Tag: publishing

Blaming Amazon Pricing Policies May Be the Wrong Call

Everybody knows the big publishing houses are scrambling. They reek with the stench of death. They can merge all they want. They can point at tortured data to reassure themselves all is well. But it’s pretty much over for them, and they did it to themselves by clinging to a ridiculously outdated business model. They became middlemen who added little to no value for most authors they signed.

There are lessons to be learned here. Experience is a great teacher for an apt pupil. Small publishing houses stand to reap some significant benefits, and to become the heirs to a new age of publishing if they will but pay attention and adapt. Unfortunately, it does not seem that many are doing so. Continue reading “Blaming Amazon Pricing Policies May Be the Wrong Call”

The Long Game

Guest post
by Jake Bible

I have to admit something which you really aren’t supposed to: I’m a really good poker player. Like really good. Good enough that I used to play online for hours a day and actually win. I won tournaments, sit and go tables, stakes tables.

At least until the tide turned. Online poker started getting flooded with rookies that played wild and didn’t have a clue how the game worked. They threw enough chaos into the mix that even my best moves would lose. You couldn’t bluff them because they were too stupid to be bluffed. You couldn’t bully them because they were too stupid to be bullied. All you could do was hope the luck of the cards would come your way on a showdown.

And I don’t play by luck. I don’t. So I quit playing poker online. Just cashed out and walked away. I mean, why sit for hours on end in front of a computer screen when you have no clue if there will be a pay off or not? Continue reading “The Long Game”

Meet the Author: Dianne Greenlay

Born and raised on the Canadian prairies, Dianne Greenlay is the author of QUINTSPINNER – A PIRATE’S QUEST and DEADLY MISFORTUNE, Books One and Two in a fast-paced adventure series, set in the 1700’s, in the pirate-infested waters of the West Indies. While DEADLY MISFORTUNE is a brand new release, QUINTSPINNER has gone on to win multiple awards in Best YA (Writer’s Digest), Best Commercial Novel (Eric Hoffer), Best Historical (ReaderViewes) and Book of the Year ( Foreword Reviews) categories, and it has gathered nearly a half million reads on Wattpad in less than 6 months. Straying into the genre of humor/comedy, Dianne is also the author of THE CAMPING GUY, which is available as both a one act comedy (live theater script) and a short story. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Dianne Greenlay”

Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries

Guest post
by T.D. Griggs

Perhaps it’s worse in Oxford, like the weather.

Oxford, England, that is: a city stiff with history, bristling with dreaming spires, and teeming with writers. You can hear the scratching of their metaphorical quills even over the patter of the rain (and in Oxford, that’s saying something).

I’m talking about literary elitism. That’s what’s worse in Oxford.

Well, it shouldn’t surprise me too much. I have a background in history, and I ought to know that writing has always been an occupation for the privileged. In the Middle Ages literacy was virtually a form of shamanism, and could only be acquired by those adepts who had the money or the time – that meant churchmen and the nobility. Everyone else was too busy scraping a living and staying warm. The ability to write conferred and preserved power among those who mastered it. Continue reading “Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries”