The fact that the book industry is changing has never been driven home quite as clearly as it was in the last few days. The first epiphany was when I read a post by my publisher, Lorina Stephens of Five Rivers Publishing. She wrote about how Indigo (the 500-pound gorilla in Canada for book sales) is now pushing the small and indie presses around (post found here). Essentially, the book chain has made the decision to supplement their waning book sales by selling giftware. Fair enough. If it helps them survive, all the power to them. But, and here is where the bullying comes in, they are also basically pushing the small presses out. Lorina says it better than me by far, so I […]
Read moreCategory: Books
This section contains new books and reviews of books I’ve read.
Why Publishing is Slow: the Experience
As you probably know, I’ve been working towards the goal of getting published for several years now. Last year I had some success with my short stories, managing to get three of them accepted by various e-magazines and digital sites. That success only encouraged me to work harder to get my books in front of publishers to try and get them published as well. Then, in October, I received my first book contract for my YA Superhero novel, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero”. The book is the first in what I expect to be a six-book series. I was (and still am) very excited about this development, but, as I have said many, many times, publishing is slow. I know where […]
Read moreDealing With the Dreaded Negative Feedback
When I made the decision to write and podcast “GalaxyBillies”, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Would people like the story? Would they hate it? Would I be able to pull it off at all? But, since without risk there can be no reward, I decided to take a stab at it. As we all do, I watched eagerly for any feedback I could get. And I watched… and then I watched some more. I eventually started to see some positive feedback trickle in and I was relieved when nothing bad was forthcoming. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the amount of feedback was almost zero which, to me, meant the story wasn’t really worth commenting on. […]
Read morePhoenix Rising: A Steampunk Symphony
I have had the good fortune to read and enjoy the work of Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine for several years. I like the writing styles of both but they are very different. When I heard that they were collaborating on a book, and a steampunk one at that, I was cautiously optimistic. Not because I didn’t think they could pull it off, but because I had no idea what the meshing of their two voices would be like. In other words, would the result be a symphony or a cacophony? I am delighted to say that the book, “Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel” is a symphony of the highest order. The characters are rich and the […]
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