I’m Boycotting Tor Books

I've had misgivings about Peter Grant's boycott of Tor Books. To be sure, I was sympathetic toward the targets of Tor Art Director Irene Gallo's libel against thousands of SF fans and at least three of her own publishing house's writers. But I abstained from boycotting Tor because of the…
August 25, 20152 Comments
Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

This past Saturday in Spokane, the 2015 Hugo Awards were presented to the authors of the finest sci-fi and fantasy tales of the year, based solely on the merits of their work. OK. Sorry. Keyboard-shaking spasms of laughter are making it impossible to keep up the pretense. I'll start again.…
August 24, 2015
Slaying the Amazon Monopoly Zombie Meme

Slaying the Amazon Monopoly Zombie Meme

Author Joe Konrath wants your help in the fight against publishing industry zombie memes--misinformation that keeps rearing its ugly head no matter how many times you bash it with a crowbar. First on Joe and his brother in arms Barry Eisler's hit list: the "Amazon is a monopoly" zombie meme.…
August 21, 2015
How to Make Your Self-Published Novel Reader-Friendly

How to Make Your Self-Published Novel Reader-Friendly

The twin revolutions in digital book distribution and self-publishing have forever changed how we obtain, market, read, and produce books of all kinds. Today I'm going to explain a bit about the production end, focusing on novels. Technology, largely driven by Amazon, has overthrown the old publishing model that had…
August 17, 2015

Do Self-Published Authors Bear a Stigma?

I came across this article by indie author Liz Long wherein she laments the stigma attached to self-published writers. My local media (newspaper, TV, radio) won’t review my books because they don’t have a Big 5 publisher name attached. My own alma mater, Longwood University, told me they won’t feature…
August 14, 2015
Amazon Obviates the Gatekeepers

Amazon Obviates the Gatekeepers

At this point, the second biggest reason (after Stockholm syndrome) that authors shun Amazon in favor of legacy publishing is a lack of information. Two recent articles at Mad Genius Club have helped inform authors about the risks and rewards of tradpub vs. indie; thus helping them make better decisions.…
August 13, 2015

More Reasons to Choose Amazon over Traditional Publishing

As if Amazon's better potential for earnings and freedom from draconian contract clauses weren't enough to make authors flee traditional publishing, the disintermediation of gatekeepers should tip the scales in favor of going independent. The power of editors and marketing departments to decide what gets published--and therefore what audiences get to read--has…
August 10, 2015
Nethereal Cover

Nethereal Cover

Because God has sent me a cover artist far better than I deserve, it humbles me to announce that this is the cover for my upcoming SF/horror novel Nethereal: Thanks, Marcelo! Special thanks are also due to my learned and gracious editor, L. Jagi Lamplighter-Wright for helping with the back…
May 18, 2015

Brand vs. Platform

Legacy publishers now consider an author's platform to be the single most important criterion for deciding whether or not to offer a book contract. "Platform" is of course one of those nebulous terms that's mostly used to inflate the speaker's perceived importance, like "statistically significant" or "equality". Jane Friedman at…
March 27, 20153 Comments