KDP Select: Is It Worth It?
If you're an author who has already been shook and sold your soul and firstborn to Jeff Bezos, I can see this seeming like a good short-term deal, but the potential repercussions are huge.
Publishing’s Brooklyn Problem
Much like Google didn't disintermediate big ad agencies via AdWords, nor TV networks or Hollywood studios via YouTube, but instead provided new channels for those who had no need for the Super Bowl, Amazon has done the same for authors who are better served with a scalpel than a mallet.
6Qs: Alex de Campi, Comics Innovator and Provocateur
We are not anywhere near the digital future yet with comics. There is so much exciting ground to be staked out! We just need a new publisher, or a collective of coders, comic writers, and artists. I think the latter is more likely than the former.
If Your Business Model is Your Most Interesting Story…
What I most like about Wendig is not that he has one foot firmly planted on both sides of the fence, strategically taking advantage of self-publishing opportunities, while also working the traditional channels. It's that he's a good writer and gives good story. When that's your starting point, business models are simply tools, not useless badges to prop up your sad little ego.
Ebook Project: Handmade Memories (Part I)
Inspired more by friends like Chuck Wendig, Will Hindmarch and Jane Friedman than Joe Konrath, et al, and emboldened by everything I learned from working with Joshua Tallent while running Digital Book World, my goal for the project was two-fold: do enough of it myself to have hands-on experience of what it takes, what's "easy" and what isn't; and to get the monkey of finally publishing this particular book off my back!
When Content is Everywhere, Marketing is Queen
Right now, the relative ease of digital publishing -- not yet the equivalent of blogging, but getting closer every week -- and the exceptional successes of a relative handful of authors masks the larger challenges ahead for authors and publishers alike, regardless of their business model: discoverability.
Marketing Yourself in the Digital Age
It doesn't matter if you're an aspiring writer, traditionally published or going the DIY route, marketing is every writer's responsibility, and it takes the same level of commitment, dedication and self-discipline as sitting down and actually writing does.