Tools, not rules. For writers, by writers.

16.13: Day Brain vs. Night Brain

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Patterns in the way we’re speaking may betray which ‘brain’ we’re using; often bound by what’s familiar, sometimes loosed for free-er choosing. Writing like the day-brain’s thinkingSinging while the night-brain’s winkingAll the cadence going funky(golden-mantled howler monkey) Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall…

16.12 : Singing Versus Speaking

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Can you hear your writing sing, being intoned instead of read? With the dialogs as tunes whose tags say “sung” instead of “said?” When the rhythm of your prose echoes the rhythm of a song you’ll see perhaps you’ve been a poet…

16.11: What is Poetry?

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard This is how we begin our master classon poetry, with Amal El-Mohtar:With not one question, but two. What is poetry? What is prose? Yes, both questions are a trap.Or maybe two traps.But definitely a beginning. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr,…

16.10: Paying it Forward, with Kevin J. Anderson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard, with special guest Kevin J. Anderson Kevin J. Anderson joins us to talk about how others have helped us in our careers, and how we might continue that tradition and help others. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, and mastered…

16.9: Crossing The Revenue Streams

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard How many different ways can our writing earn money for us? What additional work, besides “just” writing, do we need to do in order to get that money? In this episode we discuss finding and managing multiple revenue streams, whether that means writing…

16.8: Smart Promotion

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Let’s talk about how promote yourself and your work, and how to do it well. The tools we use for this continue to evolve, and in this discussion we’ll cover things that have worked, things that have stopped working, things we use now,…

16.7: To Series, or Not to Series

Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Brandon, Howard Let’s look a the business considerations of whether that thing you’re writing is a standalone story, or part of a series. The factors are complex, and a single factor (like, say distribution channel) isn’t likely to make the decision clear cut. Credits: This episode…

16.6: Building Your Brand

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…

16.5: Pros and Contracts

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Brandon, and Erin Here’s our deep dive into the subject of contracts in the publishing business. We can only go so deep during a fifteen-minute episode, so we ran about twice as long as usual. We discuss some of the things you should look for,…

16.4: Networking

Your Hosts: Dan, Mary Robinette, Erin, Brandon, and Howard Networking is an invaluable part of any business, and the business of writing is no exception. In this episode we’ll talk about how to do it effectively, genuinely, and in ways that benefit the entire community. Credits: This episode was recorded…