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 »
Indie Authors make money from their backlist, not the latest release. How are you managing YOUR backlist? The first thing readers do, once they’ve read some of your work and liked it, is immediately look for anything else you’ve written. Especially if you write in series, readers will binge on that series, then inhale your entire
Indie Authors make money from their backlist, not the latest release. Read More »
How to Brainstorm Your Fiction 6 Steps, No Rules. Just unique, original stories. I attended the When Words Collide conference on the weekend, and was a speaker on a number of panels, including one on brainstorming. I was taken aback by the turnout for that panel, and the trend of the questions from the audience
How to Brainstorm Your Fiction Read More »
20 Tips to Become Super-Prolific 2022 Edition A version of this post appeared in 2018. This edition has been updated. Whole books have been written and courses have been taught on the art and science of prolificacy. A short post on the essentials can only skim the surface, but each step will offer an entry
20 Tips to Become Super-Prolific-2022 Edition Read More »
“I used to tell interviewers that I wrote every day except for Christmas, the Fourth of July, and my birthday. That was a lie. I told them that because if you agree to an interview you have to say something, and it plays better if it’s something at least half-clever. Also, I didn’t want to
What You Can Learn From Stephen King About Writing More Fiction Read More »
