Writing Articles

Midweek Content Roundup #56

4/29/2015

This is the fifty-sixth post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 18 articles…enjoy!

Post removed 05/26/15

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Handy Headline & Emotions Guide

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Get a whole lot more great content in my book Stand Out: Your 2015 SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing Guidebook. It’s on Amazon or iTunes and many other places, and will help you.

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Education in Your Fantasy World

4/27/2015

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This is the seventh post in an ongoing series called How to Write Fantasy Fiction.

Are your characters smart or ignorant? Do they have schooling, or have they been schooled? When asked a question, do they answer quickly or do they get angry that someone has challenged their intelligence, smiting them quickly with whatever heavy weapon is at hand?

Just because the fantasy characters you’re writing are smart doesn’t mean they’re educated. And just because they’re not educated, it doesn’t mean they’re stupid. There’s book smarts and street smarts, and both require a fair amount of learning.

So…which kind of learning does your fantasy character have? And really…who needs to get educated? I certainly don’t think the scullery workers or stablehands need to know much. The captain of the guards probably doesn’t need that much schooling, but I hope he’s had more than the common gate guard…don’t you?

Well, maybe not. It depends on if you’re trying to break into the castle. But then, there are educated ways to break into a castle, and…uneducated ways, to put it nicely.

Some of the main characters that I think need an education in their background are:

Wizards;
Priests;
Alchemists;
Squires.

There are more…but that’s all I can think of. Now, some of those go without saying, but you have to remember, we take a lot of this for granted. We just assumed that the wizard or squire went to some kind of school or academy, but did they? And if so, why not put a few asides into the conversation, something that gives us more background into who that person is as a character. Yeah, it might drag on a bit and it might slow down the story, but a lot of readers buy fantasy books because they like worldbuilding and character-building and all the rest of it. Now’s your chance to do that!

So where can fantasy characters get their education? Here are some ideas:

Academies;
Colleges;
Universities;
Churches;
Temples;
Guilds;
On the Job.

On the job – how about that? That’s the route many fighters take to get into the trade, when they see their parents killed and they have to fight off a bandit or two.

Maybe a young apprentice really does become a full-fledged magician when he finally casts that ‘practice’ spell in battle, smiting someone’s ass good.

Thieves often learn on the job, or maybe at the guild…and they usually screw up the first time too.

Priests could learn on the job, but that might allow some hideous demon to enter the world, or at least someone to get the wrong blessing.

What are your characters doing with their education? Just because someone went to one of those fancy academies, it doesn’t mean they’re using that learning. It could be they’re working in some seedy tavern at nights, or manning the castle gates in a down-economy that took all the ‘good’ jobs with it.

Now I’m just speculating a bit, and perhaps getting more at what your NPC, or non-POV characters are doing. Still, all the fantasy characters in my book The Hirelings had regular jobs. Hell, the spellcaster was a stripper!

The point is, fantasy characters do in fact eat, go to the bathroom, and sleep in places other than the ground. In other words, they need money and resources and an education is a sure-way to increase those…isn’t it?

Maybe this post and this subject is boring. After all, don’t your readers want action and thrills and tension being ratcheted up? Yeah, but they want depth and nuance as well, and you can get that with characters that have been educated. Besides that, it adds to your worldbuilding. Think of one of those fantasy city maps, and imagine your places of learning on it. Wow, something like that gives you ideas and possibly a short novella right there.

So go educated your readers about the joys of education in your fantasy world!

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A Timeline of Existence

4/25/2015

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Sphinx, c 1878

When did things happen?

I like this question, and I like dates…and both are great for making a timeline.

See, lately I’ve been reading a good book called Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock.

It came out in 1995 and really puts some ideas out there for how long humans have really been around. It does more than that, however – it also gives us great dates.

