Still Slow…but continuing. This is an update to my October 2022 post, “Slowing…But Not Stopping.” In that post I summarized all the health issues I had suffered through in 2022 (a lot) and their root cause, a rare form of cancer. In that post I also warned you that my post schedule on PIFW would […]
Still Slow…but continuing. Read More »
Is Complexity Bias Stopping You From Publishing (More)? I get a lot of emails, and I see a lot of posts on author groups from new indie authors, or authors going indie for the first time, or authors who are going wide for the first time, implying or flat-out stating that indie publishing is incredibly
Is Complexity Bias Stopping You From Publishing (More)? Read More »
I’ve referred to author platform a lot on this blog. Especially lately, with the industry in such a state of churn and evolution. But I’ve never properly defined what an author platform is. So today, let’s nail down exactly what I mean by “author platform”, and pull together all the reasons why you need to
What is an Author Platform and Why You Need The Best You Can Build Read More »
In June last year, I went on a bit of a tirade here on PIFW about preceding participle phrases. I also dumped upon readers on Medium. But my distaste for this sentence structure goes back a long way before I said so publicly. And it turns out, I’m not the only writer/editor who abhors preceding
The World’s Worst Sentence Structure Revisited Read More »
A short post today, as it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and everyone is focused upon green beer. As I’m allergic to alcohol, I focused upon the four leaf clover, instead. When commercial fiction was controlled by the traditional publishers, it was pretty much accepted that breaking into the business required a large slab of luck. You
Cultivate Luck For Yourself Read More »
I’ve been skirting around AI for weeks, referring to it indirectly and implying that it would become increasingly important that we indies deal with it in the near future. In my prediction post for 2023 (that wasn’t really a prediction) about the year ahead, I did grasp the nettle…a little, and very gently. And I
Yeah, I’m Gonna Go There. So should you. Read More »
This is Part 4 of an informal series about Pen Names. See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4. A PIFW reader reached out to me a couple of days ago, asking questions about pen names, branding and genres, and in particular, how they impact the Amazon algorithms. My response to him
Pen Names – 2022 Update. Read More »
Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch call life derailing events “life rolls”. It’s a useful name for a whole host of troubles: Sickness, death of loved ones, disasters, accidents, divorces, getting fired… We’re writers of fiction; we can easily imagine what life rolls might look like. When you’re hit by a serious life roll,
How to Get Back to Writing when Life Has Completely Derailed You Read More »
If you only read this blog of mine, and not any of my author blogs or social media, then it might have seemed like everything was ticking along nicely here. In actual fact, for several weeks now I have been working through a personal health crisis, utterly unable to spare any attention to The Productive
Slowing…but not stopping. Read More »
Indie Authors Take Note: NOW is the time to prioritize your health! Don’t leave it until tomorrow, the way I did. I’ve been having a few health challenges lately. I’ve murmured in public once or twice over the last year about pinched nerves and back issues, in particular, my neck, which was giving me a
Indie Authors Take Note: NOW is the time to prioritize your health! Read More »
