Here’s a weird thing about businesses: When a business is rolling in cash, the people who run it loosen their grip on the details. Instead of solving a problem, they throw money at it. Often they don’t recognize the problem for the danger that it might be, until it comes back to bite them, years down the road. However, when the business notices that its […]
Business Musings: Disney, Omnichannel, and Contracts (Licensing)
Because I got behind on the news in the spring, and because, due to the busiest fall I’m going to have in more than a decade with all of my work and deadlines, I am writing my weekly blogs weeks in advance. Which means that, unless something truly catches my fancy (enough that I will sacrifice sleep and deadline pages over it), I will remain […]
Business Musings: Time and Licensing (Licensing/Contracts)
I’ve spent much of the past week on licensing for my Diving Universe. Some of this is because of the Kickstarter we’re running right now. Kickstarters can garner a lot of attention for a project, the kind of attention you can’t get anywhere else. (If you want to know more about that, and what else Kickstarters can do for your writing, then sign up for […]
Business Musings: The Kickstarted Game Changer (Part Three) (Licensing/Copyright/Contracts)
So, I’ve just spent the past two blog posts talking Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter as a game changer in the publishing industry. I know that my posts inspired a few of you to take our free class titled “Kickstarter Best Practices for Writers.” I also know that many of you looked at my posts and mentally bookmarked them for the future, thinking this Kickstarter—and this changed […]
Business Musings: Power (Contracts/Negotiation)
Much of Apple TV’s high profile The Morning Show focuses on contract negotiation. The show, based on Brian Stelter’s book Top of The Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV, focuses on a network morning “news” program on the day its popular male anchor gets fired for sexual misconduct. No! Apple insists, this is not about Matt Lauer, and that’s mostly true, although Matt […]
Business Musings: Learning, The Future, and CES (Contracts/Negotiations)
In November, 2007, the members of the Writers Guild of America (East & West) walked off the job as part of a contract negotiation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (AMPTP) That strike was consequential for a variety of reasons. But what caught me at the time, and catches me now, was how prescient that strike was. The writers walked off because, […]
Business Musings: An Example of Writerly Cluelessness (Negotiation/Contracts)
The universe keeps giving me excellent examples of things I try to teach on this blog. When I wrote a recent post titled “Knowing What You Want,” that example was one of the first positive examples I had found on how to negotiate. Today’s post does not contain a positive example, I’m afraid. It’s an example of something I stress over and over again, but […]
Business Musings: Stealing Intellectual Property (Contracts/Dealbreakers)
I just had the most illuminating conversation. I had been consulting with someone about one of the TV deals I’m currently negotiating. I had run into a situation I had never encountered before, and I needed help evaluating it. No one I knew personally could help me. Either my good friends had not done a TV deal in years or they had let their agent […]
Business Musings: I Spent Decades Developing My IP (Contracts/Dealbreakers)
I was trained in traditional publishing, where writers go begging for opportunity. Writers are taught to beg, from professors (let me into your class!) to critique groups (is my writing good enough?) to agents (will you take me on?) to publishers (will you buy my book?).
We’re not trained to value what we’ve built.
Ten Little Fen: A Spade/Paladin Novel
Spade and Paladin find themselves snowed in at a remote sf convention, with a killer on the loose! Get your copy here.
The Chase
The Chase, the latest Diving novel, answers a lot of your questions about the series. It also might cause you to ask a few more. Click here to find out more.
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Rethinking The Writing Business
All the licensing blogs in one volume. Learn how to think about your writing business in a way that will enable you to work smarter, not harder. Get yours here.
A New Edition of A Dangerous Road
For book clubs and reading groups, complete with questions! Go here to order.
