N.V. Binder's Blog, page 2

Tax and accounting tips for indie writers

You don’t need to look up my seventh-grade math teacher to learn that I’m no accountant. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But as my business has grown, I’ve realized that my back-of-the-envelope accounting system isn’t doing the job. So this week I set out to get a handle on ... Read more ...

5 facts about writing for money

You don’t need to look up my seventh-grade math teacher to learn that I’m no accountant. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But as my business has grown, I’ve realized that my back-of-the-envelope accounting system isn’t doing the job. So this week I set out to get a handle on ... Read more ...

Now Available: Redshift Episode 2

“Surprise, Surprise,” the second episode of the Redshift serial, is now available on Kindle for $2.99, and it’s a great one. It opens on the “now” timeline with a new character, Chloe Nickel, and her desperate search for Mitchell, who has been captured by the Regulars. Meanwhile, back in Y38, the gang lands on the ... Read more ...

Fifty shades of remix culture

If there’s one lesson Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight can teach us, it’s that a rising (cultural) tide lifts all boats. After filling the author’s and publishers’ bank accounts many times over, Twilight inspired a multimillion dollar movie franchise that launched the careers of several young actors. But the book’s successes didn’t stop there. By fully engaging ... Read more ...

Cooking the books on ebook pricing

Recently I’ve read a spate of articles about how much it costs for publishers to produce a print book, vs. how much it costs to produce an ebook. Everyone knows that readers don’t value ebooks as highly as print books. But “legacy” publishers—new and old, Big Six or small press, find that making books costs ... Read more ...

Cooking the books

Recently I’ve read a spate of articles about how much it costs for publishers to produce a print book, vs. how much it costs to produce an ebook.  Readers simply don’t value a paper book as highly they judge an ebook. But “legacy” publishers–new and old, Big Six or small press, find that producing an ... Read more ...

Lessons of the cargo cults

This actually happened. This is a story from real life. During World War II, in Africa and Asia and the Caribbean, groups of people who had never had contact with modern society suddenly did. In the space of a few years, it rained chocolate and money (and sometimes bombs and guns). Soldiers built office buildings ... Read more ...

It’s all in the timing

These are chronological and story timelines for the Redshift series, containing light spoilers up to Episode #3 (“Deal of the Century”). If you’re trying to put the story in chronological order, I’d start here. Click to embiggen: Compare that to the way the story is actually laid out (blue is the “then” timeline, red is ... Read more ...

A soft touch

In today’s #scifichat, Twitter’s science fiction community debated the difference between “hard” sci-fi and “soft” sci-fi. Broadly speaking, “hard” sci-fi includes books and stories in which there is a solid scientific background for the technological innovations in the story–”stories where you can tell that the author did the math.” In hard sci-fi, if your ship ... Read more ...

Redshift: the reader’s reference

It’s a big galaxy out there. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everybody. This is a list of all the major & minor characters and exciting locations in Redshift. This list has been updated to include all the major characters from “New Year’s Day” (Book #1), available for free from these vendors. People and ... Read more ...