Gather ’round, my indies. Closer…closer… too close! It’s time to hear wondrous tales of fact and fancy and all sorts of what-not – the buzz, the 4-1-1, the low-down, the skinny.
We track down the truth, no matter how many mouse-clicks it takes to get to it.
Today’s NewsBites is brought to you by Wyer’s Cheese: Strong enough for a man, but made for a human.
First up, Indies Unlimited, Carol E. Wyer has a problem and needs your help. Her non-fiction book How Not to Murder Your Grumpy is a finalist for the People’s Book Prize Award and she’s been invited to attend the awards ceremony in London on May 28th when the winner will be announced.
When she got the email, she got over- excited and bought a new dress for the event and now has to justify the expenditure to her grumpy old man who has told her the book won’t win.
Please can you help prove him wrong and bring harmony to the household by voting for her book? You’ll find the bright yellow cover on the finalist page. You need to register to 
vote. (That only involves an email address and collecting a password from http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/how_vote.htm) Then, please assist an IU minion and vote for her book?
Voting is from 21st May to 27th May.
How about it? Can ya help a sistah out?.
Round two of the Author Earning Report is out and shows self-published authors are earning 27% more than traditionally published authors for ebooks published since 2011. Just looking at my sales, I have to say I am not at all sure I am holding up my end.
The conventional wisdom is that short story collections do not sell. The Telegraph thinks some things have happened recently which portend a change in this. Are short stories the new hotness?
Book descriptions are among the most difficult things for an author to write well, and one of the big problem areas we see in vetting books that appear on the site. While we have had several articles on the subject, this post at DBW about writing an effective book description is as good as any I’ve seen on the subject. You may wanna bookmark that one.
If you clicked over to the article, you’ll notice they refer to the book description as a ‘blurb.” That’s not uncommon, but there is another usage for the term blurb in publishing: the endorsement.The New York Times notes that Gary Shteyngart is retiring from writing promotional copy for book flaps and covers. Will it make any difference? Will book sales now plummet without the approval of this “Baron of Blurbs?” Apparently, no one knows if endorsements make any difference in sales at all:
“But does all this praise actually sell books? Surprisingly, no one I’ve talked to in publishing can say with certainty whether even the most extravagant endorsement has sold a single copy.”
As the brick-and-mortar vs. cyberstore wars continue, the whining increases that Amazon is putting pressure on big ink publishers by not offering deep enough discounts. Heaven forbid the paragons of the printed word should lower their prices. Boo-hoo.
Are you haunted by a bad publishing experience? It may be that you have Post-Publishing Traumatic Stress Disorder. Okay, I believe it. Now we need a charity and some government funding to fight this malady. Hmmm…
Well, I have some research grant application forms to fill out. That’s all for now. Join us next time when we answer the question: Does one hand clapping make a sound if no one is there to not hear it?
A mixed bag of tricks today, Stephen! And a little less snark than usual. Count me in for helping a sistah out. I’d love to actually be there to cheer Carol to the podium.
I truly suffered from PPSD for a few years but I managed to get over it, or at least it’s in remission. And I used to be able to clap with one hand, until the old arthritis set in, and when I did it I could hear it but the hearing’s not what it used to be. So I reckon if the person doing a one handed clap was deaf the answer to your question would be… maybe, but then again, maybe not.
On this long and tedious day, thank you for your wit, Stephen.
Sorry about the dearth of snark, T.D. We’ll try to snark it up next time.;)
Good links EM. Thanks. (And I voted as commanded.)
Thanks, dude!
All kidding aside, the PPTSD article was pretty interesting. Need to find out where to tap….