• Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    New Kickstarter Launches At Noon!!

    MARY JO ASSASSIN books… I love writing Mary Jo stories. It is amazing how complex killing someone can get. At 1,000 years old and a member of the Assassin’s Guild, she is well trained and practiced. Oh, if you are looking for magic or swords or things like that, afraid none of that in these books. She is sexy and deadly and doesn’t age, but she does love her partner, another assassin, and a good Screwdriver after a job well done. (Vodka and Orange Juice.) She might be called a completely modern assassin. Leaves no trace and has a very powerful code of ethics. And she is one of those…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    How to Achieve Your Dreams…

    New Workshop Up… Got a hunch that some writers are going to return from the land of The Time of Great Forgetting and wished they had started this. It starts on June 10th and goes for 9 weeks, so right into the first week or so of August, after the Time has cleared for most. Get it on Teachable.  Here is the blurb about it… HOW TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS A step-by-step guide to Writing More, Getting More Readers, and Making a Living with Your Writing. 9 week class given by New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith and planned by both Dean and New York Times bestselling author…

  • Branding,  Challenge,  Licensing,  publishing

    First Report On Licensing Expo…

    First Report To start off with, the best way I can describe this year’s Licensing Expo is great! And bigger. And no chance I saw everything in three days, And even with walking down an aisle two or three times, I still wouldn’t see something until the third day. It has been over a week now and we are still just starting to make contacts with some of the people there we connected with for various reasons. Steph even did an hour of “Speed Licensing” on Sunday. She will explain it on Writer’s Direct zoom meeting on WMG Writer Store. I can hardly even imagine it. (grin) Kris had some…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing

    SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES Questions

    And Yes… I Will Be Getting Back to Advanced Magic Bakery… As soon as my brain returns from the Licensing Expo this last week. As I expected, I am beat up, but really happy with the way the Expo went for us. I will talk more about it all in the future with what I can talk about. But some fantastic connections and ideas and possible licenses. Great fun and tiring. But right now there are two days left on the Early Bird discount on the five new SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES. Here are some questions I have been getting about the new challenges… — If you miss, you get the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Write Stuff Story Bundle Just Went Live!!

    THE WRITE STUFF STORY BUNDLE 2025 Kris put together a great bundle this year. Check it out at www.storybundle.com/writing. Kris’s blog is below explaining all this great stuff. The 2025 Write Stuff Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch When I got into the writing business, it had been stable for decades. Traditional publishing had a monopoly on production and distribution. That part of the industry, based in New York (and London and other capitals for those of you outside of the U.S.), determined what we read, how long the books were available, and where we could buy them. Traditional publishing still exists. Fortunately, it’s not in charge of what we…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing

    Rules for Each SUPER GREAT CHALLENGE

    The Early Bird Special Is Open For One Week… On any of the Super Great challenges, the cost is $600, but if you use the code: EarlyBird You get 20% off. ($480) (And yes, if you miss, you still get $600 credit.) Early Bird sale will last for one week. But if you make any of these new SUPER GREAT challenges, you get the LIFETIME EVERYTHING SUBSCRIPTION worth $10,000. Great challenges. So here are the rules to the new four SUPER GREAT challenges now up on WMG Teachable. —- The Super Great Challenge rules… — Write one short story per week for 52 weeks. — Stories must be minimum of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    SUPER Great Challenges

    Blog Early Tonight Because of Licensing Expo… Starts tomorrow morning, so I might be late a touch on a few things, but will try not to. And will give a report here and on a couple of the classes later in the week. But quickly, I want to announce what is not up yet, but will be shortly on Teachable (shortly meaning a day or so.) THE SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES… Right now we have the following challenges you can sign up for at any time… Any genre… — The Great Challenge (write a story per week and send it to me for 52 weeks.) — The Great Novella Challenge (write…

  • Challenge,  Licensing,  publishing

    ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Two

    Chapter Two… Market or No Market… You write this short story. All done. In your magic bakery you have created a magic pie. That pie has a lot of value that I will talk about in later chapters. But instead of taking the pie out of the kitchen and putting it in your store to sell to customers around the world, you just put it on a shelf in the kitchen, for some reason deciding not to market your story. Pie will not spoil. It can just sit there for years and years. But it is not making you any money, not paying you back for the time and energy…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… CHAPTER ONE

    ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY Copyright, Trademark, and Branding in the Modern World Dean Wesley Smith Chapter One: A Magic Pie   To start off with, I need to make sure this metaphor is totally clear. When you finish a story (a short story or a novella or a novel), you have created a magic pie. The pies are all the same size. The length of the work does not dictate the size of the pie in any way and I will explain that later. When a real baker makes a pie, there might be 20 different ingredients put into the mix in a certain way and baked in a certain way…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Advanced Magic Bakery… Introduction

    ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY Copyright, Trademark, and Branding in the Modern World Dean Wesley Smith (Author Note: I am going to write this book here one chapter at a time… At some point it will also be a class on Teachable and the book will be for sale in my store.) INTRODUCTION You are a magician. You are. Trust me. And not just an illusionist. You are a real, honest-to-god magician with real magic. Although often you use the techniques of an illusionist as well. But your magic is very, very real. You create from nothing entire people, entire worlds, entire galaxies. You help people understand the feelings of loss and…