Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 185

Tips Jars and "Conscience Money"

In talking about self-publishing and ways to monetize online short fiction, several people mentioned an online Tip Jar, a way for readers and fans to contribute a few bucks and support me as a writer.

It's a nice thought, and I truly appreciate it.  But it's not something I'm going to do.  My reasoning comes down to two things.

1. I don't need the money.  I want to get paid for my fiction, sure.  (The blogging I do for free, for the community and the secondary promotional benefits.)  But...

Ask a Goblin

Quick note: Apparently there's another LiveJournal exodus going on. This makes me a little sad, because while I do mirror this blog, the best discussions tend to be on LJ.  But for those going elsewhere, I'm also on Dreamwidth as jimhines, and there's also my jimchines.com blog and RSS feed.

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Taking an idea from Mrissa, welcome to "Ask a Goblin."  Post a question in the comments, and Jig & company will do their best to answer.

I'll try to respond to as many as I can.  (I don't promise the...

First Book Friday: Harry Connolly

Welcome to First Book Friday, an ongoing series exploring how various authors sold their first books.

Harry Connolly , also known as burger-eater on LiveJournal, spent last month giving away books every day leading up to the release of his second novel, Game of Cages .

One thing I like about this one is that, like so many published stories, it opens with a great hook…

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Jim, thanks for the opportunity to tell my story here in your space.

The first thing to know about selling Child of Fire [B&N |

"Christians"

I originally started drafting a long, nasty post about hate and intolerance and "International Burn a Koran Day."  After several attempts, I realized sometimes a simple LOLpic can say it better.

For anyone who wants to, you have my permission to copy and repost this picture.

Top photo: members of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Bottom photo: Terry Jones, current leader of the Dove World Outreach Center, a self-proclaimed New Testament Church.

Another of Jim's Self-Publishing Plans

Kind of a follow-up to yesterday's post, I've been thinking about another way I might self-publish.

I've got an anthology invitation sitting in my Inbox.  These days, I rarely write short fiction without an invite.  Much as I enjoy short stories, I just don't have the time.  But even with an invitation, there are no guarantees.

I've worked on some invite-only anthologies where the approach was, "If you're invited, you're in, no matter how much we have to work with you to get you there."  I've s...

Self-Publishing, Part Whatever

While I was at the Durand Fantasy Expo on Saturday, I ended up talking to several other authors and publishing folks about self-publishing and print-on-demand.  Here are a few of my thoughts from the drive home.

1. Dear self-published authors: As a writer, I am not your target audience.  I can't count the number of times authors, mostly (but not always) self-published or PoD, have tried to hard-sell their books to me.  Just don't.

2. Self-publishing seems to work pretty well for comics and...

First Book Friday: Marie Brennan

Welcome to First Book Friday, an ongoing series exploring how various authors sold their first books.

Marie Brennan's fifth book, A Star Shall Fall, came out earlier this week.  She's scheduled to be a Guest of Honor at the Sirens Conference next month.  Also, she recently invented the iPlatypus.  (2 of these 3 facts are true.)

She turned 30 on Wednesday. Once you finish reading about her six-year journey from writing Doppelganger to seeing it on the bookstore shelves, go wish her a happy...

Thursday Miscellany

I'll be at the Durand Fantasy Expo this Saturday, for anyone in the area.

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I missed a friend promo yesterday, 'cause my brain sucks.  Yesterday was the release date for my friend Deborah Blake's new nonfiction book Witchcraft on a Shoestring [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon].

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Fixing one problem with a car should not require trips to four separate car repair places.  I'm just saying…

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Signal boost from cloudscudding from yesterday's post:

I just launched "The Circus of Brass and Bone", an...

Friend Promo

I'm very fortunate. I've got a lot of very nifty friends and acquaintances, both the real-world and the online variety, and sometimes I've just got to show them off.

To that end, I'm declaring this an open "Promote Your Friends" thread.  Please feel free to post whatever cool projects or accomplishments your own friends have been up to lately.  (If you're on my jimchines.com blog and your comment doesn't show up, let me know and I'll rescue it from moderation.)

Let the promo begin!

My daughter...

Doctor Who?

Normally I try to answer most blog comments, but yesterday involved a broken car, broken garage door, and other assorted chaos that kept me offline for most of the day.  My thanks to everyone who commented and shared their own stories on yesterday's post, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to them all.

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I have a confession to make. Despite ranking at the very top of the geek hierarchy, there has always been an unforgivable gap in my geekness.  I've never watched Doctor Who.

I remember as a ...