This may come as a surprise, but everyone has failed. People who are at the top of their field, they all have failed. Singer/songwriter, Sade, was turned down by numerous record companies. One record company rep told her to get out of the music business because he didn’t think she had a voice! JK Rowling’s…
Dealing with Rejection
If you want to make a living writing books (or in fact do anything in the arts on a professional level), you have to be thick skinned. Rejection, insults, they all come with the job. Though, having written for a publishing house and as an indie, one of the perks of being an indie is…
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 3
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 3 – Wearing Many Hats! If you want to go indie, being an authorpreneur is pretty much part of the deal. Unless you have money to pay people to do all the extra things that need to be done, you’ll be doing those things yourself. And even if you…
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 2
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 2 – Productivity! In Part 1 we talked about writing. Part 2 is going to be a bit of an extension of that, but not so much about writing as how to make the time to write. That’s “write”, we’re talking about productivity. Like I mentioned previously, to earn…
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 1
The Path to Authorpreneurship – Part 1 – Write That Book! As you can see from the below pic, indie authors basically go around in shiny clothing and straw hats, begging people to take their picture. Or maybe that’s just me…. When I’ve done book readings, I’ve noticed that most people don’t understand what indie…
My Favorite RV
Got books? The answer to that question for me is a resounding, yes! I got a box of books last week and am getting another box, probably this week. Don’t get too excited, though. The books are my books, so I’ve already read them and I know how they end. What makes this book delivery…
Sunday Roundup #6 (a few days late)
Goal #1 – Write 10K a week – Last week I didn’t write 10K, but there’s a good reason for that. I was focused on fixing a plot hole. For this plot hole, I ended up adding a few new characters (that I’ll have to add to the second book) and a new subplot. I’m…
Sunday Roundup #5 (a.k.a. peeing in the forest)
Goal #1 – Write 10K a week – This week I didn’t do much writing. It was all about editing. I have a book signing in April and wanted to have the second Bridgeport (Zoe Matthews, the Unwanted Ghost, and the Magicians) paperback out by then. That meant, I had to wrap up my last…
Prepping for a book signing
Full disclosure. The pic is from a book signing I did at BEA in NYC when I wrote for Ellora’s Cave. The cover models worked for Ellora’s Cave and sadly, don’t magically appear at all book signings. Wouldn’t it be cool if they did! I have a big book signing coming up in April. The…
Sunday Roundup #4
Goal #1 – This week I changed my weekly goal of hitting 10K a week to 6K, just for this week. I wanted to have time to revisit my outline, now that I’m halfway through the book, and tweak it. This turned out to be good in more ways than one. I knew I’d be…
What to do when you’re writing in a genre you can’t SELL!
I hate that headline! I hated writing it and I hate that that’s been my experience. I’ve been writing in a genre that I can’t sell. Mysteries. There’s nothing wrong with the mystery genre. I read lots of mysteries. I probably read more mysteries than anything else. That includes horror. And I know for a…
Sunday Roundup #3
Goal #1 – It was a good week. I’m just about halfway done with the third Zoe book. And the book feels good. I haven’t read it as a whole yet, but I’ve been surprised by how easily the words and story are flowing. If things keep going so well, I’ll be done in about…
