Publishing Business

Will the real “Write to Market” PLEASE stand up? Or – why you’re probably doing it wrong.

2 Comments / Publishing Business / By /

EDIT: I’ve been informed that the debate this post responds to did not start out as civil as it appears now and that John’s blog article was edited before I read it. I do not in any way condone personal attacks on another author. Aside from being bad form in general, in this case, it’s tragic, since if John had actually read Chris’s book before posting, he would have known that he agreed with all of the major points Chris espouses. I’m glad John toned down his post. I hope he actually picks up a copy of the book and reads …

Will the real “Write to Market” PLEASE stand up? Or – why you’re probably doing it wrong. Read More »

How to Break in as a New Author Today?

2 Comments / Publishing Business / By /

I had someone ask that question in a Facebook group I’m in, earlier today. Here was the advice I gave. It’s not new advice. It’s old, but still sound and solid. Check it out: The steps haven’t really changed. They’re still the same as they were when Michael Anderle took off, a year and a half ago. Step 1: Imagine a Venn diagram, with two circles. One circle is things that people like to read. The other circle is things you like to write. Where they overlap? Write that. Step 2: When picking your genre, be prepared to write at …

How to Break in as a New Author Today? Read More »

The Writing Advice Not Taken

2 Comments / My Writing, Publishing Business, Writing Aids, Writing in Public / By /

Also known as “The writing advice I wish I’d had in 2011.” I ran into someone on a Facebook group today, asking for help. This person had a bunch of books out, and none of them were selling. I went and analyzed the writer’s work, and recognized a familiar set of problems. The writer was doing a bunch of things wrong – most of them, the same things *I* messed up, early on. Hey, these are easy mistakes to make. There’s no guidebook. (Well, there are, but the advice is often conflicting and confusing.) After assessing the writer’s work, I …

The Writing Advice Not Taken Read More »

And….we’re on Patreon now too!

Leave a Comment / Fun Stuff, Publishing Business / By /

What’s Patreon? It’s a service designed to help people patronize artists, writers, and musicians that they like. For a small fee (the user gets to decide how much they want to spend), the patron gets certain benefits or rewards back, and the artists get a steady income from people who enjoy their work. Why Patreon? In my case – patrons will get first dibs on new books, BEFORE they are available in any store. Different levels will give ebooks, postcards of the cover art, or even print editions. Again, all before people buying from stores actually get to see the …

And….we’re on Patreon now too! Read More »

Writing Life: Priorities

2 Comments / My Writing, Publishing Business / By /

I saw an interesting article today, and it inspired a few thoughts of my own. Kris Rusch wrote a blog article in her Business Musings series. She put those essays out weekly, each a commentary of some sort about the business of writing. This one was called “Whining”. It’s totally worth reading, but here’s the TL;DR version: Writers often complain that they have “no time to write” in today’s world. They blame the lack of time on having to do promotion, social media, blog tours, work on getting covers, and myriad other things. Kris outlines some really basic math showing that …

Writing Life: Priorities Read More »

One Month, Over 75k Words

Leave a Comment / My Writing, Publishing Business, Writing in Public / By /

January was a good month. I set the goal at the beginning of the year to produce 500 words of fiction – minimum – every day this year. The idea is to not miss even a single day. I can go over, but not under. At the end of the year, I’d have a minimum of 182,000 new words, which would be more than I’ve ever produced in a year before. It seemed like a solid central goal (I named some other goals, too, but this was the core one), because my main obstacle to success has always been consistency. …

One Month, Over 75k Words Read More »

King of the Dead: Episode 1 is here!

Leave a Comment / My Writing, Publishing Business, Uncategorized / By /

Drum-roll. Fanfare. And can I get an “about time”? 🙂 It’s been a long time coming. I want to do this project justice, so the work has taken a while to get right. The first season will be six episodes, each a short novella. When the whole season is done, it’ll be compiled into a full length (and quite long!) novel. I’m excited about this book. It’s a serious step up for my writing, and it’s a fun, interesting new idea. I’m looking forward to playing around with King Arthur and his zombie foes for at least another two seasons. …

King of the Dead: Episode 1 is here! Read More »

Happy New Years! Looking back – and ahead!

Leave a Comment / My Writing, Publishing Business / By /

Wow, just like that, another year has gone by. Tonight 2014 rolls away, and 2015 comes in shiny and new. I’m REALLY looking forward to this year, on all sorts of levels. Personally, my life finally feels in order and working well. Professionally, I have set some awesome goals for myself. It’s gonna be a great year! I’ve got tons of stories ready to go, and a bunch more that are burning to be written. Today though, I want to look at how I did meeting last year’s goals, and then look at setting some fresh targets for 2015.

Writing in Public, Too: Month 2, Day 3

Leave a Comment / Publishing Business, Writing in Public / By /

Something I thought I probably ought to clear up – technically, I guess this ought to be month four, not month two. I did this before – over a year ago, shortly after Dean Wesley Smith started his “Writing in Public” series. I managed to maintain it for a month, then sort of fell apart shortly into the second month. I’m rather hoping to do better this time! 🙂 So I’m into day three now. Spent some time in the morning managing some edits on an existing work, and then re-read the entire fourth episode of the King of the …

Writing in Public, Too: Month 2, Day 3 Read More »

Writing in Public, Too: NaNoWriMo Day 18

Leave a Comment / My Writing, Publishing Business, Writing in Public / By /

Today was AWESOME. I started off the day relaxed, checking some emails, catching up on news. Showered. Dressed. Tidied the house a bit, and took the trash out. Then I got cracking on the writing. I put in a thousand words before taking a break to watch an episode of “The 100”, which seems on track to mess up the lives of all of the main characters. Going to be interesting to see how they write their way out of it. Had lunch. Then back to work again, and got another 1500 words in, taking breaks now and again. It seems …

Writing in Public, Too: NaNoWriMo Day 18 Read More »