I’ve been keeping track of those dates on a sheet of paper, and 150 pages into the book, I have some good stuff. Supplementing it with some information from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and my own history book on Ancient China, and this is what I’ve come up with:

13.5 billion years ago: The Universe forms

11 billion years ago: The Milky Way Galaxy Forms

4.5 billion years ago: Our Sun Forms

3.5 billion years ago: Life on Earth Starts

3.1 billion years ago: First Supercontinent of Vaalbara Forms

2.7 billion years ago: Supercontinent Kenorland Forms

2.5 billion years ago: Arctica Supercontinent Forms

2 billion years ago: Columbia Supercontinent Forms

1.1 billion years ago: Rodinia Supercontinent Forms

600 million years ago: Pannotia Supercontinent Forms

510 million years ago: Gondwana Supercontinent Forms

450 million years ago: End-Ordovician Extinction (Gondwana Moved Too Far South)

375 million years ago: Late Devonian Extinction (Cause Unknown)

300 million years ago: Fossil Fuel Deposits Form

250 million years ago: Permian Extinction (Siberian Volcano Erupted)

201 million years ago: Triassic-Jurassic Extinction (Asteroid Likely)

100 million years ago: The Dinosaurs Roamed

66 million years ago: Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction (Asteroid Likely, Killed the Dinosaurs)

3.5 million years ago: People Walk, Begin Looking Up

1.8 million years ago: People Begin Moving Out of Africa

1.7 million years ago: Yuanmou Man Walked China

780,000 years ago: Peking Man Walked China

100,000 years ago: Accepted Date for Moving Out of Africa

60,000 years ago: Humans Reach Indian Ocean Areas

43,000 years ago: Siberia is Settled

40,000 years ago: Asia is Settled

40,000 years ago: Culture Starts

30,000 years ago: Cave Paintings Start

15,000 years ago: Tiahuanaco Constructed

13,000 years ago: Antarctica Civilization May Have Started/Been Going

10,500 years ago: Atlantis Destroyed

10,500 years ago: Hall of Records May Have Been Sealed

10,000 years ago: Ice Caps Melt, Sea Levels Rise

10,000 years ago: Agriculture & Sedentary Societies

9000 BC: Holocene Climate Optimum Begins

6500 BC: Cholula Pyramid south of Mexico destroyed by lava

5000 BC: Holocene Climate Optimum Ends

5000 BC: Copper Age Begins

6,000 years ago: Writing Starts

4000 BC: Machu Pichu Built

3400 BC: Egypt Jumps from Neolithic Culture to Monarchy

3250 BC: Very High Levels of Methane in Antarctica

3200 BC: Piora Oscillation Begins

3000 BC: Bronze Age Begins

13 August 3114 BC: Olmecs Start Mayan Calendar

2580 BC: Great Pyramid of Giza Constructed

2558 BC: Great Sphinx of Giza Constructed

2400 BC: Stonehenge Built

1400 BC: The Chinese begin Recording Comet Sightings

1532 AD: Spanish Conquer South America

1761: Chronometer Invented to Find Longitude

1818: Antarctica Officially Discovered

I’m not quite done with this, as you can tell, and you can also probably tell where I’m going.

What do we make of these huge lapses of time? How come we have proof that man was walking in Asia 1.7 million years ago…but some still claim we didn’t leave Africa until just 100,000 years ago…a difference of 1.6 million years?

What happened during those 1.6 million years? I think what happened was flourishing levels of human culture and civilization, which may have been wiped out before…either through natural means or from their own hand.

Wow, what an idea, huh? But really, how do you explain writing at Tiahuanaco 8,000 years before humans learned how to write? How about advanced mathematics hundreds of years before writing came around?

When you start looking at things like that, you really have to ask questions. I hope you’re asking them, and you can do that by reading interesting books. But the most interesting thing, to me at least, are the gaps:

There’s 6.5 billion years from our galaxy to our sun.

We’ve got 900 million years between some supercontinents.

Another 62.5 million years between dinosaurs and people.

There’s 1.7 million years from when people walk to when they leave Africa.

There’s 3.4 million years between people walking and the accepted date for leaving Africa.

We have 20,000 years between cave paintings and the start of culture.

