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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #7… To Sell You Must Write What Is Hot
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this winter with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. The Myth: “To sell either to editors or readers, you must write what is hot.” This myth stops thousands and thousands of book sales and destroys careers. And it’s just stupid, even though the myth seems to have a logical base in publishing. This myth spouts like a bad cold out of the mouths of top professionals…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #6… Selling to a Big Publisher Insures Quality
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. — Very few of these chapters will deal with the editor and publisher side of publishing. I know that in fiction publishing there are lots of problems with publishers, and right now picking on them just seems to be like kicking dirt onto a person who is struggling to even figure out how to stay alive. Besides,…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #5… Book as Event
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. — The myth of Book as Event, put as clearly as I can. Myth: All books need to be events, need to be something special. Hogwash, of course. All books must be written as well as the author can write the book, but just because the author spent blood and sweat on the book, or the author wrote it…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #4… You Need an Agent to Sell a Book
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This fourth Sacred Cow article (topic) was published here in 2009. Wow, has the world changed since 2009. Indie publishing was only a glimmer then and traditional publishing was turning ugly, so ugly that at that point, I was about ready to walk away completely and go back to playing…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #3…Rewriting
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This third Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once in 2011, but now it is slightly redone for the world of 2013/2014. However, this third incarnation hasn’t changed that much. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #2
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This second Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once since, but now it is slightly redone for the world of 2013/2014. However, this third incarnation hasn’t changed that much. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them how…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #1
This series of posts will turn into a book later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This first Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once since, but now it is completely redone for the world of 2013/2014. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them how far my beliefs have changed in a few short years. And how far publishing has changed as…
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Challenge, Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing, On Writing, publishing, Topic of the Night, Writing in Public
Another Sacred Cow Treatment
ANOTHER SACRED COW TREATMENT Well, read one too many articles about the stupidity of giving a traditional author an advance so they could be free to write their book. That myth had to be stabbed at with my little sword. Oh, and I got back to work on the novel. —— THE DAY Did an interview for a podcast this afternoon. Great fun and I’ll link to it when it comes out. Then off to walk, then to the mail, the store, and back to WMG offices where I worked on different stuff until 7 p.m. including starting on the Sacred Cow chapter. Home to cook dinner, watch some television,…
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Myth Believer
With Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy… I deal a lot with writer myths. And I will be doing new Killing the Sacred Cows of… posts soon. But one thing I noticed back when Foxworthy was doing his “You might be a redneck…” jokes is that they always had a ring of truth in them. So for fun, I thought I would show how that truth can sometimes be pointed at those who believe in the myths of publishing. If one or two of these strike home, don’t blame me. It’s your myth. Not the Top Ten Myth Believer Sayings… (Just ten random. Trust me, there are a lot more.) 1… If…
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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…