Writing In 2015 - Understanding Control

Down to the last couple of days in this year and I am getting ready to gear up for something different. This writer is writing again and, with some effort, I won't stop again. I've been thinking about goals. Here's a quote from writer, James Scott Bell:

"Why set goals? Because you can either control your own destiny or hand it over to circumstance. I'd much rather be acting than reacting. I'd rather have a plan than have time and tide devour me."

I really like this. Bell's quote cuts to the heart of matter for me. It's a succinct way to express the concept of control. As with everyone else, writers have dreams. We want accolades or to hit bestsellers' lists, or maybe get a big publishing contract with traditional publishers. Or maybe we want to hit a home run with a book or series, selling hundreds of thousands of copies, getting our stories optioned by Hollywood, and so on. The thing with dreams though is that we basically have zero control over them. 

I have dreams too. But, I can't make big sales happen. I can't control that. However, I can control how much I write. I can control how many books and short stories I get published via my publishing company. These are things that can be controlled. So what does this have to do with goals?

Goals are things that you can control. They can be used to build the road to your dreams. Goals are acting on plans with an end purpose or dream in mind. The work of setting and accomplishing goals doesn't guarantee you achieve your dreams, but they can get you on the right path to do so, given time, patience, and perseverance. That's what I'm learning anyways.

Dean Wesley Smith is talking about this same subject on his blog. The latest post, New World of Publishing: Control, unpacks these same ideas with Smith's trademark wisdom and wit. He gives you some important steps to help you plan and set goals for your writing in the new year. I find that I need to revisit some of the steps relate to setting production goals. 

There are issues of strategy too when it comes to what I do with my finished stories and novels. I think mixing it up and sending stories to outside markets and publishing books and collections through Founders House Publishing still makes sense. I have to work out the details. But I have steps I can take so that's really more than half the battle for me. 

Writing In 2015 - Setting Goals?

There's nothing particularly original about setting goals. I mean this is the time of year when people make all sorts of goals and resolutions for change and setting new habits in the new year. This is the time for wiping the slate clean. We release a deep sigh and mouth the word "do-over" with a hesitant smile on our faces. Or at least some of us do.

Ever the big fan of veteran pro writer, Dean Wesley Smith, I'll include a link to his latest blog post, a new installment in his ongoing "New World Of Publishing" series. Smith has made it a habit to give some end of the year tips about goals and such to help propel writers in the coming year. Check out the blog post, "New World of Publishing: Failure Must Be An Option." It's the first of a set that'll be coming along during this final week of 2014.

I've said it before though, I am lousy at setting and hitting goals. I've failed in much the way that Smith illustrates. However, I can't let that become a reason or an excuse to quit or to give up. Failure's a built-in dynamic of this writing life and I have to be ready to take a hit when it comes my way. I have to remember what's within my control and set goals that reflect this common sense idea.

Being the writer, I can actively set goals for writing and finishing projects. While life's complications may make it necessary to rethink certain aspects it is still more than possible to write and finish something. I'd say it's fair to mention Heinlein's Rules of Business, a guide that many writers have used to make money in the writing business. I keep a copy of them right in front of me in my office and you can find one in the right column on this site.

Those rules might be a good place to start when it comes to making plans and setting goals for your writing in 2015. At least I think they are. Honestly, if there's any place I should make a more serious effort is in apply those simple (on the surface) rules to my own work.

No matter what sort of plans or strategy you have in place for executing goals in the coming year, I wish you the best in your endeavors. If you have a way you'd like to share with me, please feel free to comment.

Catch you next time.

Good Blog Post From Dean Wesley Smith

In the latest blog post in his series, The New World Of Publishing, Dean Wesley Smith talks about what he called the "Great Time Of Forgetting." It comes down to setting resolutions and coming to a point during the year when you realize that you've missed them or have fallen away.

He talks about the tendency for writers, especially new writers, to let things distract them particularly in the warmer months of the year. I've been caught up in that, I think. It's more than that but certainly the needs of my family for my time, the beautiful weather, and other real world issues have contributed to me dropping off on my writing.

A Break

In fact, I've unofficially gone on hiatus as a fiction writer. I'm saying it's to recharge my creative batteries and get a grip on what exactly it is I'm trying to do with my writing career. I'm struggling with this. Such factors make it easy to just let it all slide and make excuses for not getting to the storytelling.