The Hall of Records is located in the right paw of the Great Spinx, but it was sealed nearly 8,000 years before we think the Sphinx was actually built.

Folks, people in the past weren’t stupid. We often like to think people just 100 years ago were dumber than us, but it’s likely the other way around. What if people were around a lot earlier than we thought, and what if they were a lot more advanced than we thought? That’d be pretty revolutionary, huh?

Thanks for reading.

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Free Fiction Friday #59: A Stop for Water

4/24/2015

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Note: This is the fifty-ninth post in Free Fiction Fridays.

These are short stories put up each Friday that you can read for free. By the next Friday the post will be taken down and a new one will go up.

Special Note: This is a new chapter for my book The Jongurian Mission. I’m touching up that novel now, ironing out some of the boring parts, and adding a bit of spice. This is some of that spice.

The Jade Princess bobbed in the surf, and Grandon put his arm up to get a better look. The sun was shining down unmercifully on this small rock in the Apsalar Ocean, and he couldn’t help but think of Desolatia Island. Five years he’d spent there, but the past five days he’d spent on the boat, crammed in with the Jongurians, almost seemed longer than that.

The ‘False King,’ as he’d come to be known in his native country of Adjuria, put down his arm and turned away from the ship. He’d requested to come along with the small landing party, a few Jongurians in a rowboat heading out for water. Leisu had been adamant that the small island had no name, but Grandon wasn’t so sure of that. He didn’t trust the Jongurians, and the wily leader of the crew he was with rubbed him the wrong way. He was glad the man had stayed behind on the ship, though he’d sent his subordinate along, the man named Ko. Grandon chuckled inwardly to himself. Might as well call the man ‘Can’t Talk,’ he thought. Since boarding the ship he’d heard him say two words, if that.

He couldn’t say the same for the rest of the crew. The men chatted all the time, and laughed too. It was all in Jongurian, of course, so Grandon just assumed they were chatting about him, laughing at his expense. It’d put his hackles up for the past few days, and caused his temper to flare several times. The first was the first full day on the boat. Grandon hadn’t been around another person in five years, and he quickly set to snapping at people. The crew hadn’t responded too well to that, and one surly member in particular had made it his mission in life to get under the Adjurian’s skin. The man’s name was Bochi and on the third full day out he and the other men had been scrubbing the deck. Grandon had come out of his small bunkroom for some air and Bochi had purposefully tripped him up and sent him over the railing. Without his fast hands, Grandon was sure he’d have fallen into the shark-infested waters below. Grandon couldn’t prove that the man had tripped him up, though the look on his face and the way he’d tried not to smile told the Adjurian all he’d needed to know.

That was probably why Leisu sent Ko with them, Grandon thought as they continued onward toward the small island – Bochi would be heading to the island as well.

The place was a small affair, with a few scraggly trees clinging to the rocks for life. The whole place was a mile across, if even that, and probably half as much wide. But it held water, and right there in the middle of the place. The men walked forward, several making slower progress as they rolled the empty water barrels forward. The island was small and in a few minutes they were within sight of a small pool of water, really nothing more than a collected bit of rainwater in a shallow depression in the rocks. They walked on and then sat down to wait. The men with the barrels finally made it, and then set about filling them. Grandon soon grew bored watching them, and started to walk over a bluff.

“Stay close,” he heard someone call out behind him, and looked back to see Ko looking his way. With a nod he continued on.

The island was a giant rock, Grandon quickly realized, and little more. Over the bluff was more rock, all the way to the far shore in the distance. The place got a lot of storms, that was clear from all the driftwood washed up, even here in the near-center of the island. Grandon walked over to some of that driftwood, and looking back toward the bluff and the men he couldn’t see on the other side of it, he got an idea. Sticking his finger into his mouth and then the air, he gauged the wind and set to work. Gathering together many of the larger logs, he set about raising them up so that some were standing, propped up by some of the smaller. In a matter of minutes he had what he wanted.

