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Writer Delusion
There Are Numbers of Them… But only going to talk about one at the moment. However, just like myths, writers have many, many delusions that hold them back. Delusion: A fiction writer knows for a fact they can write good sales copy. Reason for the Delusion: After all, they are fiction writers and it is their story. Fact: I know of maybe a handful of fiction writers who know how to write good sales copy. And not one New York fiction editor. But most writers have the delusion that they can write sales copy, the second most important element in sales after the cover. And then wonder why their books…
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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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Think Like A Publisher #9.5… The Secret of Indie Publishing
Taking a break from the sales part of things, I want to back up for a fairly short chapter on how publishers think about income. Call this Chapter 9.5. Why Having More Product Is Better Than Having Less Product. I have heard over and over and over from indie publishers how their sales are not what they expected, or how they hope to promote their way to a big seller on their one book. Up to now I have mostly just bit my lip and kept my mouth shut. It just doesn’t work with one or two or even five stories up. Or at least it doesn’t work that way…
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Think Like a Publisher #7… A Sales Plan
At times I tend to forget that I sat in the publisher’s chair for seven years, growing a publishing house from nothing to the 5th largest producer of science fiction and fantasy and horror in the nation. And now, sixteen years after Kristine Kathryn Rusch and I shut that company down for good, we are helping in starting up another publishing company. And I’m trying to help indie publishers as well with these chapters. And so is Kris on her site, explaining some of these same things in different ways. So follow her as well. But, honestly, I sometimes forget that most writers just don’t know what I learned the…
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Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Writers Compete With Each Other.
This myth in the old days (meaning more than three years ago) used to get knocked out of young writers early on in their careers, so it had little or no impact on writing careers as young writers came into the field and got help along the way from older, more experienced professionals. In fact, for the longest time in publishing, the apprentice system was a main way in. I know I got fantastic help coming in from major superstars of fiction writing and I feel fantastically lucky they spent the time to give me advice and help. So I’ve tried to do the same now that I’ve somehow managed…