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Mentor Program
Yup, Going To Do It… Over the years, lots of my friends who are long-term writers have unofficially taken on younger writers to mentor. This has been a standard way in publishing for centuries now. And for a young writer to get into one of those positions is pure luck. Kris and went another way. We started off doing talks at conventions, basically trying to be entertaining and tell younger writers what we wish someone would have told us twenty years earlier. Then we went into the workshops a few times a year on the Oregon Coast, and then into online workshops, which has grown far, far larger than we…
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Attention Those in the Anthology Workshop
Read the Week’s Assignment Early!!! Just a warning. This year’s anthology workshop is going to be a blast here in Las Vegas with all the restaurants and the nifty suite for evening chats. And the stories are going to be great fun as well. And nope, far, far too late to sign up, even though the workshop isn’t until March. Sorry. But you can sign up for 2020. (The writing starts in November 2019 and it will fill again fairly soon this winter. So don’t miss it next year.) And those with can still sign up for free Business Master Class here in Vegas. And yes, you can sign up…
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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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I’m Back Home In Vegas
Spent the Last Three Days on the Oregon Coast… Business meetings, finishing up a bit of the last of the move, and having great dinners with old friends. A good, but quick trip. I started a short story on the plane on the way down, didn’t have time to write anything while there, then finished the short story in the lounge at the airport and on the plane back. So that was fun. About 5,000 words. The idea (that I posted last night) of offering free Master Class tuition if you have or buy a lifetime online workshop came about in a meeting in Allyson’s office at WMG, with Kris…
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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…