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Curriculum Updated and More Information
Finally, After A Year, the Curriculum Updated… The Curriculum now includes all the new writing and publishing workshops from the last year and the new Pop-Up Weekender workshops we just announced. No workshop doubles up information. All of them are unique and focused in an area of fiction writing and business. The curriculum is divided into a number of categories to help you decide, but I will always answer questions if you are unsure. ————————— I’m Still Working On Marble Grant Novel Actually, making a little progress. And I am still working on getting back the responses to the last short story challenge that ended on December 1st. That is…
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Getting Ready for 2018
Sort of a Look Forward… A Really Long Post Part of this is new, part of this is an older post from 2012 that I thought still made sense today. So once again, the way back machine strikes again. Every time I do this post, or talk with writers at the end of the year, I hear goals being set that are seemingly impossible when you do the math. I’ve set a few of them myself, to be honest, over the decades. I honestly have no problem at all with impossible goals. None, as long as the person setting the goal understands that the likely failure can also be deemed…
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Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Beta Readers Help You
This chapter came from me just hearing over and over about how writers are using multiple beta readers. And I honestly just got tired of shuddering every time I heard that stupidity. Chapter Six Beginning writers have a belief that the more people who read their work, the better their work will be. Of course, that flies in the face of any creation of art by an artist. But the fear is great among young writers, most of who are indie writers these days. Long term pros? What do they do? Maybe have one first reader, maybe not. Most not. Why? Because creating original fiction is not a group effort,…
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How to Run a Bookstore in 2017
Some Top of My Head Tips… On ThePassiveVoice.com (a fantastic resource for all us indie writers) bookstores get slammed a bunch. I finally got sort of tired of the slamming of bookstores in general and decided to make a point that it is the bad management of bookstores that kills them, not bookstores in general. There was even a comment that bookstores are like a boat, a place to throw money. Well, if you run them wrong for 2017, yes, that is correct. If you run them correctly, with an open mind, no. So I got asked by two people in email what it took to run a modern bookstore…
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Read All Night
Workshops and Reading All Day… Now I have to admit, not a bad way to spend a day. I finished Kris’s new Diving Universe novel just a short time ago (sun is coming up). It is stunning and is going to make every Diving fan happy, trust me. Made me happy. (grin) I also worked on workshops at WMG and tonight here. And read some challenge stories and novels earlier in the evening. No writing. I will be back writing solidly on the new novel on Monday or Tuesday. But I did get the steps back up over 10,000 steps and the weight is coming off, those last pesky 15…
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Slow and Fun Day
DOING LOTS OF READING… I spent a lot of today either working on corporation taxes at the WMG offices or reading. Mostly reading. I am not only reading the stories and novels for the summer challenge, but Kris has a new Diving Universe novel that has been sitting near my reading chair for a week. I have been dying to read it. So I do some novel reading on the challenge, then Kris gives me this incredible mystery story to read. Actually a novella. So I ended up reading that, then taking a break, then reading some of the Diving Universe novel, which is stunningly good. It was everything I…
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Just Getting Ready For July
Clearing Decks and Ramping Up… Getting ready to write four novels in one month takes some thought. Not on the books. Haven’t thought about those at all. But on time and life. First off, I got 11,000 steps today, about 5.5 miles for me. Ramping up. My plan (if it works, a huge if) is doing 11,000 steps a day while writing book #1. Then do 12,000 steps a day while writing book #2. Then 13,000 steps a day while writing book #3, and 14,000 steps a day while writing book #4. So mostly I have been working on how the time is going to work out. Actually I have…
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Why Is The Strengths Workshop Hard?
A Couple People Asked That Question Today… I will be announcing the new Strengths workshops (yes, there are more than one this time). And I said in the comment yesterday we don’t do these except once every few years because they are so difficult ON ME AND KRIS. Kris and I have writing to do, a business to run, life to enjoy. We contain our help of other writers to our blogs and to the online workshops and only four coast workshops a year. It might seem like a lot from the outside, but actually it’s not bad from our side. However, to do service to the writers signing up…
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Another Scam Firing Up
This Scam Starts in Traditional Publishing… It’s brand new, but I fear it will spread. Writers are that afraid. So what is this new scam? Sensitivity Readers. Not kidding you. Traditional publishers are hiring “sensitivity readers” to read books before they are bought or published. Wow, the amount of stupidity has just hit a new level in publishing, far higher than my cyclical belief thought it could. You can find the article and read it yourself if you want to be disgusted. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-publishers-hiring-book-readers-to-flag-sensitivity-20170215-story.html Sadly, some people will hire themselves out to do this and new writers are going to buy into this scam just as they bought into the scam of needing…
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Official Approval Fear
Did I Get it Right?… What a stupid, silly, useless question when it comes to writing stories. And yet… That one question covers some of the largest fears that fiction writers have. I got some of these expressed in the questions from last week. Thanks everyone. So let me see if I can make some sense out of all this… —Wondering if they got it right (fearing that they didn’t) makes beginning writers often spend thousands on book doctors or some other editor term, almost always from a person who has never published a word. —Wondering if they got it right (fearing that they didn’t) makes beginning writers rewrite the…