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Another Go At A Myth…
The Myth: Indie Publishing Costs a Lot to Do… Silly myth, but it is pushed hard by traditional publishing and by those who want to sell all their rights and let traditional publishing keep all their money. And it is pushed by just not knowing or getting information from the wrong sources. Remember, there are always people trying to stop you. So let me detail out the costs here as clear as I can. Let me make a couple of assumptions clear first. Assumption #1… For novels you must have copyeditor, someone who finds typos in your work. This can be a good friend, someone you hired at your library…
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I Shrug At Audio Books
But I Am A Business Person… I know, I know, all authors get all excited about audio books, and can quote the statistics about how it is the largest and fastest growing segment in the publishing world. And they would be right about the statistics. But as anyone who has ever taken a statistics class, those numbers can be used in all sorts of ways. So let me give you some numbers, even real numbers in publishing seem elusive and difficult to get. Many reasons for this, not the least of which is that Amazon, the largest bookseller on the planet, does not release numbers. And traditional publishing often counts…
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New Workshop Coming…
And Other Stuff… Last day of August. Been a long summer, that’s for sure. Actually, a long time since March/April and the start of all this. I went for months this summer (except for the scary trip going up North for moving) with my big adventure each week going grocery shopping. Or maybe running for some take-out pizza. I know for a fact I am not alone in that. Being safe and sane through all this is crazy. I sure thought last May we would be through this by now. Nope. Now I am at least getting out of the building each day for exercise. Who knew by now I…
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Cover Basics
I Got a Surprise Today… With the Covers 101 workshop starting next week, I decided I needed to round out my education a little on what the writers were doing who hired people to do their covers. All of you know I think that is a waste of time and money and can hurt your writing overall, but numbers of writers I know have others do their covers, so I was curious. So I wrote one wrier and asked a favor, if that person wouldn’t mind sending me a blank copy of the contract they use with their cover designer. I got a nice letter back saying they didn’t have…
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Two Cool Things!
Really Worth Checking Out… The first is a brand new series of blogs/articles from professional writer Chris York, who writes mystery and science fiction, but these days mostly really amazing cozy mystery novels under a couple of names. Chris is married to writer J. Steven York and they have been our closest writer friends for more decades than any of us care to think about. Anyone who has come to a major workshop for WMG, either on the coast or here in Vegas, knows Chris. Anyhow, since the beginning of this year, Chris retired from her long-time day job as an accountant for a major hotel and condominium complex and…
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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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Last 18 Hours…
As I Write This… The Return of Boss Kickstarter campaign ends at 8 pm West Coast Time tonight (Thursday) and looks like we are going to go past the 6th stretch goal. So writers, you get four Pop-Ups as stretch goals, worth $600 total. We already have two of them recorded and will be finishing up the last two and have them all up before the survey goes out in a week or so. Also a lot of great reading as well as stretch rewards, plus everyone who backs this gets the new Diving novel Thieves as well. So make sure you don’t miss it. This turned out really well…
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What Is The Point?
My Blog Tonight… No Point… I was going to write a blog tonight about something beginning writers do that I got three different notes about just in the last two days. One from a new professional writer who knows better, one from a full professional sending me a link that was funny, another was from a beginner asking me what I actually thought and how to do it. The subject: Tracking Rejection Times. So what do I actually think about doing that? I think it is just about the stupidest thing a writer can do. And then it dawned on me (while I was writing back to one of the…
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New Workshop Starting In September…
Yes, Another One… Lifetime Subscribers to the online workshops have been in heaven lately, with a new workshop just about every month this spring and summer. And now another new one in September. (And I will be putting up on Teachable the September workshops shortly. And the October workshops as well.) We have done a Licensing 101 workshop that is offered every month. And then we added in a Publishing 101 workshop, also now offered every month. So continuing that series, we will start in September a COVERS 101 workshop. That’s right, for everyone too afraid to do their own covers, here is the workshop that will teach you how…
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Catalyst Game Labs Press Release…
Thought It Would Be Fun To See… We do press releases at times for different things at WMG Publishing. They are not easy and you need a real reason to do one and also know who you are sending it to and why and how they will use it. It is an old art that is still being used fairly regularly, just not by indie writers much. This is the press release that was also in the Catalyst newsletter that just went out, talking about the collaboration between Catalyst Game Labs and Kris. Those of you who have been following the licensing stuff, this has been in the works for…