When I went to my Shelfari landing page last week to update the widget I use on my blog, I saw an ominous notice: Shelfari is shutting down. 
The news won’t be a surprise to those who know that Amazon has owned both Shelfari and Goodreads for the past few years. Goodreads is by far the more popular of the two sites, so it stands to reason that Amazon would consolidate its reader experience (not to mention reader data) there. But a number of readers, authors, and bloggers closed their Goodreads accounts and fled to Shelfari during the Goodreads Bullies incident a few years ago; I can’t imagine they will be thrilled to have their information dumped back onto Goodreads. Continue reading “Goodbye Shelfari, Hello Goodreads”
Author: Lynne Cantwell
Lynne Cantwell grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She worked as a broadcast journalist for many years; she has written for CNN, the late lamented Mutual/NBC Radio News, and a bunch of radio and TV news outlets you have probably never heard of, including a defunct wire service called Zapnews. But she began as a fantasy writer (in the second grade), and is back at it today. She currently lives near Washington, DC. Learn more about Lynne at her blog and at her Amazon author page.
Where Do You Write?
Melissa Bowersock wrote a post a few weeks ago about writing drafts longhand, and whether anybody still does it. It sounds like a lot of people do. I used to, but I don’t anymore. The last time I can remember writing a first draft longhand was when I was in graduate school and was writing my novel on legal pads on the Metro on my way to work. I remember getting some odd looks from other passengers. It didn’t bother me back then, but I think it would now. Continue reading “Where Do You Write?”
Random Penguin Kicks Author Solutions to the Curb
Well, that didn’t take long. Just three years and change after buying Author Solutions (ASI) from venture capital firm Bertram Capital, Penguin Random House has sold the company to an affiliate of Najafi Companies, another venture capital firm. In 2012, Penguin’s then-owner, Pearson, paid $116 million for Author Solutions, not long before Penguin merged with Random House. Terms of the most recent deal were not disclosed. The sale was finalized December 31st and was announced earlier this week.
I hope we’re all familiar by now with Author Solutions’ schtick: the reassuring websites of its many, many imprints; the claims that you, too, can be a successful author by publishing your book with them; the high initial costs, the constant upselling, the disastrous “editing,” and the boxes and boxes of books in the garage that the hapless author will never be able to unload. Continue reading “Random Penguin Kicks Author Solutions to the Curb”
New Year’s Resolutions for Indie Authors
It’s so not fair. I can hear the other minions down in the death star’s lounge, setting up for our annual New Year’s Eve celebration, while I’m stuck up here in the writer’s garret, coming up with my list of resolutions for 2016. (Yes, we have a writer’s garret. Cathy Speight calls it the naughty step. I’d ask her why, but I’m not sure I want to know the answer.)
We have minions, and minion alumni, all over the world, so the IU festivities go ‘round the clock on New Year’s Eve. Melissa Pearl is in China [New Zealand?], so she kicks things off. Then TD McKinnon and A.C. Flory take over – TD always brings us a nip of something Scottish, even though he lives in Tasmania. Then it’s the Europeans’ turn, and… Continue reading “New Year’s Resolutions for Indie Authors”