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Straight to Discount
A Question About a Comment I Made… Most of you know that I flat out think that KU with its exclusive clause is the stupidest thing a writer can do in a career. (Outside of going to a traditional book publisher.) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, for a short time you can make some money. Good for you, but it is still stupid for an overall indie career. You are not gaining readers. So I made this comment about how I wrote a couple of books for a straight-to-discount publisher and got a few questions about wanting me to explain that more. To put it simply, same as going to…
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December Workshops Starting
And Some Bundle Deals… I forgot all about announcing the December Regular Workshops were starting up. Available for less than one week. They have all just started. Jump in on Teachable. Class #61… Dec 4th … How to Study Writing Class #62… Dec 4th … Endings Class #63… Dec 4th … Point of View Class #64… Dec 4th … Writing Mysteries Class #65… Dec 4th … Speed Class #66… Dec 4th … Teams in Fiction Class #67… Dec 5th … Depth in Writing Class #68… Dec 5th … How to Use Tags Class #69… Dec 5th … Character Development Class #70… Dec 5th … Writing Secondary Plot Lines Class #71… Dec 5th… Information Flow Class #72… Dec 5th…
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Some Numbers on Income
I Got This Question About Numbers of Sales It Takes… Now, I have done this post a bunch, mostly on making a living with your short fiction, so thought I would twist it a little just for fun. And to show some extremes. But everyone should be doing these numbers for themselves at times. And, of course, there is no right answer to this. Not a one. Since the 20Booksto50K conference was here and I did that talk which you can see a few posts back, let’s just use $50,000 for goal number. Novel Price is $5.99 electronic so you get $4 per sale. (You make extra paper and audio…
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Stay Away From Traditional Book Publishing
Yes, I Know That is a Dream for Many… But it is a horrid (and I mean horrid beyond words) path for writers now in 2018. But Dean, how can you say that? You first published with traditional publishing, right? Yes, I sold my first novel in 1987 and did my last work for them in 2008. I did 106 books (that I can remember) through traditional big-five book publishing. I am pretty convinced that even by my math, most of that was last century. Let me repeat that. Last century. You know, dial phones hooked to a wall with cords, no internet, no email. That century. Yet traditional book…
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We Got Crazy
Well, Kris Did… Our new Pop-Up Series was intended to do a few a month tops. When a fun idea for one struck us. But Kris handed me three nifty ideas in the Pop-Up Series and I liked them as much as she did, so all three are coming in December. The third one in the first batch we did about writing short romance is now up, and the second one has a week left before it vanishes. (The first one is gone, but you can still get it in the bundles.) These are from 10 to 20 videos per Pop-Up on a certain topic we find fun and interesting,…
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Writing into the Dark Speech
A Talk I Gave at 20Books Conference… About 500 plus people in the room, and not sure if this is an official video from the conference or not. But it popped up on YouTube, so figured you guys might like it. Cramming that much down into 40 minutes is crazy, but I had fun. The video is cut off at the start and at the end. But most of it is there. I tried to keep it fun. 20Books Vegas Day 2 Writing Into The Dark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnNYQZbrtDU
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Too Much and Too Little
There is a Line To Walk Between the Two… I got a great question the other day about what I have been trying to do with my exercise and losing weight. And I realized the question also applied to my getting back solidly to writing. The question was: “Why are you pushing so hard to get back to exercise and running?” As those who follow here regularly know, since I got to Vegas in August, I have been working to add distance to my walking and running while at the same time losing weight. Two weeks ago, in a 5K run, I was down 20 pounds and had gained lung…
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I Wrote Romance
I Always Use Romance Team Structure… At least for the last 30 or 40 plus novels or so. I love the structure. But I seldom commit actual romance. The character focus is on other things, like solving mysteries in my mystery novels, or time-travel in my sf series or fighting aliens in my Seeders Universe. The one key element of a romance is that the focus must be on the relationship the entire way. The other plot stuff is just why they can’t be together instantly. So today it dawned on me that the new Thunder Mountain novella (Warm Springs Meadow) that I just finished is a complete romance. The focus…
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Writing Challenge
My Personal Writing Challenge is Still Going On… Just not very well. The restart was the first of November and that so far hasn’t worked well for basically the same reasons it didn’t work back in September. When I do get it back up and running, I will do the second chapter of the book here, including all the problems and the answers, when I find them. And when that happens, the real challenge will start. So in the meantime, here are some reminders of a few things going on right now with workshops and such. Fun stuff. — Pop-Up #1 is now live and available. Basically a talk about…
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Happy Holiday
For Those in the States… I will be cooking a turkey tomorrow for just me and Kris and doing some writing and early in the morning I will be doing another 5k run/walk. And Kris made some wonderful pies tonight. So should be a fun day. I hope everyone else in the States has a fun day and gets some writing done as well. And my biggest hope tomorrow is to stay on my feet for the entire 5K. (grin) …UPDATE… I stayed on my feet and even with all the injuries managed to run about half of the run. Good holiday everyone.