I spent the morning working on school stuff. Yes, school is over, but I am also responsible for the school’s website and the alumni magazine (what can I say? It’s a small school.). So I am trying to get at least the magazine “put to bed” this week so that my energies can be directed … More Loose ends
It seems like I am always switching gears. A little over a week ago, we had commencement, and I left teaching behind to focus on my writing career over the summer. Sometimes that takes a while to switch gears, but this time around, it doesn’t seem as hard. Maybe that’s because I have been spending … More Switching Gears
I’m a relative rookie when it comes to independent publishing. I’ve actually only been doing this since January, 2012. And in the past four months, I have learned a great deal. One of the cardinal rules I have learned about marketing my books is that the two biggest things you can do to help sales … More Tom Horn Gets a Facelift
I’m the type of author that infuriates publishers. Hence I am publishing my own stuff these days. What I’m talking about it the whole concept of genre. I don’t know who invented the concept, but it didn’t take long for a lot of people to buy into the idea. The intent was to label stories … More Genre? What genre?
Launching this new venture called Prevail Publications and sailing out on the stormy seas of independent publishing has introduced Matt and I to a vehicle that is both fun and infuriating. They’re called book trailers. Book trailers are just like movie trailers; you know, the previews of upcoming movies you see if you rent a … More “So what’s your trailer carrying?”
Writing students often fantasize about the life of a writer. I know I did. You see yourself starving to death, living in a small studio apartment somewhere, maybe even writing with a quill pen or an old beat-up Smith-Corona…well that dates me a bit. But you get the idea. Writers don’t often fantasize about the … More Grunt Work
I’ve been writing a long time. More specifically, I have been writing stuff off the mainstream for the past five years or so. I tend to choose stories that don’t comfortably fit into one genre or another. And because of this, I’ve often gotten the word from publishers and marketers that my stuff may be … More The Self-Publishing Experience
Yesterday I finally got up the courage to publicly announce that I was going the self-publishing route. I gave several reasons for my irrationality. Then after I finished my blog, I thought of some more. Here’s a specific one that comes to mind. Publishers tend to be married to specific audiences. They produce magazines and … More The Island of Misfit Authors
Playtime is over. I had a rough semester. The last week was a killer, punctuated by final exams, four recruitment presentations, putting a magazine to bed, graduation and a major septic problem at my house. It’s one thing to be productive when you have lots on your plate; try doing that when all of your … More Getting my act together
I think I’ve probably written about 18 book manuscripts over the years, and had eight of them published. That’s a lot of misses among those hits. And that’s one of the downsides of learning by doing; sometimes you do, and you learn that what you did doesn’t work. At least for someone else. But one … More The First Chapter
The Great Adventure 