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How to Write Fiction Sales Copy: Chapter Four
HOW TO WRITE FICTION SALES COPY CHAPTER FOUR (Summary. This book is coming about because I need to write 32 story blurbs for the 32 short stories I wrote in July for a book titled Stories from July.) In the first chapter of this book, I touched on what I call “The Author Problem” and gave a basic formula that I sometimes use to give blurbs a structure. And in chapter two I laid out another formula for writing blurbs. And in the third chapter I talked about a method Lee Allred uses. This chapter I want to note that sometimes you can use varied versions of first lines from your story in…
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Busy Monday (Normal)
Busy Monday (Normal) Mondays are always nuts. Plain and simple. And today was no different. – THE DAY IN GENERAL I managed to say goodbye to the caged raccoon I had been feeding all weekend to keep alive so it could be hauled away. Then off to walk with another professional writer and talk about a session or two he and I will be doing at the Master Class in October. Great discussion while we got exercise walking in circles around a mall parking lot. Usually we walk around the mall, but it’s crazy tourist season here and the mall if full of herds. Then I went off to the…
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How to Write Fiction Sales Copy: Chapter Three
HOW TO WRITE FICTION SALES COPY CHAPTER THREE (Summary. This book is coming about because I need to write 32 story blurbs for the 32 short stories I wrote in July for a book titled Stories from July.) In the first chapter of this book, I touched on what I call “The Author Problem” and gave a basic formula that I sometimes use to give blurbs a structure. And in chapter two I laid out another formula for writing blurbs. This chapter, my friend, professional fiction and extraordinary comic book writer, Lee Allred put in the comments on my web site a great way of looking at blurbs to stay out of…
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The Top Five Dumbest Business Practices in Publishing
The Top Five Dumbest Business Practices in Publishing From the real world perspective, publishing is really, really, really known for its head-shakingly stupid business practices. But inside of publishing, these practices have become so common and set in “the way things are done” as to be defended by otherwise sane business people. So I figured I would honor Dave Letterman’s departure with a quick top five list. I’ll give the real world equivalent of the publishing practice, then the actual publishing practice, working down to the most stupid publishing practice of them all. There are many others. I try to deal with a lot of them in the Killing the…
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“Ghost Novel” Writing So You Can See
Numbers of people were wondering exactly what I was writing when I did the ten days of blogging about writing a 70,000 word novel. They were bummed they couldn’t see the final result or I couldn’t even give hints as to the genre. So, taking a page from of a much better writer than I am, (Harlan Ellison, who wrote a lot in public) I figured I would do the same thing I did with the “ghost novel” blogs, only do it for five short stories. And let you all read them as I finish them. I’m thinking about starting this on June 10th and going until the five stories…
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The New World of Publishing: What Is A Print Run, Grandpa?
I can imagine myself in thirty years sitting in a bar, my cane nearby to fight off any unwanted advances from elderly women while Kris sits there laughing at my delusions. Then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a young writer walks up to me and asks “What is a print run, Grandpa?” And I’ll have to answer that back in the days before the oceans came up… back in the days when writers had to trek both directions in the snow to beg publishers with a tin cup in hand to buy our books… back in the days when agents kept our money and wouldn’t tell us what we had…
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Ghost Novel: The Day After
I just finished close to a 70,000 words on a novel I was hired to do by a New York publisher. Did it in ten days here and blogged about my days and how I did the words. The editor on the book reported that it arrived just fine. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I only talked about the writing process and my day around the writing process. Someone local came up to me today and congratulated me on finishing the book and I said, “Congratulations on going to work today.” I do not think the person understood. (grin) Thanks…
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Ghost Novel: Day 10
The last day. As I said in every post so far, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I have been aiming for 10 days to finish this novel, which I said was the goal at the start. Looks like I’m going to hit it tonight. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until…
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Ghost Novel: Day 9
As I said in every post so far, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am now aiming for 10 days to finish this novel, which I said was the goal at the start. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process. At…
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Ghost Novel: Day 8
As I said in every post so far, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am now aiming for 10 days to finish this novel, which I said was the goal at the start. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process. At…