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It is no secret to serious writers that much of what we used to consider the vibrant literary world we lived in has collapsed into an unhealthy morass. In his new book, Worlds Made by Words: Scholarship and Community in the Modern West, Anthony Grafton, a Princeton professor with a distinguished history as a scholar of the Renaissance, turns his attention to recent history and does not like what he finds. The world of print that informed and helped to create western society from Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1450 into the late twentieth century is now […]

One thing that puzzles me about the criticism that any type of self-publishing is a kind of vanity publishing is the fact that vanity is actually rewarded in so many corners of our culture. Here’s a small taste of the insanity that passes for mainstream American culture:

Perhaps I am shooting fish in a barrel by pointing out the vapidity that is the heart of celebrity culture, but that you see there? That’s vanity. A writer trying to get the word out by publishing his book that (maybe) will be read by 100 people is not vanity. It’s hope. It’s […]

One of the growing criticisms (and concerns) about self-publishing is the ease with which people can post good reviews – especially on a place like Amazon. Anyone can open up an account on Amazon and give a book 5 stars, no matter how bad that book might be. This has the potential to further tarnish the reputation of self-publishers because the more people buy a book based on positive reviews that turns out to be terrible, the more people will be suspicious about self-published books.

This criticism has come up twice now on the site, recently in this comment:[…]

What may be missing from the self-publishing debate is the fact that there are a lot of self-publishers who just aren’t that interested in a career in writing – whether it’s via a New York contract or selling books independently. Consider this an addendum to the Two Wings of Self-Publishing post – add a third wing: people who publish for the hell of it.  If they get a few reviews, that’s great, but if they don’t it’s not a problem.

These writers might not care as much about the book cover or having a book properly edited. Personally, I don’t […]

Cross-posted at zoewinters.wordpress.com.

There are nearly infinite social networking sites in cyberspace meant for authors to promote themselves and their work. General sites would include Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Author Specific sites would include: Author’s Den, Red Room, Nothing Binding, and BookBuzzr. In addition, there is the marketing power of Amazon itself, where you can have an author page and blog as well as participate in many forums on the site itself.

One thing I’ve been personally guilty of is signing up for things like this as if that’s a mark of marketing productivity in and of itself. It […]

Cross-posted at zoewinters.wordpress.com.

I’ve said for awhile now, that though I appreciate the opportunities Amazon gives to indie authors, that we shouldn’t be “too” grateful because they are ripping us off on Kindle sales. On Kindle we only get 35% cut, that’s less than industry standard for a publisher, and not only that, but it’s an ebook, exactly what is Amazon doing with Kindle books that rates that big of a cut?

With physical books you can understand since they have to ship them out, but when we’re talking about a non-physical product, the most they can say they […]

When that ubiquitous television pitchman Billy Mays died recently, I had just started watching the reality series about him and his partner, Anthony Sullivan, appropriately called “Pitchmen”, on the Discovery Channel.   I’ve done a lot of sales work over the years as “day jobs” supporting my writing career; so much so that I tend to forget that the process remains mysterious to most writers, who remain clueless about this essential rite of modern commerce.

The hard truth is that everyone sells, and where a self-published book is concerned (or a first time one, for that matter), if you don’t sell […]

On Kash’s Book Corner there’s an eye-opening post about how book buyers and publishing reps interrelate – and it’s such a nightmarish scenario that it makes me almost proud of the fact that it’s harder for self-publishers to get into bookstores (even if that is where most books are sold). The fact is that book buyers – even in small independent stores – have as narrow a criteria as editors and agents.

What’s especially troubling about the post is that it has a number of positive comments, saying things like “This is fascinating.” It is an interesting window into the […]