Those of you who follow my business blog know that this past year has been hard on me. Illness, moving, lots of change. But I was determined, once I arrived in Las Vegas, to make the best out of the situation. Yes, we moved quickly. Yes, I’d been ill. Yes, Dean was caught between the old home and the new, as the brunt of the […]
Business Musings: Burnout and the Indie Writer
Burnout. I’ve been hearing that word a lot in the writer community. It took a while for the word to penetrate. I’ve had my own things to deal with this year, and I really haven’t been looking outward as much as I usually do. But a friend who traveled to a number of conventions this year mentioned that avoiding burnout was a topic at every […]
Business Musings: My Day in Negotiation
In dealing with movie and TV producers, and foreign rights publishers, and pretty much anyone who wants subsidiary rights to my book, I hold all of the power in the negotiation.
I know, I know. A bunch of you just did double-takes. How can I have more power than a Hollywood studio?
Business Musings: Mushroom Publishers And The Tsunami of Crap
So much of the writing advice we get comes from a set of assumptions that are no longer true. I’m not sure if they were ever true. But that’s for another blog post. (Or maybe I’ve written that post already.) Anyway, the assumption is that our culture is monolithic, that we all read the same books, and we’re all influenced by the same writers. Maybe […]
Business Musings: Writer Finances Versus The Paycheck World
If the indie writers who made a lot of money in 2012-2014 had followed this advice, they’d still be writing and publishing. Sure, their incomes would still be down, along with their sales, but their careers would continue.
What happened to these writers?
Well, they will say that their sales went down to unsustainable levels. Those writers will say there’s no point in continuing now that they can’t make the same kind of money they made in 2013. Those writers will say that writing, as a profession, is impossible.
And it is, if you don’t understand money management.
Business Musings: Patreon
I had to start analyzing why I couldn’t pull the trigger on a Patreon account.
It came back to what I could comfortably ask for–and what I wanted the account for. Searching other people’s Patreons only confused me. Everyone had great ideas and did great things, but I couldn’t see myself doing things like that for long. Or if I did, I could see those things consuming me and my time…
Business Musings: Running A (Writing) Business In Uncertain Times
To do modeling for the next year of your business, you need to be as clear-eyed as possible. You should research trends for your business for similar economic times, if you can.
Then you figure out as best you can what your future will be.
Here’s how you do it.
Business Musings: Fair, Compromise, Clout, and Balls (Contracts/Dealbreakers)
Control. It is at the heart of any negotiation. All business owners want to control as much about their businesses as possible. We all know that you can’t control everything in life. That rule also applies to contracts….
Business Musings: Contract Basics (Contracts/Dealbreakers)
Over the years, I have become fascinated with writers’ attitudes towards contracts. Writers are so very cavalier about them. Most writers pay no attention to their publishing contracts at all until some term bites them in the ass. Then the writer tries to figure out how to get out of it, not realizing that they got themselves into it by signing the contract without examining it. Indie writers have a different problem with contracts. Indie writers believe they don’t need any…
Business Musings: Money Talks
Want to know the future of publishing? You’ll find it in TV. I know, I know, a bunch of you just went, “Huh?” But seriously, the entertainment industry is the entertainment industry is the entertainment industry, and those of us who write and publish have a small corner of it. I often use examples from the music industry on this blog, especially as I look […]
A New SF Story
Part of the tribute issue for former editor Gardner Dozois, “Transport” is a standalone sf story. Go here for your copy.
A Brand New Diving Novel
A New Edition of A Dangerous Road
For book clubs and reading groups, complete with questions! Go here to order.
The Author-Preferred Edition of FantasyLife
Get yours now!Sample The Diving Universe…
…with the novella that started it all, Diving Into The Wreck.Neil Clarke’s latest, Final Frontier. You can read it and lots of other wonderful space opera in
A New Adventure SF Story
Read “Once On The Blue Moon,” along with some other wonderful fiction in Jonathan Strahan’s newest Infinity anthology.
Get Early Copies of the Thursday Business Blog and More!
A New Kris Nelscott Novel
My latest Kris Nelscott novel begins a new series, following the adventures of three strong women as they protect their world, one person at a time. A crime novel set in 1969. Available in ebook, trade paper, hardback, and limited edition. For more information, click here.
Best Mystery Stories of The Year!
“The heroine of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s ‘Christmas Eve at the Exit’ struggles to make the holiday meaningful for her 10-year-old daughter while the pair are on the run….There isn’t enough Xanax in anyone’s medicine cabinet to calm the jitters these 20 skillful stories will unleash on a worried world.” —Kirkus