Navigating Woke SF, Part 3: Toward a New Short Story Strategy

So I really love how China Mike Glyer cherry-picked the excerpts that he quoted from my last blog post, leaving out how I said that it’s important to give people the benefit of the doubt, or how you can’t take diversity statements at face value because of all the elitist signalling language. But the thing… Continue reading Navigating Woke SF, Part 3: Toward a New Short Story Strategy

Racism is trendy again

“People of color” is an inherently racist phrase. There. I said it. I may get into trouble for saying it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Before we unpack the phrase “people of color,” let’s first define our terms. This is where the heart of the controversy lies. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, racism… Continue reading Racism is trendy again

Thoughts on series and perma-free

For the last five years, the conventional wisdom among most indie writers has been to write short books in sequential series and make the first book permanently free. It’s a strategy that works, to a certain extent. It’s what got me from making pizza money on my book sales to making a humble living at this… Continue reading Thoughts on series and perma-free

The Self-Sufficient Writer: Makers vs. Takers

There are two kinds of people in the world. No, not those who can count and those who can’t. No, not those with loaded guns and those who dig. Stay with me for a minute, because this is important. In fact, it may be the most important realization I’ve ever had. We have a tendency to see… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: Makers vs. Takers

Guest Lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a guest lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class at Brigham Young University. I was one of Brandon’s students back in 2008, and he wanted me to talk about my experiences as a self-published indie writer. The lecture wasn’t recorded this year, but here is a rough outline from my… Continue reading Guest Lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class

Can you make a living writing short fiction?

This question has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks, ever since I made a couple of semi-pro story sales. From all of the classes and conventions I’ve attended, the answer has been no, but I’m starting to wonder if that hasn’t changed in the last few years. First of all, it’s worth pointing… Continue reading Can you make a living writing short fiction?

A blast from the past: predictions from 2011 on how the ebook revolution would turn out

While cleaning up some of the unpublished drafts on this blog, I came across this interesting post which I wrote in August 2011 but never published. At the time, I had just published my second novel, Bringing Stella Home, and was very much committed to the indie career path. Self-publishing was still a very new thing, however, and… Continue reading A blast from the past: predictions from 2011 on how the ebook revolution would turn out

Why my books are not in Kindle Unlimited

Last year, Amazon came out with a book subscription service called Kindle Unlimited. As a reader and an Amazon customer, I’ve noticed that they’ve been pushing this service quite aggressively. As a writer, I’ve been following it quite closely, especially with some recent changes with how they compensate their authors. However, if you check my Amazon… Continue reading Why my books are not in Kindle Unlimited

Thoughts on Clean Reader

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new app in the book world that is stirring up quite a bit of controversy. It’s called Clean Reader and it basically goes through an ebook and filters out the profanity, with settings for “clean,” “cleaner,” and “squeaky clean.” It was designed by the parents of a teenager… Continue reading Thoughts on Clean Reader

A Letter to Mr. Bezos

Mr. Bezos, I know you’re a busy man, so if it’s true that you read all the emails directed to this account, I’ll keep it brief. I recently read an open letter written by Douglas Preston that encourages readers and writers to email you to let you know what they think about the hardball negotiating… Continue reading A Letter to Mr. Bezos