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Fiction Branding… Part 9
Lack of Knowledge… For some reason, fiction writers have an aversion to learning anything about the one thing that makes them money. That is copyright and licensing that copyright. For upwards of thirty years now, I have been trying to figure out why this aversion happens. Even though learning copyright is far, far more important than say learning how to pace a story or indie publish a story, writers just ignore it or if they are even aware, they simply say they will get to it someday. Now, I tend to be kinder to writers who are just unaware of how copyright works vs those who purposely do not want…
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BARKSON’S JOURNEY is Live!!
The New Fey Kickstarter Is Live!! Check it out at Barkson’s Journey… Barkson’s Journey… A Race Against Time and The Fey So much fun… And we have the very first Fey map in this Kickstarter, some fun merchandise, great reading with other books and stretch goals, plus two really special workshops you can only get through this campaign. HOW TO CREATE AND USE FANTASY MAPS and HOW TO CREATE GREAT FANTASY MAIN CHARACTERS. Again, only offered through this campaign and never anywhere else. Check it out at Barkson’s Journey… (And yes we got a Project We Love from Kickstarter before we launched.)
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New Fey Novel Kickstarter…
Launching at Noon Today!! Barkson’s Journey… A Race Against Time and The Fey When Augusta Kirilli discovers that someone wants to destroy her entire family, she needs to warn them. Warning her family, scattered all over the Qavnerian Protectorate, proves almost impossible and extremely dangerous. So she hires the one person who can reach them quickly—Lucinda Barkson. Lucinda Barkson, tough and dedicated, with a mysterious past. Lucinda Barkson, who sets out immediately, armed with fourteen letters for the Kirilli family, a partially accurate map, and a dozen different weapons. Lucinda Barkson, who soon realizes she faces warriors from the greatest military in the world—The Fey. With its nail-biting pace and shocking…
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The Last Big Workshop Clean-Up…
Down in the Details Classes… Wow did I get behind, first because of my eye issues and then because of the shoulder surgery and recovery. But now I am back focused on finishing all of these. There are five groups of 8 classes each. Science Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Perfect Crime, and Holiday Stories. All have story prompts attached that can be submitted to a paying anthology for each class. Perfect Crimes Through Time and Holiday Stories are not posted yet on Teachable. They will appear in May as I record them. Science Fiction has five of the eight topics done, Fantasy has one, and Mystery none. Some of these were…
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50 Years…
Sold My First Two Short Stories 50 Years Ago… I just finished recording and putting up on Teachable a nine-week class called A FIFTY YEAR PERSPECTIVE OF LEARNING. Five videos each week for nine weeks talking about what I learned from my mentors over the years, and from others along the way, that got me to this place fifty years down the road. Tonight, as I was recording a topic on both the weekly CREATIVE SURVIVAL and MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY classes, I got thinking about the idea of doing a class that would talk about what I learned in fifty years from crashes, mistakes, and setbacks and what I learned from…
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Fiction Branding… Part 8
Here We Go…. I have come at fiction branding from a number of different directions in the first seven posts, not counting the “small author name” post. But as I have said, that is only the basics and most writers can’t even do all the basics of marketing well not from lack of skill but just from lack of being willing to study a little. So to make this as simple as I can, let me break up fiction branding into three major areas. 1… Marketing (discoverability… what I have been talking about so far) 2… Value (copyright and trademark) 3… Licensing (products and derivative sales) There is a fourth…
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Write Stuff Story Bundle
I Spent Too Much Time Tonight On Other Stuff… So you get a reminder that this really great Storybundle is happening. Here is Kris’s blog about it since she put the bundle together with some great writers. This is an amazing group of writing books and one of our workshops in one Storybundle. Let me have Kris tell you about it. THE 2024 WRITE STUFF BUNDLE The 2024 Write Stuff Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Every year, I put together a bundle on writing. Every year, I find new concerns and ways to help writers market their work. I also find inspiration books on craft and keeping the…
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Fiction Branding… Part 7
What Exactly Is A Brand??? Well, the general definition of a brand is pretty easy. It is a product or service that is set out and apart in such a way as to be clear to the public that it can be distinguished from other similar products or services. It is also a mark you burn into a horse or cow to show ownership, but we won’t go there, even though the concept is the same. As I said before, most indie writers (not all) are pretty good and making a series of books identifiable as a unit. So a reader will know from the look (the branding) that the…
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These Workshops Have Started…
A Number of Classes Starting Up… These classes started yesterday or today on Teachable. Special Writing Twists (2nd Session… Only available through the Kickstarter) Special Writing Real-World Dark Fantasy (2nd Session… Only available through the Kickstarter) Second quarter of Creative Survival Second quarter of Motivational Monday #32… Apr 2nd… Heinlein’s Rules (this month only) #34… Apr 2nd… Writing into the Dark #35… Apr 2nd… Teams in Fiction #36… Apr 3rd… Writing with Depth (start with this one) #37… Apr 3rd… Applied Depth (this month only) #38… Apr 3rd… Advanced Depth #40… Apr 3rd… Killing the Critical Voice If interested, go to Teachable and hit see all classes and scroll until…
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Workshops You Might Want?
Taking Suggestions… If there is something you wish Kris and I would talk about over the spring and summer, let me know here in the comments or by private email. I know we had a lot of writers wanting the anthology workshop to come back and it is back now for August 5th through 8th here in Vegas. (Still some openings.) And we had a lot of questions about the novella classes and we are doing them. SF is starting later today at wmgwritersstore.com And yes I plan on finishing my branding series. But any other ideas that you really wish someone like me or Kris would talk about, feel…