• Challenge,  publishing

    Fiction Branding… Part 4

    Stories Don’t Spoil… But wow can authors kill them. I have to deal with this topic before I can move on into branding and how to do it and the reasons for it. Back in the day (say the 1960s through the 1990s), writers would sell a short story and then toss it into a file cabinet. A lucky few stories got reprinted, but the attitude was that once a story was published (no matter the market), it had spoiled and was no longer of value. Writers did this with books as well. I can’t begin to tell you about the hundreds of boxes of manuscripts, proofs, and spoiled matter…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    The Fndaway Stupidity…

    Kris Took The Time To Really Explain What Happened… It is on her Patreon page, but she made it open to the public at my request. https://www.patreon.com/posts/fallacy-of-99566685 Kris and I for decades now have pushed writers to really understand business. What Findaway did was clear and obvious to anyone who understands business and negotiations. Sadly most writers thought this was a victory as they were being played. Read Kris’s post and then start the process of learning business and basic negotiations. And get out of Findaway at once.    

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Fiction Branding… Part 3

    Too Much of a Good Thing… Lots of varied kinds of branding that I’m going to talk about in this series. But for the moment  I want to stay on the type of branding most indie writers do very well, and that is making their books look like they are in the same series. This kind of branding is a basic part of marketing and selling. So for the four books of Bryant Street ( the Kickstarter is over and thank you all), I thought it would be a cool idea for me to take the street sign that we had used to brand the Bryant Street books and recover…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Fiction Branding… Part 2

    When To Think About Branding… Being a fiction writer is a fine balance in your head of being completely creative and telling the best story you can while at the same time holding in check all the critical voice stuff that says everything you are writing is crap. Long-term professional fiction writers have this controlled completely in one way or another. Early stage and middle stage fiction writers fight the battle with every story or novel. The key early on is to clear out or hold back the critical voice while trying to stay out of the way of the creative voice. Most writers fail and thus have short careers.…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  publishing

    Fiction Branding… Part 1…

    Different Types of Branding… And you brand a fiction series for different reasons. So for a number of posts, I’ll talk about fiction branding and the known reasons to do it, and some reasons most fiction writers never once think about. And yes, at times I will talk value and trademark and so much more. But starting off, most indie writers understand the surface level of book or series branding. (I am not talking to traditionally published fiction writers because they do not own their own books with traditional contracts these days.) Making books in a series look like they belong together, and making books under an author’s name also…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Editing and Reading Observations… Part 9…

    Bad Choices by the Writer… In previous parts of this series, I have been talking about why I will stop reading a story. I have mostly focused on craft issues in the telling of the story. Craft issues can be solved with learning and study and putting a lot of words through your fingers (combined at the same time with the learning and study). But for this part, I want to talk about the lack of understanding by the reader of two major elements of commercial fiction… 1…THERE ARE READERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORDS… In the early stages of writing, writers only focus on the words and…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Introduction to A Class About Learning…

    A FIFTY YEAR PERSPECTIVE OF LEARNING… As I said last night, this year marks 50 years since I sold my first two short stories (and started selling a lot of poetry as well.) Over those 50 years, I was stunningly lucky to have some amazing mentors (who also became friends.) Jack Williamson, Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Algis Budrys, Harlan Ellison, Frederick Pohl, Julius Schwartz, and others. As I said, stunningly lucky. So I figured that since I am still around after 50 years of selling fiction and they all told me a lot of great stuff, I am going to do a nine-week class talking about and telling stories about…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Lifetime Sale and New Class

    All Lifetime Subscriptions Half Off… Just through the end of January.  Only lifetime subscriptions. Not any of the bundles or anything else. Just the five lifetime subscriptions, because I got a few questions about them. Use the code:  LIFETIMESALE At half price, they are very good deals, especially the Lifetime Everything. And if you have another lifetime subscription, I can take a little more off that Everything price. Write me for details. Fun New Class… This year marks 50 years since I sold my first two short stories (and started selling a lot of poetry as well.) Over those 50 years, I was stunningly lucky to have some amazing mentors…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Shared World and Directed Study

    Both Directed Study and Shared World Now Available… First, Shared World… The shared world in the second class is for THE SILVER LADY, a hotel and casino just outside of Vegas. There will be two initial volumes set in THE SILVER LADY. One mystery volume of mysteries set there and one ghost stories. It is a nine week class starting on January 22nd. Yes, it will have assignments. And yes, we will give plenty of time to write for the two anthologies. You can still sign up for the first class and go through it at your own speed and write for the two new Cave Creek anthologies coming later…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Pulphouse Fiction Magazine

    Still Working Out the Kinks…

    New Issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Published… With the wrong cover. Oops… In the holiday issue, #24, I really wanted to feature Annie Reed’s fantastic new holiday story. We do that feature by using big header on the cover. (see the correct cover below) But the first cover without that feature got put on instead and sent out. And even loaded up to our store. Now understand, we just went monthly and then a few weeks into that, I broke my shoulder and couldn’t be of much help. But the October, November, and now the December issue made it out. And January issue is on time. So going monthly is…