Category: Writing

‘Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against PublishAmerica’

On By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Writing2 Comments

I came across this article on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America site today, here.

I’ve been vaguely aware of PublishAmerica for a while, mainly for their notoriously shady and author-unfriendly business practices:

‘Defendant provides very poor editing services, is slow to respond to book orders, and it routinely overprices the books it publishes. This is no accident. Defendant will only lower the price of its clients’ books to a competitive rate for a $399 fee. These practices make it difficult for even the most enterprising authors to promote their own books.‘

It seems like the chickens might be coming home to roost for PA.

Update on ASCENSION POINT

On By Dan HarrisIn WritingLeave a comment

It’s getting exciting. I’m nearly at the end of my beta reader edits, which have been really helpful. (If you’re reading – thanks!)

Soon it’ll be professional edit time; I have a slot booked with the team at RedAdept Publishing, who come very highly recommended by the folks on the KindleBoards Writers Café. Looking forward to that.

And as if that wasn’t enough, my cover designer, the lovely Stephanie Mooney, sent me the first mock-ups for my cover yesterday! They look awesome, really close to what I’ve been envisioning. Just a few tweaks needed, and it’ll be done. You’ll see it here first, of course.

Exciting times!

Yet More On The Death Throes of Legacy Publishing

On By Dan HarrisIn Self-Publishing, WritingLeave a comment

There were a couple of great blog posts today from two of the heavyweights.

Here Joe Konrath talks about the fallacy of the slippery slope argument that Amazon is out to destroy the publishing industry, so they can then jack up prices and start ripping everyone off.

“A lot of bookstores might blame Amazon for putting them out of business, or competing unfairly. Welcome to capitalism, kids. That’s like saying, ‘My girlfriend left me for another guy who is more attractive and treats her better.'”

And here Dean Wesley Smith writes about the many myths of indie publishing versus traditional.

“You are guaranteed to sell more copies through a traditional publisher. Let me just try not to choke with laughter. Folks, I have sold books to traditional publishers that sold exactly 625 copies at last royalty statement. I have had books go out of print and the publisher still hold them at less than 2,000 copies. Some of those books I got advances beyond thirty grand. Trust me, selling to a traditional publisher doesn’t mean numbers of copies.”

‘The End of The World as We Know It’

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Self-Publishing, WritingLeave a comment

Kris Rusch gives the legacy publishing doom-mongers an absolute skewering on her blog here, using only the power of actual facts and figures.

“For many in traditional publishing, the world is ending. Their clout is vanishing and their ability to understand what is going on is vanishing with it. They’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, wondering why it has suddenly gotten so cold. Yeah, they may survive in the future, but they’ll always remember the night they hit that iceberg—and the surprise they felt.”

This Is Why We Need Beta Readers, People

On By Dan HarrisIn Writing11 Comments

Just a quick one.

Among other excellent feedback from my friend Steve on ASCENSION POINT was this gem: “If you use the word ‘smiled’ one more time I will cry.”

“Oh, really?” thinks the author. “I’m sure he’s exaggerat- oh.”

135 times, in 88,000 words.

That’s 0.15%, and would only be acceptable if there were fewer than 700 words in the English language. And maybe not even then.

‘The Ultimate Guide To Writing Better Than You Normally Do’

On By Dan HarrisIn Writing2 Comments

‘Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.’

Solid advice. Full piece here.

Holidays and Edits

On By Dan HarrisIn WritingLeave a comment

Limited bloggery over the past few days – sorry about that. We’ve been away on a little trip over the long weekend here in Brazil. I have no idea which saint’s day it was which gave me the day off last Thursday, but I’m grateful – taking the extra vacation day on Friday made it a four day weekend, and they’re always good.

Anyway. Read more…

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Writing2 Comments

The old master died peacefully yesterday. There’s a wonderful obituary from Lev Grossman at TIME here.

““If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful,” he once said. “I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.” He sold his first story in 1941 to Super Science Stories and never looked back. He had an essay in the New Yorker last week.”

He’ll be missed.

So It Turns Out my Fiancée is a Great Editor

On By Dan HarrisIn Writing3 Comments

Lovely fiancée Amisha powered through the first half of ASCENSION POINT today, and has loads of great feedback, including some things I’d simply never have thought of:

“If she’s a really powerful politician who works all the time, why does she care so much about her beauty regimen? I mean, look at Dilma.”

It’s marvellous having a voracious reader and very smart cookie to give the story a good kicking before it goes off to the professional editor. I really want to make this first novel the absolute best it can be.

And on that note, I’m very excited that Stephanie Mooney will be starting work on my cover next week – can’t wait to see what she puts together. Exciting times!