Publishing -

08May 2017 by Dianna L. Gunn

Let’s talk about Amazon! (And other ways to support authors you love)

Publishing

So, news came out this week that Amazon is screwing authors over (surprise!) by allowing third parties to compete for the Buy Box for "new copies". There's a long explanation of it on Huffington Post, but the gist of it is that retailers who have many copies in stock will be given priority. This is a problem for self publishers and small presses, who usually use Amazon's Print on Demand technology and therefore don't actually have copies in stock. Amazon's new policy therefore allows third party retailers to completely undercut authors and publishers. When I read this, I was angry for what I hope are obvious reasons. Authors and publishers put an incredible amount of work into every book. We deserve to be paid. So I went on a Twitter…

31Mar 2015 by Dianna L. Gunn

Why I submit to small publishers first

Publishing

First off, let me confess that I have daydreamed about getting a contract from Simon and Schuster, Random House or another one of the big publishers. In these daydreams I get a five figure--sometimes six figure--advance and my book appears in every bookstore throughout Toronto. I suspect you've had similar daydreams. What writer hasn't? We might be satisfied with making a decent living from our work, but every writer at some point imagines what it would be like to make as much money from their books as J.K. Rowling or George R. R. Martin. And yet years of researching--and working in--the publishing industry have convinced me that a contract with a big publisher is rarely as grand as one imagines it to be. Big advances mean lots of time waiting…