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Ghost Novel: Day 1
As I said in the previous post, I’m going to have one post per day here for the ghost novel writing process. (And no, this is not a novel about ghosts, this is me ghosting a novel because I was hired by a publisher. I explained all this in previous posts.) I will add to this post at different times today right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process. At the end of each post I will add up the daily word count and project word count. You want to see what a professional writer’s day is like, I’ll put it up here, every day…
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Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Writing Fast
Years ago I did this series called Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing. I stopped doing this because I hoped for a time that indie publishing would murder a few of the myths on its own, but sadly, it hasn’t. In fact, indie publishing created some new ones to go along with the old ones. Since I am going to blog about a ghost novel I’m writing here, I figured why not bring this forward to make sure everyone is on the same page as I go into this writing week. And maybe after I get the book done I’ll start back updating and bringing forward all these and get…
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Starting Ghost Novel On Friday
Schedule now set. Finishing up a fantastically fun workshop here tomorrow, finishing up taxes on Sunday, finishing up two short stories that are due on Monday-Wednesday, meetings at WMG and Ella on Thursday, so starting the ghost novel when I crawl out of bed on Friday morning. Stay tuned.
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The Ghost Novel Writing Is On for Next Week
As I have said a few times over the last six months, I was hired to write a ghost novel for a major author. I will never tell anyone who the author is or even why I am writing this for this author. Not a word. Ever, so don’t ask. But I can tell you that when this comes out of New York, it will be a major bestseller because this author’s books always are. I have been paid the advance, so I plan on starting the novel next week as soon as this great workshop that is going on here at the coast is finished. Character Voice and Setting…
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The New World of Publishing: The Assumption of Agents
Over the past few weeks I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about and by agents in different forums. For example, the White Glove Program Amazon has started, or a post about “Hybrid” agents. Both were linked to on ThePassiveVoice and you can find them there in the last week of March if you really care. What struck me clearly is the belief, the solid belief, in these articles and many others, that agents are just here and a part of the new book world. It seems to radiate through every word. It’s like you bought a house and someone is living in the basement and you believe without ever…
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The New World of Publishing: Publishing Reversion Clauses
In all the craziness of people getting angry at Random House for no advances and forcing authors to also pay for production, a major point was glossed over by almost everyone. When and how do you get your book back? Now John Scalzi touched on this in a fashion in a couple of his posts, but I always got the feeling from those posts he felt it didn’t matter that much. And for him, at the moment, it doesn’t. All his books are in print and Tor is treating him well for now. But that simple question will be the one aspect of your contract that in twenty years you…
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Think Like a Publisher 2013: Chapter 6: Sales Plans
This chapter is a pretty extensive revision of an early version of Think Like a Publisher. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put this chapter and the next few here on the web site. I didn’t in the 2012 version, but now figured why not, a good discussion can always help if anyone is interested in having that discussion on the topic of this chapter. And honestly, this chapter tends to scare people something awful. So hold on. Think Like a Publisher 2013 is an updated version of the book from about a year ago, including some of what has changed and what I have learned over the last year or…
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A 1973 Picture for Fun
In the lecture on Heinlein’s Rules, I talk about my writing years between 1975 and 1982. But frighteningly enough, I had a couple of professions before I took up writing while in architecture and then law school. I was an avid skier and golfer, but in 1971 I quit skiing and teaching skiing and went fully to golf, turning professional in 1972. Yeah, I know, hard to imagine me as a golf professional looking at the pictures at the top and side of this blog. But I was pretty good in those days. (I got worse every year for decades after those years. They were my peak.) I was what…
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Think Like a Publisher 2013: Chapter 5: Return on Investment
This chapter is brand new to any version of Think Like a Publisher. I’ve honestly been afraid to tackle this issue for some time, but think I might have a handle on it. Keep something clearly in mind as I talk about this: An indie publisher is still a publisher, the same as any traditional publisher. Think Like a Publisher 2013 is an updated version of the book from about a year ago, including some of what has changed and what I have learned over the last year or more. And some new chapters such as this one. I’m sure in another two years I’ll do a fourth edition. Every few…
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Some Star Trek Fun and History
Last week in the mail I got this huge packet of royalty statements from Pocket Books. Now understand, when I say huge, I mean huge. Maybe 200 pages. I’ve written shorter novels to be honest. These statements are only for the books I did with Pocket Books that are still in print in one form or another. And a bunch of them are Star Trek books of one sort or another. Looking through those statements, it reminded me that I got a letter recently from someone questioning my credits. This poor person could not believe that anyone could have written over a hundred novels and since I was lying about that,…