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The Wet Blanket Reality… Chapter One
Chapter One… Manuscript Must Be Perfect Writers who believe in the myth of traditional publishing also believe deeply in the myth that rewriting is good and that a manuscript must be perfect before you dare send it off to an agent. Perfect, I say!! Perfect! (I have never in my 40 plus years in publishing ever seen a perfect manuscript.) So what happens is that years and years pass while the writer “Works on their book.” Okay, come on, we all know a number of these writers spending years “working on their book.” And sadly, these writers are proud they are doing that and they will be glad to tell…
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Following Up on Yesterday’s Post…
With a Personal Story… I wrote a novel for fun back in January of 2014 called KILL GAME: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. It came out in Smith’s Monthly in March and then as a stand-alone novel in May of 2014. It sold very few copies, maybe three or four a month, maybe. (That’s what I have been told.) Then in November my creative voice said “Write another.” I did, a book called COLD CALL: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. Again it was in Smith’s Monthly and out stand-alone a month or so later. Sold very few copies, maybe three or four a month. I did not care and paid…
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A Quick Covers Post
Different Aspects of Cover Art… I tell writers to do their own covers. The levels of critical voice excuses I get back are amazing. And all the excuses are geared to make sure the writer fails. After all, that is what critical voice does, it stops you. In this modern world, unless you have a ton of money you want to just toss into a garbage can, no writer can afford to hire covers done. Wait, let me change that. No moderately prolific writer can afford the time, the money, the problems that come with having someone else do your covers. Moderately prolific? Four novels and a number of short…
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Changes In Publishing
A Glimpse of a Future As many of you know, I have been around and working in publishing and fiction writing professionally since 1987. Sold my first two short stories in 1974. Over the years, I have watched publishing change numbers of times. I knew the distribution collapse of the 1990s, caused by Safeway and invoicing, would alter publishing forever. And it did. And I watched as the Kindle changed everything in publishing and created the indie movement which is now the major part of publishing (even though traditional writers and publishers don’t want to think so.) And I have watched and wondered how this pandemic was going to change…
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Fantastic New StoryBundle
How Many Worlds Can Be Saved? I set off to put this Storybundle called Saving the World together with a goal. I wanted to find as many ways as possible to save the world and as many worlds as possible to save. I figured that would be really fun for me to read and I hoped that a lot of you would feel the same. And what I was lucky enough to end up with is eight novels and two major collections of short stories, all fantastic. And fun. And on top of that, four of the books in this bundle can ONLY be found in this bundle. That’s right,…
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Sorcery and Steam Storybundle…
Now Live!!!… And folks, I have a brand new, never seen before, Poker Boy collection in it. And Kris has a brand new, never seen novella in it. And on top of that, Annie Reed has a brand new collection in the bundle and Fiction River Presents: Sorcery and Steam is also new. Plus Laura Anne Gillman’s nifty novella “From Whence You Came had very little distribution before this bundle. So this bundle is chalk full of original-to-the-bundle books. And I put it all together. And had a blast doing so. This is only available for a very short time. So grab it quickly. Here is my blog from the…
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Some Numbers on Income
I Got This Question About Numbers of Sales It Takes… Now, I have done this post a bunch, mostly on making a living with your short fiction, so thought I would twist it a little just for fun. And to show some extremes. But everyone should be doing these numbers for themselves at times. And, of course, there is no right answer to this. Not a one. Since the 20Booksto50K conference was here and I did that talk which you can see a few posts back, let’s just use $50,000 for goal number. Novel Price is $5.99 electronic so you get $4 per sale. (You make extra paper and audio…
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December Workshops Described
Figured It Was Time… So below is the list of the 12 regular workshops offered in December and following that a description of each. They are all now available and you can sign up for any of these on Teachable.com or if you have a workshop credit, write me. This is a great list of workshops for December. And this is less than half of the regular workshops we offer, not counting the Classic and the Futures workshops and Strengths. That’s why we offer a lifetime subscription to all workshops. (grin) DECEMBER ONLINE WORKSHOPS NOW AVAILABLE Class #61… Dec 4th … How to Study Writing Class #62… Dec 4th … Endings…
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A Copyright Scam
On Facebook and Other Places… You know how really stupid writers are about copyright when some company can offer a way to make money off of the writers by sounding stupid and using terms wrong. The scam I have seen numbers of times now is that a company will offer to “Copyright Your Work” for you for a measly $99.00 plus fees. Not kidding. (I bet those of you who understand copyright just shook your heads.) And I got a hunch the scam artists on this one have a lot of takers. All writers too stupid to realize that the moment they wrote their story in some form, it was…
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July Workshops and Copyright
Still Time to Jump In… Kris and I have been working some on the two new regular workshops, Information Flow and The Magic Bakery, and they are turning out really nifty so far, in my opinion. The Magic Bakery will help put this business in complete perspective. And Information Flow is going to be tough, but an eye-opener. And I had a question yesterday that made me realize that writers just don’t know much about the aspects of Public Domain, and thus Copyright. So if I asked the question… “Can your heirs still sell your work 71 years after your death, when your work has dropped into the public domain?”…