BUSINESS SHIFT IN THINKING
Well, Kris did a great article about some of the issues facing long-term professional writers like her in this new world of publishing. The shift from old publishing thinking to new publishing is hard for everyone. Information below.
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THE DAY
Meetings from 2 p.m. until after 5 p.m. In three different locations.
Then worked for an hour or so at WMG after taking a walk with Kris, then home to cook dinner, then in here to do e-mail before taking a long nap.
Then downstairs to watch television, back in here to work on things on this site and do one session on the book of 1,200 words.
Below still working through spotlighting my nonfiction books. One per day. This is day six.
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FEATURED BOOK OF THE DAY
Killing the Top 10 Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing
As indie publishing flourishes, many, many myths form around this new booming area of publishing.
USA Today bestselling author and major indie blogger Dean Wesley Smith takes a cut at killing some of the myths before they can take root.
From the myth that indie writers can’t get books into bookstores (they can) to the idea that indie publishing must be easy (it is and it isn’t), Dean knocks ten myths down one after another and might just save you years of wasted time.
Author of the acclaimed Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, this companion WMG Writer’s Guide for indie writers and publishers will become a necessity for your reference shelf.
Available in:
ebook, $5.99
Trade paperback, $12.99
ISBN 978-1561466122
Amazon
Powell’s
Kobo
B&N
iBooks
Smashwords
and others around the world.
For information about all my writing and nonfiction books,
click on the Nonfiction Books tab above.
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APRIL ONLINE WORKSHOPS
All of the April online workshops below have openings. This is a great bunch of workshops this month.
Remember, each regular online workshop is six weeks long and takes about 3-4 hours per week to do at your own pace and your own time during the week. And yes, still room in Author Voice.
All workshops have openings.
Class #31… April 4th … Author Voice
Class #32… April 4th … Character Voice/Setting
Class #33… April 4th … Adding Suspense to Your Writing
Class #34… April 4th … Ideas into Stories
Class #35… April 5th … Character Development
Class #36… April 5th … Depth in Writing
Class #37… April 5th … Plotting With Depth
Class #38… April 6th … Designing Covers
Class #39… April 6th … Writing and Selling Short Stories
Class #40… April 6th … Advanced Depth
Classic Workshops and Lectures are also available at any time.
Full descriptions of the workshops and how to sign up under the Online Workshop tab above.
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TOPIC OF THE NIGHT: Changing Thinking and Training
Kris has a new blog up you will want to read, folks. It’s about how all of us struggle at times with a changing publishing world and changing personal life. Worth the read.
How did I make the shift for the most part to this new world? Well, I didn’t do it without struggle and I still find myself at times reverting to old-world thinking. I knew that old system, but what made the transition easy for me was that I had quit the old system before this new world started.
That’s right, I had quit. I was disgusted, burnt out after a hundred novels, and tired of the lack of respect from all the new baby editors who with one year out of some college thought they could write better than I could.
I had walked away. Life was too short to fight the stupidity that was blooming in traditional publishing.
Kris, on the other hand, still had a booming traditional publishing career and was still in the fight.
For me, the control and fun the new world offered was like a drug. I started relearning because it excited me and it was fun. I had to start fresh because I had no novels under my own name or novels I owned. It felt like I was a beginner again and that was exciting.
And it still is.
Go read Kris’s blog. Worth your time, folks.
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The Writing of Dead Hand: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery
(List shortened down because I have a hunch this is going to take some more days to finish. And I do not count days I didn’t write on the book. I started this book the last of November. Horridly slow for me.)
Day 24.. 3,950 words. Total words so far… 44,100 words.
Day 25.. 2,000 words. Total words so far… 46,100 words.
Day 26.. 1,050 words. Total words so far… 47,150 words.
Day 27.. 1,150 words. Total words so far… 48,300 words.
Day 28.. 3,300 words. Total words so far… 51,600 words.
Day 29.. 2,300 words. Total words so far… 53,900 words.
Day 30.. 1,100 words. Total words so far… 55,000 words.
Day 31.. 2,100 words. Total words so far… 57,100 words.
Day 32.. 2,100 words. Total words so far… 58,300 words.
Day 33.. 2,500 words. Total words so far… 60,800 words.
Day 34.. 2,300 words. Total words so far… 63,100 words.
Day 35.. 1,100 words. Total words so far… 64,200 words.
Day 36.. 2,100 words. Total words so far… 66,300 words.
Day 37.. 1,200 words. Total words so far… 67,500 words.
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Totals For Year 3, Month 8, Day 16
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 908
— Daily Fiction: 1,200 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 6,700 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 2,600 words
— Blog Posts: 600 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 9,000 words
— E-mail: 13 e-mails. Approx. 300 original words. E-mails month-to date: 297 e-mails. Approx. 15,100 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 0 Covers
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Hmmm… so you still keep the copyright of books penned on spec? And those published under someone else’s name? Would that apply to other creative professions? I’m assuming freelance, since I doubt that it would apply if done on company time & dime.
Also, a book of yours in, say, Star Wars, would still be using Disney IP. Could you publish that? How is that different from someone writing the book on his own these days?
That would imply the whole shared universes are up for a scare. I don’t recall when the first tie-ins came, but if people start claiming their rights back…
Thanks. Take care.
Ferran, no, you can’t take someone else’s copyright such as Star Wars and Star Trek and so on. Can’t do that to use in your own fiction. Write your original work.
However, I was hired to write in those worlds by the copyright holders. What I wrote under copyright law (need to learn it) was my copyright and then by contract, I sold it to them.
That contract can be dissolved after 35 years and that copyright returned to me. Then I can take off what is protected in the Star Trek universe, such as trademark and republish the book because I own the copyright. Once I give them notice, they may either fight me, as me to renew for more money, or just let me take them. I am betting on taking them. Learn copyright. It answers all your questions, honest it does. But don’t write without being hired in anyone else’s universe. That’s against the law and could get you in deep problems. Be original, create your own universes.