Features | Self-Publishing Review

Don’t Fear The Pirates

Damien Walter, blogging for The Guardian, explains why piracy not only need not be a concern for independent authors, it may be just what they need.

Genre writers exist, by and large, in the publishing mid-list, where mediocre sales might seem most easily eroded by the spectre of illegitimate downloads. SF, fantasy and horror are also the literature of choice for the culture of geeks most likely to share their favourite authors’ works on torrent sites.

This is not as much a problem as an opportunity, Walter explains:

Novelist, blogger and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow

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Avery Hurt2020-02-21T06:44:54+02:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: Features|Tags: Copyright for Authors|

Photojournalists have an old saying: “f/8 and be there.” I have a very limited knowledge of photography, but as I understand it, this means that if you want to get a good photo, you set your f-stop (the aperture setting on your camera lens) to f/8 to make sure that most of what you’re shooting is in focus. At that point, your task is to make sure you are in place to get the shot when something happens. You won’t get a good shot of the mayor flipping off the city council or the cute kid shaking the president’s hand […]

Avery Hurt2013-04-03T09:30:54+02:00April 1st, 2013|Categories: Features|

Watch A Pro At Work

Here’s an opportunity to get a glimpse of a pro editor at work. This blog post from The New Yorker, in 2007, shows the development of Raymond Carver’s classic story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” in the hands of his editor, Gordon Lish.

The following document compares the original draft of “Beginners” with the final version of the story, retitled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” edited by Gordon Lish, and published in a collection of the same name by Alfred A. Knopf. Additions to Carver’s draft appear in bold; a

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Avery Hurt2013-04-01T10:49:38+02:00April 1st, 2013|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

Guy Kawasaki On Artisanal Publishing

I recently read Guy Kawasaki’s book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish Your Book, and it was full of extremely useful, practical information. It was also funny, engaging, and inspiring. A couple of months ago, Kathy Caprino talked with Kawasaki for Forbes.com.

Caprino writes:

And if you’re considering self-publishing a book, make the first resource you read Guy’s new book APE: Author- Publisher – Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book co-written by Shawn Welch. I don’t recommend resources lightly, but as one who worked in traditional publishing for years and had my own book Breakdown, Breakthrough

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Avery Hurt2013-03-28T09:19:55+02:00March 28th, 2013|Categories: Features|

Working With An Agent

A recent guest post, by Melissa Foster, on Jane Friedman’s blog offered some interesting insights on agent-assisted self-publishing and Amazon’s White Glove Program:

With independent author success on the rise, the role of agents has taken a precarious turn for the unknown. Many agents are seeing fewer sales and lower advances (which equates to lower income), and are looking for ways to keep their heads above water. One path that some have taken is agent-assisted self-publishing.”Read more.

Agent-assisted means different things to different agents. Some agents help an author self-publish, literally. This means they format

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Avery Hurt2013-03-26T11:53:52+02:00March 26th, 2013|Categories: Features|

Hugh Howey’s Advice for Writers

A nice piece in Wired about the changes in publishing, which starts with Hugh Howey’s story:

While working in a bookstore in Boone, North Carolina, back in 2011, a 36-year-old college dropout named Hugh Howey started writing a series of sci-fi novellas called Wool. His stories were set in a postapocalyptic world where all human survivors live in an underground silo, a microsociety where resources are so scarce that one person has to die before another can be born. Howey had already published a book with a small press, but he wanted to retain creative control, and

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Henry Baum2014-02-12T13:31:16+02:00March 20th, 2013|Categories: Features|Tags: Articles about Hugh Howey|

Socially Awkward – Why Your Online Friends Don’t Buy Your Book

I have, apparently, 539 friends. Facebook tells me so.

I have a fan page for my book, with over 1000 likes. My Twitter is a healthy 600 odd and I have over 50 mentions on Google for the title. But you see, I know that not everyone rushed over to Amazon and picked up their copy the day it went on sale. I know this because I sold 23 copies on the first day. That was it.

So how the heck do I get every single one of those people to buy a copy of my book? Glibly “liking” my […]

Cate Baum2014-01-30T18:08:41+02:00March 19th, 2013|Categories: Features|

Shelf Support: Favorite Books on Writing

Someone recently asked me for a list of my favorite books on writing. I came up with a few and thought I’d share them here. This is a very idiosyncratic list—just a few I like and an attempt to tell you why I like them. These are not listed in any special order other than the order in which I pulled them off my shelf.

The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life Priscilla Long

I like this one for several reasons, but top of the list is that it addresses all types of writing: […]

Avery Hurt2017-03-24T09:34:49+02:00March 7th, 2013|Categories: Features|