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A Real Test…
For What Remains of My Critical Voice… Which is clearly nothing. Tonight I had to read a lot of assignments in the critical voice workshop. This assignment details out how each person makes projects important and thus allows critical voice in. Now in all those assignments there was an amazing amount of reasons, excuses, and just scary problems. I read them all tonight to get a basically form-letter response to everyone. Nothing I could really say. It was one of those awareness assignments. But tonight I also had a short-notice short story due that I had to finish by tomorrow. That kind of deadline can make a story “important” quickly…
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Tags and Sales Copy
Captain Proton… Defender of the Earth! “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when Real Men with ray guns and beautiful women in beguiling outfits battled hideous monsters from outer space! Return with us to the days when Captain Proton ruled the skyways!” That is part of the back cover copy of a full novel I wrote called Star Trek: Voyager Presents Captain Proton. I wrote the novel under the name D.W. “Prof” Smith and in the style of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series. Captain Proton, for you non-Voyager fans, was a character on the holo deck in the show. (I also wrote a book staring…
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Just Eight Hours Left!!
Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter Campaign… Almost to the fourth stretch goal. If we manage to hit that, everyone will get 5 extra books, plus $35o in lectures, Pop-Ups, and Classic Workshops. Plus, remember that the only place to get into the special Writing Mystery Series workshop is in this campaign. It is a three week workshop and the reward level is $150. You have your choice of taking it in July or August. And there are discounts on lectures and regular workshops as well. Ends at 6 PM tonight, West Coast Time, so not much time left. Here is the link to the campaign… Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter
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Losing An Art Form In Book Sales
Just Was Brought to My Attention… That publishing is losing an art form. Television still has it, so do movies, so do gaming and other licensing areas. But books are losing this art form completely. Tag Lines. That’s right, writing a tag line to catch a reader’s attention used to be an art form on book covers and helped sell millions of copies of books. But now, due to simple lack of knowledge, the art form is vanishing. So what is happening? Well, in traditional publishing, massive budget cuts have taken out most of the sales force, leaving a few for only the bestsellers. Where the sales force used to…
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Still Time to Get Into June Workshops
A Bunch of Great Ones… First week will be done on Tuesday and Wednesday, but if you jump in and let me know, I’ll still read your first assignment. And then you can stay with the workshop the rest of the way. First weeks are often summary weeks and focus weeks. So to get to them, go to June Regular Workshops on Teachable. To find them, just remember to hit “see all courses” and then scroll down to the regular workshops. Some really good workshops and the brand new KILLING THE CRITICAL VOICE workshop is also starting. So here is the list. A good month for workshops and to keep…
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Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter Almost To First Stretch Goal
Only $310 Away… I want to thank everyone for the support so far. Been fantastic. And we still have 12 days to go. With the stretch goals above this first one, writers will get a choice of a $50 lecture and then the next stretch goal a choice of a $150 Classic Workshop. Above that is a Pop-Up choice worth $150 and above that it will really be amazing. Readers for each stretch goal get books to read. A couple I wrote you might never heard of, actually. Can’t believe we are so close to the first stretch goal. That is so cool. Thank you!! So here is the link…
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A Streak Still Holding
Day 2,860… That’s how many days it has been since I missed writing something here on this blog. August 1st, 2012 I started. And the reason I counted this tonight is because I have a Kickstarter campaign I will announce here tomorrow afternoon, but needed to keep my streak alive here tonight. So write about the streak. Duh… I suppose I should also tell you that June Regular workshops are starting today and tomorrow. And those of you signed up for the June session of Creative Nonfiction Writing workshop from the last Kickstarter, it also started today. (Only could get it in the Kickstarter.) And the June Historical Fiction special…
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Wow! It’s June!
We Made It Through May… Actually, unlike April which seemed in a time sense to take forever, May flashed right past. And I do understand that a lot of people did not live through May. I got that. But the rest of us out here, trying to do what is right, stay safe, keep working and writing and taking care of families. We made it through another month of the craziness. Another month closer to whatever point all this is going to end. Who knows what the rest of 2020 has to offer. Like Kris, I just want to flip to the end of this book. But we can’t, so…
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Why Am I So Against Traditional Publishing?
I Published 106 Novels Traditionally. But that was a different time, different companies, different contracts, different level of respect for authors. I would be a distant and faint memory in writing now if not for indie publishing. Never would have continued to work in the current traditional publishing environment. Never. So let me list a few reasons why I try to keep writers with dreams away from traditional publishers. THE SHORT VIEW… TRADITIONAL Most early-stage writers have a very, very short view of being a writer. They think that just selling a few short stories and then getting a novel sold to a major publisher will make their career. Nope.…
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Decade Ahead Second Quarter 2020
Seven New Videos Are There… Also, since this second quarter is so different than any normal second quarter for writers, we have decided that no only will this Decade Ahead class go through the end of the year, but we will do the second quarter, and more than likely the third quarter, next year with a bunch of normal videos about how to get through these months writing in a normal year. This month, like last month, I have some videos up on how to write through this pandemic there as well. So another class gets extended. The licensing transition is already extended for a full year as well. Both…