I started this year’s Year in Review blogs with traditional publishing partly because that Department of Justice anti-trust case produced such juicy tidbits that I couldn’t ignore them, and partly because I have always started with traditional publishing. Back in the day, I saw all of us (writers, readers, and publishers) as creatures that emerged from traditional publishing. Now, I see a lot of writers […]
Recommended Reading List: September, 2021
It’s been an interesting reading month. I started reading a book on West Side Story, which looked truly interesting. It was unbelievably boring, but I finished it anyway. I’m not usually that completist. I think it simply points out how tired I am and how unwilling I was to look for something new. I read a lot of court cases and stuff in Spanish. I […]
Business Musings: TV/Film (Fear-Based Decision-Making Part 3)
I thought I had my arms wrapped around this subsection of my very large topic, with an assist from an article I found about fear-based decision-making in directors. I saved it in my Pocket app after scanning the opening, and went on my merry way. Then, when I started reading past the précis of the scholarly article, I just about spit out my tea. The […]
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: Lockdown Licensing Partnerships
Somewhere around the middle of March, I got an email from one of the television producers I’ve worked with for three years now. He asked for an extension of our agreement, which expires in June. A little background. As of January 1, we had a script. We had interested parties. He was going to start filming the pilot sometime in the summer. Whether or not […]
Business Musings: The Big Five (2017 in Review)
This post is for the hybrid writers, the ones who want to be part indie and part traditional.
What will you get if you go with the Big Five? Not money. Your book might become a Netflix series. You might become a household word. And you’ll probably still need your day job.
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: 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: 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 […]
The Business Rusch: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
I had a lot of marvelous, thoughtful comments on last week’s blog. I didn’t respond, in part because I was extremely busy this past week, but mostly because I would have been expressing my opinion on the commenter’s life and career choices. I try not to do that, particularly in public. We’re all different, and because of the new world of publishing, we all have […]
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.
