The Machine

The Machine

It used to be that an author could rise to a position of some cultural influence. I'm not just talking about inspiring future generations through their books. Think of J.K. Rowling and Stephen King for examples of celebrity authors whose public statements carry a lot of water in certain quarters.…
November 24, 201714 Comments
Space Opera vs. Mil-SF

Space Opera vs. Mil-SF

Picking up form yesterday's post about picking the right science fiction niche, Injustice Gamer Alfred Genesson names some successful indie authors who are peeling off readers from underserved or poorly served fandoms: Brian brings up Galaxy's Edge, which is an interesting study as it's by Nick Cole and Jason Anspach,…
October 20, 201711 Comments
Cult of Worlds

Cult of Worlds

Recently on Google+, Nathan Housley pondered whether science fiction authors should stop thinking of science fiction fans as their target audience and focus on making fans of their secondary worlds. Here's Nathan: Between the current trends of science fiction marketing and that games audience link, I'm beginning to think that…
October 19, 201717 Comments
Fanfic to Pro Fic

Fanfic to Pro Fic

Today at 4:00 PM Eastern, join me and author Lucas Flint for the fun and informative season finale of Geek Gab: On the Books! Lucas will be dropping by to share his experiences as a former fanfiction writer who made the jump to professional author. Catch the show live and…
October 18, 2017
Knight on a Mission

Knight on a Mission

Author Justin Knight offers heartfelt thanks to readers of his new science fiction novel Praxis. Thank you for giving an independent author like me, someone totally unknown to any of you, a chance to show you what I can do. For those interested, the paperback version of Praxis will be…
October 17, 20171 Comment
Indies Anonymous

Indies Anonymous

A piece of common book industry wisdom frequently cited by self-publishing proponents such as myself has it that there's an anonymous cadre of indie authors quietly making millions on Amazon. This popular bit of publishing lore happens to be true. It also presents indie authors--and the emerging New Scheme of…
October 16, 20176 Comments
Work for Hire Pros and Cons

Work for Hire Pros and Cons

Over at Walker's Study, Bradford Walker informs authors about the pros and cons of work for hire projects. Here's Bradford: I'm talking about this because, if you are at all serious about paying bills by writing fiction, then you're going to consider taking Work For Hire contracts. That's you as…
October 14, 201711 Comments
The Currentest of Years

The Currentest of Years

Dragon Award loser John Scalzi has come down with writer's block. The cause of the Tor author's affliction? President Donald Trump and the weather: I started Head On in January with the plan to be done in the first half of the year, to leave the rest of the year…
October 3, 201781 Comments
Authors: Control Your IPs

Authors: Control Your IPs

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch hammers home the importance of intellectual property rights and observes how decades of tradpub conditioning has left most authors woefully inept at controlling their IPs. I wrote the following sentence to someone who wanted to take my entire IP in a series for a pittance: I’ve…
September 21, 201716 Comments
Alt or Not?

Alt or Not?

Imagine my surprise to find that the redoubtable Injustice Gamer independently contributed to the ongoing conversation about alternative cultural institutions that others such as JD Cowan and I are wading into. Here's IG's Alfred Genesson: Vox Day put up a post responding to yet another article on building another culture.…
September 15, 201719 Comments