Industry Research

Amazon Publishing: Fiction Flounders in the Slipstream?

05/14/2015

It’s a bombastic clusterfuck out there when it comes to untraditional publishing. Let’s say indie author Edward Bookman wants to finally publish his first fiction novel, A Novel in Fiction. He can do several things, like… Self-publish it on Amazon Kindle Put it on Kindle Scout [...]

This is what Kindle Scout is All About

10/14/2014

Earlier today, I started seeing a massive trend blowing up across blogs and publisher-type websites — Kindle Scout. I had heard rumors about it like the rest of you likely had but didn’t think much of Amazon’s latest press program until I looked into it. As it says, Kindle Scout [...]

TL;DR & Short, Short Fiction

06/27/2014

Too long; didn’t read — a common enough expression on forums and, occasionally, social media. While I’ve always been familiar with the term TL;DR, never have I ever (nor will I ever, hopefully) see it written on the bottom of a short story by a reader in a workshop setting. [...]

10 Ways for Writers to Blog Better [INFOGRAPHIC]

06/13/2014

I’ve read a lot of blogs, I’ve written a lot of posts — I don’t consider myself an expert, though as a reader I do come across a number of author-centric blogs that make my teeth hurt. I’m not necessarily referring to the content, either, but the way the content is [...]

Digital Book Burning & Young e-Readers

05/01/2014

I was too old for bedtime picture books and too young to have kids when the e-storybook became popular. I have spoken on the print vs. digital subject before and shared my thoughts on retention, page skimming, and why adults need to accept e-readers as digital bookshelves. But I never took the [...]

Top Self-Publishing Influencers & Demi-Gods

04/29/2014

Came across a great resource on The Book Designer (self-publishing legend Joel Friedlander’s site). The post is directed more towards self-marketing for indie authors. Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, websites, and one-on-one-ing reviewers, it’s a journey. Luckily, there [...]

Book Bullies & Bad Apples

04/18/2014

Go to Kindle, dig deep for some low-star books, and skim through the comments. What do you find? Hopefully, there are comments from readers who give the indie author meaningful criticism. Often its a jab at a formatting mistake (which is honestly the authors fault, so no harm there). But when I [...]

The Myth of the Mashup Novel

04/17/2014

A piece on Writer’s Digest by Paul Cicchini, the author of Godsmacked, discusses the mashup novel and the potential they have. A mashup is a newer genre that defies genre. There’s the Grahame-Smith Lincoln-Vampire Hunter mix and dozens of others out there (none of which make good [...]

Digital vs. Print: Which Does the Brain Prefer?

04/16/2014

A Washington Post article caught my attention this morning whilst skimming the world of news. The piece investigates a reader, a researcher, and studies pertaining to the act of reading. The article suggests that people may not prefer reading print due to inconvenience, though learning and [...]