Publishing Tips & Industry Babbles

  • Why my books are no longer returnable through Ingram

    I wrote a draft of this post back in January and then never published it because I was lacking the spoons to deal with all of this. However, some stuff has come up that made me feel it was important to finally get this out there and address this issue. First, a disclaimer: The content of this post is entirely speculation on my part. The evidence I do have, while…

  • Why I’m excited about the Draft2Digital + Smashwords merger

    If you’ve read this blog in years past, you know I have been down on Smashwords before. You know I’ve said some not-very-nice things about them. But truth be told, for many years, the Smashwords store was my go-to place to buy books as a reader. When I got my first Kindle, I ran to the Smashwords store and browsed a special sale they were holding, grabbing all sorts of…

  • There is no magic bullet

    Something that’s been really bothering me for a couple years now is this pervasive idea in indie publishing that there’s a formula to success, and anyone can be making five+ figures from their writing if they follow the formula. You’ll see it a lot on social media, especially on Facebook in writers’ groups. Authors will post that their book isn’t selling, and the peanut gallery will come racing in with…

  • How to publish a hardcover on Ingram Spark

    As I mentioned previously, now that I am working with Snowy Wings Publishing I’m going to be re-releasing Fourth World with a hardcover edition. In the process of setting that hardcover up, I came across many stumbling blocks and experienced much general confusion due to the fact that IngramSpark’s publishing interface is not intuitive and requires you to do a lot of digging through PDF manuals, sorting through FAQ, and last-ditch…

  • Tips for editing an anthology

    We’re a little under a month out from publication on Perchance to Dream! I’m excited for it to be released, but I’m also excited for it just to be done. This project has consumed so much of my time, and I will be really glad to be able to go back to working on my regular projects (poor Fourth World and its sequels have been quite neglected the past few…