Author: Stephen Hise

Stephen Hise is the Evil Mastermind and founder of Indies Unlimited. Hise is an independent author and an avid supporter of the indie author movement. Learn more about Stephen at his website or his Amazon author page.

Reinventing Success

Are you tired of laboring in obscurity? Maybe you’ve been following some bad advice. A lot of authors will tell you, “Don’t write for an audience. Write the book you want to read.”

That’s great advice if you don’t want an audience. If you want one, you have to write for them. Wake up, Skippy. Writing is a business.

It’s a long standing tradition in the business world to take two things that already exist, slap them together and call them something new. Both steam and boats had already been invented by the time Eli Wallach got the idea to put them together to invent the airplane. Continue reading “Reinventing Success”

The Closer

No, not THAT Closer…

The opening line of a book is given great importance, for it is that sentence which invites the reader to further investigation. But what of the closer? Is the last line of a book important?

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. –George Orwell, Animal Farm

After all, tomorrow is another day. –Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind Continue reading “The Closer”

50 Shades of WTF?

The other day, I saw a link on a Facebook page to yet another scathing, snarky review of the book which shall not be named. I’ve seen a lot of these. This particular reviewer put a lot of time and effort into her piece. There were amusing animated GIFs between each few paragraphs of calumny she poured on this ill-conceived tome.

I love snark as much as anyone. I was all good with it until I got to the end. The reviewer said to stay tuned for her upcoming review of the sequel to this book. WTF???

I have nothing against the author of this book. I have nothing against her book (which shall not be named). But she is pulling down a bazillion dollars a week from her book. WHY ARE YOU HELPING HER if you hate her book? WHY ARE YOU GOING TO READ AND REVIEW HER NEXT ONE? Continue reading “50 Shades of WTF?”

Comma Chameleon

King and/or possibly Queen George

A little while back, a melee broke out in the Indies Unlimited commissary about the differences between British and American styles of punctuation. Commas were being flung about like shoddy garments on a ladies sales rack. Someone almost lost an eye.

This conflict is nothing new. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the American colonists sent a letter to the British government. The King “corrected” the placement of commas in the document and returned the marked-up version to the colonies. Later that night, a group of patriots dressed as librarians dumped a shipment of commas into the Boston Harbor.

This action touched off what was known as the Revolutionary War. But must we dwell on the past? Besides, the difference between British and American styles of punctuation is really quite minimal. It’s not as if one of us is using that upside-down question mark, or that thing that looks like the chemical symbol for Adamantium. Continue reading “Comma Chameleon”