First off, if you want to hear one of my stories in a fantastic audio play, Seeing Ear Theater has reissued my story “In the Shade of the Slowboat Man” which was adapted by Kris (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) and done wonderfully. It’s at SFFaudio and I have no idea what it costs to download the MP3 file, but it’s there. Worth the listen in my opinion. Got to scroll down a number of books. Lots of great stuff there adapted from top writer’s stories.

Professional writer Scott William Carter did a fantastic blog called The Ten Reasons Why This is the Best Time to be a Writer. I could not have said it better if I had worked at it and did a hundred rewrites.  Fantastic post, worth the read.

Well, not really fishing, but away from this computer. Actually, over the next few days I’m going to really be powering on a major deadline on my writing computer, then headed off to Writers of the Future because I am a judge and seeing a bunch of great friends there and along the way. And other than my phone, I’m not taking a computer with me.

So, back on September 1st with new Killing The Sacred Cows of Publishing, New Free Fiction, some New World of Publishing chapters and other stuff.

I hope everyone has a great few weeks ahead. See you all on September 1st right back here.

Since the week of workshops and deadlines has me wrapped up more than I expected, not quite done with the next Sacred Cows.

Yesterday, Kris and I were getting a laugh from a great song by new artist Sara Bareilles called “King of Anything.” You can find it at iTunes right here. At least listen to the chorus. And listen to it with agents in mind. I’m fairly certain, not 100%, but fairly certain she was writing the song about a bad relationship. But wow does it fit a bad agent relationship PERFECTLY.

On another topic:

Two nights ago about 14 professional writers got together in a room and we had a five hour discussion on ebooks. Even though I was the leader of the discussion, I learned a bunch and came away buzzing yet again. I won’t begin to talk about all the stuff here. But just let me say it’s a great time to be a professional fiction writer. Sure, things are changing faster than many can keep up with, but that’s exciting and with many of the changes, the mess that the agent system has become slowly loses its grasp on the business.

Someone asked me if I see agents surviving the changes. I said “Sure, some of them. The ones that have a good business model, who don’t read slush, who give added value to their clients in sales and contacts, who understand their clients and don’t try to control them or take care of them or tell them what to write.”

But my belief is that the agent model that so many of my posts have focused on will be gone. The publishers will have taken back over the slush piles in one form or another, and new forms of agents will emerge.

Also a new form of scam agent will emerge, so caution folks. Get control of your money and except for education, money flows to the writer. Again, never let anyone touch your money first.

Will book publishing in paper form be around in twenty years? Of course. In fact, there will be more books being published in paper. But the publishers will have changed. A large number of small presses will be flourishing, combing electronic and paper publishing. Larger publishers will be following the same model, combining paper and electronic publishing. Mass market paperbacks will be a thing of the past in twenty years, trade paperbacks will be standard, with hardbacks still being premium books.

But major New York publishers have a pretty hard turning or tipping point coming with all their contracts, labor unions, high overhead, the return system, and warehouses and shipping costs. When books go to 25% electronic in sales, the weight of the costs of each paper book will drive the price point too high and force even more of an change. Some publishers already see this coming and are doing their best to move, but the union contracts, high overhead, and returns systems pretty much has the big publishers caught in a nasty trap.

This all is going to take time to work through the system and in this day of instant fear and communication, we’ll see a lot of “the sky is falling” stuff. But nothing is falling, it’s changing. And the changes are fantastic for writers.

Stay on top of it is my suggestion. Ignore doom and gloom and just watch and move with the system. Learn the business, expect no one to take care of you, and keep having fun.

Now yet another topic:

I just got a very sad phone call from a friend who lost a cat today. Made me very sad, since we have lost five cats and gave another away in the last year. Two went from just old age, great old ladies names Willow and The Goddess. We put down another from sickness named Ezri. She was a powerful cat. When we had the full compound up here, we were always rescuing cats. Ezri was the last non rescue cat we had. The three we have left inside are all rescues.

But we also had two outdoor cats up until a week or so ago. Yellow Kitty and Rufus. Yellow Kitty was a wild male I managed to pet after two years and Rufus was a neighbor’s cat who left them for us. Both slept on our front porch in shelters and would have nothing to do with coming inside. Of course feeding cats outside brings raccoons and I was close friends with two and their yearly kittens. This year mom had four kittens. The raccoons and cats were buddies and even would eat from the same bowl.

Then one day the hilltop was silent. Both cats and all raccoons were gone. Something had taken them all. No signs of any of them. No signs of life at all.

So this last year we have lost five cats. We’re down to the three inside. In this big house, often hours will go by and I don’t see a cat. I can’t imagine being without cats around, but wow it is tough when we lose them. And my friend this morning was very sad, as he should be.

So if you have cats, give them a hug, enjoy their company while they let you, because they will move on faster than you want them to.

I just received both the trade paper and hardcover book More Stories From The Twilight Zone.

