Small Press Publishers: Creating Smarter Business Plans

I’d like to start shining the spotlight on small press publishers, and talk about some of the behind-the-scenes factors that affect writers, editors and business owners. Many of these mistakes can be applied to other small businesses as well, but in the publishing world — these pitfalls can affect how and when contributors get paid, the success of a book and the financial solubility of a publisher. One of the most common scenarios, is when a publisher either doesn’t create a business plan, or neglects to revisit it even when there are changes and fluctuations within the industry.

It’s not uncommon for a small press publisher to produce books for the sake of producing books or for a small press publisher to regard their business as a “hobby.” From all outside appearances, it appears that the small press publisher knows what they’re doing — they publish a book or imprint that appears to be of decent quality, and they do so when they can. While we writers may never know if their numbers are “there,” if the small press publisher doesn’t have a plan, anything that happens beyond the status quo (success or failure) can hurt their business. A huge spike (or drop) in sales can cause small press publishers to have knee-jerk reactions that affect everyone involved with the business. Reactions can range from cutting communication to public attacks or halting production, affecting more than just the people that are involved with the business.
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Job hunting? Here’s a Search Engine you Can’t Live Without

Monster. HotJobs. Your local paper. Company websites. If you’re looking for a job, conventional wisdom almost always says that looking for work is a job in itself. With so many places to hunt for listings, job hunting isn’t always a quick-and-easy thing to do — especially if you start adding multiple websites to your list.

Enter http://www.indeed.com, a specialty search engine that pulls jobs from multiple websites. Also known as a “vertical search engine,” this type of search engine offers job hunters precious time by pulling in results from all over the web. Earlier, I had mentioned how important it was to use keywords to sell your articles. Here, hunting for jobs is no different.

After a few weeks of trial-and-error, you’ll want to make sure you have a list of different combinations of keywords available for the job you’re looking for. Because some listings may appear on multiple sites, I generally only went about three-to-five search result pages deep to find what I was looking for. You can search by income level and location, but be forewarned that the results are only as good as the listings. Sometimes, the same job can appear in the low and high income stratospheres. Anecdotally, this might be the case because positions often don’t list the salary for the job so Indeed might default to offering the listing in every category.

For my fellow prolific freelancers, Indeed.com does list contract positions and freelance writing and editing opportunities in places you’d expect like http://www.problogger.com and places you certainly wouldn’t. Highly recommended, this vertical search engine is useful, focused and saves me time. If you’re interested, check out some of the links at the bottom of Indeed.com’s search engine portal; you’ll find the “trends” graphing capability to be quite interesting.

Do you Know Why you Need Public Domain Fonts?

Bluntly, public domain (or open domain) fonts are fonts that you can use for commercial use. Public domain fonts are not the same thing as “free fonts.” Simply, “free fonts” mean that you don’t have to pay for the font; public domain fonts allow you to use the font for professional use. Just because you have a Mac or a Windows font library that comes with your software, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have the ability to incorporate those fonts into a professional project. Repercussions of using non-public domain fonts can include lawsuits, which will hurt your bottom line. Additionally, any web designer will tell you that using the appropriate font is vital to excellent readability on the web; incorporating open domain fonts is just another layer to protect your work.
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Post-GenCon Sale! Tales of the Seven Dogs Society Fiction

Just wanted to share that we have some copies of Tales of the Seven Dogs Society leftover from GenCon: Indy that we will be selling for the publisher. The price retails for $12.95 and I will be more than happy to sign the book for you.

For more information about this collection of novellas, feel free to visit the Flames Rising post describing how to order Tales of the Seven Dogs Society. Also, be sure to read my novella design notes based on the game Aletheia.

These copies are pre-release editions offered well before the official release date in November.

Your Writer’s Manifesto, Ethics and Your Future

So from time to time every writer runs across something in our world where we have to make a decision that we know involves doing something “questionable,” to either further our work or our careers. These choices range from trashing another writer’s work to taking shortcuts that border on plagiarism. A lot of these shortcuts that we know are “cheap” may, on the surface, appear like the fastest shortcut to a great future.

Are they?
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