Tag: publishing

The Price Point Problem

Now that you have finished your magnum opus, you are faced with the dilemma all independent authors must address. How do you decide the price for your masterpiece?

Traditionally-published authors don’t have to worry their pretty little heads about such things. Their publishers set the price, just as they also lift the burden of selecting cover art and distribution channels.

Indie authors have to do all that for ourselves. With print books, you know you have to set the price over the cost of production. At least you have a beginning point.

With your eBooks, you have to weigh the supposed virtues of the KDP Select program against whatever you could make if you risk testing the market appetite with some sort of price. Continue reading “The Price Point Problem”

Legacies of Empire

Regardless of any assertion of virtuous intent; at its core, the motivation for the building of empires, by and large, is the accumulation of wealth for the minority at the expense of the majority. There are of course other, just as avaricious, incentives for empire but they all align with its primary purpose. However, regardless of its grandeur or period of reign, following its downfall (and eventually all fall) it is judged not by its initial motivations, or by the destruction it causes whilst coming into being, and certainly not by the wealth and accomplishments it accumulates during its reign; in the end, it is judged by the legacies it leaves.

Throughout history man has built empires, one hundred and eighty seven, recorded, nation-based empires alone. The first on record, the Akkadian Empire, began in 2334 BC, and the last, the Portuguese Empire, officially ended in 1999. The empire with the shortest reign, less than two years, was the first Mexican Empire (1821 – 1823), and the longest reigning empire, the Mayan Empire (2,000BC – 1540 AD) was a staggering 3,540 years in duration.

Continue reading “Legacies of Empire”

Interview with Hugh Howey

Here’s the scoop: I’m sitting at my work station on the Death Star, flicking dried bits of chewing gum at Carol Wyer, when suddenly I get an alert that Hugh Howey’s ship is cruising past, just out of tractor beam range. Knowing that the Evil Mastermind will be less than happy if I miss this opportunity, I run down to the shuttle bay. With no time to lose, I wind up the rubber band on the back of the shuttle really, really tightly. Then, I get in the shuttle and – ping! I’m hurtling across the heavens on an intercept course with Howey’s ship. I reach it, knock on his window, and manage to ask him these few questions before the rubber band contracts and pulls me and the shuttle back to the Death Star. Phew, that was a close one!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Hugh Howey is the author of the award-winning Molly Fyde Saga and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling WOOL series. The WOOL OMNIBUS won Kindle Book Review’s 2012 Indie Book of the Year Award—it has been as high as #1 in the Kindle store—and 17 countries have picked up the work for translation.

Here’s what Hugh had to say: Continue reading “Interview with Hugh Howey”

The Big Picture is Worth a Thousand Blogs – Darwin and the Evolution of Publishing

January is a great time to read the blogs. All the Chicken Littles scampering around telling us which part of the sky will be falling on our heads this year. The laws of natural selection being what they are, most of these disasters will turn out to be minor, something unheralded will throw it all off kilter, and we will all go on existing as we have for the last several millennia. Which is not to say that we shouldn’t take an interest in evolution.

The publishing business at the moment is in a state that Charles Darwin would have found interesting, and his principles are going to dictate what happens next. It might be a good idea to settle down, take a sip of relaxing herbal tea (or something stronger if it suits) and look at this year’s Big Three predictions in the broader perspective: Continue reading “The Big Picture is Worth a Thousand Blogs – Darwin and the Evolution of Publishing”