Saturday 1 October 2011
Friday 26 August 2011
It's always fascinating to catch up on Joe Konrath's blog...
Who Wants Whom? - A Dialog Between J.A. Konrath & Blake Crouch About Who Has the Power in Publishing
Click here for his latest 'in-the-future ideas'
I'm taking this opportunity to thank all the readers who have taken my Kindle novel, 'White Lies and Custard Creams' to further up the rankings than I ever imagined possible - you're all wonderful and I think you're fab!!!
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #78 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Contemporary
- #4 in Books > Humour > Fiction
- #4 in Books > Fiction > Romance > Adult & Contemporary
Tuesday 9 August 2011
How to Keep an Open Mind by David Gaughran
Always a good idea, of course, but a good reminder in these particular circumstances... see link below.
This article starts:
"The publishing industry is changing at the speed of light. The massive disruption caused by the killer combination of e-books, the internet, the Kindle, and open distribution systems like Amazon have changed the business forever.
Disruption on this scale is never pretty. Businesses will go under. People will lose their jobs. Many writers will struggle to adapt to change. Others will find opportunities and thrive.
To ensure you are in the latter group, you must continually challenge your assumptions."
This article starts:
"The publishing industry is changing at the speed of light. The massive disruption caused by the killer combination of e-books, the internet, the Kindle, and open distribution systems like Amazon have changed the business forever.
Disruption on this scale is never pretty. Businesses will go under. People will lose their jobs. Many writers will struggle to adapt to change. Others will find opportunities and thrive.
To ensure you are in the latter group, you must continually challenge your assumptions."
Saturday 6 August 2011
The Myth of Self-Publishing by Adrian Zackheim
Just a couple of comments I want to make about this article (link below):
"self-publishing is not an easy road" - well - neither is trad publishing - all that waiting as your life speeds by - all those printed off mss and enormous postage costs to those who don't give a monkey's about the trees - all those requests for more of your work only to receive NO ANSWER AT ALL, EVER - (how rude can you be?) - all the publicity you're expected to do - the library appearances, shop appearances, embarrassing signings in book shops, on and on - that's not easy either. Is it?
"it’s more valuable than ever to have experts curate the works that are really worthy of a reader’s attention" - and yet, mistakes are still found in every publication - not just typos, but awful things like the same words 17 times in a three-line para. I agree that some books are thrown up rather too quickly before enough scrutiny has taken place - but I also find that reading the first page from a FREE sample will pretty soon decide the reader whether or not they want to work through such a work - much better that than buying the book only to find out afterwards that the prose is full of cliche etc.
I don't understand why it's always either/or anyway. Sometimes I read from my Kindle; sometimes I read from a book. I'm not going to despise either because I have the other. What a peculiar idea. Why does that idea have to reach out to self-pub and trad pub - they must both still have a place. Mustn't they?
I have known many authors who fell ".........for the myth of.........." trad publishing who ended up "...........relegated to the periphery of the book world." Their books didn't make money and then fell out print. They are now getting a new lease of life thanks to the epub revolution Yay!
"self-publishing is not an easy road" - well - neither is trad publishing - all that waiting as your life speeds by - all those printed off mss and enormous postage costs to those who don't give a monkey's about the trees - all those requests for more of your work only to receive NO ANSWER AT ALL, EVER - (how rude can you be?) - all the publicity you're expected to do - the library appearances, shop appearances, embarrassing signings in book shops, on and on - that's not easy either. Is it?
"it’s more valuable than ever to have experts curate the works that are really worthy of a reader’s attention" - and yet, mistakes are still found in every publication - not just typos, but awful things like the same words 17 times in a three-line para. I agree that some books are thrown up rather too quickly before enough scrutiny has taken place - but I also find that reading the first page from a FREE sample will pretty soon decide the reader whether or not they want to work through such a work - much better that than buying the book only to find out afterwards that the prose is full of cliche etc.
I don't understand why it's always either/or anyway. Sometimes I read from my Kindle; sometimes I read from a book. I'm not going to despise either because I have the other. What a peculiar idea. Why does that idea have to reach out to self-pub and trad pub - they must both still have a place. Mustn't they?
I have known many authors who fell ".........for the myth of.........." trad publishing who ended up "...........relegated to the periphery of the book world." Their books didn't make money and then fell out print. They are now getting a new lease of life thanks to the epub revolution Yay!
