In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Important Post 1
* Important Post 2
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“There are nearly 20 million titles available for delivery tomorrow in today’s world; there were certainly well under a million available 20 years ago. And with most customers not reached through inventory in stores, it is usually not relevant where a potential customer is: in your country or someplace else.” Mike Shatzkin
“[T]here really are only two companies that define the book business today. … Amazon and Ingram comprise the global infrastructure of the book business. Amazon has the single biggest share of the online print and ebook (through its Kindle format) markets. And Ingram reaches every other corner of the book world.” Mike Shatzkin
“If a retail bookstore is your only option for reaching customers as it was for hundreds of years, you build your business, marketing and pricing around the costs of that sales channel.” The Passive Guy
Important Post 1
Wow, what an important post today at The Creative Penn. Do this:
1. Please go read “You Are A Writer. You Create And License Intellectual Property Assets” at https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2021/10/27/you-are-a-writer-you-create-and-license-intellectual-property-assets/.
2. Print-out (or copy/paste) the article and save it for future reference. I’ve linked to it in several categories in the Writers Resources on my author website.
3. Then go read PG’s lengthy, very important take on the original article, which is excerpted at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/you-are-a-writer-you-create-and-license-intellectual-property-assets/.
You’re welcome.
Important Post 2
Then, please go read “Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/every-publishing-strategy-should-start-with-amazon-and-ingram/. You’ll find the link to the original article, but again, be sure to read PG’s take.
What’s absolutely astounding and impressive about this article is that it was written by “veteran publishing consultant” and long-time traditional publishing insider Mike Shatzkin.
In addition to the Quotes of the Day above, Shatzkin wrote that “Ingram will accept it as part of their job description to help you optimize your sales through Amazon. The reverse is not true.”
In that quote, if you replace “Ingram” with “Draft2Digital,” the statement remains true, and Draft2Digital, like Amazon, also offers POD (paper) publishing and distribution in addition to ebook aggregration. Just sayin’.
Talk with you again later.
Of Interest
See “Genre and Its Discontents” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/genre-and-its-discontents/. A fun and informative post.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 380 words
Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for October……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for October… 11340
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 177300
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 800582
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.