This is my final post in the series, because otherwise I’ll be spending the rest of my life reviewing 2018 and looking toward 2019—while 2019 is passing me by. 2018 marked the crossover moment in the disruption in publishing where we firmly left the old model and accept the new model as normal. Old industries (like traditional publishing) are still grappling with the new, but […]
Business Musings: Expect Resistance
I’m still making my way (slowly!) through the Emilio Estefan book that I mentioned in an earlier blog. For those of you who missed that post, the book is called The Rhythm of Success, and it is about ten years old. I’m bookmarking a number of places where I’m finding material for blog posts later. I’m also bookmarking places that have phrases I want to […]
Business Musings: Positive, Pleasing, and Optimistic
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: Copyright Savvy
Gloria and Emilio Estefan have an estimated net worth of 700 million dollars. Jimmy Buffett has an estimated net worth of 550 million dollars. What do those artists have in common? They kept control of the copyrights to their songs. They maintained control of those copyrights starting in the 1970s, when other musicians signed away those rights because they were told that to keep those […]
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: Website Issues
Note: I wrote this post weeks ago, when my website went down…again. I posted this on Patreon, but waited to post here until I had moved out of the hosting service that was causing all of the issues. I’m out now, but the website is still settling. The migration will take a bit more time to shake out, so please be a bit patient with […]
Business Musings: Own It
It took me a long time to learn that negotiation is all about strength. If you say, My agent or my lawyer too many times in the middle of a negotiation, the person on the other side of that negotiation won’t want to talk to you. You’re not the one with power.
Business Musings: What It Feels Like To Have An Agent
If your agent is stealing from you and still paying some of the money, then you might be making a small boatload and to you it feels like a ton of money. If the agent wasn’t there, you would be making a fleet-of-yachts money. But to most writers, most of whom have been poor, a small boatload is a great deal.
Business Musings: Confidential Business Information
So…in this world of celebrity and the internet and data at our fingertips, should we even try to keep our business information confidential? The big companies do so. Smaller companies do as well.
Smart business-oriented writers do.
Business Musings: Sustainability
If you want to sustain your writing and publishing businesses, you have to stop thinking like a manufacturer.
The Author-Preferred Edition of FantasyLife
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A New Story in The Diving Universe
Introducing a new major character in the Diving universe, with a standalone story. You can read an excerpt (and order) here.
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A New Adventure SF Story
Read “Once On The Blue Moon,” along with some other wonderful fiction in Jonathan Strahan’s newest Infinity anthology.
A New Mystery Story
Spade and Paladin return in “Unity Con.” Read an excerpt here!
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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!
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