Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 181
February 21, 2013
A Writer Discovers How To Say “No!” To Himself . . .
So, there’s this writer from Kettering, Ohio, USA who self-published a rather strange short novel. Not strange in terms of “peculiar”, “weird”, or “fantastical”. More like strange as in “unusual”, “singular”, and “curious”. He garnered one excellent review, some fairly decent ones, and, also, folks claiming the book had deficiencies. So far, this story is [...]
February 20, 2013
Ebook Self-Publishing Takes Center Stage
I’ll begin this post with the words of Mark Coker, Founder, CEO, and Chief Author Advocate of Smashwords, the world’s largest distributor of indie ebooks: “I just returned from an action-packed weekend at the San Francisco Writers Conference, one of the best writers conferences in the country. On Monday, I also attended Carla King’s Self-Publishing [...]
February 19, 2013
This Editor Needs An Editor . . .
Short post today… I’ve written a number of posts about editing and editors here. I had one editor for my last book, as well as a few folks who read various incarnations of the manuscript. After it was published, I found eight typos and a few other small errors. My next book will have eight [...]
February 18, 2013
Social Media Mistakes . . .
Social Media, Social Networks, whatever you call them; not many are truly “social”… Of course, if you’re a writer, self- or traditionally published, you need an Author Platform… Ever tried being social on a platform? Over the last three years, I’ve struggled to do what others say one Must do to engage readers. Most of [...]
February 17, 2013
Yet Another Publishing Option . . .
I’ve certainly written a lot on this blog about Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing… Now, we have an option that isn’t truly new but is being approached with new verve and technology—”Team Publishing”. There’s a space called NetMinds that I’ve not used and only just discovered; but, the concept is intriguing… They say: “Net Minds was [...]
February 14, 2013
Book Piracy ~ Revisited . . .
“Back in the dim fringes of my always-right, exuberant, ill-informed past, I did steal a book or three. “That was well before the commonality of digital books. Now, folks can steal a book with three mouse-clicks.” I wrote that back in December of 2011 in the post, Do You Steal Books? ~and~ Do AuthorsCare? I [...]
February 13, 2013
This Is Your Brain On Fiction . . .
“The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social [...]
Selling Books Is Hard. ~ So, Why Do Writers Keep Trying?
In spite of the news about unknown authors suddenly selling tons of books, most books have very few readers—some estimates put it at fewer than 100 books sold… I’m going to reference a post on another blog in a minute that might give hope to aspiring writers but, first, let me link to a few [...]
February 12, 2013
Another Look At Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing . . .
I’ve certainly tried to cover the major trends in self-publishing and traditional publishing on this blog… It’s also a certainty that the balance between these paradigms will shift and swerve quite a bit before reaching equilibrium… Today, I want to share two articles, one about a book recommendation site and one about book merchandising—both making [...]
February 11, 2013
How To Sell Ebooks
“There isn’t a single thing I’m saying here that you should automatically believe. Don’t trust me, or any other so-called expert. Instead, try things out for yourself and draw your own conclusions.” Well, I didn’t just say that… That was Joe Konrath and I’m going to share an article he’s written about selling e-books; but, [...]
