Friday, January 17, 2014

Why Kris Rusch Is Super Smart and You Should Listen to Her

There's lots of people throwing advice left and right in the publishing world these days. Folks who've only put their first indie published book up last week. Folks who've worked for NY publishers for fifty years. Very rarely can you find someone who's a melding of both with a large dose of common sense.

If you don't know who Kristine Kathryn Rusch is, you should find out. She has written in so many genres under a variety of pseudonyms that you've probably read one of her books without realizing it.

In fact, I think the only position in publishing she hasn't held is illustrator.

Right now, she is posting a series on her blog about discoverability. I suggest you start with Part One. She's up to Seven and still going.

One caveat before you click over to Kris. This is NOT a "Three Easy Steps to Becoming a Bestseller" manual. If that's what you want, you need to go elsewhere. And frankly, if you believe writing/publishing is that simple, I have some land in Florida I want to sell you.

Kris's series looks at the long tail, i.e. how to create a career out of your writing. If that's not your worldview, nothing Kris says is going to help you. She also talks about where the industry has been in order to understand where it could possibly be going. You know the old saying about people who don't understand their history are doomed to repeat it.

I'm not saying Kris's series is the Gospel, nor should it be treated as such. But I am a huge believer in having a business plan if you want to make a living in this crazy industry, and Kris's thoughts are an excellent place to start.

And if you're reading my blog for business advice, remember that I'm only telling you what I've tried, what worked and what didn't.

I probably should re-title the blog to "Don't Fuck Up Like I Did."

3 comments:

  1. I rarely link people from my blog to Kris's (or Dean's, for that matter) because if I did, I'd do it every week. :P I've pimped both of them a few times, and I figure anyone who reads me and wants to read Kris (and Dean) already is. More folks waving the pompoms for them, and especially for Kris's Business Rusch series, is always a goodness, though -- spreading the links to more readers is, like, a community service. :)

    Angie

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  2. The reason I did the direct link (because if you look to your right she and Dean both are on My Blog List) is:

    1) this topic is way too important not to miss

    and

    2) I've seen too many people dismiss one or two points as stupid or relevant because it's NOT Three Simple Steps to Becoming a Bestseller.

    Over the last thirty+ years, I've seen people ignore other aspects of their company's purpose/tasks because it's "not my job." By not understanding, they cannot contribute to improvements. When it's a one-person operation like indie publishing, people can royally fuck themselves over with this attitude.

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  3. They're both on my blog list too. [nod]

    And yes, expecting one to read Something Long, or even several long things, and think about them, and do some figuring and some applying of principles to one's own circumstances, and then some more thinking? Some people seem to think this is way too hard, to the point of getting angry about it.

    People like that deserve to fail. I'll bring the popcorn.

    Angie

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