So you've got this native people, okay, and they are "more in tune with nature" and therefore have no indoor toilets or shoes, and they have Issues, man. Issues that are usually insurmountable for them (because they don't have access to modern plumbing, of course) but...
So... let's talk about the business of writing. It's definitely a business, unless you're writing and posting your stuff for free online. (Or just using it as parrot cage lining.) Being a professional writer is a tough gig. It's hard to convince readers that your work...
I've heard and read this a few times. It's what every author wants, isn't it? They just want to write. There's so much work involved in getting a book to market, work that cuts into writing time. Handing it off to a publisher - or overpaying an outfit like AuthorHouse...
If the LendInk fiasco has taught us anything, it is this: when authors are faced with the prospect of someone getting their work for free, their initial reaction is one of panic. It's possible that this is a learned reaction, from big media companies that make a huge...
THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED AS AND WHEN I RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION. LEAVE NOTES IN THE COMMENTS HERE. I've decided to go through the list and record who among the guilty have apologised for the LendInk fiasco, mostly because I want the world at large to see who's doing...
I've just seen the truly bizarre news that Hachette, one of the big publishing houses, is demanding that any author with titles published by Tor in some territories and Hachette in others keep the DRM on their ebooks. Tor have recently begin to offer DRM-free books,...
Alright, if you haven't heard the full story yet, LendInk.com is a small ebook lending site that has been forced offline. It was a very straightforward business model - they let users register, and users listed which ebooks they had that could be lent out to other...
Mark Coker, the owner of Smashwords, does make a good point with his article on traditional publishers. Okay, him running the main source for independent authors is something of a bias, but I think his argument has merit: that trad publishers move too slowly and price...
So, Penguin's parent company bought Author Solutions. And now, BookCountry's services page has been taken down for an "upgrade". I'm going to draw the obvious conclusion and saw that BookCountry's services are going to be Author Solutions' services, as served through...
I got into a discussion over on Roz Morris' blog last week on the nature of piracy. It got me thinking on a rather interesting aspect of the whole thing: how authors perceive it, versus what it actually is. I've said before that combating piracy is a fool's game, a...
"The consumer [says] 'Where's my free music on the internet? Is this a free download?' Fuck off! It cost me a quarter of a million pounds to make it, you're not getting it for nothing. I want my quarter of a million back, thank you very much. That's why we're rock...
Author Solutions, who I will not link to, once again, are offering a new service called Bookstubs(TM) through AuthorHouse. Gotta add that trademark - very important... They are, in essence, business cards for your book. The front is your cover, and the back is a...