For Readers (and Authors, too)
This blog is for anyone that reads my books, as well as for anyone else who is self-publishing, thinking about self-publishing, or just curious about what it’s like to be an author during rapidly changing times. Whenever you visit here, I hope you’ll share your own comments and thoughts. If you’d like to know whenever I post a new entry, please type your email address into the box in the right-hand column and check the appropriate box (and the newsletter one, too, while you’re at it).
A Writer’s Journal: Managing Complicated Plot Developments
When you’re really on your writing game, the words flow effortlessly from your mind’s eye to your fingers. But at other times, and especially if you’re working in a plot-driven genre, presenting the next developments in your narrative may be laborious and exacting. That may include puzzling out how to help the reader thread her way through the thicket of details that you’ve concocted while also keeping the reader’s interest and maintaining pace. Unless you’re unusually good at juggling lots of writing demands at once, that’s a process that’s not likely to come so effortlessly. So how to you get through that thicket yourself? read more…
A Writer’s Journal: Linear vs. Scene Writing
Most fiction authors, I expect, start in the beginning of the story and write their way straight through the plot until they reach the conclusion, and certainly that seems to be the most logical way to go about the enterprise. But what if that just isn’t working for you? read more…
Amazon or Hachette: Which Would George Washington Choose?
Unless you’ve been taking a holiday from the news for the past month, you are already aware that Amazon is in the midst of a very nasty negotiation with Hatchette, one of the “Big Five” U.S. publishers. Together, as a result of a decades-long series of acquisitions, these five companies have consolidated virtually all of the most-revered, but now conglomerate-owned, publishing houses in the U.S. Given the degree of respect that books still command, the dispute has attracted far more public commentary than commercial disputes in such a narrow market usually attract. read more…
New Reviews (and Thanks!)
I’d like to share some recent reviews, say thanks to those that wrote them, and also share with other authors the observation that if you aren’t active at Goodreads yet, you might wish to give it a try. It can be a great way to get to know other avid readers, many of whom are kind enough to share their opinion of your book when they’ve finished it (most will also copy and paste their reviews over to Amazon as well). You can find more about how Goodreads can help you here. read more…
Comparison Guide of Self-publishers Released by ALLi
If you’ve been following the Step by Step Guide to Self Publishing series I’ve been running (it begins here), you’ll have learned that choosing a self-publishing mode and service provider can be not only very confusing and time consuming, but also that your hard-won knowledge can have a distressingly short shelf life, due to how quickly the self-publishing landscape can change. Hopefully, that job just got a bit easier – at least for a while. read more…
Self-Publishing: a Step by Step Guide – Ch. 4: Understanding POD Business Models (Part I)
Read the first installment of this series here
Last time around I identified the different types of Print on Demand (POD) publishers that are active in the market today and provided tips on how to decide which type would best meet your needs. Before we go on to talk about how to select a specific publisher, it’s worth pausing to look more deeply into what each type of POD publisher actually does, and how it makes its money. read more…
Book Review: 1177 B.C. (Eric H. Cline): Not What You’d Expect
This is perhaps the most disappointing book I’ve read in the past five years. Moreover, I say that based not only on my original assumption about what the author was setting out to achieve, but also on my adjusted assumption, after reading a few chapters. The charitable conclusion is that this a book by an academic who has tried – unsuccessfully (in my view) to write for a mass audience. read more…
New Reviews of The Alexandria Project (thanks!)
I’m grateful for the following recent reviews (you can find all of the Amazon reviews here)
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing cyber tech & international thriller – great read!, May 6, 2014
Book Review: Johnny Nothing (Ian Probert)
What is Johnny Nothing? Well,it’s a book that any child would love reading. It’s also a tale that any child not yet old enough to read would love to have their Mum or Dad read to them. And finally, it’s a book that Mum or Dad will certainly finish reading secretly on their own, for their own delight long before it’s bedtime rendition is complete.
What is Johnny Nothing about? One way of answering that would be to ask how the Harry Potter plot might have played out if Hagrid had never arrived to liberate him. Like Harry, Johnny has Thoroughly Beastly Parents (or, as Probert might go on to qualify that description, I mean really and truly, THOROUGHLY, BEASTLY PARENTS!) read more…
How to Self-Publish, Ch. 3: Selecting a Print on Demand Publisher
Read the first installment of this series here
Like just about every other step in self-publishing a book, researching and selecting a print on demand (POD) publisher can be a time-consuming and even bewildering experience. The problem arises not from a lack of choices, but just the opposite. Today, there are scores (if not hundreds) of publishers to choose from, with significant differences among them in business model, cost, speed, quality and reputation. The challenge is therefore to figure out which one is just right you. read more…
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