Tag: publishing

Why Books Are More Than Books: The Power of Intellectual Property

A valued patron recently pointed me toward a video by a YouTuber called the Nerdy Novelist. He's been in the newpub scene for the better part of a decade now and frequently rubs elbows with some of the bigger players. According to him, the advent of A.I. is forcing authors…

December 19, 20241 Comment

Jack Conte and Neopatronage: A New Creative Economy

Unless you've been living in a cave on Mars, you're aware that the entertainment industry is in flux. Disruptive tech innovations, corporate screwups, and the path of least resistance becoming a slippery slope have destroyed the old paradigm. Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon, addressed this upheaval in his keynote speech…

December 18, 20242 Comments

A.I. Books: The Death of the Author?

There's been a marked uptick in nervous chatter within the publishing world over A.I. books. Some say they'll upend the whole industry, while others once again predict the death of the author. Hat tip to author JD Cowan for pointing me to this piece in The Bookseller about an upstart…

December 2, 20244 Comments

Larry Correia on the A.I. Enthusiasm Deficit

In case you missed it, speculation about the effects of A.I. on the publishing industry are bubbling up again. For instance: Over on X yesterday, a bunch of authors struck up a conversation about A.I. that included this item: That tweet caught the attention of best selling author Larry Correia,…

November 26, 202411 Comments

How the Fourth Turning Explains the Mainstream Entertainment Collapse

In the past few years, the mainstream entertainment industry has been gripped by an epidemic of costly flops. These failures have spread across video games, movies, comic books, and more. Titles expected to be blockbuster hits—like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Skull and Bones, and Suicide Squad: Kill…

November 13, 202411 Comments

Are Kids Really Reading Less, or Are We Just Measuring Wrong?

Hot on the heels of sensationalist fake news claiming that men hate reading, a recent piece in the Guardian breathlessly reports that reading is about as popular with children as spinach and homework. But are kids really reading less, or are they just measuring wrong? Like the "Men hate reading"…

November 8, 202410 Comments

Why Materialism Holds Back the Right’s Next Great Storytellers

Over on X, Isaac Young posted an insightful thread in which he sought to answer why the new counterculture has not yet produced a successor to J.R.R Tokien or Gene Wolfe. It's definitely worth a read. Young touches on something profound in his critique of how modern storytelling, particularly on…

November 6, 20244 Comments

No, Men Do Not Hate Reading

Spend enough time online, and you'll notice the phenomenon of recurring zombie memes that pop up from time to time. The claim that men hate reading books has been making the rounds again, leading to fretting, and in some quarters, feting, about the book insdustry's alienation of male readers. Figures…

October 29, 20247 Comments

To Build Your Audience, Differentiate Your Brand

Everybody knows that the book market is saturated. That means a major challenge facing authors is standing out from the crowd. In an environment where readers are spoiled for choice, building a long-term audience requires differentiating your brand. Let's examine why differentiation matters and how to make it work for…

October 10, 2024No Comments

What Authors Can Learn from McDonald’s

When you're trying to make a name for yourself as an author, it's tempting to aim for creating a single masterpiece that will set you apart from everyone else. But from a marketing standpoint, the better long-term strategy might be to focus on producing consistently good work. One of the…

October 9, 20243 Comments