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The Magician stands on stage and invites a volunteer from the audience to lend him something. Not a piece of jewelry, or a dollar bill, but a book. The volunteer—an author—hands him a copy of his latest tome. The Magician places it on a stand and waves a hand at it. “Behold, a book.” He […]

Phoenix Comicon was, as always, a wonderful and classy experience. Matt Solberg and his organization run a fantastic show which has grown like topsy. Each year more and more people show up, and each year I do better and better selling books and other items from my table. I gave my 21 Days to a […]

I spend a lot of time writing and talking about electronic publishing. One of the issues that comes up from both writers and readers is this: With everyone publishing out there, how do I know what is good? (The author version of that question is, “With everyone publishing out there, how can I make my […]

My last post painted a gloom-and-doom scenario for the publishing industry. I wasn’t trying to be hyperbolic. I believe everything I wrote, and I wrote it in the vain hope that some folks in traditional publishing might read the warning and act to negate my vision of the future. Like most folks, I love books […]

Publishing is dying—publishing as we know it anyway. In the past couple of days I’ve tried to show how dysfunctional traditional publishing is with its accounting practices. Traditional publishing has always lagged behind the technology curve, and as the rate of technological change accelerates, there’s little or no chance of traditional publishers ever getting caught […]

It’s no secret that I have been a strong proponent of ebooks. I’ve encouraged every author I know to convert their backlists into ebooks to be sold via their own websites, via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and any other site that makes a reasonable offer. In one post here, I even lined-out the Nine […]

Yesterday I mentioned two things in my discussion of royalty statements that I wanted to talk a bit more about today. One was returns: Returns are a crucial part of the current book publishing model; and are one of the reasons it’s collapsing in on itself. Back during the Great Depression, book publishers started making […]