Posts Tagged ‘publishing’
Posted on February 1, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli
This Is Not Another Amazon Post
If you haven’t heard, there was a bit of an awkward business kerfluffle between Amazon and MacMillan this past weekend. No, I am not talking extensively about it other than to say that I believe we are seeing the result of what happens when people are anxious and start to panic. E-Books are a hot [...]
Posted on January 25, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli
Calculating the Cost of an E-Book
I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from my previous post entitled Weighing in on E-Books, so I wanted to talk about ways to calculate the cost of an e-book.
First, let’s pull some arbitrary numbers. (And by arbitrary, I mean that these are not precise figures.) Let’s say that we paid our author $3,000 for [...]
Posted on November 12, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Why Your D&D Game Doesn’t Make a Great Novel
Have you heard the line, “Your D&D game won’t make a great novel?” If you’ve heard me speak on panels before, or if you’ve read several submission guidelines from agents or publishers, you might have. I’d like to tackle why.
First, let’s get all the bad mojo out there on the table by saying something completely [...]
Posted on October 24, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
[Video] Printing Process for THE LOST SYMBOL
This YouTube! video shows the printing process for Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL. I thought you might enjoy seeing how a book is “born,” because there’s a lot of work involved. From the video, you can see how the cover art is etched by hand!
Posted on October 5, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Tips on How to Be a Pro | Part 3 of 3
Thanks for your feedback on this series about “How to be a Pro.” Even though I could go on forever about the importance of being a professional, I’d like to wrap up this topic by offering more tips from other pros and ten more nuggets to consider.
First, here are the links to the first [...]
Posted on September 22, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Tips on How to Be a Pro | Part Two of Three
Last time, I kicked off the series with a quote from Jennifer Brozek and offered some Tips on How to be a Professional for part one of this three part series. So far, this topic has been pretty popular so I’d like to continue it with more tips and quotes from other professionals working in [...]
Posted on July 27, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Looking for Publishing Advice? Why Offline May be Better.
On the internet, there is no shortage of publishing advice. You can often find this advice from people who work in the publishing industry (authors, agents, publishers) as well as from people who don’t (fans, readers, reviewers and some marketers or booksellers). While I do sometimes give publishing advice, I try to put that advice [...]
Posted on July 9, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
My Stance on Writing for Free
There have been a lot of discussions about “free” lately, so I’d like to weigh in with some thoughts on the subject.
Most publishers within the book publishing industry are currently based on a business model that does not pay authors an annual salary to write an unlimited number of books. Typically, authors sign a [...]
Posted on June 14, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
The Hazards of “Getting There First”
As I’m sure everyone knows, there’s a big shake-up happening in the world of traditional journalism. Print newspapers are shrinking — both their staff and their printed size — sending many journalists to the highly competitive world of online publishing.
Online publishing is fairly competitive, because in many writers’ minds — in order to get [...]
Posted on June 8, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Publishing’s Future may be a Paradigm Shift
One of the hot topics over the past, few weeks as been the “future of publishing.” At BookExpo America, the Future is Digital, according to the Washington Post. (You can also find a lot more information on the topic through Publishers Weekly.) While I’m offering my opinions related to the future of professional publishing and [...]
Posted on April 29, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
The Importance of Being Persistent
In an earlier post, I wrote a letter to new writers where I described how the path of a writer is one that winds, ebbs and flows. How do you keep following the same path? One of the qualities that a writer must have is the ability to be persistent. Well, that one word can have a lot of connotations, so I’d like to explain what “being persistent” means to me.
So what does it mean? Well, if you want to be a writer it means you don’t give up. It means when you “think” you have no readers, no chance of success, or that you’ve just written something terrible you keep on the path. You see, it is too easy to drown in self-pity or thoughts about how you’re a horrid writer, but the truth of the matter is that you (and only you) have control over that. To be blunt, if you think you suck — get an editor, or get your work critiqued. If you believe you can’t write horror because your fight scenes are terrible, try perfecting your dialogue for a while instead. Practice, practice, practice and play with your words. If you take a break, plan to get back on that wagon, but don’t ever give up completely.
Posted on April 4, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
How to Make Your Voice Heard in a Sea of Content
Earlier I talked about the concept of content saturation, which spelled out the sheer volume of content added every month and how it’s affecting your writing. Do you have any ideas as to how you can navigate through this sea of content?
First, the cold hard truth is that no amount of yelling, screaming or crying is going to get your content read. Think about the amount of content added every day as an actual “ocean” of words and your potential visitors are akin to “fish” that you want to catch. If you’re on a boat, screaming your head off, are you going to catch a fish? If you tell your potential visitors that “This is the best article I’ve read in a long time. By the way, I wrote it!” will they come to your site? Probably not.
Instead, ask yourself why you are writing your content to figure out what kinds of fish you want to catch.
Posted on February 20, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
How Clients Get Away With Not Paying Freelancers (And What You Can Do About It)
As I mentioned earlier this week in a post about why writers need to list more skills than just writing, it’s not uncommon for businesses to undervalue communication to cut financial corners. Many businesses will add company communications to other positions as a way to save money, especially if it’s not the businesses primary product [...]
My Recent Releases
The Queen of Crows
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Family Games: The 100 Best
Pre-Order at Amazon.comBuried Tales of Pinebox, TX
Available at Amazon.com
Available at DriveThruHorror.comCurrent Project
