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.

Tell Me a Story

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it seems like every fifth indie author I meet is writing some kind of genre fiction – sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, romance….

Oh, wait. Apparently I’m not that far off the mark. The Guardian ran a story this week about how indie books accounted for more than twenty percent of the genre e-books sold in the UK last year. The stats come from Bowker Market Research, which ought to know a thing or two about book sales and distribution.

Bowker says trad-pubbed books still dominate when dead-tree volumes are included – just two percent of all books sold in the UK last year were published by indies. But when only e-book sales are tallied, the percentage of indie books pops up fast. And when you look at only genre fiction, we indies own a healthy slice of the marketplace. Continue reading “Tell Me a Story”

LynneQuisition: David Gaughran

My LynneQuisition victim – er, guest – this month is David Gaughran. David probably needs no introduction to this crowd. He’s the author of a couple of novels and a short story collection, as well as the bestselling Let’s Get Digital about the nuts and bolts of indie publishing (which, as it happens, is 99 cents at Amazon this weekend). His new book, Let’s Get Visible, is all about marketing, which the gods know I need help with.

Buy Let’s Get Digital from Amazon US or Amazon UK. Buy Let’s get Visible from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

So David, thanks very much for writing this. Nearly all of the “how to” books about making money at Amazon are from the P.A.C. (Pre-Algorithm Change) era. I get the sense that you still think Select is worthwhile — at least for some authors, or for authors in some genres.

Continue reading “LynneQuisition: David Gaughran”

Then a Miracle Occurs

I was moaning to my daughter Kat earlier tonight about how I needed to write this post, but I had no idea what to write about. “The 14th Street sinkhole,” she replied.

A little backstory is required here. A couple of weeks ago, a giant sinkhole opened at 14th and F Streets Northwest in Washington, DC. We don’t typically get sinkholes in DC – exploding manholes, yes, but not sinkholes – so this one is quite the novelty. It has even developed its own personality, complete with a Twitter account and Foursquare check-in spot.

But an IU post about it? “My post kind of has to be about writing,” I told Kat. “What relevance does a sinkhole have to writing?”

“Deus ex machina,” she replied. Continue reading “Then a Miracle Occurs”

Twitterspam, and How Not to Do It

You know how sometimes you click the follow button on somebody’s Twitter profile, and before you know it, you’ve got an e-mail saying they’ve sent you a direct message on Twitter?

You know where the rest of this is going, right? If you click the link in the e-mail, nine times out of ten, the direct message will be a buy-my-book request. Here you are, not knowing this person from Adam and/or Eve (except maybe you ran into them in a like-fest), and already they’re pestering you to buy their book. You have no idea whether their book is: 1) in a genre you like; 2) about a topic you’re interested in; 3) readable. And yet the first thing this other author says to you is, “Hi! Thanks for the follow! Be sure to buy my book!” Continue reading “Twitterspam, and How Not to Do It”