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FOMO is the “fear of losing out”. In the era of social media, advertising, and ease of getting information in front of you, it is easy to FEEL that there is too much you have to do to make it in this world and that the publishing world is changing too fast to stay on top of it. With every new idea, advice, even a post like this one, many writers think they are doing something wrong. If they could only spend more time, more money, learn faster they would be more successful. Don’t let FOMO kill your creativity, and -
Recently, someone shared a Substack post titled No One Will Read Your Book (and other truths about publishing) As you can imagine it got a lot of interaction on the discussion board where it was shared. Very successful writers, average writers, and those who barely make a living all chimed in about how hard it is to be a writer. Of course, I couldn’t pass up a chance to wax philosophically, too. I’ve been a published author since 1978 when I wrote a Middle Grade chapter book aimed specifically at children who had difficulty reading. I was part of a -
UPDATE: June 26, 2021 When I wrote this blog back in April I was working on a secret project around this entire NFT option. Specifically, I had been invited to be in the first group of authors to offer a Limited Edition digital NFT Book in a new marketplace that catered to both authors and readers. The first drop of books by fourteen authors happened on June 24th and 25th, 2021. Each author had full control of pricing, what they wanted to offer, how many up to 100, and all copy on the buy page. Most people selected a limited -
The independent publisher has several possibilities. The one you chose depends on your skills, the amount of work you want to do with the process, and the money you wish to spend. Im going to break this into two sections: 1)Narration; and 2) Distribution. In a later post I’ll talk about Marketing. NARRATION You can narrate your own book. If you have an interest in this, I would highly recommend M. L. Buchman’s book Narrate and Record Your Own Audiobook: A simplified guide. It clearly explains the audiobook narration world, the choices among distributors, and the equipment, acumen, and time you -
“Some has stolen my story!” is something I hear frequently from new authors who obsess over whether to submit to literary contests before a book is published. Or they obsess over whether to submit to Netgalley or send ARCs to potential reviewers. If those decisions aren’t enough, they also worry about all the pirate sites that have their book and the money they are losing because of those downloads. Less frequently, but still enough to take notice, are authors who find a book selling better than theirs that looks and feels really close to one they’ve written. Obviously, it must -
Note: I originally wrote this article for my annual changes in publishing post on Romancing the Genres that I’ve written every year for a decade. It published December 5, 2020. I’ve made some changes to that article, particularly in the introductory remarks and some additional comments on how authors and publishers might capitalize on these changes during 2021 and 2022. 2020 is behind us now, but we will feel its impacts for years to come. The question is embrace the future, or will we dig in our heels and try to return to the past–a belief that the past is
