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The Value of a Paperback
So Many Indie Writers Don’t Understand the Value of a Single Paperback… So as a topic of the night here on a Friday night when few people will likely read this, I’m going to see if I can explain a little. And with luck, you will say, “I knew that.” But if you do understand the value, how have you acted on that knowledge? An Example: A couple days ago I walked into our north store and there on the counter was a stack of well-read books that Kris and I had written. All mass market paperback, all clearly read by more people than one. A bunch more. We had…
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A Busy Monday
Turned in Smith’s Monthly #40… That just messes with my mind when I realize, actually understand, that I have done 40 issues now of my own magazine. 60,000 to 70,000 words per month. One of the reason for the new challenge, to get four more issues out, since I have the short stories for them already. Today was busy. I ended up talking with our accountant about some needed changes going forward with corporations and structures. Then I met a guy to get an estimate on repaving our driveway. Then did some challenge reading and online assignments. Then spent the rest of the evening putting together Smith’s Monthly #40. My…
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Chasing the Market
Artistic Freedom Part Two… Yesterday I talked about the wonderful artistic freedom this new world gives writers. If, and only if, the writer takes the freedom and even knows how to recognizes the freedom. I got a number of questions, mostly in e-mails, about what I meant by not writing to market in that post. In short, writing to market means thinking that writing something you have heard is selling well only because you want to make money. In other words, you write into areas you don’t know, don’t even much like, or even like to write, just for the hope of a few more sales. Horrid writer death that…
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Three Days Left
Three Days Left! The only has three days left. And we are working towards our fourth stretch goal. Going to take a push to get it, but possible. What is in the subscription drive? Discounted subscriptions, of course, on Fiction River and Fiction River Presents. Both electronic and paper. And for the first time we are even offering lifetime subscriptions. We are also offering a package of writing books. And discounted lectures and discounted online workshops. And you can even get me to write you or your friends into three short stories to be in Fiction River. Since we are offering the stretch goals for anyone supporting this subscription…
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Topic of the Night: My Seven Keys of a Challenge
Topic of the Night: My Seven Keys of A Challenge A number of people have written me and made comments on the blogs about how they like the crazy challenges I come up with. Let me give you, in seven points, my reasoning about any challenge. 1st… I have learned it has to be short term. My memory and attention span is so short that if I try for long-term challenge that can’t be broken down into much shorter challenges, I will stop cold or just forget, which is more likely to happen. 2nd… It has to be something I haven’t done before, or have an element that makes it new.…
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A Fun First Day of September
First Day of September Well, we were stunned yet again today when the new Kickstarter Fiction River subscription drive went zooming past its first stretch goal. In just two days. Thank you, everyone, for supporting our wonderful project. It means a lot to us. And now everyone who gets a subscription through Kickstarter will get a free extra volume as our way of saying thanks. Even those supporters getting a subscription when you sign up for a workshop. And speaking of workshops, since we are having a number sign up for the three workshop package, before the Kickstarter is over, Kris and I will set the online workshop schedule for Jan, February,…
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Day Seven: Novel Challenge
Day Seven: Novel Challenge Nope, didn’t make it. This challenge this time just had too many things going against it to finish a book in seven days. But more than likely I’ll have it done in eight or nine. (Yeah, that’s rough I know… (grin)). So here is what happened with this challenge. I didn’t get out ahead of the word count in the early days as I did last time. Just too many things got in the way. Second, I didn’t plan the timing of this challenge very well. Monday nights and Tuesday nights I have hours worth of workshop responses to do. I actually enjoy doing them but…
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Day Two: Novel Challenge
Day Two: Novel Challenge Again for Day Two, a weird day. For the first time all year, it turned sort of hot here. Maybe got up to almost eighty, which here at the coast is a killer for us locals. Silly, I know, but air conditioning is a lost art here. So it was too warm for me to work in my office at WMG, so went out for some walking, got a new pair of running shoes and some running socks as well. Home by 6 p.m., after only about one hour of work, 1 hour of exercise. Too warm to work in here, so I went downstairs and took a…
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Writing a Novel Quickly
Here We Go Again Backed myself into a corner on getting a book finished, so need to do it quickly. So going to play here if you folks want to tag along and watch once again. Going to fire on finishing a novel from scratch, no outline, nothing, in seven days. Over 40,000 words. Going to use the same method as I did last time. Progression method. I want to see if it will work more than once for me. So minimum 3,000 words tomorrow, then add 1,000 words per day to the total needed for the day. Again, these are minimum words. What I want to do is be on…
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Topic of the Night: Making a Living With Your Short Fiction: Updated 2016
(Update 2016: About six or so years ago I did the first run-through of this post. I then updated it three years ago. Well, it seems a few people found the old posts and wanted me to update this idea for 2016. And see if I still believe a writer can make a living writing only short fiction in 2016. Short answer. Of course. It is very, very possible, unlike ten years ago when I would have given a very different answer. So following is the old post updated to 2016. Interestingly enough, not much changed. I marked updates where they were needed.) Requirements Needed For a Writer To Make a…