Liars, All Of Them

If anyone tells you they know what's going on in publishing right now, they're lying. Sure, they might have a business model that profits on last month's publishing trends, but talk to them six months from now at their job at Starbucks.

I'm considering going with an eBook publisher for book 5. There would be upfront fees, and they would take some of my royalties, but some of these companies are really legitimate and somewhat selective about what projects they take on. The main reason is that they would take some of the work out of my hands when it comes to layout, design, and file conversion and distribution, which can be technical and time-consuming, and publicity, which I can't really do myself. How much publicity they would do, how it would benefit me, and whether it would be worth a portion of my profits is the big question nobody can really answer, even publishing professionals like my bosses (who are agents) and my agent. Everyone's got a good guess, but it's really a guess. The publishing conference on eBook publishers that I went to was just ... exhausting. In the end I will still probably go with one if I can, because if I don't like the model or the business model becomes totally outdated in a year, I have books 6-10 to do something else with.

SALE - On book 1 for the Kindle, now $1.99 for the rest of the month.

In other news I'm going to India in March to volunteer for the Tibetan refugee community, and write about it afterward. This is a big deal for me, so please consider donating to my Kickstarter project. There's a fun video where I explain what I want to do and why, plus you get to see my kitchen wall. I don't know if that does anything for you, but I'm throwing that out there. And there's great prizes! Super great prizes, actually, when it comes to Tibetan stuff. Please give it a look-see. And try not to remember that I just used the term "look-see."