Category: Publishing

Weekly Serial Release

Set in the Year of our Lord 1337 war gripped Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor sent the Teutonic Knights to conquer Lithuania and Russia. England and France opened their Hundred Years War. Ottoman Turks stalked the moribund Byzantine Empire.

The second son of the Willard of Willardhof in Saxony received a new name and a quest, neither of which he particularly wanted.

In addition to helping one of my favorite authors proofread her final manuscript, I’m also assisting my favorite uncle to self-publish serially, two chapters per week, an award winning ebook he wrote. This past Wednesday I published the twentieth chapter of The Dragon and the Dove, which officially marks the halfway point of the book.

In addition to being an author, my uncle is also an accomplished artist and painted the cover art for The Dragon and the Dove, to which I added the book title and author name.

Cover art for The Dragon and the Dove, written and painted by the author, Ron Andrea

Set in the Year of our Lord 1337 war gripped Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor sent the Teutonic Knights to conquer Lithuania and Russia. England and France opened their Hundred Years War. Ottoman Turks stalked the moribund Byzantine Empire.

The second son of the Willard of Willardhof in Saxony received a new name and a quest, neither of which he particularly wanted.

Return each Wednesday for the next two chapters in The Dragon and the Dove. Only ten more weeks of suspense left.

Start reading Chapter One today.

How an independent bookstore took on anti-feminist trolls and won | Books | The Guardian

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/27/how-an-independent-bookstore-took-on-anti-feminist-trolls-and-won

Great article to read first thing in the morning.  Solidarity in the feminist trenches with wit and humor. 

 It this statement by the author under attack which rang especially true for me:

Speaking of the difficulties feminists face when trying to get their message across, Ford said: “It’s tedious and exhausting to deal with a daily onslaught of abuse and paranoia from angry men and their terrified cohorts. It’s impossible to have logical conversations with them because they don’t care about facts, only about how they feel about those facts.”

Podcast Pickup

The stars have aligned recently in my personal universe allowing me to enjoy audio podcasts once again.  Years ago, I used to listen to them via my laptop, a web site or perhaps my Palm Pilot (yeah, remember those)?  I never owned an iPod but my children had a couple.  I liked the concept, but for the most part I preferred listening to audiobooks (and still do for the most part).

I’m a Patreon supporter of an author (Kameron Hurley), who recently started producing podcasts on a monthly basis.  Rather than download yet another application to my smartphone, I decided to use an existing installed app to listen to her podcasts.  I downloaded the audio file and placed it in my audiobooks folder so that my Smart Audiobook Player app would pick it up automatically.  It found the new file and I was able to listen to it through my Bluetooth headset and through my new car’s stereo system while commuting. I’ve listened to both episodes and enjoyed them both (although I do warn you that profanity is prolific).  I even submitted a question for a future podcast to her.  Kameron has made the podcasts available to everyone via her website at this URL:  http://www.kameronhurley.com/podcast/

This listening experience reminded me that there are other podcasts to be discovered.  I did some searches for best podcasts of the last couple of years for science fiction and fantasy.  I found two that seemed to fit my bill:  Sword and Laser and Wired’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (GGG).  I subscribed to both of them and downloaded the most recent episodes to my Google Music app.

Continue reading “Podcast Pickup”

Writer’s Shift – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

This time around it’s Modesitt’s thoughts on how the publishing industry has changed over the last forty years. Yes, he’s been cranking out great books since before my eldest son was born.

Over the past few years I’ve been asked how the field of writing has changed since I was first published, a question I suspect comes up because I’ve managed to stay published for a long enough time that I might have some perspective on any possible changes affecting writers, in particular. Some of the changes…

via Writers’ Shift — L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

Shared from WordPress

Grist for the Mill: What America’s Next Top Model Can Teach You About Publishing – http://www.kameronhurley.com/grist-for-the-mill-what-americas-next-top-model-can-teach-you-about-your-publishing-career/

Words of wisdom for young and old, models, actors and writers.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

The Current Economics of E-Books « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/01/16/the-current-economics-of-e-books/

For my aspiring and published author friends: observations on the ebook market by Modesitt

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Amazon said to play hardball in book contract talks with publishing house Hachette – The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amazon-said-to-play-hardball-in-book-contract-talks-with-publishing-house-hachette/2014/05/16/cdd40854-dc62-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html

Quotes/Excerpts:

What makes the dispute between Amazon and Hachette different is that Amazon’s tactics have no obvious consumer benefit, a key antitrust consideration.

The group “deplores any attempt by any party that would seek to injure and punish innocent authors — and their innocent readers — in order to pursue its position in a business dispute. We believe that such actions are analogous to hostage-taking to extort concessions, and are just as indefensible.”  — Gail Hochman, president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives

What kind of entity in a competitive market would willfully drive customers into the arms of its competitors unless it believes it doesn’t really have any competitors? Can you imagine Best Buy refusing to deliver for a period of weeks what’s available from its competitors? But Amazon behaves as though they’re the only game in town. And increasingly they are. It’s a head-scratcher why anyone with regulatory authority would tolerate it. If this is not an example of untoward power, I don’t know what is. — Scott Turow, a Hachette author and former president of the Authors Guild and a lawyer.

As a reader, I enjoy low prices but I don’t want prices so low that the authors finally decide it’s not worth it and quit writing.

“The Unrecognized Trajectory of Slow Burn Success” by Janny Wurts — A Dribble of Ink

Browsing an unknown book on the internet requires the foresight that it is there! More, public opinion shoves the book’s data right into your face: ratings, reviews, numbers – crowd opinion leads the barrage.

— Janny Wurts, “The Unrecognized Trajectory of Slow Burn Success”
via A Dribble of Ink blog

I loved learning something new about how Tolkien was ‘discovered.’  It’s always great to read anything written by Janny.