Smith presents a number of options to get back on the writing horse and carry on with the learning and writing. He mentions that we're coming up to the halfway point of the year, July 1st. I kind of did a double-take when he said that because I honestly didn't realize that we were already halfway through 2014. It's hard to believe. And I'm feeling disappointed that I've not made as much progress or completed as many stories as I thought I would going in to the new year back in January.

In that way, I've forgotten my resolutions for the year. I've succumbed to the "great forgetting." I know I'm not alone in this, but it still feels lousy. Of the solutions he lists, I like his third option the best, but would consider including some of numbers four and five as well.

Option Three

"Reset completely. " Yes, I could forget any ideas or resolutions I had in place and just start over from scratch. Decide what sort of work I'm going to do and just get busy doing it. He also included taking classes and studying the books of other writers and craft books too because these are successes too since it is very important to keep learning as a fiction writer.

I keep waffling back and forth between writing short stories and novels. I'm not sure why I keep doing this little dance. Doing both really is okay and I should be okay with it. It may even be the smarter option since the more diversity I cultivate for outlets for my work, the more success might be possible for me.

With July 1st around the corner, I have the perfect chance to make the second half of 2014 and full and prosperous writing time. If only I take the first step and commit to writing again. That sounds great; it really does.

Writing Streaks

I started writing again. I've not missed a day for three weeks now. So, I'm officially in a writing streak. I heard about streaks when I started reading Dean Wesley Smith's website three years ago. While I entertained the notion of officially doing a streak, I hadn't done so. This isn't to say I didn't have lengthy periods where I wrote every single day without fail. I did. But these periods were always separated by much longer stretch where little if any writing got done.

I know there are plenty of factors that cause one to not write during a given day. I won't talk about any of them. I'm sure any writers reading this will have their own lists of personal reasons. They may be good ones or just lousy excuses. Sometimes, a little of both. One reason I think I'm still going on the streak is that I just totally abandoned my efforts to maintain a writing quota. It seems I alway set myself up for failure by saying that I would need to hit a certain number of words daily or weekly.

The best I can say is that I try to get a single manuscript page. That's 250 words. Sometimes, I don't quite hit that minimum and, really, that's okay. I don't care if I get 100 words as long as I get some words. It all averages out. The goal is only to not miss a day of writing. 

I'm going to see how long I can keep this streak going. I'd encourage my fellow writers to try the same thing. Aim for a manuscript page. I've heard that even a page a day will get you a novel written by the end of a year. Just think if you get two pages a day. You could have two novels written. I know that sounds good to me.

A Day In The Life Of A Pro Writer

Recently, author Dean Wesley Smith began a series of daily posts where he documents his days while writing a 70,000 word ghostwritten novel in 7 to 10 days.  The process is illuminating and there are many great comments below each post. I've learned a lot and I know other writers (and would-be writers) have too.

As Smith has said many times in past, there are a great many myths believed by writers and perpetuated by the publishing industry and academia. Most new writers swallow them hook, line, and sinker. I know I did for a while. I credit both him and his wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, for their willingness to break down those myths and give writers a different perspective on all of it--the view of the long-term professional, working writer. I've thanked them profusely in private and on this blog in the past.

They have certainly paid it forward hundreds of times over for me over the last couple of years. This series of Smith's is a great refresher and the perfect illustration of the methods and the perspective he has mentioned in numerous posts. I know I didn't believe that a novel could be written within a week, but Smith has stopped telling us and now offers to show us what it takes. I know I'm thankful for that.

If you want to read Smith's daily entries so far, here are DAY ONE, DAY TWO, DAY THREE, DAY FOUR, DAY FIVE, DAY SIX, DAY SEVEN, DAY EIGHT, DAY NINE, AND DAY TEN.  Read THE DAY AFTER too. (Remember to read the comments too. Lots of value information there too.)

Dean Wesley Smith Talks About Writing And Publishing In 2013

In my last post, I looked back on my year as a writer and publisher. Reviewing 2012 allowed me to evaluate my progress. It also has given me the chance to figure out some of the shape that 2013 will take in terms of any writing I will do.

I made mention of Dean Wesley Smith, a long-term pro who helped me revolutionize my thinking about writing and publishing. A big part of that happened because Dean dispelled some of the odious myths that had been mainstays in the publishing industry for decades and which many writers were happy to cling to like the gospel truth. These pervasive myths have strong advocates among established writers and new ones alike. 

If you'd like to read about these myths Dean has a collection called Killing The Sacred Cows Of Publishing. I would recommend them to anybody that is seriously considering a career as a writer. 

