Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Times They Are A'Changing

I'm neck deep in some work that I'll announce tomorrow.

In the meantime...

Stacey Purcell, one of the lovely muses at Musetracks, talks about indie writers who are making a living. She'd asked me for some help and some numbers. I'm not quite there yet, but I made enough last month to replace GK's Xbox that crashed and burned two days after Christmas.

Also, publishing gurus Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband Dean Wesley Smith have both posted insights to their change in stance regarding indie and trad publishing. Just a year ago, they both advocated a balance between the two. That's no longer the case, and they tell why.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Comparing Yourself To Other Writers

Yesterday, someone on a private loop said something that I hear writers of all ilks fretting about--another writer is selling better than them.

AARRGGHH!

Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to other writers? Someone may be years ahead of us. We compare. Someone may write in a totally unrelated genre. We compare. Our friend Joanne in England hits the writing lottery. We compare.

Therein lies the way to madness, my friends.

You'll end up destroying your relationships with that ugly green-eyed monster whispering in your ear. Ignore her. Now.

The only thing you need to focus on is your own goals. Do you need to write a novella in between novels to keep your readers interested? Write it. Do you want to improve your writing speed? Time yourself and practice. Do you need a professional editor because you failed grammar five times in high school? Hire one.

Focus on things you can actually do, not on things you have no control over. You cannot make people buy your book.

What you can do is write the best damn book you can.

The rest of your worries? The word you're looking for is "self-sabotage."

The best piece of writing advice I ever received came from a high school buddy. Don't get in your own way while following your dream.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Songs I Listen To A Lot Lately

Yes, they DID make a movie based on this Julie Brown song.

Friday, April 13, 2012

When Real Life Is More Dramatic than Fiction

The real life heroes at NASA made the impossible happen.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Balance Between Introverts and Extroverts

Susan Cain gave a fascinating speech on the power of introversion and how forced extroversion is harming our society,

(Thanks to Jay Lake for the tip.)


Monday, April 9, 2012

Inspiration

Last week, I was at the cafe writing. Or trying to. The current wip is hitting a dark emotional place, which is so unlike my normal snarky style. I wasn't stuck. It just felt like I waded through waist-deep mud to reach each word.

Then a gentleman sat down at the table next to mine. I swear to cow, this guy could have been Daniel Craig's brother. Same chiseled jaw and cheek bones. Same piercing blue eyes. He was a shade taller than Daniel, not quite so wide in the shoulders. But damn, he definitely could have made a living as a celebrity look-alike.

He caught me staring. I gave him an embarrassed smile and tried to focus on my laptop screen. About then, his two kids came up to him with trays. They'd collected the food while Dad had grabbed a table.

It was the little things about the family that grabbed my attention. My Craig look-alike wore a a very simple silver wedding band, but a Rolex adorned his wrist. He looked casual in khaki shorts, a polo and sandals, but the clothing was too expensive, well-made, to be from the Walmart down the street. He may not have been born with money, but he wasn't impressed by it either.

His son would have his features when he grew up, but for now the boy carried a hint of roundness. And like his father, the son was quiet, contemplative. His daughter also bore his genes in the high cheekbones, but her expressive dark eyes softened the sharp features. Her personality sparkled and zipped, quite the opposite of her father's quiet assurance.

What kind of person was his wife? She obviously had to work on Good Friday from the kids' chatter. How long had they been together? Who made the first move? Were they still happy, or at least content with their lives?

Finally, the family left. But my Craig look-alike give me one more curious glance as he herded the kids toward the door. Goddess, only knows what he was thinking about me, in my knit shorts and Corvette t-shirt, sitting alone with only a laptop for company.

And for some strange reason, I was no longer slogging through mud, but skipping and prancing through the next two thousand words.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Songs I Listen To A Lot Lately

Someone had way to much fun making this video. And I love both Julie Brown and Heroes!


Friday, April 6, 2012

007 Like You've Never Seen Him

This video was made to support International Women's Day last year. It asks some hard questions that everyone needs to answer.

(Thanks to Will Simon, aka Will Graham for the link.)


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Hot Guy PSA

Cancer is prevalent in my family. After all the serious, lame PSAs I've seen, this one is...

Well, you just have to watch. Especially the credits.

(Mucho gracias to the incredible Sasha White for the tip!)


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Latest Industry News

Look at the power of books! The Hunger Games opened to the third best ever weekend (never mind it was released during the off-season)-$155 million. So far, the movie based on the book by Suzanne Collins has grossed $248.5 million in the U.S. alone. Scholastic Books has printed another 12.5 million units in 2012 alone!

Now look at how to screw your fanbase: Pottermore is STILL in Beta. Come on, Sony! Not even Bill Gates has screwed up a launch this bad. On the plus side, the Harry Potter series is FINALLY available as e-books at the reasonable price of $7.99. On the minus side, it's a pain in the arse to get one loaded on your e-reader.

AAP announced net sales were up for January, print book sales are still diving and e-books made another significant jump. The only problem is that AAP CAN'T account for the indie e-books. If they could, the e-book sales jump would be a lot bigger than the 50% they reported.

Bertelsmann, the German privately-owned corporation that owns Random House, announced its earnings for 2011. It wasn't the earnings that caught people's eyes, but the CEO's statement that they were "...accelerating the transformation to digital of our core businesses." It'll be interesting to see if there will be a shake-up at RH for execs who didn't jump on the e-book train fast enough. [Edit to add: Here's the link to Richard Alan Dickson's analysis on DWS's blog.]

In an interesting twist to the DOJ investigation (but not so surprising if you've been reading my blog), Mark Coker told the DOJ that book prices on Smashwords have fallen. Which IS true because indies (which is what Smashwords deals almost exclusively with) can undercut the bigger houses on price thanks to lower overhead. Y'all know my stand--Agency is the best thing that ever happened to indies!

Speaking of the DOJ, I'm really wondering if their case against Apple and five of the largest publishers is that solid. Because if it was, they would be filing their case against the alleged co-conspirators, NOT TRYNG IT IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION VIA THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!!

And while we're on the subject of newspapers, why is the NYT freaking out over kids self-publishing? Why does Tom Robbins feel threatened? Seriously, who the hell cares if a fourteen-year-old wrote and published his book? Can't you people pick on someone your own size?

No wonder the publishing industry is so screwed up.