• Cave Creek,  Challenge,  publishing

    Shared Worlds Update

    The Nine Month Class is Officially a Go!!! We have enough writers signed up that I am now excited about doing the class even more than I was. Still room for more to sign-up, but we have enough now to really have fun. So take a look at the class, listen to my video a few posts back, and jump in. And I have been doing a bunch of research about Cave Creek over the last few days, just to double and triple check that I won’t be stepping on toes by inventing a brand new town and history in a made-up valley. There is a Cave Creek, Arizona, a…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Shared Worlds

    SHARED WORLDS: What Are They, How to Do Them, and Why… This is a one-of-a-kind class. Not a workshop, not a lecture, not a study along. For years now, Kris and I have tried to figure out how to teach shared worlds as a topic to writers to get the most benefit for writers. Both of us have written in so many shared worlds, we couldn’t begin to count. From the major shared worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars, to the more subtle shared worlds of say the WMG Holiday Spectacular that we are running through Kickstarter right now. And everything in between. There are thousands of reasons indie writers…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    One Mentor Spot Left for 2020

    Doing 2019 Still… I had five people take me up on me helping them by being a mentor in 2019. I am basically a cheerleader, someone they have to check in with each week, talk about the ups and downs. I answer questions when asked, give opinions on covers, read stories, and so on. In essence, I am there. And I am not really going away from those that I have been helping just because a year of time ended. A couple of the people started late, and one has pretty much vanished due to health issues. I hope that person will return later. So I figured I could handle…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Sales Numbers

    Some Interesting Comments… A number of posts back I talked about the difference between indie writers and traditional publishing writers. Not one person thought my sales numbers of over forty thousand for the traditional published author were too high. No one even questioned them. (They were far too high for 2019.) But wow did I get a lot of people objecting to around 50 copies a month average sales for indie. I understand that. I was doing a comparison on two books between the two types of publishing. And I used the word average, but so many writers don’t understand that term when it comes to sales. So let me…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Interesting Discussion

    Strangely Enough, With a Book Agent… Civil as I could keep it on my side. Honest, I was a good boy, for the most part. But my normal blunt self. (And no, I will not tell you who I had the discussion with.) Something came from this discussion that I thought I had better remind folks about here. If you have a friend who is looking at a book agent, ask these questions of that friend… One… Have you done a credit check on the agent? Two… Will the agent automatically, for all clients, split payments from all publishers, meaning the publisher sends out two checks and two sets of…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Once Again a Month Flashes Past

    October Regular Workshops Start Tuesday… That’s right, this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. And for those of you who want to take the HOW TO WRITE A PULPHOUSE STORY starting on October first, you will get a survey soon, if not already today. Fill it out and get it back to WMG, then this weekend write me saying you wan to take it in October and I will give you the code to get in. This HOW TO WRITE A PULPHOUSE STORY workshop could only be signed up for through Kickstarter Pulphouse Subscription Drive. Sorry. It might be offered again in two years on the next Pulphouse Subscription Drive. Maybe. More…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Up Early for an Outing Tomorrow

    With the Romance Workshop… Kris is taking the entire romance workshop on a field trip tomorrow. The mystery workshop in May went to the Mob Museum and this group gets to go to the Springs Preserve, and I’m going along because I am a member there and love the place. So got to be up early for me, so nothing tonight except to say there are seven more videos posted in the Licensing Transition and sign-ups for that are still open if interested. And sign-ups for the two Great Challenges are also still open. Lost two more writers this week, so far. And I am caught up, basically, on my…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  workshops

    Business Structure Pop-Up

    We Planned on Doing This… But just moved it up after the reaction to my post. This is about the structure of a writing business. It is not legal or accounting advise, but an awareness of what is possible with a writing business. Basically I tell you how Kris and I are doing many business things, or have done a lot of business methods in the past and why. Again, not legal advice, but I do talk a great deal about corporations and why to use them and how to license to them and take money out of them. So Pop-Up #16: Business Structure is available now on Teachable. It…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  publishing

    The Math Post… Some Additions

    Some Really Fun Reactions… Before you read this, you need to have read the blog post called The Math about three posts before this. First…. I am finding it a massive hoot that not one person questioned that I gave the author 43,000 book sales traditionally (in about three months time) in my calculation, but are questioning 500 copies AVERAGE a year indie. This is a prime example that authors really do think that traditional publishers have fairy dust to sprinkle on books and make them sell. The reality here in 2019 on the sales of that traditional book would be in the range of 15,000 copies per book, most…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    The Math

    Of Indie vs Traditional… You always know when I am going to do math, it will not be pretty. But a number of things happened in the last week that I figured it was time. First off, dealing with that myth of it costing so much to do an indie book. And second today a viral post from a traditional writer who got six figure deals and was whining that no one told her what would really happen (even though I am 100% sure she would have never listened.) So with those two in mind, let’s play a math game. With other important factors involved. Now you can be angry…