• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    The New World of Publishing: Can’t Get Books Into Bookstore Myth

    It Has Officially Hit Myth Status When some of the biggest supporters of indie publishing and indie writers start going on about how they are giving up paper books to New York, I finally just shook my head and assigned all the silliness to myth status. So, since I have the book Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing now out in both paper and electronic and available, I suppose it’s time I start into the next book: Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. And Sacred Cow (myth) #1 is that indie writers, with their own press, CAN’T GET THEIR BOOKS INTO BOOKSTORES. A complete myth.…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    The New World of Publishing: Reversion Clauses Again

    When and how do you get your book back when you sign a traditional publishing contract? That simple question will be the one aspect of your contract that in twenty years you will still be swearing about, long after the validation of being published by a “big publisher” has faded. I am NOT going to go into specific language of reversion clauses. That is the clause (or clauses) in your publishing contract that tells you when you get your book back. Every clause is different from contract to contract and from publisher to publisher.  You need an IP attorney (not an agent) to tell you what each clause means from…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    The New World of Publishing: The Assumption of Agents

    After that head-shaking article by Don Maass, and the funny response by Joe and Barry, I decided it was time to update a post I did about a year ago in this series.  So here it is… Among all new writers these days, the myth is strong that they need an agent and that agents are just here and a part of the new book world. It seems to radiate through every word I hear from writers lost in the myths of starting up as fiction writers. It’s like you bought a house and someone is living in the basement and you believe without ever a question that you must…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Writing in Public: Month 6 and Half Year Summary

    Month #6 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. January 2014 Made it through Month #6. Actually, I think you could safely say I limped through Month #6 and got to the end of it. I also had ten zero-word days, most because of travel. So only 21 days of writing and most of that was limping due to a ton of other stuff and getting my sleep schedule badly out of whack. Of the six months of this challenge, January was the worst month in the fiction writing. After a bad December and a bad November. I’m just distracted and having far too much fun and learning on other things.…