A sad fact of publishing is that books go out of print. These days that happens rather quickly unless you’re She-Who-Is-Named-All-Too-Often or Stephen King or—well, you know. And when books go out of print, publishers first try to sell the inventory they have on hand at cut-rate prices. Copies they can’t sell, of course, are…

The hardest part of our job as writers is to become known, to connect with our readers or potential readers. No matter how big or small your publisher, your marketing budget has finite limits. With small publishers, though, it’s particularly difficult—not only doesn’t the publisher pay for much in the way of publicity or promotion, but advances are so small that it’s difficult to decide where to spend that hard-earned…