Building a Career Archives

Archive for the ‘Building a Career’ Category

How Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors and Publishers Can Take Advantage of Price Promotions

If you’re an author or publisher, price promotions are a powerful way to reach new readers and sell books.

How powerful? In 2015, price promotions on BookBub alone drove sales of over 20 million ebooks — and over 200 of the books with promotions featured on BookBub made it to The New York Times bestseller list.

In this post, we’ll explain how science fiction and fantasy authors and publishers can tap into some of that power and use price promotions to accomplish multiple book marketing goals.

Kickstarter Visits the SFWA Suite!

If you’re going to be at MidAmeriCon II on Aug 20th, be sure to check out the SFWA’s Meet-and-Greet with Margot Atwell, Kickstarter’s Publishing Lead.

Ten Thoughts About the Business Side of Writing

by Russell Galen

Have an agent. If you feel you don’t need one, find another human being to whom you have no emotional attachments, who knows a lot about the IP business, will tell you the truth, will be a sounding board for your literary and business questions, and will speak to the buyers of your work so that you can keep some distance from them.

SFWA Admits Game Writers, All Heck Breaks Loose, Film at 11

by Cat Rambo

So this morning one of the items that’s been hovering in the wings for a couple of weeks now finally went out, which was the announcement of the game writing qualifications. Since there there’s been a lot of stir and some questions about it. So here’s some answers.

Guest Post: Amazon Bites Author

by Mary Rosenblum

So you can publish on Amazon.com, but if you’re successful they’ll yank your book? What kind of catch 22 is this? Ah, oh yes, all you authors who are trading reviews? Amazon.com, according to that helpful associate Brad spoke to, is ‘looking at’ Goodreads, too. Their own company! They’re looking at authors who connect up to swap reviews… If most of your reviews come from other authors, you might want to think about this.

Project Scarlet Eagle

by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

As a science fiction writer, I’m always on the lookout for cutting edge technologies that might spark an idea for a story. This time, an initiative called Project Scarlet Eagle came looking for me. At first it was all hush-hush, but now I have permission to tell you everything[1].

A Tool for Teachers – Diigo Link Outliner

by K. Tempest Bradford

I use the Diigo Outliner, a versatile online tool that I recommend to teachers and writers who want to arrange collections of links and text in an easy to scan and understand way.

How Not to Read Like a Beta Reader

by Kate Heartfield

A few distinct kinds of reading come with the job of being a writer: research, market research, reading for awards ballots and contest juries, reading for sheer pleasure.

And then there’s beta reading or critiquing.

Special Synopsis Sauce

by Curtis C. Chen

Okay. You wrote a novel. That was the easy part.

Now you need to write a synopsis.

Guest Post: The Work of Writing

by Theodora Goss

I keep reading blog posts that basically all make the same point: anyone can find time to write. You’ve probably read them too. The message is, if you want to be a writer, you can find the time. Get up early and write before work. Write on your lunch break. Write on your commute home. Write after everyone else is asleep. If you can write even a hundred words a day, eventually you’ll have a novel.

It’s not a bad message, but it’s aimed toward aspiring writers. And aspiring writers, I would argue, are very different from working writers, who are different, again, from professional writers.