Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 105

Writing as Process/Writing as Artifact

Lonfiction asked a question about whether or not you might regret anything you'd written if you knew that nothing you wrote would ever be published going forward. It made me realize that things I have written and things I'm writing are completely different animals for me. It's really worthwhile to go read the whole thread as there are some very interesting conversations there. Here is my response:

It's an interesting thought experiment, but one that strips gears for me, because at some fundame...

Newbie Question #16

16. Have you ever doubted yourself while writing? If so, how do you get over it?

I doubt myself all the time, just ask the folks in my writers' group. I constantly complain that I don't know what the f**k I'm doing or that my stories suck, etc., etc. I get over my doubt by tapping my support network -- my writers' group and my partner. (Because, if nothing else, my partner will say these magic words: "We need the money." Works for me every time. :-)

But I think this is actually a question about...

No, the publishers are probably not going away tomorrow

I personally adore reading on a screen—when my publisher shifted to an all electronic work flow for editorial I was delighted—and it's certainly very likely that e-books will become a large part of books sold sooner rather than later. At the same time, I don't think that books are going away any time soon and I'm not at all certain that the shift to CD and MP3 is a good comparison to a shift to e-readers.

For one thing, the formats killed off by digital music had much shorter histories and tes...

Smart Things & More Amazonfail

Jay Lake saying smart things About the life cycle of a manuscript going through publication and all the things a publisher does. This is related to the Amazon Macmillan mess, but would be a smart thing even without that. In the future I will direct my writing students to take a look at this post.

Agent Joshua Bilmes talking about e-book royalty structures.

Amazonfail links:

Snerched from Jay Lake, two posts on Apple's entry into ebooks both of which predate Amazonfail and both of which talk abou...

Friday Cat Blogging on Saturday Afternoon

Shade cat.



Sun cat



Is this my good side?



In another life I was a very large toad.

In the Absence of Kelly's Cats

Here is one of mine, Ms. All Ball, in her favorite spot on the radiator.

No, Really, Publishers Do A LOT For The Author

I wrote the note below in response to someone saying (for the 5,000th wrong time in this Amazon thing) that publishers are no longer necessary because of internet distribution of ebooks. It takes a lot of money to produce a book in terms of editing, copyediting, PR, and even gatekeeping (yes there's value to gatekeeping, it helps readers find books they have much better odds of enjoying). Now, this particular comment was a slightly more sophisticated version of the "you don't need publishers"...

Linky Bits

My friend Beth being wise about life once again.

Tim Powers annotated bibliography. Want!

Very interesting take on the Amazonfail (Macmillan edition) scuffle by a former music industry exec.

A legal perspective on the same issue by way of how it might impact the Google settlement from C.E. Petit.

Jeff Vandermeer talks about the issue from the point of view of a sense of entitlement.

Newbie Questions #11 & 12

11. How do I know which agent is best for me?

12. How much should I expect to pay an agent to represent my book?

Last one first: NOTHING.

Remember the rule that money always flows to the author. A literary agent works the same way a real estate agent does, which is to say that you should pay nothing until the book sells. Then, you can expect to pay a percentage of that sale. When I was agent hunting in the late Cretaceous that percentage was 15%, now-a-days it could be slightly more, but not si...

What Scalzi Said

John Scalzi is pointing out that in light of the Amazon mess, now would be an excellent time to go out and buy a Macmillan author's book from someplace other than Amazon, because this is going to hurt them. Let me note that is particularly true of authors debuting this week. As an Ace/Penguin author, this doesn't affect me directly, but what Amazon is doing is really bad for publishing in general and writers in specific. Also, a lot of my friends and colleagues are among the collateral damage...