Do you ever wonder if you should be writing for specific trends in the book industry? Genre fiction, especially Science Fiction and Fantasy seems to be especially susceptible to trends. One day it might be dragons, the next zombies. Oh look, vampires that glitter. While it might work to see what’s coming and write for it, you need to keep in mind that getting a book from manuscript to shelf can be a very long process. It may be that by the time your book is ready, it’s already out of style. But what if that isn’t a problem. Maybe vampires (for example) as a subject are going to be around for a while and you decide to write a story […]
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Lost Opportunities
I had a lot of ideas about how I wanted to approach today’s post which goes to show how conflicted I’m feeling right now. You see, yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend and former colleague and it really got me thinking. Now before you ask, no, he wasn’t my best friend. He wasn’t even a friend who I spoke to every week. But he was the type of friend that you can see after a long absence and just pick up where you left off. We had a real rapport and we always had a laugh together. It would be very easy to slip to bitterness and anger about the accident. A drunk driver hit the vehicle Alex was […]
Read moreWriting on a Rollercoaster
It has been a tumultuous week for me. I had the priviledge of interviewing J.C. Hutchins for ‘Get Published’ (GOOD) only to discover that half of the audio is incomprehensible and J.C. is booked solid for the next while (BAD). I am going to try and transcribe the dialogue and re-record it myself, but honestly, how good will a conversation between the same voice be? I’m planning to adjust the voice on J.C.’s side of the conversation just to actually make it sound like a conversation, but still. Then my wife badly injures her hand (VERY BAD) and we spend the next 6+ hours in emergency. Now, just to be clear, I don’t get upset by that sort of thing […]
Read moreWhat Exactly is an Amazon Rush?
I’ve talked about Amazon Rushes a few times, both on this blog and with various people. Quite often the first response I get is a blank stare. People know what Amazon is and they know what a rush is but put those two words together and you get confusion. So what is an Amazon Rush anyway? In its simplest terms, an Amazon Rush is an event held by an author where readers are encouraged to buy a copy or copies of a specific book on a specific day at a specific time (or during a period of time). It should also be mentioned that an Amazon Rush is a social media tool. From that brief description several questions arise. The […]
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