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Very Tempted…
To Say I Told You So… But that would be petty. (Grin) Yes, this is a post about book agents. You see, for the last decade or more I have been trying my best to talk sense into normally very intelligent people when it comes to agents. But the myth is so powerful that really smart people do the stupidest things when the word “agent” is mentioned in publishing. Example… Writers allow agents to tell them how to write a novel, even though the agent has never written a novel in their life. Yet writers will rewrite and rewrite to try to please some agent, spending years of time. Example……
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MADE IT! 30 Stories in 30 Days
So That Makes Ten Short Stories in Four Days! 30 stories done in April. Challenge Hit! And that was with all the moving. I am headed back to the coast tomorrow morning very early. Moving stuff from the big house there into a smaller place near one of our stores and then getting ready to bring more stuff down here to Vegas. So everything on target so far. Day and The Stories Made it out of bed about 10:30 and actually got to writing right after 11 a.m. Finished the first story in two sessions with only a short break by 1 a.m. when Kris got back from her exercise.…
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Some Reasons To Avoid Traditional Publishing
There Are So Many… I mentioned that I had taught at a wonderful writer’s seminar called Superstars. Put on by Kevin Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, Dave Farland, Brandon Sanderson, and a fantastic staff. I was a guest instructor on the writing side. I had a blast and the conference ran perfectly from my perspective. There were also industry guests like Mark Coker from Smashwords, a New York agent, some editors, and other fun people. The conference tries to help everyone and I was, of course, on the indie publishing side of things, even though I have published over a hundred novels with traditional publishers. The conference really does attempt…
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Great Fun At Superstars
Fun Panels and Smart Writers… I had some really fun panels today on topics ranging from the future of electronic books to newsletters. On Saturday I’m going to do a presentation on corporations for writers, then be on panels on agents (I have promised to be nice) and finding a balance. Then off for home. Tonight was the fun thing for me among many fun things. Something they call the VIP dinner, sort of like what we do at lunches on our big workshops. Six writers set with me for dinner and four hours later we were still talking about writing and all sorts of stuff. Great fun. So a…
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Another Day of No Answers
No More Answers Today Than We Had Yesterday… This entire thing will take time to settle out. I see three paths: Data Guy and Hugh can make changes, they can go on as they plan, or someone large could shut them down. No telling. But here is what I heard today. Also great stuff in the comments on Passive Guy and on my posts over the last two days. Thanks, everyone, for the comments. Too bad Data Guy didn’t feel up to responding. What I heard through the day (in letters and on private lists) from lots of writers was that they felt betrayed because they had given Data Guy…
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One Fun Thought
I Think Agents Are a Bad Thing… For most of you reading this, that is a well-duh. So it dawned on me that one agent or some publisher could buy this package from Data Guy and with very little work figure out EXACTLY what any agency is making from all their clients book sales. (Not advances, book sales.) Of course, it won’t include overseas and movie rights and such as I said in the long post before this, but it should be enough information to make any agent or agency in New York quake in fear at this personal information about all their authors getting out. That just makes me…
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One More Adventure Day
More Meetings and a Ton More Walking… I got over 13,000 steps today after 16,000 yesterday. Yes, tired legs. Hours worth of meetings today and then some play, including a poker tournament tonight. Got knocked out right before the final table in 11th. Still fun numbers of hours. Those of you who read my books, I have now had four helpings of bread pudding in the Golden Nugget Buffet. I can almost see some of the Cold Poker Gang sitting at one table and a few tables away some of the Ghost of a Chance Agents. I love the place, can you tell? (Grin) ————– Weekender Pop-Up Online Workshops Are…
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Looking at An Old Post
New Year Making Me Look Back… Plus I was cleaning up things, killing some old posts, and I ran across this post that was originally called “The Death of an Indie Writer.” How’s that for click bait? (grin) I wrote it in July 2011, way back in the start of all this craziness. And frighteningly enough, I was right on almost all of it and I am still seeing this same thing today, even though most new writers coming in have lots of information and this new world is pretty stable. That doesn’t seem to be helping. So here is the long post, updated only slightly to 2017. I thought…
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Some Movie Stuff
Lecture on Movie and Television Negotiating… Kris and I have spent so much time with Hollywood projects, and always have Hollywood projects in one stage or another for our work, we can’t even keep track at times. Not kidding. We have made so much money from Hollywood over the decades in one way or another, I would be stunned if I even tried to add it up. If we are ever face-to-face over dinner or a drink, I’ll be glad to tell you some horror stories. Some of them are pretty funny. One thing we hear regularly is the stupidity of writers saying they need an agent to negotiate Hollywood…
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An Issue Turned In
Finally Got Going Again with Smith’s Monthly… Took me a while to get going, but finally got the issue of Smith’s Monthly in to WMG. It has the novel I finished last night and four short stories and part of a nonfiction book. I will have the next issue turned in on Monday, since that has novel I wrote in January. Then to finish a book I started a long time back and get it turned in for another issue next week. Those of you who followed along in April know I started a new ghost of a chance series character called Marble Grant. That is the only story from that challenge in…