Coming back over the bluff a few minutes later, Grandon saw that the men were nearly done with filling the barrels. He headed down to the pool, toward where Bochi was standing and watching. There he waited, and judged the wind. It would only be another few moments, and then–

There was a series of bangs from the other side of the bluff. The sound drew the men’s eyes, and Ko and another few rushed over a bluff to get a look. That was all that Grandon needed.

He rushed over the ten yards separating him from Bochi. The Jongurian had been looking toward the sound as well, and didn’t detect the movement until it was too late. Grandon barreled into the man and they both went down into the pool of water.

Grandon knew the splash would draw the men’s eyes back their way, and that he only had a few seconds. He immediately shot his hands up to Bochi’s throat and grasped hold. He pushed the Jongurian’s head down into the water just as the man’s own hands shot out and grabbed hold of his. The two thrashed in the water, and Grandon had to act. Drowning a man took time, he knew from experience, and already Ko and the other men were rushing back down the hill. Besides that, the–

Grandon’s thoughts were cutoff as he was struck in the back of the head. Another Jongurian was there and had just hit him, with his fist it felt like. Grandon knew they wouldn’t kill him, but the next blow might be a stick or something else that could really do harm, knock him out even. Not wasting another second, he reached down and grabbed hold of the dagger at Bochi’s belt. With one swift motion he extended his arm backward in a throw that sent the blade flying at the man behind him. Grandon didn’t look to see if it found its mark, he didn’t have to – the ‘ugh’ and then the small splash was all he needed to hear to know the man had been hit in the gut or the chest and was now down. Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, Grandon–

“Stop!”

Grandon looked up to see Ko standing on the edge of the pool, the other two men he’d rushed away with now at his side. One of them held his crossbow, nocked and pointing Grandon’s way. The Adjurian smiled, and slowly released his grip on Bochi’s throat.

The Jongurian shot upward and gasped for air, then his eyes locked onto Grandon and he began to lunge for the man.

“Stop!” Ko shouted again, and nodded at one of the men beside him. That man rushed forward and grabbed hold of Bochi, pulled him back.

“Enough of this!” Ko shouted. Grandon was surprised to hear the man say so much, and surprised to hear him speaking in Adjurian. He quickly realized that Bochi understood the words as well.

“I will not have you men fighting!” Ko continued. “I will not have–”

Whatever Ko was going to say was cutoff as Grandon lunged forward and shot the flat of his hand forward at Bochi’s throat. There was a sickening ‘crack’ and then Bochi was grasping at his throat with both hands, desperately trying to breath through his broken windpipe. His eyes grew larger as he realized he couldn’t and he looked to the other men for help. Grandon stepped back and crossed his arms and took on a smug look, while Ko only looked at him, a burning anger in his eyes. A moment later, Bochi fell to his knees on the ground, then toppled over onto the rocky island, dead.

“Leisu will not be happy to hear this,” Ko said after a few tense moments where the men looked from him to Grandon and back again.

Grandon shrugged. “I guess he’ll have to take me back to Desolatia,” he said, then started back toward the rowboat.

Behind him Ko frowned. Already this was becoming a mistake.

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Midweek Content Roundup #55

4/22/2015

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This is the fifty-fifth post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 13 articles…enjoy!

Post removed 05/26/15

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It will help you get ahead, so get your copy today on Amazon or iTunes.

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New Jonguria Maps!

4/19/2015

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Wow, check out these new maps!

Actually…let’s go through the process first…because seeing how a good fantasy book map is made today is important.

First, I went to Deviant Art and put up a notice on their forum, asking for someone to look at the old maps I had. I wanted someone to send me a message with their idea and how much they’d charge.

I was very lucky to find someone named M. Nires. This guy makes some great maps, and I already showed you the John Colter Map he made for me. Here’s what we did for these maps.

It all started with the old maps for Adjuria, which I’d made in MS Paint back in January, 2010. Here’s what that looked like:

That map helped me write nearly 450,000 words about this world. That got me three books, and they’ve sold more than 500 copies between them. The first volume has been downloaded more than 11,000 times.

