Did you hear the latest on J.K. Rowling, the forty-seven-year-old best-selling author of the Harry Potter series? She wrote a crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, and did something sneaky. She published it under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, and pretended to be “a former plainclothes military policeman who had left the Army in 2003 to work in the private security industry” (The Telegraph). It’s perfectly logical why Rowling would use such deception. Imagine being such a successful author and trying to publish something after Harry Potter fame. Anything less successful would be a major letdown. She said, “Being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name” (The Telegraph). Later, she added, “Being Robert Galbraith has been all about the work, which is my favorite part of being a writer . . .…
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Note: From time to time, I plan to feature a handy gadget I enjoy using on my computer, since I spend so much time there anyhow. When possible, I will tie the gadget into my love of fiction writing. I’m sure someone’s thought of it, but so far, I haven’t seen anything burst on the scene for books like Spotify is for music. Oh wait. Some of you may not even know what Spotify, one my favorites free services, is or how it works. Here’s a quick description (minus the gobbledygook), thanks to Wikipedia: Spotify is a commercial music streaming service…Music can be browsed by artist, album, record label, genre or playlist as well as by direct searches. In short, one can listen to basically any music available in Spotify’s gargantuan library. And yes, it’s legal and free. The only drawback of the free service, of which I’m a subscriber, is the…
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Wednesday was one of those days. I had a comprehensive copyedit of a 120,000-plus-word novel due by 8:00 p.m. With evening prayer meeting scheduled, I knew I had even less time than usual. By 3:00 p.m., I was doing a reread of the last fifty pages on my Kindle, just double-checking my work. By suppertime at 5:15, I was still at it—and feeling pressured and getting hot and bothered. Ask my family. I literally devoured my wife’s wonderful salmon pie, flew upstairs to get dressed for church, and dashed back to my basement office to wrap up the last few details and e-mail the file . . . just ten minutes before we had to leave for church. And on top of that, I was in charge of leading worship. Gasp! Quality Suffers Yes, I met my deadline. Barely. But by cutting it so close, I wasn’t a happy camper. Why?…
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Keep in mind that I’m simply asking the question. This is no overt message to my readers or anyone else that I’m leaving traditional publishing. However, lately I’m seeing more and more signals that traditional publishing is becoming even narrower and less author friendly than it ever was before. Why do I say this? Literary agent Steve Laube recently posted about massive changes at B&H Publishing, home of Brandilyn Collins, Alton Gansky, Robin Carroll, and other fine Christian suspense novelists. What are the changes? One listed item made my stomach drop: Novels scheduled for release through March/April 2014 will continue as planned. But all novels contracted thereafter have been cancelled. Authors may keep advance monies prepaid and rights to those books will revert, but all future contracted advances will not be paid. (http://stevelaube.com/changes-at-bh-fiction/) Oh, that’s bad, my friends. Can you imagine slaving away for several years and finally getting a…
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