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Podcast and Cool Video
A Really Fun Conversation… The other day I got to talk with John Best and Kevin J. Anderson for about forty minutes on their wonderful podcast Creative Futurism. We talked about all kinds of stuff, including the new world of publishing. Great fun for me and I think it would be a fun listen for all of you as well. http://www.creativefuturism.com/be-nimble-publishing-in-the-21st-century/ —————– On another topic completely, Gwyneth at WMG Publishing did this nifty video for Kris’s new Diving Universe book coming out in September. It’s on preorder now. The video is short and fun. So thought I would show it to you. North by Northwest Bookstore Kickstarter It has…
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More Misc. Stuff Once Again
A Bunch Of It, Actually… Some of you know I have been blogging every day without missing a day for numbers of years. I just thought I would point out that I have been doing this for almost 1,700 straight days. Almost there. If I remember, I will make note of the passing… Next, a reminder… about the North by Northwest Kickstarter. We have added some nifty rewards and one major one that is not there yet, but it is official. Here is is… Classic Workshops Added as a Bonus… That’s right. If you get a workshop credit through the Kickstarter we have going for our bookstore, you will also…
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Some Reasons To Avoid Traditional Publishing
There Are So Many… I mentioned that I had taught at a wonderful writer’s seminar called Superstars. Put on by Kevin Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, Dave Farland, Brandon Sanderson, and a fantastic staff. I was a guest instructor on the writing side. I had a blast and the conference ran perfectly from my perspective. There were also industry guests like Mark Coker from Smashwords, a New York agent, some editors, and other fun people. The conference tries to help everyone and I was, of course, on the indie publishing side of things, even though I have published over a hundred novels with traditional publishers. The conference really does attempt…
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A Bunch of Stuff
You Ever Wondered What Happened To?… For example, I started this book here on the blog about Self Sabotage. Basically it was subtitled “Fiction Writers and the Art of Self Sabotage.” I had a decent first chapter on it. Then I wrote the second chapter and the third chapter and got about halfway through the fourth chapter, intending to put the chapters up as blog posts when I realized that Debbie Downer didn’t begin to describe what I was writing. I like being encouraging to writers because we all face the same basic fears and problems along this fiction-writing road. But in those chapters I wasn’t being positive. Not in…
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Lifetime Subscriptions to Workshops and Lectures
Finally Available… The numbers of workshops we now have available has gotten amazing. From the new Pop-Up workshops which worked great from my side, to the Classic workshops, to the Strengths, to the Regular Monthly workshops. Thousands of videos about writing. If you would have told me it would build to this five years ago, I would have screamed and run into the street. But honestly, looking at it now, because of the workshops and putting them together, I am a much, much better writer. And I have had a blast. And I am still having fun and just as passionate about learning as I was five years ago. You…
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Fun Reading Time
Great Stories and Stuff… I am at a fun time I go through every year. I have a massive number of really good short stories to read for the anthology workshop. I actually look forward to this every year, to be honest. I am also finishing up the last notes on the novel challenge and will get those back in the next day or so to everyone in the last novel challenge. So really fun writing there as well. So having fun reading. Not as much fun as writing, but still great fun. And also writing the interstitials for Fiction River: Hard Choices. That’s great fun looking back over those…
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Two New Weekender Workshops Just Started
It’s Midnight on the West Coast of the US… …and two weekender workshops just started up and will go for four days. Still time to jump in today only (Thursday) and I will read your first assignment even if late, no issue. Go to https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com and hit “see all courses” and look for the February Weekender workshops if interested. But they close tonight (Thursday). I just got done recording both of them over the last two weeks and honestly I think both of them are good ones. POP-UP WEEKENDER WORKSHOPS Descriptions Controlling Fear of Failure Fear cripples every writer, without exception, at one point or another. And the root of…
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Still Having Sleep Issues
Normally I Recover Faster… But not this last trip. I got my schedule twisted around exactly 12 hours. Wow, that has been hard to recover from. I am just now, almost a week later, back on my normal schedule with a few exceptions. I have lost the last two hours of my night for the moment. And that has just about killed any writing for the moment. After the anthology workshop I should be able to get back to some writing, but that is two plus weeks away. Yikes. So this shows the value of steady and regular sleep to writing habits. Without them, writing sort of just drifts off…
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Something Extra For Writers
Later Today I Will Be Adding Something to the Kickstarter As some of you know, we are doing a Kickstarter for North by Northwest Books. And one of the main reasons for the Kickstarter is to help indie writers. Now, I know there are web sites out there that believe that bookstores are a thing of the past, but the facts show otherwise in the last few years. In fact, bookstores (except the chains) have learned how to adapt and are doing great. The ones that don’t learn are the ones you hear about going down. One thing bookstores need is an easy system to accept indie author and indie…
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Now That’s a Stunner
We Made Our Kickstarter Goal… In less than two days. I was hoping, of course, that we would make it and maybe a little ways farther to really get the remodeling started and done and get the system to get indie writer’s books into the store. Now we are working on the “ways farther” stuff. So far backers have supported library and school systems around the country, bought boxes and bags of books, and signed up to get credits for lectures and online workshops. And there is no limit on any of the rewards. At WMG Publishing and North By Northwest Books, even if we have to contact and send…