For the last five years, the conventional wisdom among most indie writers has been to write short books in sequential series and make the first book permanently free. It’s a strategy that works, to a certain extent. It’s what got me from making pizza money on my book sales to making a humble living at this… Continue reading Thoughts on series and perma-free
Category: Genesis Earth
Quick update on writing and the blog
I was really bad about updating this blog last month. My goal was to post something new every Monday and Thursday, but that fell through and I’m not sure why. It’s not like life got super complicated or anything, more like blogging was just the ball that got dropped last month. No excuses, just getting… Continue reading Quick update on writing and the blog
Guest Lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class
A couple of weeks ago, I gave a guest lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class at Brigham Young University. I was one of Brandon’s students back in 2008, and he wanted me to talk about my experiences as a self-published indie writer. The lecture wasn’t recorded this year, but here is a rough outline from my… Continue reading Guest Lecture to Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class
On the way to 10k
631 words in 30 minutes, 1250 WPH. 2404 so far today. Taking a break to make dinner. #amwriting — Joe Vasicek (@onelowerlight) January 8, 2016 #amwriting through a rough spot. 216 words in 30 minutes, only 400 WPH. Hopefully next session is better. — Joe Vasicek (@onelowerlight) January 11, 2016 First session of the day:… Continue reading On the way to 10k
State of the Vasicek 2015
I recently read a post over on Brandon Sanderson’s blog where he did an exhaustive recap on his writing and update on all of his WIPs, and called it State of the Sanderson. Since it’s the end of the year and I’m already looking back in order to make some new resolutions for 2016, it seems like… Continue reading State of the Vasicek 2015
Genesis Earth re-release!
A lot has changed since I published my first novel, Genesis Earth. I’ve put out a lot of other books, improved the way I formatted them, changed the links and metadata, and made a number of other changes under the proverbial hood. Throughout all this time, the files that I put together for that first… Continue reading Genesis Earth re-release!
Thoughts on Clean Reader
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new app in the book world that is stirring up quite a bit of controversy. It’s called Clean Reader and it basically goes through an ebook and filters out the profanity, with settings for “clean,” “cleaner,” and “squeaky clean.” It was designed by the parents of a teenager… Continue reading Thoughts on Clean Reader
I love these trailers
Holy cow, I cannot get enough of this trailer for Civilization: Beyond Earth! It’s like something from a book I would write. There’s the classic Science Fiction story about leaving Earth to colonize the stars, but there’s also a deeply human element to it. And I love the religious element to it, how the colonists… Continue reading I love these trailers
X is for Expectations
What sort of expectations should or shouldn’t you have when you start self-publishing? What is plausible, and what is unrealistic? Honestly, it’s probably a good idea to go into it with expectations that are fairly low. Most books don’t sell more than a handful of copies, and there’s no way to tell what will and… Continue reading X is for Expectations
L is for Launch
How important is it to have a massive book launch whenever you release a new book? I think the answer to this question varies from genre to genre. For the more mainstream genres where word of mouth is driven by general popularity, such as romance or thriller, it’s probably fairly important. For more niche genres… Continue reading L is for Launch