One hears a multitude of statistics year to year regarding the health of book sales in every format, and much is said, including the now famous remark by the CEO of Hachette Books, Arnaud Noury, that e-books are a “stupid product”. There are indications of some movement away from the digital format by a … Continue reading The Land of the Paperback
traditional publishing
A Review of Publishing Today
With a title this assumptive, I hasten to acknowledge I possess no lofty credentials or superior access to data upon which to base the ideas which follow. I am not a queen bee, I am a drone. But even the drone bee is cognizant of change in the quality of the honey over a period … Continue reading A Review of Publishing Today
Crunching The Numbers
As the old year wanes, the time has come to evaluate my book sales and learn from the data, hopefully to improve sales in 2017. Many charts and graphs are available to authors through the auspices of various retailers and distributors. In part, because these businesses must keep the data for their own purposes, in … Continue reading Crunching The Numbers
Can You Maintain Your Identity As A Writer?
It's all right there––in your head. Your dream project, your book. You know what you will say in it, you know what it will look like. You begin to write, it grows page by page, chapter by chapter. One day it is finished. Soon you will find a way to publish it. But ask yourself: … Continue reading Can You Maintain Your Identity As A Writer?
The Sky Is Falling
Several respected bloggers have begun to back away from self publishing books. They have crunched numbers, which most recently suggest an increase in the percentage of traditionally published books along with a decrease in self published Ebooks this past year. There is a rise in hybrid publishers (authors who do both) and an increase in … Continue reading The Sky Is Falling
Are You Reading The Author You Expected?
It came to me after reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code first, his preceding novel Angels and Demons second––this awareness of author growth. I found both books enormously entertaining, yet the greater sophistication of the former in contrast to the latter was clear. I suppose I had not previously thought in terms of author … Continue reading Are You Reading The Author You Expected?
But What About Us Readers?
Graffiti on a junior school bathroom wall: "I love grils" "You mean, you love girls" "But what about us grils?" Messages like this one make teaching worthwhile. Most people will admit the demise of physical books was exaggerated. It appears eBooks and traditional books can live side by side after all. Now some are predicting, … Continue reading But What About Us Readers?
My Five Goals for a Conference
Two days after the convention is the minimum time I need to evaluate the experience, to let it soak in. There is an overload of information that needs to settle, like rainwater on dry soil, to begin the growth process. I need the time to separate my emotional high from the true value gained, the grain … Continue reading My Five Goals for a Conference
What A Publisher Wants
I recently received an inquiry from a publisher asking that I write a proposal for a book they’d like me to write. This publisher deals in strictly formatted, non fiction books. There is not a lot of opportunity for creativity, nor is there a pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. … Continue reading What A Publisher Wants
The Automobile And The Horse
I was intrigued by Penny Sansevieri’s latest bulletin post in which she suggests that The Emperor (read New York Publishers) Has No Clothes (still don’t realize that their existence is in jeopardy). And as she goes on to surmise; perhaps they won't go away altogether. To draw an analogy, when the automobile arrived, the horse … Continue reading The Automobile And The Horse
R Lawson Gamble 