Three New Smith’s Monthly Titles
Three New Smith’s Monthly Titles
Monday, the third issue in one week of Smith’s Monthly will go out. It won’t get me completely caught up yet, but getting closer. Issue #28 went out last Monday to subscribers and Patreon supporters. Issue #29 went out Friday. Issue #30 will go out today (Monday).
The reason for the delay was me, and not on the writing side. So the wonderful folks at WMG convinced me to give up where I was getting delayed slowly over the winter and just let me focus on the new store and then writing.
Thanks, Allyson, Judy, and Dayle for making these three issues possible so quickly.
Now it’s up to me and the writing. I like that.(grin)
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The Day
Great writer’s meeting up at the WMG offices and then worked at the store both before and after dinner and then did the assignments for the workshops. A fun day, actually.
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Online Workshops
June online workshops all have openings, including the new Teams in Fiction workshop. We are halfway though the month. The list in June is a good one and so is the list in July. And note the July workshops don’t start until well after the 4th.
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Topic of the Night: 30th Issue
Tomorrow (later today) the 30th issue of Smith’s Monthly will come out. Now I thought that completely filling my own 70,000 word magazine every month was flat crazy. That’s about the size of a normal Asimov’s or Analog Magazine. Never expected it to go thirty issues and still be going strong.
But I managed it, and will soon have #31 put together. Every issue has had a novel in it. Every issue had parts of one or two serial novels in it. And every issue had at least four or more short stories in it. Plus other stuff.
There is no limitation to genre, although I haven’t put in any of my real horror stories yet. I might layer them through later on. And I haven’t put in any of the erotica I wrote for a time way back, although I did fix one story and one novel to take out the graphic sex and just leave the story. I doubt I will ever put in stories like “The Sexual Voyage of the Starship Shirley.”
So it has been thirty issues.
Over the next fall, I’ll be putting together some bundles with numbers of issues, like all the issues with the Thunder Mountain books, and so on. And I will offer a set discount price for anyone who wants to get all of them at once. Stay tuned for all of that.
And, of course, all back issues are for sale at any point both in paper and electronic.
The first of August three years ago was when I announced this crazy project and the first issue came out in October, 2013. I have, in just the pages of my own magazine, written more than most authors do in entire careers. Thirty novels, over 130 short stories, and so on.
The reason I could even think of doing this project was the new world of publishing. Could you imagine a mid-list pulp writer like me offering this project to a traditional publisher? Snort. I might have killed an editor from laughing.
But yet the project has been very successful. Maybe not New York accountant-level of successful, but I’m damn happy with it.
So over this next week I will get the magazine web site updated and get back to finishing the next novel. Two novels in June and the second coming of Stories from July in July. (Or as I like to call it, “Tempting Fate.”)
And I will, once again, blog about the stories as I do them every day.
31 stories in July. And it will be right about then that Issue #31 of Smith’s Monthly will come out.
I like how that has worked out.
So I hope some of you will either subscribe or be a Patreon supporter. There is no shortage of my stuff to read and now a lot of it is under one title: Smith’s Monthly.
And for those of you who have subscribed or been a supporter on Patreon, I want to say thanks! It has made the ride really fun for me.
Thirty issues… Who knew?
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Totals For Year 3, Month 10, Day 22
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 977
— Daily Fiction: 00 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 00 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 00 words
— Blog Posts: 200 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 10,300 words
— E-mail: 14 e-mails. Approx. 400 original words. E-mails month-to date: 447 e-mails. Approx. 28,800 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 2 Covers
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You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Extra stuff for different levels of support and I will be adding in more as time goes on. Thanks for your support.
Or you can just toss a tip into the tip jar with a single donation at PayPal. Either way, your support keeps me going at these crazy posts.
And thanks.
14 Comments
Gnondpom
As a Patreon supporter I can tell you that the ride is really fun for me too. It is just amazing to read about your everyday life and then get to read some of the words you produce during that time (even though I’m afraid I can’t manage to read everything – I need some time to read other authors too!).
