Have you ever wondered how they change lightbulbs at the Barnes & Noble? You think some guy is just walking around with a 20 foot ladder and a bag of bulbs? No--that would be too non-invasive. Instead, they drive a cherry picker into the store and let its constant beep-beep-beep echo throughout the store for what was probably the entire morning.
"Charlotte went up to a little table of imitation mahogany with a drawer. She put her hand upon it. The little table was ugly, no doubt, but it had done nothing to her." - Lolita, Chapter 21
No part of saying "this is how much I'll spend on books each month" makes any sense to me. You don't budget; you just buy. The more books the better! Fill up every bookshelf in the house and when you're done, buy another bookshelf.
Presently, the lady herself–sandals, maroon slacks, yellow silk blouse, squarish face, in that order–came down the steps, her index finger still tapping upon her cigarette.Lolita, Chapter 10, Vladimir Nabokov There are plenty of books that might convince you of your mediocrity as a writer, but none so much as Lolita. Reading it is like taking a master class in flowery prose, a lengthy...
I am not a fan of first person POV in the best of times, and the way Weir uses it is super choppy. I did this. I did that. Something happened. The closer I got to the end, the more I found myself skipping lines at a time. That said… great book. Great premise along with an almost unbelievably intelligent and lucky protag. It follows the pattern set up in The Martian while also reminding me...
A couple years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life: I got rid of all (most) of my print books in favor of Kindle. What can I say? I was taken in by that minimalism doc on Netflix. Fast forward to today, and I lament not having a bookshelf overflowing with science fiction and mysteries and light erotica--you know, all the genres my dad kept on his bookshelf when I was a wee little cyberpunk...
I started self-publishing in 2004, and it took me a long, long time to figure out what most authors already knew: you don't market to friends and family. For one, they're often not your target cyberpunk-loving audience. Second, if they do buy your book, it will be because they either love you or genuinely enjoy your work. Either way, it's a limited audience, and your efforts (and money) are...
After independently publishing NINE books since 2004, I'm still updating the way I put out books. Here is my current process, pared down to the bare essentials.
For the first three years of his life, my son has enjoyed classic books like Goodnight Moon, The Pout-Pout Fish, and The Going to Bed Book. More recently, I've been trying to expose him to more mature books like The Ghost on Saturday Night, My Teacher Fried My Brains, and of course, the absolute best children's book in history, Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar. I can usually...