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The Wet Blanket Reality… Chapter One
Chapter One… Manuscript Must Be Perfect Writers who believe in the myth of traditional publishing also believe deeply in the myth that rewriting is good and that a manuscript must be perfect before you dare send it off to an agent. Perfect, I say!! Perfect! (I have never in my 40 plus years in publishing ever seen a perfect manuscript.) So what happens is that years and years pass while the writer “Works on their book.” Okay, come on, we all know a number of these writers spending years “working on their book.” And sadly, these writers are proud they are doing that and they will be glad to tell…
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The Wet Blanket Reality… Introduction
INTRODUCTION…The Myths The Wet Blanket Reality will be a writing book about the reality of trying to sell novels to traditional publishers. I suppose the title of the book could be TRADITIONAL NOVEL PUBLISHING: The Wet Blanket Reality. But as I write this here on my blog, chapter-by-chapter, I’m just going to call it by the subtitle. Fits better. And sadly gives away the book. That’s right. I am going to be a wet blanket, smother a little of your writing dreams to help you gain a more sustainable and fun dream of being a long-term professional writer. Think of it this way. Part of you is on fire so…
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Smith’s Monthly #53 Published
I Got a Little Carried Away… This monthly issue has 85,000 words in it. Yikes. Since I am working on another new Thunder Mountain novel, I thought I would put the very first one in this issue, along with nine short stories (four new, five in the serialization of Stories from July. The first Thunder Mountain novel (called simply THUNDER MOUNTAIN) was actually in Issue #2 of Smith’s Monthly in November 2013 with a very different cover on it. So anyway, thought I would note the publication today of Issue #53 of Smith’s Monthly. All 85,000 words of it. Yikes!! Here is the link to the page on WMG Publishing.…
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Cover Fun
As I Do Every Month… First, before covers, I would like to thank those of you who sent ideas for Pop-Up classes. The ones online I tried to explain why the might or won’t work. Might want to check my reasons, but still got some great ideas, so thanks!! These covers below are the covers I did tonight in a few hours for the next Smith’s Monthly Issue, (actually 1 hour and 35 minutes, including finding art.) I didn’t have to find the art for next month’s issue. Allyson already had that. The mountains in that image are exactly like the mountains where most of the Thunder Mountain novels take…
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Pictures of Fun Box of Books
Photo of 48 Novels Not Easy to Take… Spread them on a work table Kris and I have outside our offices and then stood on a couch to take the photo. Kris came out and said, “That’s impressive.” I asked “What? The 48 novels or me standing on the couch?” She said “Both.” So some pictures of the 48 novels I got yesterday in one big box. All under my name, no pen names. Something I just realized this morning. Very unusual for me as well. The novel that you can’t see because of the light at the top is LAYING THE MUSIC TO REST, my first novel published in…
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Fun Box of Books
A Very Heavy Box Arrived Today… Turns out it was 47 of my novels. Not copies the same book, but 47 different novels. One copy of each. Not at all sure which books I am missing still. I will have to go back through and compare them to Smith’s Monthly, which has 52 books out at the moment that were in there. (Actually 53.) I know I don’t have the two of the last three. But still missing a few besides those. But still a really fun sight. Very large piles of COLD POKER GANG NOVELS with the new covers and branding. Very nifty. Another bigger pile of THUNDER MOUNTAIN…
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Storybundle GETTING JUSTICE Now Live!!
Just Went Live An Hour Ago! I am really proud of this Storybundle because not only is it a great idea for a bundle of books, but for the fantastic writers who are in it. The reading in this will be amazing on so many different levels. So here is my introduction I did for the bundle. The link to the bundle is here… Introduction Justice: A Great Word Dean Wesley Smith I learned that if you ask a writer for a story about justice, you get all kinds of books and genres. But mostly when you say the word “Justice” you get mystery and crime fiction. And that was…
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Come Looking For Anger
Trolls Are Everywhere… But seems for me, they have to come looking. The reason is that I just ignore them and eventually, because they are starved for attention, they go away. Now, I know clearly that my opinions of professional fiction writing are only based on how it is really done, not on how some beginning writers think it should be done. I actually write and publish and make a lot of money, and that just pisses off a large part of the younger writers as well. But if a person doesn’t want to hear how it is really done, they tend to stay away from this blog and anything…
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Update on My 70 in 70 Challenge
Got a Shot at Making It!!! Not kidding. I might very well actually publish 70 major books in my 70th year on the planet. Kris and everyone at WMG Publishing is super supportive of this crazy idea, and have been from the start last November. And amazingly I have not forgotten the challenge, sort of just kept at it. At the moment I have 52 books published this year so far with 2.5 months left to go. (I consider major books as any book with my name on the cover. Novel, novella, collection, or anthology where I edited it. I also considered an omnibus a major book but am not…
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The Rule of Three
Most Writers Don’t Understand It or Use It… Today, at lunch, Kris and I were talking about a ton of ideas we have for Pop-Up classes we wanted to do for the Spade/Paladin Kickstarter we will launch next week. We like giving writers Pop-Up classes in the stretch goals if the campaign hits a certain amount. And we liked them to sort of match the genre of the campaign, which this time is mystery. We decided and laid out some really good Pop-Ups. For example, a Pop-Up titled HOW TO GET AUTOMATIC DEPTH. Yes, there are ways to do that. Honest. And they are fun and it is perfect size…