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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #7… To Sell You Must Write What Is Hot
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this winter with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. The Myth: “To sell either to editors or readers, you must write what is hot.” This myth stops thousands and thousands of book sales and destroys careers. And it’s just stupid, even though the myth seems to have a logical base in publishing. This myth spouts like a bad cold out of the mouths of top professionals…
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Writing in Public: Month 3 Summary: October 2013
Month #3 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. October, 2013 I’m stunned that this third month is already done, to be honest. And I’m stunned that it was my best month by a little bit. It sure didn’t feel that way. Strange. I have those word counts below. And as I have said every month, even though I knew I was going to give a general summary of the day here every day, it changed my behavior not at all. Not at all. And as a couple of you asked, I do exercise, just not in huge blocks of time. My bad knees won’t allow that until I drop this…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #6… Selling to a Big Publisher Insures Quality
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. — Very few of these chapters will deal with the editor and publisher side of publishing. I know that in fiction publishing there are lots of problems with publishers, and right now picking on them just seems to be like kicking dirt onto a person who is struggling to even figure out how to stay alive. Besides,…
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Writing in Public: Month Two Summary: September 2013
Month #2 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. September, 2013 Well, this second month was more interesting for me than the first one. It was a day shorter than August, but I also didn’t travel in September. As it turned out, my numbers for the two months were very close. I have those word counts below. And again, even though I knew I was going to give a general summary of the day here every day, it changed my behavior not at all. Not at all. And yes, I do read. I just didn’t sit down for three hours and read a novel this month. As Kris calls it, I’m…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #5… Book as Event
Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing will be out later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. — The myth of Book as Event, put as clearly as I can. Myth: All books need to be events, need to be something special. Hogwash, of course. All books must be written as well as the author can write the book, but just because the author spent blood and sweat on the book, or the author wrote it…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #4… You Need an Agent to Sell a Book
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This fourth Sacred Cow article (topic) was published here in 2009. Wow, has the world changed since 2009. Indie publishing was only a glimmer then and traditional publishing was turning ugly, so ugly that at that point, I was about ready to walk away completely and go back to playing…
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Writing in Public: Month One Summary: August, 2013
Month #1 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. August, 2013 Well, that was interesting for me in more ways than one. First, when I knew I was going to have to give a general summary of the day here, I was conscious of what I was doing most of the time. It didn’t change my behavior in any real way, but I was aware of it more instead of just moving through the day. I also became aware that the stuff I do outside of writing, from the publishing, to the workshops, to sitting in meetings, to working on collectables and other things, takes up about 50-60 hours per week…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #3…Rewriting
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This third Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once in 2011, but now it is slightly redone for the world of 2013/2014. However, this third incarnation hasn’t changed that much. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #2
This series of posts will turn into a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This second Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once since, but now it is slightly redone for the world of 2013/2014. However, this third incarnation hasn’t changed that much. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them how…
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Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing: #1
This series of posts will turn into a book later this fall with an introduction. And then it will be followed by a book called Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing. But first I wanted to put each myth or “Sacred Cow” up here again as I promised. This first Sacred Cow article was published here in 2010 and I redid it once since, but now it is completely redone for the world of 2013/2014. On many of these posts it is amazing to me as I redo them how far my beliefs have changed in a few short years. And how far publishing has changed as…