Tag: author advice

Ed’s Casual Friday: So You Want to be an Indie…

Why not, right? All that seems to be involved is uploading an unedited Word file, then buying a basket to catch all the money that will immediately shower down upon you. However, as there may be the occasional snare along this way, asking yourself the following ten questions ahead of time may save you some surprises later.

1.)    Have you written a book?

How Nowhere Man Became a Bestseller by Robert Rosen

Author Robert Rosen
Photo by Mary Lyn Maiscott

How did my John Lennon biography, Nowhere Man, a book that was originally rejected by everybody and then published by a tiny upstart indie that operated out of a tenement basement on New York City’s Lower East Side, become a bestseller in five countries? Luck had a lot to do with it—terrible luck for the 18 years that the manuscript languished in limbo. And then, I don’t know what happened. Maybe the stars lined up. Whatever the case, my luck changed: A friend of a friend introduced me to a hungry agent who’d just left his job as an editor at a major publishing house. He recognized Nowhere Man’s potential and signed me as his first client.

My agent was shrewd enough to sell U.S. rights to Soft Skull Press for a small advance, knowing that foreign rights and serial rights would be a gold mine—which is exactly what happened. And Soft Skull, which no longer exists as an independent, was very good at one thing: They knew how to publicize a book. Continue reading “How Nowhere Man Became a Bestseller by Robert Rosen”

2012 Anniversary Special

Yes, it’s been a whole, entire year since the Evil Mastermind launched Indies Unlimited. You just may be wondering exactly how this all came to be. Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Aw, never mind. Just watch the video. It will tell you everything you need to know.

Stay tuned for more cool things coming soon from Indies Unlimited. We’ve got big plans. We’ll be announcing some of them in the next couple of weeks, so don’t go anywhere. And, thanks for joining us here. Without you…well, we’re glad you’re here. Thanks for helping to make Indies Unlimited’s first year a big success.

Ed’s Casual Friday: On Antiheroes

Once again, and as usual, I feel the need to preface the following by saying that I am of course just offering opinion, not defining any Universal Truths. This is just some stuff I think about some other stuff. This week, the “other stuff” is the Antihero.

First off, I need to define what I mean when I even use that word, as like many terms relating to anything literary or artistic, the idea of an “antihero” has undergone some changes through the years. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: On Antiheroes”