• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Publisher By Any Other Name

    Indie Writers… What a Strange Term… Just for a short time I want to explain why I have been shaking my head for almost ten years now when I hear the term “Indie Writer.” I hate to say it, but I was an indie writer when I sold over a hundred novels to traditional publishing. That’s right. I was an independent writer, with my own business, often selling to three or four or five traditional publishers at the same time. Not counting magazines and anthologies and other stuff. I had my own business as a writer. I was an indie writer. We were just not called indie writers back then.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Business Shift In Thinking

      BUSINESS SHIFT IN THINKING Well, Kris did a great article about some of the issues facing long-term professional writers like her in this new world of publishing. The shift from old publishing thinking to new publishing is hard for everyone. Information below.  —— THE DAY Meetings from 2 p.m. until after 5 p.m. In three different locations. Then worked for an hour or so at WMG after taking a walk with Kris, then home to cook dinner, then in here to do e-mail before taking a long nap. Then downstairs to watch television, back in here to work on things on this site and do one session on the book of…

  • On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night

    Topic of the Night: Day-Job Thinking

    DAY-JOB THINKING VS LONG-TERM THINKING In the great comments on the last topic of the night, this new topic was brought up. So thought I would expand on the idea. Day-Job Thinking goes like this: I need a certain amount of money to make my bills this month and a day job gives it to me in a “secure” fashion. Nothing at all wrong with that thinking. Nothing. We all have to live and make bills and eat and all those sorts of things. This is survival thinking, folks, plain and simple. So again, nothing wrong with that kind of thinking. Critical. Long-Term Thinking is the ability of a person to see…

  • Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing,  On Writing,  publishing

    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,…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Workshop Order and Breakdown…

    Workshop Curriculum 1/1/2021 I went through these back about four months ago, so with the sale going on now, I thought I would do it again so everything is clear. Today’s post is just the workshops and I’m going to divide all of them down into areas of study. And the numbers are my suggestions on the order to take these workshops because many of them build on others. (Two types of workshops are included. Regular and Classic.) All workshops and courses can be found on Teachable. Just hit “see all courses.” To get them at half price, just use the code Resolution Pop-Ups and others will be listed later.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Course Curriculum

    Updated Because of the Sale… You can find this workshop curriculum at any point on the front page of my web site on the right under the Curriculum tag. There are a bunch of workshops, pop-ups, lectures, and other classes that I tried to put in some sort of order. If I missed something or didn’t add it in for some reason, just write me with questions. Remember, until the 8th, everything is half price on Teachable. Everything, including classes, lifetime subscriptions, everything. Full instructions and reasons for the sale are in the previous blog, but all you have to do is hit purchase and then put in the code:…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    More Workshops Organized

    While the Half-Price Sale Is Happening… I figured I would continue to try to put some order on the massive numbers of workshops, lectures, pop-ups, and classes we have. A curriculum if you will. Very loose one. Very. Yesterday’s blog I did what I considered the top twenty regular and classic workshops to take if your desire is to become a better storyteller. Basically craft workshops. I am going to go back and add in Shared World Class and Year of the Cat class. Both are great on craft focused writing. And I tried to put the workshops yesterday in an order that would make sense to take them over…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    June Workshops and Descriptions

    Time Travel Workshop Available… Plus I have below some of the descriptions of the Futures workshops, all four of them, and the description of the Emotions workshop and Time Travel workshop. I also have a list of all the different workshops now available. An amazing list. All this is on Teachable, of course, and that is where you would sign up unless you have a credit. If you have a workshop credit, write me. The four Futures workshops also have a bundle on Teachable that you can get all four cheaper if you buy the bundle. So first off, the June listing of Regular Workshops now available. Then all the…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    List of Classic Workshops and Lectures

    For Those Who Grabbed the Writer Gift Box… Anyone who got the writer gift box will not only get a bunch of writing books, but a Classic Workshop and a Lecture of your choice. Happy Holidays from WMG Publishing. Instructions and links to the books will go out tomorrow morning. Below is a list of the Classic Workshops now available. Five new ones have been moved over to classic now. How to Study, Edit Yourself, Secondary Plot Lines, Think Like a Publisher, and the Business of Publishing. Included in the list of lectures to pick from are the three quarters of Tip of the Week, plus the Advanced Business Lectures…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  running

    Already Feeling Better

    Very Annoying… But since I started eating very healthy, lower calories, more protein, and got my exercise going again, I feel better. I knew that would happen but every time I am shocked. I am over 5 miles walking per day (10,000 steps for my stride), a new streak starting, and have run at least a half mile two of the last three days. And the weight has started down. Shock. This is sort of like I feel with writing, and what I hear others expressing as well. Starting is hard, but once you start writing regularly, you feel so much better, so much more joy at the world. And…