Publishing and E-Publishing

Thomas Pugh’s Blog Tour: Welcome to Rollicking Tales!

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In some ways I feel a bit of a fraud offering up advice to would be self or small press publishers. After all I haven’t been in the game very long, it was only January that the Rollicking Tales wagon really began to roll. But then, when I come to think about all the things I have found out it has actually been a very steep learning curve. And if I can impart even one pearl of wisdom to a prospective publisher and help get more stories out there, then it will be worthwhile.

As a bit of background I am a farmer with, up until recently, no experience of the publishing world. I’ve been dabbling in writing for a few years but had never actually finished a story, let alone looked at publishing my own or other people’s work.

Then, in the autumn of 2011 I came to the conclusion that it was time I pulled my finger out. However many ideas I had for stories they were never going to see the light of day unless I sat down and actually wrote. A whole story. Right to the end.

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The Phenomena of “Wesley Crusher: Teenage F*** Machine”

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It’s going to be difficult to do a straight-up analysis of this, but as I’m a bit contrarian, it’s not going to be that difficult.  Now, lest the title of the post make you think I’ve gone insane, let’s back up here.

Recently a Kindle book as been igniting the Amazon sales charts, likely due to its subject matter (Star Trek and sex), its title (“Wesley Crusher: Teenage F*** Machine,” only with less asterisks and more other letters), and the fact it’s free to users of Amazon Prime.  I’m not making this up, you can read the extremely NSFW recap here at io9.

(Again that is really NSFW.  You’ve been warned.)

If, of course you wish to read this, you can go here, download the book, and . . . well, hell if I know.  

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What Whitney Houston’s Death Teaches Us About Publishing

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I'm going to confess I'm a bit uncomfortably writing this story.  Whitney Houston's death was a troubling event, and among the love and sorrow I see over her passing are things that disturb me; snarky jokes, exploitation, disrespect for the dead.  So as I write this, if it's not the usual "Steve" please understand.

Also, admittedly, it's a bit personal; she's one of the distinct singers I grew up with.  It's a familiar voice, and it's gone, and even sadder as she had her personal demons to cope with.

Alan Cross notes an interesting phenomena in the wake of her death – fourteen books on her life appeared within seven hours of her death.  Fourteen.

Cross notes this is part of the larger trend of changes in media, and is much like what happened to music.  Those are very true words – publishing is being changed rapidly with technology, much as music was.  I recall how even a near-decade ago the rap scene was getting a lot of indie people with home studios who made a living with a small market – stuff that today comes cheaply or pre-installed.

Publishing of course is something computers have let us do for decades – it was just the publishing of a word processor and a printer.  Now technology is interlinked enough we can make books in what would seem to be an instant to an author of 20 or 30 years ago.

It's so fast that people can shovel out books the same day as an event.  I'm quite sure a lot of these are crap, but for all we know someone put out their near-finished personal work or some hidden gem of dedication.  Yeah, I doubt it, but . . . it's at least possible.

We're now in an age where book publishing and journalism/reporting (and yellow tabloidism) are on the same speed.

Think about that.  Me, I'm still a bit sad and I'm going to end this here.

– Steven Savage