Amazing Spider-Man #666

What Really Killed Comics

Everybody has a theory of how the American comic book industry died. "It was the early 90s investor boom," some say. "The glut of variant covers and similar sales gimmicks created a bubble, and when it burst it took out the direct market." Others lay the blame on publishers driving…
September 23, 201940 Comments
Death of the Publisher

Death of the Publisher

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the publishing industry. Staying abreast of developments in your field comes with the territory when you're a professional author. I started out like most aspiring writers thinking I had…
September 16, 201911 Comments
B&N: Rising from the Ashes?

B&N: Rising from the Ashes?

In a surprise twist I certainly didn't see coming, Barnes and Noble's new owners may have taken the only action that might just save the teetering brick and mortar bookseller chain from oblivion. In 2018, it seemed like the days of the United States’ last major bookstore chain were numbered.…
September 6, 201919 Comments
Serious Internet Business

Serious Internet Business

The curious intersection of the publishing business and the Internet has forced authors to moonlight as social media mavens. This is true regardless of whether you self-publish and predates oldpub's collapse. Since every author is now a serious internet businessman, how to build a social media following has joined nuts…
August 21, 201913 Comments
Witch Test Still Inerrant

Witch Test Still Inerrant

Meanwhile, on Twitter ... Once you understand the heretical creed of the Death Cult and learn to recognize their ritual cant and other verbal tics, knowing when to apply the Witch Test is easy. The strictures of their code do the rest. As members of an anti-Christian secular religion, death cultists…
August 16, 201939 Comments
Tosca Lee’s Judas

Tosca Lee’s Judas

In case any Christian authors are still seeking oldpub book deals, this account fro best selling Christian author Tosca Lee should disabuse you of that ambition. Based on the reviewer's comment, I'd imagine the book he refused to review was Lee's Iscariot, a novel about the apostle who betrayed Christ.…
August 8, 201920 Comments
Selling an Image

Selling an Image

I've been asked to compile this Twitter thread, which turned quite a few heads. The topic is newpub marketing, which tends to be popular with my blog readers, so I've reproduced it here. Most folks in newpub unconsciously stumble out of the gate by calling themselves indie *authors*. I know…
July 17, 20197 Comments
How to Twitter

How to Twitter

Embarrassing admission time: I have a chronic case of boomer tech when it comes to social media. Longtime readers know I relentlessly advocate for elevating publishing out of the oldpub tar pits and into the newpub promised land. I'm the first to ditch obsolete publishing bromides and embrace newly emergent…
July 1, 20196 Comments
The Fault in Amazon’s Stars

The Fault in Amazon’s Stars

If, like me, you thought books' star ratings on KDP were pure mathematical averages of review scores, Amazon is here to correct that assumption. You can find this message by going to a book's Amazon page, clicking on the number of reviews, shown next to its star rating, and hovering…
June 5, 20192 Comments
Editors Defined

Editors Defined

Since I've received a lot of questions lately about editing and what editors do, now seems like a good time to repost this handy guide. Publishing is an old industry that's assembled its own internal lexicon. As you'll find with any trade, publishing jargon can be difficult for laymen--and even…
June 4, 201914 Comments