From that point, I want to talk about Dean's latest blog post. You can read the whole article by clicking HERE. 

The New World Of Publishing

The biggest takeaway from this article, the main point Dean is trying to make is that writers have choices now. The number of options has increased in only the last three or four years. Any long-term reader of his blogs has already been privy to this information and many of its finer nuances. The range of ideas and applications is manifold. 

As always, Dean likes to remind people that every writer is different and that anything advice he suggests in not a "one-size-fits-all" strategy. That means it is up to us writers to decide what works and what doesn't work and react accordingly.

Dean summarizes the old path this way:

"In the old days, meaning more than three years ago, the path to becoming a professional fiction writer was pretty simple to understand. You wrote stories and novels and mailed them to traditional publishers directly. When the story was rejected, you kept the story (or novel) in the mail until someone bought it. "

That was a path I had never tried in a serious way. I was mired in the myths and didn't have the confidence to push myself and work harder at being a writer. In retrospect, it might have been a good thing. It spared me some of the anguish that other writers are experiencing how that the industry has been shaken by the changes in publishing. 

Dean goes on to outline SIX paths that writers can take to sell their work in 2013 (and beyond). 

Options

To bring it down to the personal level, I have six ways I can go about my business. Now, considering how I've worked this year, I think the first option is probably out of the question. That one is more about maintaining the status quo and approach the writing and submission of your books the "old way."

"1… Follow the myths, write one novel, rewrite it to death, then spend all your time tracking down an agent. (This path seldom leads to a decent sale or decent writing, but most beginning writers still follow this path like blind sheep.)"

I find it interesting that Dean also took time to mention the fact that new myths that have cropped up in the this new era of publishing. It's a strange thing to not, but even those writers who recognize they now have the freedom to publish their own work electronically and using print-on-demand, get mired in bad ideas about promotion. Still, this does represent an option that writers will choose, even if Dean makes it clear that it is a lousy option.

"3… Follow the myths that have developed over the last few years. Write a novel, rewrite it to death, pay a gad-zillion bucks to have someone put it up electronically for you and then take a percentage of your work, then you promote it to your 200 friends on Facebook until they start fleeing out of disgust. This path seldom works, but it is part of the promotion myths."

On the other hand, I think Dean offered three winning strategies, one of which is to combine two of the paths he outlined. It's been called the hybrid model. Basically, we writers need to be flexible enough and brave enough to wade into the deep waters of traditional publishing while also keeping ourselves firmly moored to the solid ground of indie publishing--the realm where we have the most control. 

Either way, it is about developing a multifaceted approach that allows us to sell our work in a variety of venues. The goal is to build a robust career that has a chance of lasting more than a few years. I'm pretty sure that I want to be in the game for the long haul so that means giving myself the best odds of having a viable career. I need to exercise my options carefully.

"2… Write a novel and mail a submission package for your book directly to editors. Then while that book is in the mail, write more novels and mail them as well while working on becoming a better storyteller. This is the way it’s been done forever in publishing and is still valid. (Only difference now from ten years ago is that now you need an IP attorney to work on your contract instead of an agent. Contracts are much more difficult these days.)"

"4… Write a novel, learn how to do your own covers and formatting, put the novel up yourself electronically and in POD and then write the next novel and work on learning and becoming a better storyteller. Repeat. Do not promote other than telling your friends once each book is out. This is more of a standard, traditional path that will work, but takes time as you learn how to tell better stories that people want to read."   

"5… Follow #4 and #2 at the same exact time, telling the editors in the submission package that the book is self-published electronically and sending them a cover in the package. Very few beginning writers are trying this method  yet because they are afraid traditional editors will come to their houses and break their fingers (or some other fear just as stupid.)"

A Short Option

I'll also include Dean's intriguing option of focusing on short stories. I remember reading Dean's article on this, The New World Of Publishing: Making A Living with Your Short Fiction, back in June. It's not surprising that he would mention it here. I'm not sure if it would be the path for me, at least not exclusively. I do think I would include some short stories in the writing I do each month.

"6… Forget novels completely and only write short stories, selling to traditional magazines as well as publishing indie. This method has a lot quicker feedback loops and is a good way to learn how to tell great stories, but it takes a mind set most beginning writers do not have. And you must learn how to do all the indie publishing work yourself. This method was never a path to making a living writing fiction, but now it is possible if you really, really, really love short fiction. Otherwise, just write a few stories here and there to help your novels."