I have a story in it, and I was in the first Stories From the Twilight Zone as well. And back in the early days I sold short stories to the Twilight Zone Magazine that ended up coming out in its sister magazine Night Cry Magazine.

My story is called “Dead Post Bumper” and its a favorite of mine because it is so perfectly “Twilight Zone.”

I have always written stories that fit that description and I love writing them. Part of the reason for that is the original program shaped a large part of my life as a young adult and how I look at the world to this day.

The list of 19 authors in this book is stunning. Kris is included and has a wonderful story that anchors the book. This is a book I’m very proud to be a part of. Go find it, read it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed in this one.

Folks, if you are a science fiction fan, read science fiction as escape when you were a kid, grew up loving the genre more than anything, you will want to listen to and read the words for this wonderful song Janis Ian wrote for the SFWA Awards this year.

Janis used her classic song melody, and the words show just how much she loves science fiction. Kris has both the song and words, with permission, up on her site, so go there and listen. Janis Ian’s Song for SF Fans.

If you are a true sf fan, if you were one of those kids traveling with the greats to their wonderful worlds to spend a few hours out of your own world, if those books and stories seemed more real to you than your own world at times, it will be impossible to listen to this song and not tear up.

When someone gets it, someone gets it. Go listen.

A new chapter in Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing is coming soon. I’ve almost managed to pound it into shape. It’s about the myth everyone hears so often that only 200 people make a living writing fiction.

Why isn’t it out now? Because I make my living writing fiction and have a really fun book I’m just finishing up, plus I just got hired to work on an fantastic book as a ghost. Both projects have me excited and willing to spend more time at my writing computer than at this internet computer. And that’s a good thing.

So, I will rope this myth to the ground in a few days, or maybe by Monday. It’s a fun one, actually.

And on a side agent note: If you haven’t gone back and read some of the comments on the very first agent post titled just Agents Sell Books, do so. The conversation has gone on there off and on as people find this book, and there is a horror story from a writer calling herself Writer Girl in a comment you all should read. (Next to the last comment.) Some of you might be in the middle of the same horror or thinking the same way this writer thought. You can find that first post either at the top of the page under the title of the book Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing or just click Here.

Back soon.

Cheers, Dean

Hey, Mom, happy Mother’s Day.

And the same for all the mothers out there reading this. Hope you are all having a great day.

I got an interesting lesson on the power of the simple press release this last week. Not sure if you have heard or not but Kris (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) and I have been asked to be judges in the Writers of the Future contest along with Kevin J. Anderson and Fred Pohl and Anne McCafferty and Dave Wolverton and K.D. Wentworth and Mike Resnick and others. Great honor.

We had both been asked once before, but at the time I was still editing Strange New Worlds for Pocket Books and didn’t feel it was right to be involved with two new writer contests, and Kris was just finishing up her stint as editor of F&SF Magazine and didn’t feel up for it. But now, as only freelance writers, we are honored to be asked again and said yes quickly.

What I found startling is that Writers of the Future did a press release about us being asked and it got picked up across the country by television and radio stations, by newspapers, by blogs, you name it.

As any writer does, I have Google Alerts set up to let me know when my name or names come up somewhere on the web or in the media. Since that press release, my Google Alert has exploded with one day alone over 50 news outlets. And for a week now it hasn’t let up much. Now normally I only get an alert when someone reposts my blog or mentions my name or gets angry at me in some blog somewhere. Or when someone is selling one of my books somewhere. I usually go look but never say anything. That happens about four to ten times a day normally, a few more when I post a new Sacred Cows blog.

But wow, the simple power of that press release from the Writer’s of the Future shocked me. Shows how really important that contest has become in 26 or 27 years of existence.

It was honor to be in the very first book all those years ago, and be the first one across the stage at the very first ceremony, and it’s an honor now to go back and be a judge and help the new writers today. Kris and I also hope to help out for a few hours at the workshop if they need us while we are down for the ceremony every year. Only time will tell on that.

Kris and I met at the very first Writers of the Future workshop. Amazing how the contest is really been a part of our lives from the start. Glad it’s back in our lives again.

I have to ask permission from my agent. I have heard that sentence in one fashion or another more than I want to think about lately. Drives me crazy every time because of how really, really wrong and flat stupid it is.

I figured I answered this myth a great deal in all the other agent chapters and I had no real plans on addressing it directly. If you haven’t read all of those earlier chapters, please, please go to the top of this page and click on the tab for this book and read the chapters and comments with “agent” in the title. There are a bunch of them.

But now, since this has come up so much lately and in different places around the web, I figured I better hit the point directly on the head at least once.

So, let me try.

Agents are hired by writers. When, in business, do you ever ask your employee permission to do anything?

Uhhhh…..Never.

And that should be the simple answer to this myth, but of course, writer after writer, including many, many professional writers, utter the words “I need to ask my agent to see if I can do that.” (means permission)

And that puts an agent in control of your career. And that way lies huge problems in many ways already outlined in other chapters of this book and the comments following them.

