I’m sharing many thoughts on many topics. Perhaps, with this being the end of the year, I’m feeling introspective. Or maybe there’s just been a lot happening and I’m working to make sense of it. Either way, I’m going to reflect on a lot of different things here. For me, 2023 has been a crazy…
Tag: publishing
How Do I Reconcile the Creative Process with My Brand?
Being an indie-author requires being a brand and business, too. Not so long ago, the only way to publish a book and make money was via traditional publishing. To get there, the main path was to get a literary agent, who would then get you past the gatekeepers and through the doors to the publishers….
Does a Wide World Call for Wide Distribution?
I can’t see why not. But what does that mean? Once upon a time, stunningly not so long ago, there were exactly 2 ways to publish a book. You could do it via a major publishing house or vanity press for self-publishing. The former came with marketing and distribution. The latter didn’t. The latter also…
Sharing My Book Happenings Over the Next Two Weeks
Indie-author self-promotion is utterly necessary. As I’m writing this, I have multiple things happening in my indie-author world. This is the result of a lot of work on a lot of different levels over the past couple of months. Let’s start with the immediate, most time-sensitive element: My standalone fantasy/Steampunk, rise of the villain novel,…
And Now For Something (Kind of, But Not Entirely) Completely Different
Something different for me and my writing/publishing game, at least. As I’m sure you’re sick of reading by now – I started writing sci-fi when I was 9 years old. Wildfire is a 50-page, illustrated book you will never read. After Wildfire, I started but didn’t finish a few other projects. Then, at age 13,…
How Do I Navigate the Changing Landscape of Writing and Publishing?
There’s no right or wrong answer, just lots of options. When I finished my first sci-fi novel – 50 handwritten and illustrated pages – at the age of 9, I tried to get it published. For the creation of a 9-year-old, it wasn’t bad. But neither was it good. As I got older and (I…
Taking a Risk and Expanding the Reach of My Work
A worthwhile risk is always worth taking, in my opinion. I’ve been writing since I was 9 years old. Over the years, I made a lot of attempts to go the traditional route with publishing. For a brief time, I had an agent – but he wasn’t the right fit for me (sci-fi fantasy wasn’t…
What Does the Future of Fiction Publishing Look Like?
Do you go with traditional, non-traditional, or REALLY non-traditional publishing? For a long, long time, the only way to make any money as a fiction writer was to go the traditional publishing route. Along the way, you could submit short stories to magazines, lifestyle sections of newspapers, and anything else that might help you land…
Do I Continue Working with the Familiar or Start the Unfamiliar?
I get to choose if I should work in a familiar or unfamiliar setting. For a long time, I really, really wanted to write a sci-fi epic. Nothing stuck in my mind to drive it. As a pantser (one who writes by the seat of their pants), I never had that flash of, “yes, this!”…
Step One: Write. Step Two: Edit. Step Three: Profit?
Sadly, step three (Profit) requires more steps – and some other intangibles. Since 2013, I have self-published 17 books in total on Amazon. Five of them are nonfiction and published under Murray “MJ” Blehart, while the other 12 are fiction under MJ Blehart. From the outside, it looks like there are 3 steps to the…