Recent content by Demesnedenoir

No, I'm not big on socials. I just don't have the time, and I'm not really running any serious ads at the moment. Just a trickle. Life took a few turns since Eve of Snows and I'm kind of at that "damn, I'm comfortable" point in life where it just doesn't make sense to do social media when I hate...

Welcome aboard!

Not half expected, nor just on socials, but paid advertising. Let's put it this way... a publishing house might spend $1 million on the rights to a book and spend 35k on advertising. How much do you think they'll spend on a book they pay 5k for? When I semi-retire from regular life and if I...

$2 in ads for $1 in sales equals "doing it wrong" is arguable. With advertising costs on anything effective, if you only have one book available is it very difficult to break even or go into profit. Read-through is where most folks make their money. Plus, there are a lot of factors involved. If...

Oh, the basic stat is that 96% of books will sell less than 1000 copies. And if you start moving some books, you'll suddenly find them being pirated. Oh, here's a fun set of quotes... Q. Who is the best selling Simon & Schuster author currently? A. Right now it’s Colleen Hoover. Q. Does she...

Overall profit, pretty much nobody will make 7 figures off a single book without being oh, George Martin or Stephen King or Brandon Sanderson or somebody of that level of name recognition. I made money off Eve of Snows and plowed it all back into profits—only once was I dumb enough to pay taxes...

As pmmg said, there is a strong chance that means they'll ignore your ass if you don't click enough boxes. But, it can also be virtue signaling—like many people use she/her—so it never hurts to submit. Another important thing to note is that, to paraphrase Sanderson, publishing isn't an old...

It might, might be accurate to say that 1% of people who sign an agent get a publishing deal with the Big 5... But I doubt that, because there are a lot of crappy agents there, heh heh. Plus, there would be a major difference between Big 5 and small press. But even with small press, I dunno. I...

I'd say it's not, but for trad, only the gatekeepers matter. And do the gatekeepers practice what they preach? Who knows. Writing to market is always tricky because it can flip in a heartbeat. I'd say to write what you want to write in the most marketable way possible and hope for the best. It's...

1-2%? Who the hell is Google trying to fool? Promotion? Potential career? There are way more indies making more money than traditional published authors. The Big 5 do very little to promote a work unless they spend big bucks in a bidding war, which is about like winning the lottery. Typically...

I don't wanna pay for the book to rip it apart, but if I get a copy for free, let the pages fly! Stupid twinkling vampires anyhow.

That Brit list is pretty good, though I don't know An Inspector Calls at all, though I admit to limited knowledge of theater. Also, a rather entertaining group of works without being too dense.

I'm not really sure what qualifies as "medieval" high fantasy. GoT sure, LoTR? Ummm. I don't consider LoTR medieval. Western? Yes. I think the "high" or "epic" is missing from your description. Trad publishing (when considered from the profit/loss presented in court documents) is a bad business...

I know I read some Donaldson a little later in life, post-U I think, and his writing didn't put off at that point. He is, at least, a mature writer writing for mature audiences, even if I read it when a youth. There is a lot of moral ambiguity in the character of Thomas Covenant that one can...

All I remember about the Belgariad is... rrrrrr ummmmm, the series name! I doubt I could read them as an adult, but I at least made it through the first series as a youngster.