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Needing a Reader and Copyeditor…
Fighting Myths Again… Beginning and early professional writers always seem to focus on needing to have editors and copyeditors and beta readers and everything else. Always overkill and usually, almost without exception, it also kills their writing and stories. Some background. This obsessive desire for editing and copyediting on novels comes from three places. — First, it comes from 1970s-1990s traditional publishing habits that have stuck around and passed around as needed like myths of a big tall walking snowman with a chainsaw. In other words, too stupid for reality in 2020, but still believed by those coming into the publishing profession. — Second place all this editing stuff comes…
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Just Be Safe
This Isn’t That Hard, Folks… Just don’t go out unless you need to, wear a mask when you do, wash your hands all the time, and just stay six feet away from everyone. Right now a person is dying from Covid in the States every 35 seconds. And it is going to get much, much worse shortly because of all the people who traveled at the American Thanksgiving holiday and those who just had family and a few friends over, no big deal, right? Sigh… In a few weeks, before Christmas, we will be losing the same number of humans we lost in 911 every day. Kris and I just…
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December Workshops Have Started
Almost Forgot… Things have been so crazy this month (for everyone I bet), I almost forgot to post here that all the December regular workshops have started. Yes, it is December!!! I am moving the Licensing 101 to Classic in the next month or two, but past that, nothing new yet. (The new workshop is the special workshop that you had to sign up for through the last Kickstarter.) List of December workshops below. However, I am in the process of posting the January workshops and then will update all the schedules in the next few days into March. Got some slots for some new workshops that will be announced…
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Book #3 of 70 Book Challenge
Came Out Today… This is the third book published in twenty days. Great fun. If I managed 2 books every twenty days, that will get me to about 56 books, if I average three books every twenty days, that will get me above 70. So on target so far!! The book that came out today is Book #7 Year of the Cat: A Cat of Heroic Heart. Kris and I are co-editing this series of 100 cat stories. The books are great fun. Some of you will get this through the Kickstarter last January and some of you will get this if you are in the class on Teachable where…
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Finding Stories
Not to Write… But Already Written… When you are as prolific as I am, and combine that with just enjoying the writing, not caring about the publishing that much, you end up with strange things happening. I know that those writers who think everything they write is golden have trouble understanding this concept, but I flat lose stories. Smith’s Monthly Magazine, when I started it, was supposed to be a place where I could slowly, over years, gather all my stories together, one novel and four or five short stories per issue. And I did that for 44 issues just fine until life roles stopped the process. Now I am…
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How To Write a Holiday Crime Story Workshop…
All Letters to Those Signed Up Are Out… Thanks to all of you for the support of the WMG 2020 Holiday Spectacular. Really appreciated. In the letter are the instructions on how you can sign into either the December 1st workshop or the January 5th workshop. Your choice. If you can’t find the letter I sent you, look in the address you used for Kickstarter first. Then look in your spam filter. Then once you have exhausted all possible locations where my letter might be, then write me and I will make sure you are on the list from Josh first, and second, if you are I will send you…
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I Have Books In Three Bundles…
At The Same Time… This Never Happens… I am usually happy to be in a bundle every three months or so. So folks, if you want to get some amazing reading by other authors, and get four of my books, (And four of Kris’s books) now is the time to grab all three bundles. A couple of them are vanishing fairly soon, so don’t miss them. Here are descriptions and pictures and links of all three bundles. In the www.StoryBundle.com/Crime I have a Cold Poker Gang novel BAD BEAT, and I have a collection of best crime stories from Pulphouse Magazine that I edited called Twist of a Knife. Plus…
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GOOD CHEER HOLIDAY BUNDLE…
This Just Went Live!!! That’s right, just tonight, and I think this is an amazingly special bundle of holiday stories of all kinds and types. Perfect reading for this holiday season in so many ways. And one of the coolest things in this bundle is a book that explains the importances and contains all of The Santa Claus Stories by L. Frank Baum. Yes, the Wizard of OZ L. Frank Baum. With all his Santa Claus stories, he helped cement the images and traits we take for granted now for Santa Claus. And now, for the first time ever, they are gathered together and reprinted in one book, WITH ALL…
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The True End of Trade Publishing…
At Least As Anyone Knows It… Trade publishing is what I call traditional publishing. The reason for the word “trade,” very, very, VERY simply put, is that the publishers don’t sell directly to readers, they sell into the trades. The trades in publishing are a distribution system that is an old-fashioned channel to get books from an old-fashioned printing presses to warehouses to distributors to bookstores and then into the hands of readers. (By the way, three of the major trade printers have filed for bankruptcy or shut down. That is another really bad sign that causes books to be extremely delayed.) Trade publishers do not care about readers and…
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Taking Another Rest Day
I Got All Regular Assignments Done… Will finish tomorrow some assignments and letters I am behind on, then read some stories I just found from the Space Opera class that I haven’t read yet. I will do those tomorrow as well. But tonight I am going to just rest, go watch a movie, get a good night’s sleep. Nothing wrong. I know people worry that when I say I am not working until three in the morning I must be sick. But nope, just learning to take some time away from this computer a little more. Plus my one eye is forcing me away often just to be safe. And…