Jim Nelson's Blog

I’m exaggerating, of course.

I only learned of this review today: My interactive fiction According to Cain placed #1 on Winter is Coming‘s “The 10 scariest free interactive fiction games to enjoy this winter” (which, alas, was last winter).

The review in full:

A brilliant oddity, According to Cain puts you in the shoes of a detective who has to go back and solve humanity’s first murder. It prizes observation and forces you to turn your brain on, which is true of all the best intera...

There’s a software industry maxim: “Always be shipping.” That means, if you’re not writing software, you’re not shipping software.

The same thinking applies for writing novels, short stories, self-help guides, biographies, and so on. If you’re not writing (or editing, or proofing), you’re not moving closer to getting your work published.

The following advice will sound familiar to anyone who’s read a book or taken a class on how to write a novel:

“...

At an AWP panel discussion in 2014, Lawrence Block related a bit of wisdom he’d learned from another author: “Take care of your backlist, and your backlist takes care of you.” He added the advice had served him well over his writing career.

By that point, I’d been writing fiction for several years. I’d met many authors (aspiring and published), attended numerous workshops (formal and informal) and worked with many writing teachers in different genres. Yet, in a...

I recently learned that the audiobook version of A Man Named Baskerville is now available on . This is great news—if you’re an Apple or iPhone user, it’s now even easier to listen to the audiobook on your device, as the player is already installed and ready to go. I also see that Apple is offering it for a substantial discount over the Amazon USA sale price, so that’s a nice bonus.

The audiobook is narrated by Michael Langan, a respected voice talent who brings his skills in ...

In 2011, I wrote a novella about a Silicon Valley startup that trains its virtual reality software from tourist photos it scrapes off the Internet. Millions of these photos are stitched together to create a virtual cable car ride across San Francisco.

This story became Everywhere Man, which was also recorded as an audiobook that you listened to while riding the actual, real-life cable cars. It was one of several literary tours that Oakland-based Invisible City Audio Tours offered. Their i...

Following up on earlier announcements, the final two books in the Bridge Daughter Cycle—Hagar’s Mother and Stranger Son—are now available for purchase on Kobo. This completes putting my back catalog up on that site. As before, all these books remain available on Amazon.

(The only book not available on Kobo yet is . Some time after my next book is published, I’ll probably move it over to Kobo as well.)

The entire Bridge Daughter Cycle is here on Kobo.

For more ...

Two pieces of news:

First, the audiobook of A Man Named Baskerville has been well-received. It currently holds and sales have been brisk. MX Publishing released their top audiobook sellers for the month of February, and Baskerville ranked fourth out of 24. It’s the only novel in the top five (the rest being short story collections).

Second, releases tomorrow! I’ve proofed this edition, and it’s exciting to see my ...

As I discussed before, I’ve been slowly moving more of my back catalog to Kobo. Two more books are now available there: Bridge Daughter and In My Memory Locked. If you’re a Kobo reader, or considering trying them out, they’re ready to go.

Praise for Bridge Daughter:

“Bridge Daughter is the sort of surprising gem in a sea of fairly ordinary you occasionally run across as a reader of contemporary speculative fiction—smart, highly original, and emotionally brutal.” – John Blair, author ...

The dropped this week on Audible! I’m excited beyond words about this development—I’ve long wished to see one of my novels brought to audio format. On top of this good news, I see that the audiobook has already received a five-star rating from an early reader (listener?).

It’s narrated by Michael Langan, a seasoned voice talent with a long list of audio work under his belt. Michael specializes in Received Pronunciation voice-over...

Last time I wrote about publishing my back catalog on Kobo and making all my older books nonexclusive to Amazon. This is called “going wide” in independent publishing circles. I mentioned I had been meaning to do this for some time, but kept putting it off. If you’re wondering why, it involves a ten-year backstory about my rocky relationship with non-Amazon distributors.

My first push toward independent publishing came from attending the 2014 AWP Conference & ...