math New York Times style

A recent article in the New York Times takes a swipe at explaining ebook pricing. The analysis breaks down poorly, in my opinion, by ignoring the elephant in the room. That elephant is this: publishers have yet to control their own overhead. If they were to reduce their overhead, by moving out of Manhattan and […]

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Stress and Frustration

Stress and Frustration

It has been one of those weeks. For reasons I cannot share publicly, I’ve been decidedly stressed. Nope, nothing to do with health or writing, save that part of the frustration is that I’ve not been able to get as much writing done as I wanted this week. Certain events and forces beyond my control […]

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How to Stand Out in a Crowd

How to Stand Out in a Crowd

One of the major laments that comes up whenever the discussion about the transition from the traditional publishing model to the new digital publishing model commences, goes like this: “It’s all well and good for you to advocate going direct, but you’re an established author. Of course this will work for you! What about me? […]

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The Word-Cartel

The Word-Cartel

I want to take one more stab at explaining how the publishing business works, primarily because an insight came to me this morning. In the past I’ve pointed out that because publishers had the means of creating product at a reasonable price (economy of scale in printing) and they had the distribution network (that allowed […]

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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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