A Newbie's Guide to Publishing - Same Tired Arguments - by Joe Konrath
To start off - here is a Joe Konrath blog post (link below) that covers a lot of the issues people bring up time after time. Be sure to read the comments as they cover a lot of illuminating detail. If you've not read Joe's posts before, you're in for a treat - he definitely has a.. uh... lively way with words. Fab!
A Newbie's Guide to Publishing
He'd always had a way with words...
A Newbie's Guide to Publishing
He'd always had a way with words...
Resurrection of blog...
I can't believe how long ago I started this blog - and then stopped this blog - anyway, I'm resurrecting it and changing its direction slightly.
I'm finding the whole epub revolution that's happening all around us absolutely fascinating. Of course, I also have a personal interest as I've recently published my first Kindle novel, 'White Lies & Custard Creams' (romantic comedy with a dash of mystery) on Amazon and Smashwords and obviously want its career path to be steeply successful.
It's for sale here on Amazon UK for 97p and here on Amazon.com for $1.59.
I'm finding the whole epub revolution that's happening all around us absolutely fascinating. Of course, I also have a personal interest as I've recently published my first Kindle novel, 'White Lies & Custard Creams' (romantic comedy with a dash of mystery) on Amazon and Smashwords and obviously want its career path to be steeply successful.
It's for sale here on Amazon UK for 97p and here on Amazon.com for $1.59.
Saturday 8 November 2008
Dead Cold by Louise Penny - 'good' people and the Christmas season - an appreciation
Louise Penny in ‘Dead Cold’ has written about two things that have particularly grabbed me. (She has, of course, written about more than two things in the book…) This is the first of her books I’ve read, but definitely is not the last. It’s a pity I picked this one up first and not the one before, but I shall now seek out that one to read as well – and I can tell you that’s unusual for me – if I find I’ve read say, number two in a series, I seldom bother to read number one. In fact, I’ve never understood these series where they go back in time to BEFORE the novels already written – this seems to happen quite often with fantasy. But I digress…
The first thing is how LP writes ‘good’ people – they are such incredibly good people – and now I want to meet them. For example, Clara Morrow and Armand Gamache are now people I know I would enjoy meeting. The important thing, though, is that they are written in such a way that I do want to meet them rather than throttle them.
So often ‘good’ people are written in such a way that they are the last people you’d want to meet because you know you’ll just slap them or sulk or something. But LP’s good people are amazingly appealing.
The other thing is the way she writes about the snow and the environment and the Christmas season. She’s given me back the magic of it. Like Clara and the village in the window is an image she has in her mind of the way she wanted things to be, the image of the season that Louise Penny has written is the image of what I want the season to be – and it hasn’t, for so long. It’s about families and real goodwill and cheer and warmth and wassail and all that. Wassail as in celebrate noisily, not just the punch…
This is a lovely book with some lovely people in it and I've enjoyed painting Christmas scenes whilst this book has been on the go. I've got out my Christmas music CDs now, thanks to this book, so they'll keep being played until January now. That's fine by me!
Do leave a comment on here - below - Or email me, Susan Alison, by clicking on this...
The first thing is how LP writes ‘good’ people – they are such incredibly good people – and now I want to meet them. For example, Clara Morrow and Armand Gamache are now people I know I would enjoy meeting. The important thing, though, is that they are written in such a way that I do want to meet them rather than throttle them.
So often ‘good’ people are written in such a way that they are the last people you’d want to meet because you know you’ll just slap them or sulk or something. But LP’s good people are amazingly appealing.
The other thing is the way she writes about the snow and the environment and the Christmas season. She’s given me back the magic of it. Like Clara and the village in the window is an image she has in her mind of the way she wanted things to be, the image of the season that Louise Penny has written is the image of what I want the season to be – and it hasn’t, for so long. It’s about families and real goodwill and cheer and warmth and wassail and all that. Wassail as in celebrate noisily, not just the punch…
This is a lovely book with some lovely people in it and I've enjoyed painting Christmas scenes whilst this book has been on the go. I've got out my Christmas music CDs now, thanks to this book, so they'll keep being played until January now. That's fine by me!
Do leave a comment on here - below - Or email me, Susan Alison, by clicking on this...
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