MSI Press Blog

  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 What at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic arises from a discussion last week with an author whose cost of book returns brought an otherwise successful book into the negative net income (i.e.) loss realm. Our conversation revolved around several questions that arose from her discussions with her local bookstore.  Why/how do returned books create loss for an otherwise successful book? A large number of returns can eradicate all profit from the book sale and put the book into the loss column on a P&L statement: print costs will not have been recoupled; additional books have now been returned to the publisher's inventory, books that wer...

  It is Tuesday. 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.  This week's conversation addresses a thorny and frustrating issue--the finances of book sales, especially books that, in general, sell well. (We are not talking about authors who take thousands from savings to plaster information about their books everywhere or buy their own copies to try to get onto a bestseller list. Rather, we are talking about the average author, who simply desires to get the word out and the sales in.) Nearly all authors intently want to see their book in every bookstore they walk into -- and every one they don't. They don't realize three important things that can destroy their life if they actually get thei...

                                                                                       (photo by Frank Perez) 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. Ever wonder how books get to be accepted for publication? There is often more to any author's story than non-authors and not-yet-published authors would image.  Yes, of course, every publisher has the normal channel of proposal reading and acceptance based on t...

  Excerpt from  How to Argue with an Atheist , by Professor TL Brink STEP #5: Accept that You Have Free Will   STUDENT: Dr. Brink?   BRINK: Come on in, right on time.   STUDENT: I don't know if I can go onto the next step.   BRINK: Is there any difficulty with the four previous steps?   STUDENT: No, not really. I agree that humans are values-oriented, that reason and science have their limits, and that there are different kinds of values.   BRINK: Then you are ready for the next step.   STUDENT: No, you see, when you talked about values last time, and how we ought to choose to have a relationship with God, I realized that I just could not.   BRINK: You mean you think that God would not be interested in having a relationship with you?   STUDENT: No, that's not it. The problem is on my side of the relationship.   BRINK: Your side of the relationship? In other words, you are just not interested in a relationship with God?   S...