An intense week of going backward to move forward - revising an old anthology to start posting it to Wattpad. Outstanding improvement by linking all these books together by content. Proves the short story writing-publishing paradigm. The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 19 Results Metrics Subscribers: Instafreebie/PW: 66/199 (Actual vs. Reported: 50%) StoryOrigins: 0 Overall Total: 3597 (Yet again came up some...) Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 0, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 97111, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 1374, Else: 0 (Medium) – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books updated: Total: 14 more single books, plus 1 anthology (leaving approximately 66 fiction to go and uncounted non-fiction … [Read more...]
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 18 Results
Well, a short week, since it only really started on Thurs due to last week's publishing. Yet there were breakthroughs on how to best serve Wattpad... The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 18 Results Metrics Subscribers: Instafreebie/PW: 49/198 (Actual vs. Reported: 50%) StoryOrigins: 0 Overall Total: 3546 (Again came up some...) Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 0, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 11953, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 474, Else: 0 (Medium) – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books updated: Total: 31 (out of 117 individual books) Books (pre-)published: The Arrivals Books In Progress: Origin Tales: Mysti Book sales this week: Draft2Digital – 0, Gumroad – 0, … [Read more...]
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 16 Results
The interesting parts to this week were some of the least exciting - but hum-drum for me usually means breakthroughs - and this was no exception. Still calving season, and they are all cute. We call it T&A - checking teats and rear-ends for signs they are close... The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 16 Results Metrics Subscribers: Instafreebie/PW: 34/116 (Actual vs. Reported: 30%) StoryOrigins: 0 Overall Total: 3514 (Still declining, as expected.) Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 0, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 2502, Else: 0 (Medium) – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books updated: 20 (yay!) Books (pre-)published: 0 Books In Progress: Origin … [Read more...]
Fiction Writing – How to Make Your Stories Really Rivet Readers
Fiction Writing: What Really Rivets Readers? Here’s a counterintuitive fact: Writers spend way too much time obsessing about “the writing.” They sweat over the words, the technique, the language, the flow, the use of metaphor, and hey, are there enough sensory details? Fact: In and of itself, the writing doesn’t matter. Here’s another counterintuitive fact: Writers spend way too much time thinking about “the plot.” They lay awake into the wee hours wondering: is it externally dramatic enough? Is it fresh enough? Is something big happening? Do the plot points even add up? Fact: In and of itself, the plot doesn’t matter. This isn’t to say that they don’t matter at all. Of course they do. But both the writing and the plot are secondary. Heartbreakingly, you can execute both beautifully … [Read more...]
Why Writing Parables Is Easier Than Disposable Fiction
Here's the punch line: because certain themes/morals/ideas are always in fashion. The problem is that "conventional wisdom" tells you to "write to market". And in some genres (particularly Romance) there are spammers that simply crank out "consumable" fiction and then get it sold by discount prices, bot farm clicks, and buying reviews. And that hurts everyone. Part of Amazon's "race to the bottom" problem. Classics are that way because there are certain themes that keep coming back all the time. In Westerns, this was Max Brand - who only read the age-old classics and then put them into a Western setting. While he was living in Italy. (Real name: Frederick Faust.) These books are all still in print. The original Star Trek was popular (despite all the efforts the network took to … [Read more...]
Writing: How any Author Gets (and Keeps) Their Audience
A writer is pretty useless at the time they are first trained in writing. Nearly everyone is trained to write as a basic skill. But, like teaching children math doesn't make them into mathematicians, being able to write doesn't make anyone an author. Writer + audience = author. A writer has to find people who want to read their stuff. If they'll also pay the author for their writings, then that's even better. So an author, to make a sustainable career, needs an audience who will regularly buy their books - in any format. Where do you, the author, find your audience? You start inside yourself. Like you and me and everyone, we are selfish. We have opinions about what is good or bad or humdrum average unremarkable. And we are all tuned to one station: WIIFM - What's In It For … [Read more...]
