The One Great Story
What stories affect you profoundly? Which ones are your favorites? If you had to make a list of the three most influential of stories, could you? About 15 years ago, I heard a wise publisher say that, and I’ll paraphrase, “there is only one great story. It’s the story of a young person who loses […]
Taking a Look at the Big Picture
This past week, I had to perform an unusual exercise. I have a couple of studios who are looking at doing a television series based on my Runelords fantasy series. (Don’t get too excited, we’re just exploring the idea at this point.) But in talking to them, we had to look at a 9-book series […]
Read and Write Your Own Contracts
Very often I meet writers who can’t discuss even the most basic points of their publishing contracts. They’re afraid to even read them. They’ll make the excuse, “Oh, I had my agent (or attorney) handle the contract.”
Taking Your Shot at Success
A few days ago I made an ill-considered remark that might have offended some of you, and I need to apologize. I had read some articles on a recent survey of authors, and one article said that 55% of those who consider themselves full-time writers last year had no writing income. I wondered how that […]
Avoiding Terrible Advice
There’s a lot of bad advice floating around out there. Some of it is bad for everyone, but some of it might just be bad for you. For example, here’s some terrible advice. “Write the kind of novel that you love. Don’t worry about anyone else’s hopes or dreams or expectations. You’re not them. You […]
Protecting Your Working Capital
Starting a writing career is tough. Generally speaking, you will have to write your first book—or two or three—on the side while you are working at a full-time job. When you do it, remember that you are “investing in yourself.” Don’t whine about it, please. Most of us writers have done it this way. When […]
Writing For a Living, First Principles
When you are starting out, many authors hope that they will get a big advance right out the gate. That’s natural. You need time to write, and it’s a lot easier to make the time when you have some money to live on. In fact, I see writers all of the time who write half […]
Don’t Be A Starving-Artist
I read an article the other day by a writer who, out of one side of his mouth, suggested that writers aren’t paid enough. We are often “forced” into taking secondary jobs like teaching or writing nonfiction, because Amazon’s policies “force” publishers to artificially raise their prices and “force” and “force.” The net result is […]
The Deepening Sea
There seems to be a disconnect between authors and readers right now. Many publishers are having a hard time finding the readers. In fact, a recent article from the Author’s Guild stated that “The Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey, the largest survey of writing-related earnings by American authors ever conducted, finds incomes falling to […]
Learning to Write in Workshops Versus Universities
Today a young writer asked what the advantages are of studying writing at a university versus at workshops. Now, I’ve taught in both settings, so let me suggest some of the advantages of each. Universities—the Pros and Cons When I studied writing, I did it at a university. I created my own degree program at […]