A lot of the stories I read this past year had wonderful plots. They had great characters and lovely twists. The stories were published, remember, and so they all had something unusual, something strong.
But that something generally wasn’t voice….
Business Musings: Authors Guild 2016 Letter
I want to support what the Authors Guild is doing here. I really do. I believe this “conversation” needs to commence. Writers—particularly writers of the Take Care of Me school—need to understand that their publishers and their agents are not their friends. Those two entities are in business for themselves and will devise contract terms to benefit them. But…
Business Musings: Churning It Out
Toward the end of a pretty good Entertainment Weekly article about the romance side of the publishing industry, this sentence appears: [Bella Andre]’s a naturally fast writer — on average she churns out four to six books a year — and she released the first one in June 2011. Before we get to the reason I’m telling you about that sentence, let me say one […]
The Business Rusch: Pricing Part 2 Or (Discoverability Part 7 Continued)
As expected, I couldn’t answer e-mails or work long on my blog last week. I may take that tactic this week as well, because you folks had a much better conversation in the comments than you would have had with me involved. Besides, I don’t like talking about pricing. Yet here I go with the second part of this series. Some of you e-mailed me […]
The Business Rusch: Branding (Discoverability Part 6)
Last week, I got taken to task all over writer communities on the internet (and probably in writers’ group meetings as well) for telling writers with only one or two books out not to worry about promotion. The response I got in the comments to last week’s blog were mild compared to the vitriol my poor name got subjected to on the private message boards. […]
The Business Rusch: Story Demands
I am currently writing three books at once. I know, I know, some of you believe that’s not unusual for me, but it is. Usually I focus on one thing and wrestle it to the ground before moving onto something else. These three books are one thing. They’re in one of my series, and for a few weeks, I was struggling to write the next […]
Recommended Reading List: April, 2013
Again, I did a lot of Fiction River reading this month, and you will see the results over the next year. The first volume of Fiction River, Unnatural Worlds, appeared on April 23, and please consider the stories in there as part of this recommended reading list. I’m not going to tell you my favorite stories—that would be like confessing I have favorite children—but I […]
The Business Rusch: Book As Event
I finished my second novel (as an adult) on the day my best friend from high school gave birth to her second child. My friend called me from the hospital to tell me the great news and then, because she was a sweet woman and because she was from the upper Midwest, she reflexively asked how things were going for me. Even though I am […]
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.
Get Early Copies of the Thursday Business Blog and More!
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.
