TLDR: The increasing popularity of Kickstarter is a death-knell for traditional publishing, but great news for writers, both new and established, who’ll get access to better-paying and faster publishing options.

People, especially new(ish) writers, keep complaining that Brandon Sanderson’s kickstarter is going to hurt writers, publishers, and book-loving aliens from Mars.

I’ve seen arguments that it will make publishers less willing to pay writers, less willing to gamble on new writers, and less willing to publish non-best-selling books.

That’s great news!

Check this: the big trad publishers are dying. Have been for the past 30 years, and it accelerated as online shopping accelerated. (more…)

There are times when you look at a book by your favorite writer and despair. That your writing stinks, and that you’ll never be that good. That there’s no point in continuing. You’ve been doing this for months, or years, or decades, and you’re still not good enough.

I feel you pain – but there’s an easy explanation. (more…)

I have, at the time of this writing, received 829 rejections.

I’ve also sold 59 stories, most of them to pro-paying magazines, with another 9 out on submission right now.

If you crunch the numbers, you’ll see that I’m getting a 93,4% rejection rate. Which is actually quite good.

Let me explain. (more…)

This goes into the “inspiring” file: a 99-year-old veteran of the US Marine corps bought his first computer at age 95, and has now published a children’s book.

“Most of us have a bucket list that we never have time to do, until life presents us with spare time, and that is what happened to me.” – 99-year-old first-time author Sam Baker

Read the whole story.

English is my third language, and the one I most prefer to write in.

That’s because it’s the language that I’ve read the most in, and the one I’ve practiced writing in the most.

It wasn’t always like this. (more…)

I talked to a neo-pro indie writer who soured on the whole experience, having paid $460 for editing, formatting, cover, keyword research, and a bunch of other stuff to get his book published.

In his view, he’d never make that money back. Which is quite true. But that’s not his problem.

His problem is that he overpaid. A LOT.

I published my first self-published novel in November. Total cost: $0.78 for two stock images. (more…)

This is one of the key reasons that I dislike a military/military SF novel: the military wouldn’t work that way.

I can buy battleships in space. I can buy WWIII. I can even buy magic and guns.

What I can’t buy is a lack of knowledge of basic logistics. (more…)

There are two types of business books: the ones that talk about business, and the ones that teach you how to do it. Coleman’s Crowdfunding Your Fiction falls solidly into the second category.

If you’ve ever thought about using Kickstarter (or a similar crowdsourcing platform) to launch a book, you need to red Crowdfunding Your Fiction.

CYF (which I’m going to call it from now on) gives you a high-level overview of everything you need to do in order to successfully launch a crowdfunding campaign. Then it dives into every little detail, and holds your hand while guiding you through every step, including pointing out where to click on the homepage. (more…)

Here’s the truth: Length doesn’t matter.

Ever.

I could throw in a juvenile pun here, but I’m going to spare you that. Instead I’ll focus on the fact that there is no set length for a chapter.

Translation: there are no rules. (more…)

I’m guessing that most of you have already seen this, but if not, Brandon Sanderson has a new, 4-book Kickstarter out.

It’s broken all manner of records, in fact, it might become the most funded Kickstarter ever, and is already the most funded one in publishing (all publishing, not just books,) only being beaten out by the Pebble Watch for most funded KS ever.

What does this mean? Well, for us as readers, it means that we’ll be seeing more established writers Kickstarting their books.

Brandon’s last KS, for the limited edition of Way of Kings, brought in $6 700 000. The Four Secret Novels has already tripled that – and proven that WoK wasn’t a fluke.

It’s likely scaring traditional publishers like crazy.

Why?

Because it proves that a single writer, with a small, dedicated staff, can bring in a lot of money. No need for massive publishing houses. No need for the one advantage which the big publishers have held, the trade channels (i.e. the ability to get books into bookstores.)

Yes, Brandon is a superstar. Yes, he’s got a huge, dedicated fanbase.

But he’s not unique. And more, his lowest tier is ebook only, and it’s gotten over 12 000 buyers, which is on par with the audiobook, and the premium hardcover.

That’s a punch in the gut for traditional publishing and their attempts to bury ebooks. It’s also a punch in the gut for their ebook pricing models – a superstar writer charging $10 per book.

Now, this is only the first 24 hours, and we haven’t seen the reactions of the publishing world and the reading world, but I imagine that for writers, this is a huge boost, and even more so for indie writers.

Luck and Persistence!