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WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Hit First Stretch Goal
In Just Three Days… Thank you, everyone. So cool. And this project is so much fun. Getting an original holiday story, like an advent calendar, every day from November 26th through January 1st, and edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Or you can get a Valentines calendar edited by Annie Reed or a Halloween calendar edited by Mark Leslie. Or all of it in books, plus a ton of other stuff. Remember, if you want more than one thing, just pick a reward and then add the cost of the second award you want to your original choice and we work it out in the survey when it is all over.…
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WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Funded!!
In Just Four Hours… It hit its $2,500 ask and is now quickly on the way to the first stretch reward. Four hours is a new record for us for any campaign if I remember right. And the stretch rewards have some fun books, including a Christmas ghost novel of mine where ghost agents and Poker Boy save Santa and the world in the process, plus a bunch of great Kris holiday books. And for writers, we are again doing three brand new Pop-Up classes for the stretch rewards that sort of go along with the Writing a Holiday Crime Story special workshop. Remember, the only place you will ever…
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23 Years Ago
In a Land Far, Far Away… Dean and Kris had some great times with some friends… Or so the story goes… That’s right, back in the late 1980s and through most of the 1990s, Kris and I used to travel a lot to conferences. In 1992 it got excessive and we went to 26 different ones. By 1997, we had cut way, way back and basically only hit a few big conventions and a couple fun ones. One of the big conventions in August 1997 was the San Antonio World Science Fiction Convention. That’s right, San Antonio in August heat. Late August heat, actually. So it wasn’t the biggest world…
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Scary Scam
Invite to Judge a Contest… Today, in separate emails, both Kris and I got an invite to judge a contest. The point of the contest is to get writer’s work in front of agents and traditional publishers. Yes, Kris and I got that invite to judge a contest to help new writers get their work in front of agents. I will let you stop laughing now. This woman thought it would be a great honor for me to do that, since she had no idea at all who I was. So while laughing and trying to decide what to say in return, I made the mistake of looking up the…
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Best Plans and All That…
I Intended to Update the Kickstarter Best Practices… And put up the new file from Loren and talk about some new campaigns. But nope, getting too late for me to do it today, so it will be Wednesday. Sorry about that. Great fun when days just sort of get away from you. And especially since I am feeling like I have energy again for the first time in a week. So I just flat tackled too many projects. Plus I talked tonight with one of Dave Farland’s classes. I had fun, but got a hunch I sort of twisted a few minds. But for some reason Dave wanted me to…
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Letters Out For Historical Workshop and News
Sent Letters to Everyone… So if you signed up for the Writing Historical Fiction special workshop in the Cave Creek Kickstarter and didn’t get a letter from me, after checking your spam filter, write me. In the letter you have the choice to sign up for either the May session or the June session. Totally up to each of you. But those will be the only two sessions. And all the surveys have gone out for the Writing Bundles Kickstarter which just closed, so get those surveys back quickly if you can. That way we can get out all the awards and books. Still Under Stay-At-Home Orders… Looks like most…
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What Might Happen
I Have Been Waiting to Do Some Videos… The Decade Ahead class (second quarter) started April 1st. I have not put a video in it yet. That class was supposed to be how to help writers get through each month and each quarter to set up for the decade ahead. So I have been thinking about doing some videos in that class on what should have been some of the troubles of April for writers. And what might be again the troubles next April. You know, sort of pretend things will go back to normal next year. Very questionable. And I have also been thinking about doing videos on how…
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Old Advice
Things In Publishing Change… So please, folks, if you are reading something I said, check the date on the post before quoting me. I have been writing about writing and the business since the old Genie Board days, and when I was editing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I wrote posts for writers. And the internet keeps it all it seems, somewhere. More millions of words and blogs and letters that I wrote than I can ever begin to count. Indie publishing came about in 2010 for me. Give or take. But for the first four years after that things were really changing, and so was I. So if I…
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Interesting Discussion
Strangely Enough, With a Book Agent… Civil as I could keep it on my side. Honest, I was a good boy, for the most part. But my normal blunt self. (And no, I will not tell you who I had the discussion with.) Something came from this discussion that I thought I had better remind folks about here. If you have a friend who is looking at a book agent, ask these questions of that friend… One… Have you done a credit check on the agent? Two… Will the agent automatically, for all clients, split payments from all publishers, meaning the publisher sends out two checks and two sets of…
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The Math Post… Some Additions
Some Really Fun Reactions… Before you read this, you need to have read the blog post called The Math about three posts before this. First…. I am finding it a massive hoot that not one person questioned that I gave the author 43,000 book sales traditionally (in about three months time) in my calculation, but are questioning 500 copies AVERAGE a year indie. This is a prime example that authors really do think that traditional publishers have fairy dust to sprinkle on books and make them sell. The reality here in 2019 on the sales of that traditional book would be in the range of 15,000 copies per book, most…