Career and Lifestyle, Season 16

16.01: Your Career is Your Business

12 Comments

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Howard, and Brandon

Welcome to 2021, and Season 16 of Writing Excuses. This year we’re dividing the year into “master classes” or “intensive courses.”

We’re kicking it off with Brandon’s episodes, which are all about the business of writing, and the first of those is this one!

So… your career is your business. In this episode we’ll talk about how that mindset—this is a business—informs our other activities, and how valuable it can be to get our heads in the right place early on.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and mastered by Alex Jackson

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So… GOOD OMENS. Read the book. Watch the series. Consider what sorts of decisions Neil Gaiman made to adapt the novel to a new medium.

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

12 thoughts on “16.01: Your Career is Your Business”

  1. Hi — love the podcast. However, I can’t seem to access seasons 11, 12 and 13, and much of 14 remains inaccessible as well — likely an Apple Podcasts issue? Was wondering if those seasons might be made available in an archive podcast soon.

  2. To clarify — on Apple Podcasts, there is the main Writing Excuses podcast, which currently has episodes 16.01 to 14.47. There are also two other Writing Excuses podcasts — Archive Seasons 1-6, and Archive Seasons 7-10. As such, through Apple Podcasts, seasons 11-13 are currently not available, nor are episodes 14.01-14.46.

    1. Hum… you might go to the archives here on Writing Excuses, and play the episodes you are missing? I noticed that Season 11, for example, doesn’t offer the Apple subscribe button, but there is a download button that plays in your browser?

      1. So the only way to get seasons 11, 12, 13 and much of 14 is directly from this website? I can’t find them on either Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or the Patreon app.

        1. You might try asking on the contact form? I’m not part of the core team, so I don’t really know how the episodes get into the various podcast channels.

  3. Thanks for such a fantastic start to your 2021 Writing Excuses season!! I’m taking notes to help me follow along and to help me organize the great points. I truly appreciate this first episode!

    If it’s okay, I did want to point out that as of this time I’m writing (1/3/2021 at 10:50pm Eastern): episode 16.01’s information includes everybody who’s hosting, except for Howard Tayler.

    All of his insights are in the audio. I just miss seeing his name typed.

    Would anyone be willing to add it, please? It would cheer me up.

    Thanks for all that you contribute to Writing Excuses. This work of yours is such a boost!!

  6. Kicking off the new year, Dan, Mary Robinette, Howard, and Brandon tackle trying to help you understand the mindset that your career is your business. You are running a small business, and you need to think about where you are going, how you are going to handle health insurance and other business concerns, and even your time. Balancing money, audience, and shininess? Lots of helpful advice to get you started on your business… er, writing career. Read all about it in the transcript now available in the archives.

  8. Is the only way to get seasons 11, 12, 13 and much of 14 directly from this website? I can’t find them on either Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or the Patreon app.

  9. Where do I ask questions?? I don’t do Twitter. I’ll ask here and hope for an answer from Writing Excuses, please.

    1–In what format is a manuscript given to an agent or editor? Paper or email? Hand delivered or via email? Single, 1.5 or double spaced? Indented paragraphs or spaced separately without indents? Pretty plastic cover with spiral binding or in the famous-on-TV large manila envelope?

    2–Alphas —do you give them the full manuscript all at once or chapter by chapter? And do they give their feedback as a group with all the other Alphas together, or as a personal chat with the author, one-on-one? Which way is best? Are Alphas compensated, and how is that done properly?

    Thanks!

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