Dean says this as well:

"In my opinion, all writers these days should be writing, selling, and publishing some short fiction along with writing novels. The short fiction market is booming and short fiction should just be a part of any business plan for a fiction writer. (Yeah, yeah, I know, you can’t write short fiction. So learn and stop whining.)"

The Takeaway

Go ahead and read the rest of the article. Dean talks about problems that new writers will likely face in the new year and beyond. He also gives his own advice on what sort of path young writers might take. As usual, Dean offers his invaluable insights about the monstrous industry that is publishing as someone who has survived that jungle for over thirty years. 

My thought is to implement the balanced strategy advocated here and do my best to avoid the myths and simply stay focused and patient. Building a career as a writer does take a lot of time. I'm not counting on hitting a home run with a particular book. I have to stay the course and see where I end up. That's as about as good as it gets. 

A Newbie's Perspective On Indie Publishing

In his most recent blog article, entitled "Exploited Writers in an Unfair Industry," the champion of indie publishing, author J.A. Konrath did a tremendous job summarizing the state of the traditional publishing industry in terms of its precedents for the treatment of writers and how it has been straining and struggling since the rise of the modern ebook markets. He paints a broad but also telling portrait of a world in serious flux and uses his insights and understanding of the industry to shed much needed light on some of the basic principals at work.

Another thing, J.A. or Joe Konrath's post did was remind me how very new I am to this whole long and laborious dynamic that has spanned more than a century in this country alone. His description of traditional publishing was stark and meant to illuminate how the relationships between authors, literary agents, and publishers have varied over the years. In the six or so years I've been paying attention to the developments in this new era of publishing and finding a place for myself in the midst of it. It's been challenging and ever-evolving.

Thinking Back

My own understanding was catapulted forward when I decided to establish a publishing company with my wife back in late 2009. Up to that point, I dabbled and dreamed about publishing, played with some of the new tools of self-publishing that were coming online such as Lulu. That was about 2006. Before then, was a long period of pining over the old ideals of getting a book into traditional publishing--a fact difficult to grasp since I was still laboring over a single novel I had started long before I became a part-time freelance writer. I had always had the dream of publishing and designing my own books. The establishment of Founders House Publishing was the first genuine step.

The next big jump came after I'd published two books. I hadn't considered what of role the Kindle would play in ushering in all of these changes in publishing. I was woefully ill-informed of the sea changes that were just bubbling at that point. The Kindle seemed like a novelty to me even in last 2010. I just wasn't aware of what had already been going on. Hadn't even heard of Joe Konrath.

Then in April of 2011, Founders House published its first ebook for the Kindle. I've was trying to get a grasp of my role as the publisher while looking for more book projects. A few months later, I stumbled on to Kristine Kathryn Rusch's post "The Business Rusch: Writing Like It's 1999" on Kevin J. Anderson's blog, which was followed swiftly by the discovery of Dean Wesley Smith's blog. The information I gained from their blogs has been revolutionary. It has changed my thinking and given me the biggest boost to date. They've helped me think more like a publisher than anybody else.

Since Then

The more I've studied publishing the more I've learned about its past, its present, and its future. I've consciously sought knowledge from those who've been in the business throughout its various phases, the authors, editors, agents, and publishers that have formed the fabric of the industry. The present state of publishing is most clearly on display since so much is happening to upset the balance and new visions of publishing's future are birthed every day. New complications arising from the digital era are reverberating in every quarter. Voices like Konrath's are loud and unyielding in their insights as well as their criticisms about the status quo and how the tides of change are consuming those players who aren't nimble enough to react.

Joe's latest post was just the latest warning shot to traditional/legacy publishing. It was also a warning for writers who have been sold on the myths that established old guard publishers perpetuate to protect themselves in such turbulent times.

There are a few things I've been trying to keep in my mind as I go forward with my own publishing endeavors. Certainly a good knowledge of the current battlegrounds and flash points in the industry can only help me if I heed that knowledge. I can't afford to be stupid. Publishing is a business. And so is writing. In fact, this new era merges the two in an amazing synthesis but one that should be taken very seriously. Joe is right. Writers have been exploited for a long time. Even with my experience in freelance web writing, I've faced that truth. If a business can get away with paying a writers pennies, they often will. It takes a certain type of business owner to recognize the value of a writer and compensate them accordingly.

