Interesting Links #16: Cricitism and Alexa

This week’s Interesting Links has some interesting articles discussing how famous authors deal with criticism and self-doubt, and how to market books.

Also, Alexa is secretly laughing at us:

-BookBub is the heavyweight champion of the book advertising world, so this is useful for writers: How to Boost Your Chances of Getting a BookBub Featured Deal.

-Self-publishing business advice from Mark Dawson: 5 Important Things That Authors Need To Know About Self-Publishing.

-When it comes to writing I tend to have the opposite problem, but if you suffer self-doubt as a writer, this could be helpful: How To Deal With Self-Doubt As A Writer.

-I remember when BlackBerry owned the mobile space, and I once spent a lot of time setting up a Blackberry messaging server for email sync. Now it’s degenerated down to patent troll. Sic transit gloria mundi! BlackBerry weaponizes instant messaging patents, sues Facebook.

-This is just one of many reasons I don’t use Alexa or Siri or other AI voice assistants: Unprompted, creepy laughter from Alexa is freaking out Echo users.

-Someone once told me that she could never write a book because she couldn’t stand any criticism. Nora Roberts has written like a thousand books and still gets criticism. But since she’s sold like a billion copies of those books, clearly the criticism didn’t make a dent. So perhaps it’s best to ignore criticism! Stuff and Nonsense.

-Speaking of criticism, I like this article about Mickey Spillane. “Mickey Spillane didn’t give a good goddamn what the critics thought about his work. He became one of the best-selling authors in the history of the printed word because the only thing he cared about was satisfying his millions of fans.”

-Apple is buying Texture. For people who like fancy magazines, I believe this is a Big Deal: Apple Is Acquiring The Netflix Of Magazines.

-The answer is no, so that’s why we self-publish! The ‘Profits From Publishing’ Debate: Do Authors Get a Fair Cut?

-JM