i am a robot.

pleasure having you, todd.

i love your book.

ok i’m not a robot, but i wish i was. but i don’t write scifi or fantasy.

lovelenox.

Eck, you are probably right. But, my altar ego was lucky enough to get some visibility and sell a few thousand e-copies on Amazon last month. While that didn’t quite pay the mortgage for $.99 each, there are small windows of opportunity in which we can really break out. There are a few indie success [...]

Thanks so much for reading and responding. I don’t view other writers–good or bad–as a threat, it’s just a different mindset for me. I started conceptualizing this post a week or so before Christmas as I saw so many ads for e-readers. Then Santa got my mom a Kindle, and she’s about as technologically adept [...]

yeah — there’s no possible way on earth even if i did own the software to lay out my cover that i could do it. i can’t match my own socks. i can be a publisher, marketer, slave, whore, and writer, but not a designer. i dropped the entire design process in the hands of [...]

“if they don’t, the authors should be negotiating to get those rights back.”

And therein lies the reason why I publish myself, because the very prospect of my work sitting somewhere under a contract and not having the opportunity to be read is unconscionable.

Brian, thanks. And yes, I’m watching Augusts’ novella… Hey look, as long as the work is good, it should be read, in an ideal world. Unfortunately, as I learned today in a heated discussion with an “independent” publisher on Twitter, to some writers, submitting their work to agencies and publishers is the so-called Grail of [...]

I think I’m talking about any written material that is created by the author for purposes of entertainment which does not necessarily fit in to the traditional formula for a mainstream published novel. Your points about managing audience interest are absolutely valid. I’ve tried to serialize my novel on my blog posting one chapter a [...]

Your anecdote may not have related directly here, but it’s a direction we haven’t explored here since my poorly-communicated message in the post didn’t lend itself to the discussion I had hoped…

It’s not that it makes it hard literally for creators of the work that is being enjoyed by the spectator or reader. I am speaking specifically about traditional-length novels and that athe writer may — just MAY — be able to extend that gratification of releasing her work by not holding out for a year [...]

So glad to hear from you, Mark! You’re such a cheerleader. I had an amazing email the other day from a dude who read my first book and was really spellbound by my story. So yeah, it’s one dude, but it was profound and yes, that was awesome. I see my peers who pour so [...]

Ok, I learned that I really didn’t do a good enough job of getting my point across, underscored in a nasty comment on my own blog where I cross-posted this. The speed doesn’t matter. That was just a poor analogy. My point is that because of the emergence of e-readers, it should enable authors to [...]

I read the title of your post dyslexically at first: Publishers Are Not As Think As People Are Dumb.

Not a coincidence that I continually wonder–now more than ever–why writers are still so desperate for attention by publishers. Apparently most haven’t yet gotten the memo.

lovelenox.

Ew, let’s not start judging the quality of e-books by the prices that DIY authors choose to sell them for. Authors shouldn’t have to struggle anymore. Clearly the curtains have been peeled back and we now see how the publishing industry makes the sausages. Authors should now be aware that making a living as a [...]

a-HA! You all pretty much know me, and I’m hardly an introvert. But those message boards are the next worst thing to Authonomy, in my opinion, and I just can’t stand the contrived beauty contest there for no other reason than its clubbiness. I love the internetz for marketing my work because of the potential [...]

It’s all a beauty contest, and sometimes the loudest dress wins, not the prettiest girl, or the smartest or highest achieving. You’re exactly right about the stats and using them to measure our own efforts. However, what is more meaningful to me as an independent writer are the comments I receive from peers and writers–the [...]

Thanks, Marc, this is much-needed analysis of one the best tools out there for DIY authors. While on the surface I would welcome more analytics and insight, I deliberately haven’t checked my stats since I uploaded selected chapters of one of my works. What’s it going to do for me? How is it going to [...]

Mike, Eddie, Sarah, you guys have made me piss my pants laughing. You’re all awesome.

On to bigger and better things now….

lenox