MSI Press Blog

    Today is Independent Bookstore Day. In lieu of shared posts from one author, as we typically do each day in the blog post, From the Blog Posts of MSI Press Authors, we are presenting tributes from a range of authors in support of their local independent bookstores. From Julia Aziz I adore the independent bookstores in my city of Austin, TX. When I went to BookPeople and told them about the release of Lessons of Labor, they immediately offered to host a book release party and stock my book there. I felt so supported, both as a professional and as a longtime community member. BookPeople continues to be my happy place--a space to rest, read, and discover. Julia Aziz author of  Lessons from Labor blog posts  by and about Julia Julia's blog From Franki Bagdades blog post on the topic: There is no replacement for entering a space filled with books. Running your hands over glossy covers, flipping through the pages. Hearing someone laugh behind you as they read, a child's "ooo

  Kenneth Mogren's most recent blog post is titled "Bew Year's Resolution." It is a good one...we wonder how far he has come with it. It’s late January, and so far, I’m keeping a resolution to write more new sonnets in 2023 than in 2022. My production slowed to a trickle last February when MSI Press offered to publish SPUNKY GRANDMAS….And Other Amusing Characters . Suddenly my efforts went in a different direction. Turning a manuscript into a book involves more work for an author than most people realize. Manuscripts are really just a draft, so there is still an opportunity to make improvements. I went back and looked at every word and made quite a few tweaks. Then comes a final editing process which involves quite a bit of back-and-forth communication with the publisher. While publishers take the lead in publicizing and distributing a book, they expect authors to be active in book promotion, as well. That meant creating and maintaining a website, harnessing social me

  Today is Independent Bookstore Day. In lieu of shared posts from one author, as we typically do each day in the blog post, From the Blog Posts of MSI Press Authors, we are presenting tributes from a range of authors in support of their local independent bookstores. From Julia Aziz I adore the independent bookstores in my city of Austin, TX. When I went to BookPeople and told them about the release of Lessons of Labor, they immediately offered to host a book release party and stock my book there. I felt so supported, both as a professional and as a longtime community member. BookPeople continues to be my happy place--a space to rest, read, and discover. Julia Aziz author of Lessons from Labor blog posts by and about Julia Julia's blog From Franki Bagdades blog post on the topic: There is no replacement for entering a space filled with books. Running your hands over glossy covers, flipping through the pages. Hearing someone laugh behind you as they read, a child's "oooh&q

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic  is a look at the life cycle of books -- how they differ, how do you define "success" and "failure," and what authors can expect over a lifetime. Here at MSI Press, we have seen a variety of paths taken by successful books (and ones that have not fared as well). For lack of better nomenclature, I would say that we have hares, tortoises, dogs, cats, and mountain goats.  Hares As in the fable, the hares start out fast. These books have strong launches, sell hundreds of books in the first few weeks (from a larger press, these might show up as thousands of sales) and then, quite suddenly s