Writing Excuses 16.6: Building Your Brand From https://writingexcuses.com/2021/02/07/16-6-building-your-brand/ Key points: Branding for your audience, staking a claim in the writing industry. What do you do really well that makes you stand out? How can you avoid being locked into a series? Make the fans follow your writing, not the series. What makes your writing unique? … Continue reading 16.6
Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Branding, in marketing terms for writers, is the process of establishing a recognizable identity—a brand— for you and your works in the marketplace of readers, and people who buy things for readers. In this episode we talk about what our brands need to be doing for us, and … Continue reading 16.6: Building Your Brand
Writing Excuses 16.5: Pros and Contracts From https://writingexcuses.com/2021/01/31/16-5-pros-and-contracts/ Key Points: What’s in a contract? And what do publishers try to slip in that shouldn’t be there? First, for novels, contracts in the US are usually for life of copyright. Short fiction is first printing. Around the world, audiobooks, it may be a certain amount of … Continue reading 16.5
Writing Excuses 16.02: Publishers Are Not Your Friends From https://writingexcuses.com/2021/01/10/16-02-publishers-are-not-your-friends/ Key Points: Publishers, the companies, are not your friends, even if editors and individuals may be your friends. The businesses have different incentives, which may not match your incentives as an author. Example: the corporation will try to take worldwide rights in all languages, but … Continue reading 16.02
Writing Excuses 15.44: Rebooting a Career From https://writingexcuses.com/2020/11/01/15-44-rebooting-a-career/ Key Points: You might be orphaned by editors. Or maybe your books stop selling, the series doesn’t click? You have to stick with it, keep going. Dedication, hard work, keep pivoting. Look at your brand right now, and think about how to build on that to do … Continue reading 15.44
Writing Excuses 15.39: Translation, with special guest Alex Shvartsman From https://writingexcuses.com/2020/09/27/15-39-translation/ Key Points: How do you translate somebody else’s work into a different language? First, what kind of translation are you doing? Literary translation for fiction, you want to satisfy the reader. Remember traduttori traditori, translation is betrayal. While translations should be windows, often the … Continue reading 15.39
Writing Excuses 15.37: Writing Under Deadlines From https://writingexcuses.com/2020/09/13/15-37-writing-under-deadlines/ Key Points: Writing to contracted deadlines is hard. Sophomore slump! Writing in a bubble. It gets worse! New level, new devil. Train yourself to write against deadlines. Train your good habits. Build sustainability. Watch out for the year and a half deadline — you need to work … Continue reading 15.37
Writing Excuses 15.34: Writing Deliberate Discomfort From https://writingexcuses.com/2020/08/23/15-34-writing-deliberate-discomfort/ Key Points: How do you write when parts of what you are writing make you uncomfortable? Cursing, sex, violence, racism, misogyny? Where is the discomfort coming from, and is it desirable? Do it on purpose. Signpost what you are doing. Let other characters balance. Don’t kick the … Continue reading 15.34