Business Musings: Ground Effect

I’m going to pretend I’m smarter than I am, because the term in the title is not mine, and my understanding of it is an inch deep. For years, Dean and M.L. Buchman used to talk about achieving ground effect with their writing. Now, please understand that Matt (M.L.) writes military romances featuring pilots. Dean considered training as a pilot at one point in his […]

Read Me 8 Comments

Business Musings: Writers, Publishers, And The Peter Principle

You all have been so wonderful in keeping me up to date on the new stuff that’s happened since I moved. I’m going to get to a bunch of the tips you’ve sent me, but I’m still doing more catch-up than I want. So some future posts will be analysis-heavy and some won’t. Some of the things you’ve sent me have already had others weigh […]

Read Me 5 Comments

The Branding Book And A Bargain

In the middle of all of this moving, I managed to finish what I was calling “The Branding Book.” Last spring, I wrote a series of posts on branding for authors, and like so many topics I explore on my publishing blog, this topic grew and grew as people asked questions. You can see the original posts (in a slightly different order) with the comments […]

Read Me 2 Comments

An Eclipse, Thrills, and a Touch of the Fantastic

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m getting a lot of reading done this summer. I suspect I might get even more done on August 21, since my hometown, Lincoln City, Oregon, is the first place the eclipse makes landfall, the experts predict we’ll have internet outages, power outages, and cell phone outages because of all the visitors taxing systems not meant to […]

Read Me 4 Comments

The Moon in June

I’m particularly fond of June. I entered the world in June many decades ago, and as a result, I feel like it’s my month. I think I’d like the month even without the personal resonance: June contains the longest days of the year (in my hemisphere, at least) and, in the Pacific Northwest, is the beginning of our clearest, most rainfree season. Which means here […]

Read Me 1 Comment

Business Musings: Things I Learned From My Readers

The title of this blog is things I learned from my readers. The pieces below link to comments or websites.

The main thing I learned from you folks over the course of writing the contract series is this: Not only do you pay attention, but you use this information. Almost daily now, I get letters from a writer who used some piece of the contracts blog to negotiate a better deal or to get their rights reverted or to handle a foreign rights contract.

Read Me 8 Comments

Writing, Mysteries, Bundles, and the Contracts Book!

I have lots of fun stuff to share. I hope you saw that the latest Diving novel is out (and the Recommended Reading List has returned). I also have a story in The Best American Mystery Stories 2016, edited by Elizabeth George. I love her work, so I’m particularly flattered that she chose a story of mine. If you haven’t read “Christmas Eve at the […]

Read Me 2 Comments

Business Musings: Define Yourself

No longer can any writer say that she is “just” a writer. Now, if we want our books to be read by someone other than our families, we need to publish those books one way or another, and then market those books.

There is no more “just” any more.

I think it becomes imperative for all of us to figure out exactly what we do.

Read Me 7 Comments

Diving the Time Stream Workshops with Galahad…

Or something like that. I mean, even I get tired of calling these news posts “News!” So, here’s a few things you might want to catch up on. First, WMG Publishing has put together a Diving Bundle. They’ve compiled six of the novellas from the Diving universe into one hefty ebook, and had me write an introduction. If you’ve read the first four Diving novels, […]

Read Me 10 Comments