-
Branding
To Genre… There are a lot of elements to branding in fiction, so much so that we are thinking of doing an entire six week regular workshop on the topic. (Let me know if interested. No requirement to take it.) Branding becomes critical not only the in basics like genre covers, but in so much more, such as licensing, trademarks, and overall value of a book or series, let alone its sales and licensing. And wow are there a lot of elements that go into branding in fiction. (Six weeks worth easy.) Most writers I’ve talked to tell me they understand branding, but as I stare at just their covers,…
-
Smith’s Monthly
New Place for Smith’s Monthly… We have all of them on our new Shopify store. Right now only the electronic editions are there, but given time, with luck, the paperback copies will be available as well. Check it out. When you see all 67 issues one right after another, you realize how amazing it is. Remember, each issue is about 60,000 to 70,000 words of only my fiction. Four or five original short stories every issue, plus a novel or something else large, plus other stuff. Every month. The November 2022 was the 67th issue. That was the last one I did at the moment because of my eye issues.…
-
Some AI Opinions
Watching AI Like Everyone Else… And getting a ton of questions about the different aspects of AI as it applies to writing and the Indie world of publishing. So let me give you my opinions on the three areas right now here in February 2023. This will date quickly I am sure. So if you read this six months from now, I hope to do another update about then. AI Audio… It is here, pretty amazingly good, and getting better by the day. And numbers of companies are jumping on board (I know of at least three major.) As always, read the terms of service. I see no reason not…
-
Another Note on Copyright Valuation
Head-Shaking But True… I talk copyright on this blog in any way and the letters and comments just dry up like they were hit by a bad desert wind on a hot summer day. Fun to watch, and I know these posts are just skipped by most. Makes them uncomfortable. But on the last valuation posts, I got a couple of private comments that went something like this… “How can my copyright be worth anything if I only sell a couple copies a month?” Or… “I am a new writer, my work has no value.” Well, in some ways, past performance and sales do help set value at that moment…
-
Derivative Rights in Bite-Sized Copyright
Talking Derivative Rights for Next Three Weeks… That’s right, for those of you who think you know copyright, or are planning to learn it any day now, it is going to take me three full weeks of Bite-Sized Copyright class to just do the basics on derivative rights. And you can’t understand licensing anything unless you understand how derivative rights work first. Bite-Sized Copyright class has no assignments, so it fits with just about anything. You just get the videos every Monday morning every week for the full year. Yes, you can take it quarter by quarter and all the first weeks remain, so you can catch up on your…
-
Great New Workshops Available!!
In-Person Workshops, Study Along Workshops, Novella Add-Ons, and the Special Fey Workshop… That’s right, all available now and up on Teachable… FEY SPECIAL WORKSHOP… Those of you who got this in the Fey Kickstarters, the code to get into it will be sent out early next week. It is on the first page of Teachable and it takes the 11 videos Kris did in Lessons from the Fey and adds a lot more videos by me to it. I will dig down into the why of what happened, the writing ways Kris managed to keep going, and so much more about publishing and surviving as a long-term professional. This might…
-
Adding Fun and Games to Copyright Valuation…
The Music Industry Is Always Ahead of the Publishing Industry… Often by about a decade. That seems to be the fact in the case of valuation of copyright. I assume that everyone has heard of major song writers and artists selling entire catalogs. Justin Bieber just did it, lots of older artists have done it for tons of money. Each deal is different and interesting. But they all had one thing in common. There was a valuation of the catalog of songs and such owned by the artist. So thanks to a New York Law Journal article, some of the methods used to value an artist’s music catalog are discussed.…
-
Resurrected Classic Workshops
FOR ONE MONTH ONLY!! Since numbers of writers have asked about how to get feedback on assignments in workshops that are now Classic Workshops and there just wasn’t a way (Until now.) Kris and I and Allyson got talking about figuring out a way to bring back one or two Classic Workshops per month, for one month only, and I would treat that workshop like a regular workshop that month. In other words, I would respond to the homework of that workshop. The class itself will still be in the Classic Workshops, and I will not respond to that, but we will put up the class with the Orange Regular…
-
More Copyright Valuation
Main Way of Valuing Fiction… If you haven’t read the previous posts on this topic, might want to go back and do so. Or read them again. And if you don’t understand copyright, much of this will just go past you I’m afraid. So I mentioned one way of valuing copyright. I called it the “Cost Method” because you just add up all the costs of producing the book and that is the value. That method flat doesn’t work past putting a value on covers and a few other design elements. But it is the easy one to understand for most. Now to be clear right here… I am not…
-
More IP Valuation
Thought I Better Do a Basic Friday Night IP Quiz… Before moving on to the second and most commonly used way to value IP, in this instance copyright. So be honest with yourself And do not tell me how many you got or didn’t get. These are so basic, if you are a professional fiction writer, these are silly easy. The answers will actually be at the bottom of this post, but don’t cheat doing them for yourself first. 1… When Publishing a Book wide, which elements contain copyright protection? a…the overall story b… the cover c… the sales copy 2… In your story, which elements contain copyright protection? a……