Tag: Blogging A to Z challenge (2014)

Z is for Slaying the Zombie Memes of Publishing

Being an indie writer is awesome. Without a doubt, self-publishing is one of the best decisions I have ever made, and has enabled me to build exactly the kind of writing career I have always wanted. So it frustrates me to no end when people in the publishing industry try to discourage new writers from… Continue reading Z is for Slaying the Zombie Memes of Publishing

Y is for Yog’s Law

Anyone who was trying to break into publishing before the ebook revolution should be familiar with Yog’s law, which states: Money should always flow toward the writer. The purpose of the law was to keep new writers from falling into one of the many writing scams. Places that charged writers to publish were almost all… Continue reading Y is for Yog’s Law

X is for Expectations

What sort of expectations should or shouldn’t you have when you start self-publishing? What is plausible, and what is unrealistic? Honestly, it’s probably a good idea to go into it with expectations that are fairly low. Most books don’t sell more than a handful of copies, and there’s no way to tell what will and… Continue reading X is for Expectations

W is for Writing the Next One

If you want to make a living as a writer, you’ve got to write a lot of books. One book is not sufficient to make a career, unless you’re the exception that proves the rule. But that’s okay, because writing is probably the thing that made you want to do this as a career in… Continue reading W is for Writing the Next One

V is for Vanity Presses

There is a HUGE, HUGE difference between self-publishing as an indie and publishing through a vanity press. So huge, in fact, that the two are not even comparable. An indie author is a professional and an entrepreneur. A vanity press author is a victim of a scam. A “vanity press” is a publishing company that… Continue reading V is for Vanity Presses

T is for Thousand True Fans

How many fans does an independent artist/creator need in order to make a living? That’s the question that sparked the idea of the Thousand True Fans. As the original blog article mentioned, the basic idea is that a creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other… Continue reading T is for Thousand True Fans

S is for Success

What are the markers for success when you’re an indie author? How do you know when you’ve “made it,” whatever that’s supposed to mean? The implications of this question are more far-reaching than you might think. Just this last week, I visited with Howard Tayler (of the awesome webcomic Schlock Mercenary) up at Salt Lake… Continue reading S is for Success