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Topic of the Night: TIME GOES BY
I have talked a ton about the value of long term thinking and understanding copyright. So for fun tonight, let me give you a fun example of what is possible. And what Kris and I are planning in the future. Let me take the book Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Long Night. Kris and I wrote the book in 1995 and it was published in 1996. Twenty years ago. I think the contract on it was an all-rights contract combined with a work-for-hire contract. At least all the later media books were, but not sure on this one, I will have to check the contract. If I remember right, the novel itself…
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Topic of the Night: Day-Job Thinking
DAY-JOB THINKING VS LONG-TERM THINKING In the great comments on the last topic of the night, this new topic was brought up. So thought I would expand on the idea. Day-Job Thinking goes like this: I need a certain amount of money to make my bills this month and a day job gives it to me in a “secure” fashion. Nothing at all wrong with that thinking. Nothing. We all have to live and make bills and eat and all those sorts of things. This is survival thinking, folks, plain and simple. So again, nothing wrong with that kind of thinking. Critical. Long-Term Thinking is the ability of a person to see…
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Topic of the Night: About Time and Sales
ABOUT TIME AND SALES At the writer lunch today we talked about a royalty statement I got recently from Pocket Books on one of my many Star Trek books. It showed that the book had sold six copies. Under the old system, I would have glanced at that and just tossed the sheet laughing at how a book can only sell six copies in six months. But I am trying to move my thinking to readers. The old traditional thinking (and those in traditional publishing to this day) never considers readers at all. Just sales, numbers on a piece of paper to be batted around with graphs and profit/loss statements.…
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Topic of the Night: Balancing the Parts of Modern Publishing
BALANCING THE PARTS OF MODERN PUBLISHING Over the last week I have received three different letters from writers worried about the same problem. That problem is simple to describe, but very complex in nature. How do you balance the writing with the production and promotion of your work? That sound familiar? I bet just about every indie writer nodded to that. I am no exception, neither is Kris, or any of the other professional writers around town here or in the workshops. This balancing act we all must do is a continuous battle. We all talk about it all the time. And I do mean all the time. Of course,…
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Topic of the Night: One Reader
ONE READER: New and Old World I have been been just sort of thinking through different aspects of the new world of publishing compared to the old world. And adding in what is success in this new world and time and other factors. It has been kind of fun and I hope to continue approaching this from different angles at times. Not all the time, just at times. So for a moment here, I want to be clear on the summary of some of the clear differences between when I sold my first novel in 1987 (not first novel written) and the world now. First, what was happening thirty years…
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Some Beliefs
SOME WRITING BELIEFS Just trying to be clear on some of my beliefs. See below. ——- THE DAY Made it to the WMG offices around 2 p.m. for a meeting at 2:30 to work on planning the layout of the new store. Great fun. At 4 p.m. went walking with two other professional writers. And yes, got my ten thousand steps today for the first time in over a week. Back to WMG offices to work on moving the workshops and getting the February online workshops ready to go. First letters will go out late tomorrow night. Workshops start on Monday and still room in all of them. Then to the…
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Perspective
Topic of the Night: Perspective This is just a thought a friend had about why so many great writers are getting discouraged and quitting. He thinks it might have something to do with perspective, and I think he might have a point. The system when he and I came into publishing worked like this in general: You expected to spend five or so years learning your craft, getting rejections, then eight or ten years into the process you would sell a novel which would take a couple years to come out. Then, if you wrote regularly a couple books a year, in ten years you might be able to make a…
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Some More Perspective
PERSPECTIVE I have really been chewing lately on the reason why so many great writers are suddenly just stopping, quitting, walking away. Today a writer friend of mine came up with one possible cause. Above in topic of the night. ——- THE DAY Made it to the WMG offices around 2 p.m. and worked there until four p.m. and then went for a walk with two other professional writers. Yes, not back completely on energy, but enough to start exercising again. Felt good. Home to work on e-mail, then the workshop assignments, then I cooked dinner and watched some television and then took a long nap. Then more television. Finally…
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Time and Writing
TIME AND WRITING I have noticed this in the past, but just remembered it once again. When planning on returning from writing after a vacation or a sickness, or both in my case at the moment, the time you think you will return is never the actual time it takes you to manage to return. As I have always said, starting writing is far, far harder than just writing every day. ——- THE DAY Made it to the WMG offices around 1 p.m. and worked there until five p.m. I got all kinds of things moving, such as Smith’s Monthly, moved some shelves, and had great conversations on different…
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Looking Back
GAINING Gaining on more and more strength. Still taking extreme naps, and losing focus at times, but way better than yesterday and not in the same world as the day before. ——- THE DAY Made it to the WMG offices around 1 p.m. and worked there until the writer lunch, then two hours of good conversation, then I hung around and did some more stuff, including working on Smith’s Monthly. Then home for a nap and cook dinner. Then another nap. Finally managed to get in here around 11 p.m. to work on workshop assignments. Then I got the anthology assignment stuff all done and got it all off to…