• Branding,  Challenge,  workshops

    Second Day of Challenge…

    The Fiction Writer of 2025… Back in traditional days, when I came in, fiction writers had employees called “agents”who jumped to the writer’s beck and call and fetched drinks and chased money. They lived off of 10% and then 15% of what the author made and never said a word about a writer’s work. That was not their job. Writers were the artists, agents did the scut work. Writers built careers over dozens and dozens of novels, sometimes moving houses regularly. They did none of their own promotion because publishers had sales forces and there was only one way to sell books and that was through what was called the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    First Day of the Challenge…

    Publishing Opinions from Yesterday… Interesting that no one agreed or disagreed or said anything about the opinions yesterday of where I think indie in 2025 will go. But I did get a letter from a new writer asking me if my book Killing the Top 10 Sacred Cows of Publishing was still accurate. I told him it was dated and things are much worse now for traditional publishing for fiction writers than they were when I wrote the book ten or so years ago. Much worse. Traditional publishing is a graveyard for young fiction writers and their dreams. No other way to look at it, sadly. But this guy also…

  • Challenge

    A New Year… Finally…

    Publishing Didn’t Move Much in 2024… In general the industry didn’t move. Writers and indie publishers moved a lot, Kickstarter became even more welcoming to indie publishers, Shopify added some features to help us all, and BookVault spent the year trying to smooth out the wrinkles from their very fast start. But overall, with the exceptions of a few more tools for indie publishers, nothing changed. And what is left of traditional publishing in fiction is not worth even mentioning any more. Sadly, a lot of writers of fiction still lose their dreams and hopes into that churn of myths. Nothing at all any of us can do to help…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Quick Update on 12 Holiday Sale…

    THE CODES FOR THE SALE ARE STILL GOOD! At least they will be for a few more days. So if you want to grab that last minute tax deduction for 2024 and start some learning for the new year, now is the time to grab a class or challenge or something. Go back two blogs to Sunday for the full list of the 12 day sale. Write me with questions and have a great start to the new year…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    My 2025 Challenge

    And Back to the Format of this Blog… This blog on most nights will be in three parts for all of 2025. Part 1… PUBLISHING… First part I will talk about something in publishing or writing. More than likely finish the series on trademarks and so on. That will start tomorrow. Part 2… LEARNING… This will be all sorts of things about books or learning or workshops… For example, the 12 Holiday Days of Workshop Sales is still going. See yesterday’s blog. Great bargains to help you learn and get into the new year. Part 3… MY WRITING… Every night I will write about my writing that day, about the…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    A Quick Extra Post…

    To Answer Some 12 Workshop Sale Questions… I will still do a regular post later tonight. But got some questions I wanted to relay… And yes, sale is still good for a few more days… “Which of the 12 Days sale items would I pick to help for the New Year?” Well, assuming the Everything Subscription is out of the picture, I think there are two of the days that would really, really help for the New Year. If you want to improve your craft, than any of the Advanced Craft Bundles (That was Day 5). Those classes are turning out to be amazing. And if your focus is on…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Last Day…

    Tomorrow This Blog Goes Back to Normal… And tomorrow I will finally announce my challenge here that I am going to attempt for 2025. I think I have all the parts worked out, so should be interesting. And this blog will go back to having three parts. But for right now one really great last day on the 12 Days of Holiday Workshop Sale. The Everything Subscription at half price. That covers everything that is on WMG Teachable and everything that is coming into the future. Might be the best year-end gift for your writing you can do not only for this year but for years to come. Twelve Days…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    It All Started With Workshops

    We Called Everything a Workshop… At least in the beginning. And we tried to fit everything we decided to try to teach into the workshop format for the first number of years of online classes. But that slowly became clear it would not work, so we came up with lectures, and then Pop-Ups, and then general classes of all kinds and shapes. Every month we do regular workshops, the ones we consider to be the core classes every writer needs. Those regular monthly workshops are six weeks long, have five assignments, and about 40 videos total each. When a workshop loses attention, but we still feel it is important knowledge…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Wow! Have We Done a Lot…

    I Swore I Wouldn’t Do Online Classes… Not kidding. I swore I wouldn’t do them. Back before there was anything like Teachable, I was pushed into doing one online class one fall by a group of writers, encouraged by my wife. I swore it would only be one. I honestly did. Kris and I laid out the class and I presented it. Had to create a web site that acted very much like Teachable for the first few years. Then since we had decided for the moment to not do any more in-person classes, I did a few more over that first year. (We brought the in-person classes back at…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Looking Forward…

    Monday Morning Classes… Over the years we have done numbers of Monday morning classes, where every Monday morning four new videos appear on a certain topic. For 2025 we are doing PUBLISHING MONDAY and BITE-SIZED BRANDING AND TRADEMARK. Both should be great fun, 52 weeks of four videos per week per class, and they are available as the 4th item on the 12 Days sale list for 50% off. (No homework or assignments, just learning every week.) In 2023, we did a very future-looking Monday morning class called THE DECADE AHEAD, talking each week on how to focus out ten years with your writing and publishing. And just today I…