Quitting Comments and Some Learning Sales

Seems I Touched a Few Writers…

I got a bunch of email, but two letters were from writers who had quit as well as the other ones I mentioned.

Both had less than 20 books discoverability and both didn’t understand why their books didn’t sell more than a few copies. Both had even bought into the myth of doing ads.

They had no branding on the covers, dull plot-filled sales copy that no buyer would get past, and the two I looked inside at had no depth of openings at all. Alas, they wrote, but never bothered to learn how to get their books to readers.

Sadly, both of them told me that the reason they quit was no sales.

Not sure how many times I have said this over the years, but long-term writers don’t write for feedback from outside people. We write because we love to tell stories to ourselves. When you depend on others for your happiness and success, you are always doomed to failure.

And egos about not thinking they needed to make their books sellable, and yet depend on that as a measuring stick just makes no sense at all.

They made their books unsellable completely. And then quit because they had no sales.

(Now right here I should mention I have a Sales Mentorship that teaches all this, 24 weeks, 12 assignments where you send me a story, the cover, the sales copy, and I read the story and work with you to get rid of the roadblocks between your story and your possible readers. Cost is $2,000 for the 24 weeks and I still have a spot open at the moment, so write me if interested,)

GOING INTO THE SALES WEEKEND…

You know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all that, we got a few things here that are great deals to help you learn across the board.

MINDSET: Optimism and Prosperity in 2026

A step-by-step guide to understanding how you can get your thinking ready for a great 2026 in writing and publishing.

5-week class given by New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith and planned by both Dean and New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch together.

We will be honest and pull no punches, so if you want someone to pat you on the head, tell you what hasn’t worked for you in the past is how you should keep going into 2026, you won’t get that.

Mindset is everything in so many things in publishing and writing and you can have a great mindset going into 2026 if you know how to do it.

A good mindset brings optimism and optimism brings prosperity in both your writing and publishing.

There will be four awareness assignments in the five weeks to help you get to the heart of how to achieve a great mindset and learn what will work for you going into the future.

STARTS DECEMBER 1ST… Five Weeks long. Price is $250.

The last lessons will be on the 29th of December so you are ready to jump into 2026 with a great mindset for your writing and publishing.

Direct link to class on WMG Teachable is…

https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/courses/mindset

LIFETIME EVERYTHING SUBSCRIBERS, this is already in your subscription. 

And between now and when this class starts, because a few folks missed this last time around, we are offering the LIFETIME EVERYTHING SUBSCRIPTION for 70% off the $10,000 fee. That is $3,000 for all 600 plus classes and workshops. A great gift to yourself for 2026. Write me directly if interested or if you need more information about anything. Offer will only last until Monday, December 1st.

Hope to see many of you in the MINDSET class. It will be a great one to help you into 2026.

SALE ON CHALLENGES UNTIL MONDAY

For those who want something even more substantial to change your new year and how you approach it, ONLY UNTIL MONDAY NIGHT LATE, we are putting all the challenges on sale for 50% off. Sign up now, start on January 1st or anytime, prepare to start over the next month, working on changing the mindset so 2026 does not end up the same as the last few years.

Again, this sale ends when the Mindset class starts on Monday, December 1st.

Sign up now and start any time you want… You accomplish any of these challenges, you get the $10,000 value Lifetime Everything Subscription.

The five challenges are:

• Super Great Challenge (one short story a week for a year, published in the next two weeks after you turn it in.)
• Super Great Novella Challenge (one novella a month for a year, published in the next two weeks after you turn it in.)
• Super Great Novel Challenge (one novel every six weeks for a year, published in the month after you turn it in.)
• Super Great Kickstarter Challenge (five Kickstarater campaigns in a year, each funded and each must be fiction.)
• Super Great Publishing Challenge (publish one major book (novel, collection, omnibus) every three weeks for one year.)

More information about each one on WMG Teachable.

To get any of them in this next week at half price, simply use the code word

CHALLENGE

Hit purchase, put in the code and hit apply and you can get it for 50% off. If you miss, you get $600 in credit you can use for anything on Teachable except another challenge.

Again, the half price is only good for one week on the challenges and you can start any time you like.

Lifetime Everything Subscribers, you can do the challenge for yourself and not the subscription unless you want to pay the fee and try to earn someone else the subscription. If that is the case, let me know. Skin in the game is always a very real motivation.

Change it up, challenge yourself to get different results for 2026.

WARM UP WITH CRAFT CLASSES

On the WMG Writer Store, Kris did a series of 5 craft workshops that many missed.  They were called The Quick and Dirty Craft Classes.

Each was three weeks long with a webinar that Kris answered questions at the end. All of it is recorded now so you can go over them at your own pace and go back to them at any time. Each was $150 each.  Each focused on Kris teaching you how to write and improve your craft on the specific topic.

The five Quick and Dirty craft classes are:

• Smell and Taste
• Touch
• Sound
• Sight
• Endings

If you go to the WMG Writer Store and along the  top click on “Quick and Dirty Workshops, you can get more information and Kris doing an intro video for each one.

All five would cost $750, but to help you get warmed up and ready for 2026, we are offering them for $350 for all five classes. To get this deal, simply send the $350 fee to PayPal to the email address dean@wmgpublishingstore.com and then let me know and I will put you in all five classes so you can take them at your own pace to get warmed up for writing in 2026.

Wow is this a lot of craft focus learning from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, one of the best and most decorated writers working today in multiple genres.

More Craft Learning…

On WMG Teachable, Kris and I took apart three different movies in classes we called The Kris and Dean Show…

With stopping and starting the movie, we talked about plotting, information flow, characters, depth, and so much more.

The three movies we took apart piece by piece are

• DIE HARD (best Christmas movie ever)

• OCEAN’S 11

• BACK TO THE FUTURE

Normally these were $75 each, for a total of $225, but if you get all three, the cost is $100 total. To get this deal, simply send the $100 fee to PayPal to the email address dean@wmgpublishingstore.com and then let me know and I will put you in all three classes so you can take them at your own pace to get warmed up for writing in 2026.

And remember, you can get these for a gift and we can get them to a writer friend at any time you want. Great gifts for those really wanting to learn and have a great 2026 writing year.

So in summary of craft warm-up deals…

Five Quick and Dirty Craft Classes taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch… 3 weeks each with webinars, all recorded…Normally $750… Now $350 through PayPal.

Three Kris and Dean Shows… Three movies taken apart… All recorded… Normally $225… Now $100 through PayPal. 

(See Paypal instructions above.)