Posted by Jared | Posted in Writing, Publishing | Posted on 10-08-2010
Though, as you can see, the learning the trapeze was pretty darn awesome. But that’s another post.
I am currently represented by Beth Fleisher of Barry Goldblatt Literary. Barry, in what clearly is a stroke of staggering genius, does annual retreat where the many of the writers under his umbrella get together and talk. This year, it was at Club Med in Sandpiper, FL (which has trapeze lessons as one of its athletic options). Some of the talk is about craft, some of it is about business. But mostly, it’s about speaking to people who in your career but are maybe just ahead, or just behind, or way ahead or exactly where you are. I was one of the New Kids this year, which gave me the license to ask the Embarrassing New Kid Questions and actually, y’know, learn stuff. Which was great, because I had alot to learn
Some of the highlights, no particular order:
- Making a living from writing is incredibly difficult to achieve
- This is not a business where you can count on anything
- Midlist is not death-some midlist stays in print forever
- Barnes and Noble controls a mind-boggling huge share of book sales
- Time management is key: Not only do you have to respect your creative time, so do your friends and family.
- This is not a hobby
- Scrivener is worth the money for the “Outliner” function alone.
- Work For Hire is not a way to build a career, it’s a job. There’s a difference
- “No matter how long you work, you always think the next project is the one that’s going to change everything. And it never does” –Charles Vess
- Wanting Neil Gaiman’s career isn’t healthy
- Blogging and Twitter is optional. A website, however, is mandatory
- When thinking about online content, ask yourself what you get out of it
- If the love triangle between your YA characters does not exist, it will be invented by the readers
- Real writers are not competitive
- Give yourself permission to not do everything
- Don’t say no to an editor without a counter suggestion
- Noodletools is worth the money because of how easy it is to use
- When interviewing someone for research, use specific questions…
- …but be open to listening to where their story goes.
- Mortified is an excellent resource for the specific details and shared generalities of being a teenager
- Fantasy is the inner journey explored outwardly
- Sara Ryan has done an excellent favor for comic writers everywhere, What Artists Wish You Wouldn’t Do: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (also, Getting a Robot to Make a Sandwich)
- Holly Black’s rules for fantasy world-building work for sci-fi (just replace “magic” with “technology”), and for realistic fiction, thanks Jo Knowles’s impressive insight.
- When coming up with your magic system, think like a gamer: how can I cheat the system? How can I break it?
- Smell description is the best way to get people into a world
- I need to read more. A lot more.
- I made the right choice signing with this literary agency
Posted by Jared | Posted in Writing, Publishing | Posted on 27-05-2009
Still recovering from the gauntlet of joy that is Balticon, I opened my email with bleary eyes to discover this message from Lulu.com:
“Congratulations, your book has been selected for listing on Amazon.com’s Marketplace! As a result, your book will now be easily found on the world’s largest online bookseller. ”
That would be this book, here:
Astounded, I searched for my name on Amazon. Sure enough, there it is. So, if you find yourself hankering for 50 pieces of weirdness (plus illustrations!) by yours truly, here you go. It’s ready for you at Amazon.
Also, If anyone knows how I can put a cover and some interior pages up there, I’d sure appreciate it. I’ve got all sorts of content for that page.
And thanks, Lulu.
…with this special report.
On a whim this morning I sent a editor I hadn’t heard from in awhile, to ask if she and her publisher were still interested in a project we had talked about months ago (vague enough for ya’?). Long story short, they are still very much interested, and consequently I need to get my rear in gear on THIS possibly published project. Which means other projects need to get kicked to curb for a bit. Like, say, writing 30 stories in 30 days, to choose a completely random example from out of nowhere.
However, the fact remains that the point of NaNoWriMo is the Wri, so I’m counting the word-work for this project in with the rest of it, as it is still, in fact writing. I really need to keep up this pace, anyway.
So, for those keeping track, 2 weeks in I’ve got 10 and one-half stories. Which is not bad at all. Hopefully, at a NaNoWriMo pace, I can whip this project into shape and still have time for a few more stories before the end of November.
Download here
You know what you don’t hear?
Bloopers.
Flubs.
Side Conversations.
Muttering.
Outtakes.
Most people delete them, toss’em, throw them in the trash. Not the Voice of Free Planet X. We save them.
We save them for YOU.
The Voice of Free Planet X theme was written and performed by Russell Collins of www.clockworkaudio.net
Posted by Jared | Posted in Publishing | Posted on 18-02-2008
One of the things that’s been pecking at my brain over and over is the need to put out a new book in time to have copies available at Balticon. I’d have to get it done before May 1st, in
order to have them in my hot little hands come the Con. Two months and change is not a lot of time to slap together a book, so my options are limited, mainly to pulling together stuff I already have. As of right now, I have these ideas:
A companion to my other book, Tales From The Uncanny Valley. I’ve got 30 or so stories written that could go in there, but they’re all flash, so that’s not too much of a book. A new version of TFTUV, with the added stories is a possibility too.
An art book. I like the idea of a giant, coffee-table-ready tome of my art, as if I’m some sort of awesome, big-shot cartoonist. It would clearly be hubris, but then again, I am self-publishing. In for penny, you know?
A children’s book. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a book about a hedgehog and his best friend touring the solar system and learning how running away from your problems doesn’t solve them. This would be–gasp–new material, but the relative brevity makes it doable. Also, drawing hedgehogs is fun.
A catalogue of devices. I’ve made enough props that I can put together a slim catalogue of retro-futuristic weaponry. Throw in some tongue-and-cheek descriptions and a few skewed testimonials, and I could have something that’s fun, if slight. Would you buy a raygun from this man?
