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Serial entrepreneur Dave O'Neil, fresh off of a nice review of my latest magnum opus Pirates of Mars, writes about Business 101. He's been reading a Charles Stross post about Amazon's ebook strategy that has been infested with idiots screaming about how easy self-publishing is. (Sadly, this is the fate of many publishing discussions.)
Here's a news flash - running a business is complicated, especially if one is trying to make a living at it. There's a reason schools offer MBA (that stands for "Masters of Business Administration") degree programs. Most businesses are like icebergs - the part that you see is only a fraction of the whole.
Here's another news flash - the publishing business is not the music business. Musicians do not need editors or typesetting. Marketing of music is different than marketing of books (electronic or paper). The most effective way to market music is to give away some of the product (which we call "songs") for free. That strategy isn't nearly as effective for books.
Bottom line - writing is an art, publishing is a business. Never confuse the two.
Here's a news flash - running a business is complicated, especially if one is trying to make a living at it. There's a reason schools offer MBA (that stands for "Masters of Business Administration") degree programs. Most businesses are like icebergs - the part that you see is only a fraction of the whole.
Here's another news flash - the publishing business is not the music business. Musicians do not need editors or typesetting. Marketing of music is different than marketing of books (electronic or paper). The most effective way to market music is to give away some of the product (which we call "songs") for free. That strategy isn't nearly as effective for books.
Bottom line - writing is an art, publishing is a business. Never confuse the two.
