All Good Ideas

It Was a Good Idea to Start the Next Novel Today…

Just didn’t pan out because of so much business stuff. Got up at my normal time and spent the entire day on business. (Yes, WMG Publishing is a business and is impacted by what is happening just as everything else on the planet.)

Kris and I have been through three Black Swan events with businesses before this one. First Gulf War which was the first war live broadcast. We had Pulphouse and our reaction to the event was the doom of the first incarnation of Pulphouse.

The second one was 9/11 and we reacted quickly with business and got through it. Took us a year to recover, but we made it unlike so many others in business.

Third was the Great Recession and we were fine through that one as well.

Now this Black Swan event should help us (in time) with book sales and workshops taken because so many writers and readers are going to be trapped in their homes, reading, writing, and learning. But the nature of the event itself is causing us to make some longer term shifts I will talk about later.

Basically this event will allow WMG Publishing to come out the other side stronger. It might be painful for all of us for a time, but looking to the years ahead, I want WMG to be very solid and we have been headed this way for years now, but now, because of this event, it is the time to make that final move.

And get a licensing company up and running as well.

KICKSTARTER BEST PRACTICES class is now up and available FOR FREE on Teachable.

Loren L. Coleman and I brainstormed this into being at the anthology workshop. The idea is two-fold. First, to get fiction writers using common sense and best practices to get their campaigns to not only fund, but make great money and promotion for their books.

And secondly, our idea is to get more and more writers doing campaigns under the “Fiction” category of Kickstarter, so the fine folks at Kickstarter start paying attention and eventually we can build Kickstarter into a place where readers think to go to check out what is new and exciting.

So again, this is free. The fantastic best practices document that Loren did is up there now, and I will be doing videos talking about each section of the document.

The class is also open for comments and we have one place where we will be putting fiction Kickstarter campaigns that are going on. Two there now.

So check it out. It’s free, and who knows, you might get an idea and end up doing a Kickstarter and making some nice money.

2 Comments

Harvey Stanbrough

March 13, 2020 at 2:56 am

Interesting. This is really a double Black Swan event: The Event itself and The Reaction of a seeming majority of others to the event. Both are affecting my business decisions. Only my writing seems immune (pun fully intended).

Philip

March 13, 2020 at 6:15 am

I live in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which the Governor essentially shut down for the next 2 weeks because it’s the “epicenter of Coronavirus in Pennsylvania.”

All schools and entertainment facilities were ordered to close. Also, the Governor strongly advised retail stores to shut down AND businesses to allow employees to work from home. Even my son’s Little League season has been postponed.

I thought it would be a blessing in disguise because I’d be stuck in the house with tons of time to write and even read (poor me). Sadly, my employer — a massive global corporation — is not shutting down or allowing us to work from home. They basically told us to wash our hands and come to work. I don’t like to be an alarmist and, quite frankly, I’m not afraid for my health. However, this is reason number 971 why I wish I was my own boss. In a crisis, I’m reliant on a faceless third party to determine so much of my life.

Harvey Stanbrough

March 13, 2020 at 2:56 am

Interesting. This is really a double Black Swan event: The Event itself and The Reaction of a seeming majority of others to the event. Both are affecting my business decisions. Only my writing seems immune (pun fully intended).
Philip

March 13, 2020 at 6:15 am

I live in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which the Governor essentially shut down for the next 2 weeks because it’s the “epicenter of Coronavirus in Pennsylvania.”

All schools and entertainment facilities were ordered to close. Also, the Governor strongly advised retail stores to shut down AND businesses to allow employees to work from home. Even my son’s Little League season has been postponed.

I thought it would be a blessing in disguise because I’d be stuck in the house with tons of time to write and even read (poor me). Sadly, my employer — a massive global corporation — is not shutting down or allowing us to work from home. They basically told us to wash our hands and come to work. I don’t like to be an alarmist and, quite frankly, I’m not afraid for my health. However, this is reason number 971 why I wish I was my own boss. In a crisis, I’m reliant on a faceless third party to determine so much of my life.