Indie News Beat: Cashing in on ICANN

Sometimes it feels like the publishing industry is besieged with scam artists and con merchants, eager to part the unwary storyteller from their cash with promises of quality and exposure. Crafted with not an once of substance, these promises seduce the writer into believing that their novel is special, and that against all evidence to the contrary, their novel will sell by the bucket-load. Once an Indie Author has been around the block, however, it becomes easy to go too far down the road of cynicism, and respond to every new opportunity with the worn refrain: “What’s the catch?” Continue reading “Indie News Beat: Cashing in on ICANN”

Bookstore Admission, Really?

A recent story on The Bookseller, which appears to be a UK oriented website for those who sell books (who’d have guessed?), had a brief article quoting Victoria Barnsley, the CEO of HarperCollins UK and International, who suggested that brick and mortar bookstores might start charging customers to browse. The justification is that for many people the physical bookstore is acting as a storefront for online retailers. She went on to claim that some shoe stores in the US are charging customers to try on shoes for this same reason. Continue reading “Bookstore Admission, Really?”