Ending Your Novel
How To Write book series
Busting Your Editor’s Chops
Writers love to gossip about editors, agents, and publishers. Most of the time, that gossip is pretty harmless, but sometimes it can come back to bite you. I was reminded of this over the past week when I read a Facebook post by a young woman who had had a story rejected for an anthology. […]
Don’t Get Too Excited
Every year when the Hugo and Nebula Awards are announced, I see a pattern: A young writing student of mine (or three) will get nominated for a major award, then go completely off the rails. When I say that they “go off the rails,” I mean that one of several things happen: First off, they […]
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 […]