Kevin

We've moved!

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As you’ve probably already noticed, if you were reading the site before this weekend, I’ve moved the website to a shiny new URL – http://www.kevinomclaughlin.com.  The old site (http://www.kevinwriting.com) is still active, and will be until January – happily redirecting anyone who hasn’t updated their bookmark yet.  But this new site name will be the permanent new home. In some part, this decision was based on my wife hating the old name.  That doesn’t mean I changed sites merely to maintain matrimonial harmony though.  My wife has an uncanny grasp of knowing when something sounds wrong or feels off.  She …

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“Professional Author” in the Era of Ebooks

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I’ve been reading the Dean Wesley Smith and Joe Konrath’s blogs quite a lot lately.  Both of them have (to varying degrees of severity) expounded on how publishers just don’t “get” the new media, and are not making the appropriate changes for the times.  We’re already seeing the results of that, with hundreds of authors eschewing publishers and agents and self-publishing direct to ebook instead.  And the trend could accelerate, with Amazon now predicting that ebooks will outsell paperbacks by the end of 2011.  Publishers are having trouble with the changes, scrambling to catch up.  Agents are on the verge …

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"Professional Author" in the Era of Ebooks

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I’ve been reading the Dean Wesley Smith and Joe Konrath’s blogs quite a lot lately.  Both of them have (to varying degrees of severity) expounded on how publishers just don’t “get” the new media, and are not making the appropriate changes for the times.  We’re already seeing the results of that, with hundreds of authors eschewing publishers and agents and self-publishing direct to ebook instead.  And the trend could accelerate, with Amazon now predicting that ebooks will outsell paperbacks by the end of 2011.  Publishers are having trouble with the changes, scrambling to catch up.  Agents are on the verge …

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And innnnn this corner…! (Kindle and Nook square off in retail)

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Amazon and B&N are getting ready for a brawl this holiday season. Speculations have been made that ebook sales will represent 12-15% of gross book receipts in the critical fourth quarter this year.  It seems obvious that the ebook market is expanding fast; either of the first two quarters of 2010 had higher ebook revenues than the first six months of 2009.  None of this is really news.  But this holiday shopping season, the two companies with the largest ebook market share are planning to go toe to toe in the retail market. In this corner: Barnes & Noble.  Leveraging …

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The Little Black Book (Story Ideas for Writers)

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No, not THAT little black book – my wife would kill me if I had one of those! I’m talking about a writer’s idea journal.  The place to story novel ideas for later use.  Mine is a little 4×6 inch spiral bound notebook from Staples.  With a black cover, so it’s a little black book.  Its small enough to fit in my pocket and haul around with me, although it lives on a shelf next to my computer much of the time.  It’s where I store novel ideas when they come to me.  Even if it’s just a one sentence …

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“About” and “Bio”

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I’ve added some notes to the “About” (about this website, what it is, what I’ll be talking about) and Bio (who the heck is this guy?) pages. Think links are right below the header, if you want to give them a read.

"About" and "Bio"

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I’ve added some notes to the “About” (about this website, what it is, what I’ll be talking about) and Bio (who the heck is this guy?) pages. Think links are right below the header, if you want to give them a read.

Scrivener For Windows

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It’s true – Scrivener is coming out in a Windows version! Beta in late October, release around January. This is amazing news. Why is this news? What the heck is Scrivener? Scrivener is a writing software package that, so far, has been for Mac only. It packs in a substantial array of tools useful for researching, organizing, outlining, writing, and revising both fiction and non-fiction work. How substantial? Enough that I know a few authors who’ve dumped their PCs to get this software. I’m really excited about this. I’ve tried a number of ‘writer’s tool sets’ for PC, and keep …

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Revision

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Why is it so easy to zip out a dozen replies to various blog and discussion groups on writing, but so darned hard to sit down to revise a novel? I replied twice over on Dean’s blog today; reading and replying there is a good thing.  I feel like I’m learning quite a lot from him, and his responses are quite educational.  I replied a couple of times over on Joe Konrath’s blog too, and a few more to discussion groups on LinkedIn.  Several thousand words in all, I think.  And after all of that, I got precisely zero revision …

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The Future of the Novel?

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I’ve been reading Joe Konrath’s blog, “A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing”, a bit recently, and he made an interesting observation. I’m not even sure he’s thought that observation through to its logical conclusion, yet, but his offhand comment read to me like a portent of the future. Some background: I used to do indie game development, mostly in the art field, but also in general production. I did some work in mini, indie-level MMORPGs. A few years ago, it was fairly easy for a small development company to ‘break in’ and make a game on a shoestring, put it out …

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