Writer And Publisher

I'm still working on this mix of professions. It's the only one I want to be in and I truly want to be good at it. So I persist, and take some chances, I never stop learning, and I must never be afraid to ask for help from those further down the road. I want to thank Joe for being an advocate for writer empowerment. And he's not the only one. Thanks to Dean, Kris, Jeff, and many others.

The path of indie publishing is not one set in stone right now. There are too many things happening in technology to be certain of much. Ebooks are here and they hold out so much potential right now. Yet despite the forecasts of some, I have a small diamond-hard faith in paper. As much as I am striving to play in the electronic markets I will not abandon paper. As a publisher, I'm playing both fields since it makes good sense.

As a writer, I have the freedom to write whatever kind of story that I want without answering to the sales departments and current trends of a publisher that will ultimately cost me much grief and loss of income and the rights to my work. I'm an indie writer as much as I'm an indie publisher. I've taken my place among the ranks of thousands doing the same thing. Those other writers are not my competitors. They're my compatriots.

Great Article By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I really wanted to pass this article on to anyone who might be following me here. It is the latest installment of the Business Rusch, entitled "Writers Will Work For Cheap." The Business Rusch is a weekly business blog focused on the publishing industry and written by bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It comes out every Thursday and I never miss a post.

If you want to learn more about all of the changes going on in publishing and get comments from a long term pro writer who also won awards as an editor and owned a small publishing company, then you need to check out it out: 

http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/04/the-business-rusch-writers-will-work-for-cheap/

Extras:

You should also check out Dean Wesley Smith's website. He's be a pro writer for over thirty years, worked as an editor, and publisher. Check out his New World Of Publishing, Think Like A Publisher, and Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing series.

Word Counts and The Speed of Writing

"Hey man, I heard you're writing a book."

"Oh yeah, I'm thinking it'll be close to 80,000 words."

"Really, uh...well..how many pages is that?"

I'm sure some of you have had a conversation like that with people who don't make their living thinking in terms of word counts. I know I've had the conversation more times than I can count--the last one being only a couple of  days ago. More than likely you do the quick mental math to give your "non-writer' friend or family member a clue to what the heck you're talking about. 

"Oh, right, that would make it a 320-page book. Now remember that's double-spaced pages."

"Wow, that's impressive."

It seems strange doesn't it? After all, who thinks about the words before they think about the number of pages? Um, writers do, silly. Sometimes it seems like our whole world revolves around word counts. We've spent a lot of time thinking about the various articles, stories, and books we've written in terms of their word counts. Maybe it was because we were required to at first. We had an assignment from an editor who needed a 3,000 word article, or we took a web content gig that required us to write ten 500-word articles for a website.

Somewhere along the way, the word count became the common terminology we used when talking about what we do. It makes sense doesn't it? Words are our tools, they are the building blocks of our craft. The word count is also the way we gauge our progress. Most writers have a certain number of words they can produce during a given time period. For me, that number is 1,000 to 1,200 words an hour in most cases. (This is between 4 and 5 pages an hour if based on a standard, double-spaced manuscript page, which is 250 words.) That last statement is worth expanding on when discussing the idea of the speed of writing.

Speed

In the previous post I mentioned bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith. I first gained the insights and information about the speed of writing through reading a few posts he wrote in which he talked about speed as one of the myths of publishing as well as a factor of some significance in the emerging new world of publishing.

Consider a single manuscript page: It's 250 words. How long does it take you to write those 250 words? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Really, if like me, you can write about 1,000 words in an hours time, then consider the total word count of an average-sized book. Let's say 80,000 words, for this instances. What if you only wrote 1,000 words a day? That's just an hour of writing. You could have that book done in eighty days. Just under three months. You could conceivably do that two or three times during a year's time.

From a writer's perspective, at least one who understands their own writing speed and is willing to trust their voice, this is very doable. Those outside the profession would be astonished if you said you had written three books in a year. They would you say you must be a very fast writer. They'd call you prolific. (Unfortunately, some would call you hack; how dare you write three books in just a year!) Why? Well there are some more myths involved there and if you want to know more then you need to head over to Dean Wesley Smith's website and read his blog series--both the Sacred Cows and the New World of Publishing while you're at it.

For me, Dean's willingness to break things down to the word counts and combine them with an evaluation of one's own writing speed (i.e. the amount of words that can be produced in an hour) really revitalized my thinking as a writer and my aspirations as an indie publisher too.

With my schedule as a writer, I can do a lot of writing if I set my mind to it. There are so many opportunities to tell all sorts of stories and then publish them myself.