The map wasn’t that good, however, and in 2013 I had a woman in Europe make me a new one. This is what that looked like:

At the time I was very happy with this – it was a huge improvement! But it didn’t have the detail I wanted, and a lot of things were left out. I knew I had to get a new map, and since I had some money this month, I went ahead and did so.

First I got some rough sketches, based on my desire to flip the world from landscape format to portrait. Yeah, I wanted the map to work better with a book’s shape, and that meant changing things. Here’s how the designer first started that:

Designing a custom fantasy book map

Maps for Fantasy eBooks

That really wasn’t how I wanted the world, however, so I made this really, really crappy model to guide him:

A man's got to know his limitations

Wow, talk about bad, huh? But it got me on the right path. Plus, I knew I had a good artist because he said that the image helped. That’s how these came about:

Wow, now we’re getting somewhere. When I saw those lakes taking shape, I knew this map would look good…and it does – here’s the final version:

Fantasy eBook maps

The same process took place with the Jonguria map. Here’s the process on that one, from the oldest map through the updated one and then through the rough sketches to the final:

I’m very happy with these maps, and they actually inspired me to start writing in this world again…how cool is that! You’ll see a short story this Friday in Free Fiction Friday, or you can see it right now. Yep, I’m adding in a few chapters here and there to make The Jongurian Mission even better, or at least less boring. I might even begin working on a new trilogy of novels, perhaps dealing with the East-West War that came before this series. It would be violent and bloody, and it just might put me on the map.

Speaking of maps, why not get a feel for these ones first hand – check out The Jongurian Mission on Amazon today!

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Free Fiction Friday #58: ISIS Attacks Texas

4/17/2015

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Note: This is the fifty-eighth post in Free Fiction Fridays.

These are short stories put up each Friday that you can read for free. By the next Friday the post will be taken down and a new one will go up.

Post removed 06/07/15...thanks!

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Pruning the Internet Bookmark Bar

4/16/2015

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It’s once again time to look at my favorite sites…and figure out if they’re indeed my favorite.

Do you ever go to that favorite site of yours and say, ‘man, this site sucks!’? Or how about, ‘wow, another week and no new content!’

These are common problems you’ll run into when you’ve been surfing the internet long enough, or blogging long enough. See, you may not notice things like posting schedules until you have one yourself. You might not mind posts that say the same thing over and over, unless you’re trying not to do that yourself.

I run into these issues, and a lot more. Unfortunately, I’m running into some of them again now. These are situations like:

Lindsay Buroker’s Blog: I went here again today and was just beside myself. One month and three days now since she put up her last post, something that clearly shows how important I am. This blog has been going downhill for some time, and it’s getting booted off my bookmark bar.

Elizabeth Spann Craig’s Blog: I used to get a few tips on this site, and she does a good roundup of Twitter links on Saturday, but lately this site has just been one dull guest post after another. I’m sorry, but listening to new authors crow about how good they are isn’t something I care about.

Terrible Minds: I’ve had Chuck Wendig’s site on my bookmark bar for more than a year. I usually visit once or twice a week and scan the headlines. Maybe once a month I’ll read an article, but most of the time I find his posts to be drivel. That was no different when I stopped in today. Yep, it’s time to free up that prime real estate and kick this author to the curb.

I’ve done this before, clear my bookmark bar. You can read about it in Taking Back Your Internet Bookmarks and Showing No Mercy When Organizing Your Internet Bookmarks Bar. I’m a firm believer in clearing out the dead wood, and I’ve cut content marketing sites, SEO sites, and author sites. Author sites usually get the axe the most often, and the reasons are simple – they natter on about the same things over and over, and if they’re not doing that, they’re trying to sell you the same old book over and over again.

That’s just my opinion, of course, but after more than two years of daily blog visits to various self-publishing and marketing sites, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the truth more often than not.