Asking for advice is another matter completely. We hire agents for their opinions, their knowledge, their ability to know things we don’t know. Fine. Ask advice, not permission. A very clear difference.

Asking Permission: Just imagine a young, fearful child (writer), standing in front of an adult (agent), head bowed, waiting for permission. That’s how writers act around agents. Not all of us, but more of us than I want to admit.

Asking advice: The scene should be powerful person (writer) sitting behind a large desk in an office while an aide (agent) stands in front of the desk offering advice only when asked.

After all, who gets 85% and who gets 15%?

So let me give some ways this problem of asking permission from an employee shows its ugly head with writers and agents and a few solutions to the problem. These I have heard just in the last month.

1) “I want to write in another genre but I asked my agent (permission) and she won’t let me.”

This is being talked about over on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website. It stunned them as well. And they have some great points about writer as conglomerate that I agree with.

Solution: Let me say simply that writers write. We write what we are passionate about, what we love, what interests us or scares us at the moment. That’s where the top books come from. I certainly am not going to ask some employee if I can write something. I will write it and then if the employee can’t deal with it when I am finished, I will find an employee who will. That simple. Blunt, but simple.

2) “I want to send a book to that (certain) company but my agent doesn’t like them (or an editor) and won’t do it.”

Solution: Your employee (if forced to mail it by you) will more than likely stick a bad pitch and cover letter on the book to prove to you that they are correct. So send it to the company or editor yourself. (You think I’m kidding about agents killing a submission to prove a point? Boy are you living in a cave.)

Remember, a large number of us out here who are working professionals don’t believe in having an agent submit a manuscript. I know my own books better than any employee ever would, I am a better pitch writer and letter writer than any employee. I will send in my own books, then have an agent or attorney deal with the contract if I need help at that point. Worked for almost 100 novels now. Agent never sold a one.

3) Agent says, “I think it would be better that you slow down and just concentrate on (blank).” (Translation: You need permission from your employee to write your normal speed and do your normal production.)

Solution: Let me think. Professional writers write. We make our living off of our work. If we write more, we sell more, but you have a lazy employee who wants you to slow down YOUR PRODUCTION to not make them work too hard. FIRE THEM the moment those words come out of their mouth. Don’t even hesitate. You have an employee that is too stupid for words and if you, heaven forbid, took that stupid advice and put yourself in a situation where your agent had to give you permission to even write, start looking for a day job. You will need one very shortly, and then the agent will drop you anyway.

4) Agent says, “I won’t send this book out without a rewrite.” (Translation, you now need permission from an employee to send your work to editors when you want to.)

Solution: Say simply, “Fine, I’ll mail it and call when I get an offer.” Many agents will be just fine with that. It saves their reputation and they don’t have to do the work. But, and it does happen, if your employee doesn’t want you to do that, say simply, “You are fired.”

You have no other choice on this one. You must, to make a living, get your work in front of editors. You can’t have an employee slowing this process down. Again, don’t force them to mail it or they will trash it in the pitches and cover letters and thus prove to you they were right. And, of course, don’t tell them where you are sending it. Just surprise them when an offer comes in. Trust me, after that, they won’t again ask for a rewrite from you. And you should never allow them to in the first place. Read the chapter on that I have already covered.

Also, on this topic, also covered before, agents give up after they have gone through their six or eight editor friends, so take the book back at that point and mail it yourself as well. Same goes if the agent doesn’t want you to, fire them.

These are just four areas that writers ask permission from agents I have heard in the last month from different writers. There are a ton more, but I think you get the idea. Or at least I hope you do.

You are in control of your own career.

Don’t hand it to an employee and hope for the best. Keep the control yourself. That’s what every one of these chapters have been talking about in one fashion or another.

Writers are in control. Writers are the “talent” in Hollywood terms. This industry runs on the work of writers. Agents are hired by writers. Agents are employees, not partners, not in charge of the writer’s business. They are a writer’s employee and nothing more.

Keep that clearly in mind and stop asking your employee for permission to do anything. Stay in charge. Believe in your own work, trust your own voice and your own skill.

And, for heaven’s sake, GROW A BACKBONE.

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Copyright 2010 Dean Wesley Smith
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I did not ask any agent for permission to write this book. I’m just doing it. And now this is part of my inventory in my bakery. (Confused on that, read the Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing post about making money with writing.) I’m giving you this small slice as a sample. I’m giving you a taste, but not selling any of the pie.

If you feel this helped you in any way, toss a tip into the tip jar on the way out of the Magic Bakery.

And I would like to thank all the fine folks who have donated. Once this book is done, I will send you a copy. The donations and the comments both after the posts and privately are really keeping me going on this. Thanks!

If you can’t afford to donate, please feel free to pass this chapter along to others who might get some help from it. Every week or so I will be adding a new chapter on the myths and sacred cows of publishing. Stay tuned. Upcoming are chapters on bestsellers, rejections, more on agents, and so much more. This business has a lot of myths. An entire book full.

Thanks, Dean