self-publishing

Do You Call Yourself a Writer or an Author?

January 24, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Recently, the Awesome-Dipped-in-Glitter (TM) Kristen Lamb pointed out that “aspiring is for pansies.”  We are not aspiring writers. Aspiring: to have a plan, desire, or hope for something. Writer: a person who writes. If we put those together, that means an aspiring writer is a person who plans, desires, or hopes to write, but doesn’t actually [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, authors, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, self-doubt, self-publishing, website

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Are All Cheap Ebooks Crap?

December 20, 2011 Random Musings
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In my last post, I asked how much people would be willing to pay for ebooks.  Most comments agreed with my thoughts: Ebooks should be less expensive than paper books because of DRM, ownership, quality, and physicality issues.  What surprised me, however, was the number of people turned off by $0.99 ebooks. The comment section [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, authors, branding, ebooks, ereader, feedback, Jami Gold, Kindle, paranormal author, self-publishing, social media, story openings

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How Much Are You Willing to Pay for an Ebook?

December 15, 2011 Random Musings
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Readers come in all types.  Some buy hardcovers, others wait for paperback, some only borrow from libraries, and still others buy the super-deluxe collector’s edition of their favorites. I’ve always thought of myself as a paperback reader who would spring for the hardcover for “keeper” books, but the ebook revolution is making me take a [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, ebooks, Jami Gold, Kindle, paranormal author, professionalism, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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What Is the Internet Missing?

December 13, 2011 Writing Stuff
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That seems like an odd question, doesn’t it?  After all, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Google knew what I had for lunch on Wednesday five weeks ago. In fact, computers and the internet have captured so much information that we sometimes don’t want to memorize facts, figuring we’ll Google it when we need it [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, contracts, editing, Jami Gold, organized, paranormal author, self-publishing, traditional publishing, Twitter

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Publishing Debates: Should We Take Sides?

October 27, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Some days it feels like the publishing business has endless debates and choices where people want us to take sides.  Plotter vs. pantser, plot-driven vs. character-driven, traditional publishing vs. self-publishing.  Ugh. I don’t like taking sides because one answer doesn’t apply to every situation, much less every person.  With my whatever-works-for-you attitude, I try to tweet [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, contracts, Jami Gold, paranormal author, plotter vs. pantser, self-publishing, traditional publishing, Twitter

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The Insanity Behind the Pressure to Have “Numbers”

October 20, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Confession:  I broke one of the unwritten rules of the Writer Code. I ranted.  In public.  On an agent’s blog. And yet I’m still here to tell to the tale.  In fact, the agent responded to my comment and then—in a show of fantastic grace—emailed me to make sure I didn’t take offense.  We ended [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, authors, blogging, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, Jami's rants, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, risk, self-publishing, social media, traditional publishing, Twitter

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Are Writers without Business Sense Doomed?

October 11, 2011 Writing Stuff
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The comments of my last post led to a great conversation about how not having a business mindset will likely hurt authors.  However, I didn’t say writers absolutely, positively must be business-minded.  I don’t think writers without an entrepreneurial spirit or business sense are doomed. The truth is that we can’t be good at everything.  We all have weaknesses, whether that be craft [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, contracts, Jami Gold, paranormal author, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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Are Writers Entrepreneurs?

October 6, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Have you ever visited a restaurant where the food was fantastic, but the service was atrocious?  I’ve known several places like that.  People who love to cook might dream for years about opening their own place—and then once they do, the restaurant fails. Why?  Because the skill of being a good cook is different from [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, paranormal author, self-publishing, traditional publishing, website

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How To Avoid the Publishing Kool-Aid

October 4, 2011 Writing Stuff
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This isn’t going to be one of those “let’s bash traditional publishing/self-publishing” posts.  There are still too many of those opinions on both sides, and I don’t want any part of that. Two people I respect blogged recently about publishing and kool-aid.  Agent Janet Reid posted about the ten things authors should be doing right now. [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, dreams, ebooks, happiness, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, paranormal author, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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Are All Writers Delusional?

September 29, 2011 Writing Stuff
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My first sarcastic impulse is to answer that question with “Duh.”  Writers have to be somewhat delusional to pursue a career that has such a minuscule chance of financial success.  (Not to mention that fiction writers exist in a constant state of make-believe.)  But there are different styles of delusion. There’s the unconsciously incompetent phase we go through [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, Ask Jami, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, self-doubt, self-publishing, social media, Twitter

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