So those sites are going bye-bye, but I don’t really mind. I get great content each week, and you can see my curated roundup posts each Wednesday. More than that, however, I get what I need from social media. Yeah, I go to Google+ and Facebook and visit the communities and groups and follow links. You know the newest information will be shared on social media, and we all know that groups and such are where the best of that information is collected. If you don’t know this, well, chances are good you don’t have anything I really need to be hearing, now do you. And guess what? If you’re content isn’t appearing in those groups, it means one of two things:

First, you’re not sharing it there and you’re likely not sharing much at all on social media other than with your followers;

Next, your followers aren’t sharing that content you’re producing, at least not in any area where people are actually looking.

Again, you see this with authors more than anything, and you see it with those three I’ve listed here. They don’t bother to do that stuff, mainly because they feel they don’t have to. After all, with such lofty blogs, those immense amounts of traffic, and the gargantuan number of social media followers they have, why would they need to do that? That time would be better spent writing crappy blog posts that rehash the same-old same-old, or better yet, posting nothing at all!

It might not be easy to keep blogging, and it might take work to write about things that are different from the things you wrote about over the last 100 posts, but it can be done. People do it each and every day, and we call them the successful blogs, the ones that people want to visit and read and share. And when I say people, I do really mean that – people. I’m not talking about hanger’s-on or those that think success rubs off in their direction. I’m talking about real people that don’t give a damn about what you’re selling.

Maybe those blogs have those, and maybe I’m just angry that I don’t have them…fine. In that case, it’s best I just put them right back up there on that bookmark bar and continue to visit them. So what if the content is stale and it appears irregularly at best? Isn’t it my place to look up to these folks, waiting for their answers for the problems in my life?

No, no it’s not.

If you don’t like a site, or if a good site goes bad, get rid of ‘em. I’ve done this numerous times.

I did it with Copyblogger, and wow, I saw one of their posts on Google+ the other day and was like ‘wow, I totally forgot about that site. I wonder if they’re still doing alright.’

I did it with Hugh Howey’s site, and every once in a while I’d catch myself wondering, ‘are people still so blown away by nothing?’

I did it with Joe Konrath’s site, and every…well, I haven’t thought about that droll soul since the last time I read my son Trumpet, the book about the dog that won’t shut up.

So yes, it is possible for you to move on with your life and leave that deadwood behind. Most of those voices don’t really care about you, nay, they don’t even know you exist. They have too many emails, too many comments, and hot damn, if you share their stuff on social media, it’s just one more Goddamn thing they’ve got to wade through.

So ditch those know-it-alls that don’t really know it all, or if they did, it was probably in a bygone era. Go forth and find those voices that actually mean something to you, don’t waste your time, or make you think in a way that produces something of value, instead of eating up your valuable time.

Taking Back Your Internet Bookmarks

Showing No Mercy When Organizing Your Internet Bookmarks Bar

I’m Taking Joe Konrath’s Site Off My Bookmark Bar

Mindless Followers and Thoughtless Leaders in Self-Publishing

Why is Your Website Telling Me to ‘Go Fuck Myself’?

10 Reasons It’s Time for You to Stop Commenting on Blogs

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Midweek Content Roundup #54

4/15/2015

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This is the fifty-fourth post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 21 articles…enjoy!

Post removed 05/06/15

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Missed this one? Get the best of 2014 in my book Stand Out: Your 2015 SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing Guidebook.
It will help you get ahead, so get your copy today on Amazon or iTunes.

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Rejecting a Publisher

4/11/2015

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I wrote a week or so ago about working with Arcadia Publishing. I’ve since turned that offer down.

Yes, I’m an author that’s rejected a publisher.

I suppose one of the main reasons is that I’m a businessman. I’m not going to take on some job that costs me more money than it’ll bring in. Oh, the book could bring in some money…but I’m not counting on it. And really, these types of books aren’t for writers like me. Who are they for? Academics.

