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Fun Pictures…
Wonder What I Did Last Week… Here are a few pictures taken by the Writers of the Future people at the 39th year awards. Keep in mind that I was the first person across the stage 39 years ago… And with Jody Lynn Nye I was the co-editor of this volume in the transition after Dave Farland’s tragic death. (First, before the pictures, remember the May workshops are starting up. See yesterday’s post for details.) Here is that first picture 39 years ago of me being the first across the Writers of the Future stage. Oh, so young. Algis Budrys in tux, I am shaking Greg Benford’s hand. Behind me…
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Some Publishing History
I Tried And Mostly Failed… To get the importance of publishing history across to the young fiction writers at Writers of the Future. Here is a tiny part of what I said in a rushed fashion, I am sure I was skipping parts. Note: I am only talking about commercial FICTION!! Note: I am only talking about distribution and business structure of commercial FICTION!! In general, fiction publishing distribution patterns and delivery systems tend to run in 50 year cycles. Post Civil War (in this country) was the Penny Dreadfuls, Dime Novels, and Journals. They were slowly being replaced with pulp magazines around 1900 and were mostly gone (with few…
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Get a Masters in Publishing
That’s Right, A Real Master’s Degree From a real university. Western Colorado University. New York Times bestselling writer Kevin J. Anderson teaches it with the help of WMG Publishings publisher Allyson Longueira. Kevin and Rebecca Moesta also own Wordfire Press. They also have a ton of guest speakers at times, including me, Mark Leslie from Draft to Digital, and so many more. You never know who is going to show up online in a class any given week. Stunning amount of knowledge and hands-on experience. You want to learn how to be a publisher in 2023, this is the class for you. Plus you get a real live Masters Degree…
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Playing with a New Look
Playing… The idea is to have at least three sections every night. And start doing a little focus on my own books at times. But tonight just playing with the look. So pardon me that this is my blog tonight for my daily blog challenge… Topic of the night will be here… It will come first and I have a bunch of topics I will be getting to, including more of the “… you might be a myth believer.” Also I want to finish up the Copyright Valuation series, talk a lot more about AI, and at times answer questions here I get from other writers. In topic of…
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A Fun Run and Updates
6 AM is Stupidly Early… Especially when you go to bed at 2 AM. It is still dark at 6 AM. And yet off we went to be at a park before 7 on the other side of town for a charity run that honors Prince. Now I did some running early on in the 5K and then just said, “Nope.” Walked the rest of the way. But we had a wonderful breakfast afterward at a restaurant we almost never get to because it is so far from our place. And I got my remaining four hours of sleep after I got home. The Case Card Kickstarter campaign is doing…
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Myth Believer
With Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy… I deal a lot with writer myths. And I will be doing new Killing the Sacred Cows of… posts soon. But one thing I noticed back when Foxworthy was doing his “You might be a redneck…” jokes is that they always had a ring of truth in them. So for fun, I thought I would show how that truth can sometimes be pointed at those who believe in the myths of publishing. If one or two of these strike home, don’t blame me. It’s your myth. Not the Top Ten Myth Believer Sayings… (Just ten random. Trust me, there are a lot more.) 1… If…
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Challenges Are Battles Against Yourself…
Nothing Else Matters… Just You… Challenges have this nasty habit of quickly uncovering issues in your motivation and your consistency in writing and other life issues you are dealing with. This challenge for me uncovered that my vision stamina is not strong yet. If I spend a lot of time during the day, as I did a few days this last week, at my business computer, by the time I get to the writing computer, I am very limited in the amount of time I have. I love writing at night, and my eyes are better at night. I expected to be slow, didn’t expect that sight issue would be…
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Getting Back In The Chair…
Can’t Count the Words for the Challenges… But figured since my writing has been so off and on for the last five months because of the eye issues, I had better spend time back in my writing chair kicking off the dust. Feels great, let me tell you. Can not believe how much I have missed being in that chair over the last five months. I sat down tonight and said, “I’m home!” Couple things I noticed. I am not typing as clean as I used to because the eye is not totally back, so getting letters mixed up when my fingers get off the keys or in the wrong…
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Branding
To Genre… There are a lot of elements to branding in fiction, so much so that we are thinking of doing an entire six week regular workshop on the topic. (Let me know if interested. No requirement to take it.) Branding becomes critical not only the in basics like genre covers, but in so much more, such as licensing, trademarks, and overall value of a book or series, let alone its sales and licensing. And wow are there a lot of elements that go into branding in fiction. (Six weeks worth easy.) Most writers I’ve talked to tell me they understand branding, but as I stare at just their covers,…
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Kickstarter is Live!!!
And Fun for Me!! You can see it at DEAN WESLEY SMITH Starter Kit. All kinds of my books, some great special workshops coming back from other Kickstarters (You get a choice if you missed one before) and some fun stretch rewards, including a brand new lecture series. And I was going to add the challenge there as well, but alas it breaks Kickstarter Rules. Sorry. And take a look at the branding. I’ll talk about it later. Only ten days on this one, so really tight turn. Don’t miss it.