But it is great fun to be able to pick whichever stories I feel like reading, whenever I feel like it. And it is comfortable to know that I’m not going to run out of excellent reading materiel from you anytime soon! For instance it was a nice surprise for me to see that there was a Jukebox story in issue #29, I’ve got a soft spot for these stories and characters.
Keep on the fun!
dwsmith
Thanks, Gnondpom. Really appreciated. And I sure had fun bringing in all the jukebox characters into Thunder Mountain world in Melody Ridge. Finally got the origin of the jukebox. One of my favorite novels since I managed to combine both worlds.
Gnondpom
Yes, I really enjoyed this novel exactly for that reason.
Kate Pavelle
Since you mention erotica, Dean, could you say a little about the marketplace expectations for it? The reason I ask is I started out in gay romance, a genre where it’s sort of expected to throw the dog a bon(er). I do trip over erotic content in other genres, but the content varies. Even Patterson slipped in an explicit scene into one of his thrillers. We had that as an audio on a trip in the car, and it got my husband really flustered/betrayed/not-reading-Patterson-any-more, and I agreed it didn’t really advance the plot in any way to show what was going on.
I know we aren’t supposed to write to market, but I don’t want to limit my readership by going to far (and I like writing erotica, talk about a great depth exercise, right?) So how do you determine the boundaries between being having fun as a writer and conforming to market’s needs in this respect? (This could be a big topic and the answer need not be swift… and, thank you.)
dwsmith
Oh, wow, Kate, not a clue. I never write it anymore and when I was writing it, I was also selling letters to Penthouse Magazine. Sort of a different world. So not a clue.
I just go for my magazine what I am comfortable with being in the magazine mixed with all my other work. Just a gut check for me.
David Anthony Brown
First… I studied the Penthouse letters not too long ago, and was flat stunned that each one follows the 7-point plot outline. Character, setting, problem, try, fail, final try, validation. No joke. And no wonder some of those stories have really stuck with me over the years. My Penthouse collection is from the late 90s and early 2000s.
Second… wish I could answer Kate’s question, but I struggle with the same thing too, even as I’m about to launch my own erotica periodical. Erotica is a different world, where you’re better off creating your own market because there’s so few paying magazines. I just make sure I don’t cross my own personal and ethical boundaries, and never cross legal boundaries. Mostly if I have fun with a story, then hopefully a reader out there will have fun with reading it too.
Pay attention to what other writers and publishers are doing. The savvy indies use tags in their sales copy to inform the reader exactly what kind of story they’re about to buy. Often some variation of the sales copy is tucked into the front matter of the ebook, so the tags are within the free sample as well. Hope that helps. Kate, feel free to contact me through my website if you want to discuss this more.
dwsmith
Good advice, David. Thanks! And yeah, the Penthouse Letters were all strict story format. That’s what made them so popular for such a long time. The were like tiny little stories. And those of us who wrote them at times stayed to that structure. Decent money, too.
Kate Pavelle
Thanks, guys!
Lily Silver
Congrats, Dean. You are amazing, as always and an inspiration. I am hooked on your Thunder Mountain series.
dwsmith
Thanks, Lily. A new one is out in the new Smith’s Monthly #30. The Idanha Hotel.
Harvey
Sincere congrats on reaching this milestone, Dean. As for the other, I am flat stymied why your Teams in Fiction workshop hasn’t filled yet. Incredible.
dwsmith
Yup, not even close. It’s going to be a fun one.
Lassal
This is such an amazing job you are doing with Smith’s Monthly – in every respect!
You practice what you preach and leave shattered myths on your path! So cool!
I’m a total admirer of what you do – and how you do it.
Just wow! And so, so helpful as well.
Thanks so much, Dean!
P.S.
Hope the new cat is fine – I “have” three crows since last winter, kept them alive by feeding them while they were in a bad shape, and now I have a constant escort as soon as I leave the house. They are bringing ME food these days! Can you imagine? They are trying to take care of me in return. Animals are amazing.
dwsmith
Thanks, Lassal. That means a lot. Appreciated.
As for new cat, we will know today. Vet visit in about a half hour. Fingers crossed. I’m giving her a 50/50 chance of making it through this, but we’re doing everything we can short of torturing her. So we shall see. I’ll update later either way.