I saw an article in the Missoulian this past week, which is my local newspaper here. The article talked about a woman getting a deal with Arcadia, and it was called Missoula underground investigated in new book; author to sign at event. So here’s someone that got a deal with this company and now has a book coming out. The thing, however, is that she’s a grad student in anthropology at the university. So for her, this makes sense – it’s that book on the shelf that she needs in order to impress the higher-ups, thus allowing her to advance in her chosen field.

I have no higher-ups, I only have customers and potential customers. I go for sales, not something that’s going to make me feel good and that I can show off to everyone else – I have more than fifty of those already. What’s more, most people don’t give a damn when you try to show your books off, and after awhile, they don’t make you feel that good. But I do have student loan debt, rent, bills, and a family to feed. That’s why I go for paying projects, not projects that require me to pay them.

Honestly, I’m disappointed, insulted, and laughing at the same time. I mean, you get 92% of the earnings but I do all the work? I’m sorry, but besides banking and healthcare, I don’t know any other industries where so many do so little but make so much.

I never got an email back from Arcadia after I told them that I didn’t think the project was economically viable. I said ‘thanks anyways,’ and got no reply. I waited more than a week to put this post up, thinking I might get something and that I wouldn’t have to say this. Alas, I have to say that Arcadia is only interested in their interests, not yours.

That tells you a lot, as does the email I got saying they’d send me some sample books to try and change my mind. The thing is, they’d already sent me sample books. Yeah, this woman on the email had no idea who I was, or that she’d already talked with me.

This is traditional publishing today – a group of dying “professionals” that are seeing their income shrink while their living expenses go up or remain the same. They’re in panic mode, and trying to reach out for anything that will help them stay afloat. Those ‘anythings’ include authors like me, people that have proven they can make money. When you prove you can make money, lots of people come out of the woodwork to try and have you make them money as well. Most of the time they expect this for free, or in the case of Arcadia, for 8% of whatever I could get.

It’s a sham, really, and I feel sorry for people that get sucked into traditional publishing. You’re not going to find a better look at the decay of this industry than the article Kristine Kathryn Rusch put up on her site on April 2. It was called Business Musings: The Hard Part and goes into how the traditional publishing industry is dying, and how authors like me are dying because of lost sales. Yeah, Amazon KU is a killer, but it hasn’t affected me too much because I have so many nonfiction titles that aren’t exclusive and that can maintain steady sales.

So I’m alright, and that means I can keep writing my books, books that no one buys but which I like to write. Yeah, I’m talking about my novels for the most part. They don’t get bought, they get borrowed. They’re all exclusive with Amazon, and that’s something that might have to change with some of my more popular titles, just to see what works and what doesn’t. After all, now that I’m done wasting time and money with Smashwords, I can give D2D a better spin to see how they work for me.

Most importantly, I can focus on books that have a market, not those that could or might. I know which books will sell, based on what books of mine have sold, and I’m writing these. Working for Arcadia would have taken away from that.

We’re talking about opportunity costs here, and that’s something you need to think about. I might only get 50 sales on my next novel in its first month, and a long drop-off after that, but I know I’ll get those sales. And I know they’ll come next month, when I put out that book, not in six months or a year when editors and publishers are ready. I hate waiting, and when I work for myself, I only have myself to blame for making me wait.

Opportunity costs are so important for writers because they force us to look at what’s important, what’s not, and put our attention where it needs to go. If I can make money from something, I’ll most likely work on that, at least for most of the day. We all have projects we work on for fun, but oftentimes those get shunted off to the day’s side spots or rare moments. This blog post is one of those, and like most things we really like, they’ll fly off the fingers.

Writing for others helps a lot, because you make money and also get direction. What’s more, the income is so much better than writing for yourself, unless you’re a big-name author. I like writing for others and helping them get books out, and I wouldn’t be able to write my own books otherwise.

Traditional publishers don’t really work on anything for fun – it’s all money. Arcadia will have to get their 92% royalty rate from another, for I’m too busy.

Thanks for reading!

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Writing Blogby Greg Strandberg

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Writing Blog
by Greg Strandberg

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