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A Lesson…
But Few Will Listen… The advice: Never let anyone tell you to not write something because it won’t sell. Never decide to not write something because it has been done to death before. Why I say no one will listen is because so many indie writers are wrapped up in writing to market, writing what they think will sell, or what some unknown person on the internet thinks will sell. And every indie writer thinks they have to be original with ideas and plotting when nothing is every original in either one. Tonight I read a story by an author. A really old idea, one I had seen a hundred…
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Dr. Jerry Pournelle’s Advice
Advice from Another Pro… Before he died in 2017, Dr. Jerry Pournelle recorded at the Writers of the Future conference advice to help newer writers. He wasn’t talking to fans, but to writers. It doesn’t matter what any of you thought of Jerry personally, his books were New York Times bestsellers and he was in the industry writing for over forty years or more. And besides helping writers at Writers of the Future, he often took in single student to mentor. Some major writers were his students at one time or another. And I know a lot of you don’t believe me at times about some of the advice I…
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Think Like A Publisher: 2…Expected Costs
The first chapter in this new series was “The Early Decisions” which included picking a business name, setting up checking accounts, and so on. There were no real costs at all in those early steps unless your state had a small fee for registering a business name. Checking accounts are free, so are PayPal accounts, and so on. So the question on this second basic business-planning chapter is “What are your expected costs?” For those of you with a basic understanding of business, you can now see the structure of how I am setting up these chapters. Before starting into a business, there are certain things that need to be…
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Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: You Can Only Sell What’s Hot
This myth kills careers, this myth stops thousands and thousands of book sales, this myth destroys careers. And it’s just stupid, even though the myth seems to have a logical base in publishing. Out of the mouth of top professionals this myth spouts all the time in one form or another, and usually with the best of intentions. And it has for as long as I have been in this business. But lately, with the advent of the slush-reading lower-level agents, this myth has taken on deadly consequences for many writers. Why? Because they believe it. So as I do in these chapters, let me take a look at the…