Tag Archives: Editors

Career and Lifestyle, Season 17, Season 18, Theory and Technique

18.02: An Interview with DongWon Song

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Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

As we announced in last week’s episode (and in this press release),  DongWon Song and Erin Roberts are joining us as permanent cast members. In this episode we conduct an interview with DongWon Song, plumbing a few depths, and learning a bit more about what they can teach all of us.

Liner Notes: DongWon Song’s newsletter, Publishing is Hard, can be found at publishingishard.com. It’s free, but paid subscriptions are available.

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

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Make a list of 5 literary agents.

The Daughters of Izdihar, by Hadeer Elsbai

Career and Lifestyle, Demonstration, Season 16

16.4: Networking

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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 my Marshall Carr, and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Come up with five non-transactional things you can do to help other people in your network.

The City We Became, by N.K. Jemesin

Career and Lifestyle, Guest, Season 16

16.3: Publishing Pitfalls

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Your Hosts: Dan, Erin, Howard, and Brandon

Erin Roberts joins us for our third installment in Brandon’s business-of-writing series. In this episode we’re covering pitfalls and common problems—including some predatory practices—for you to be on the lookout for while you develop your career as a writer.

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

Liner Notes: “Accountabilibuddy,” which is written here so Howard can remember it.

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Writer Beware, w/ Victoria Strauss and SFWA

YouTube: Noah Cadwell-Gervais

Archive Seasons 11-15, Career and Lifestyle, Season 15

15.44: Rebooting a Career

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

What do you do when some of the key foundations of your authorial (or otherwise creative) livelihood are kicked away? How do you go about repairing, rebuilding, or rebooting your career?

Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

 

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Write a letter to your hero. Write their response to you.

Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck)

Archive Seasons 11-15, Career and Lifestyle, Season 15, Theory and Technique

15.37: Writing Under Deadlines

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Your Hosts: Brandon, Victoria, Dan, and Howard

What’s it like to write under a deadline which has been set for your project by someone else? What strategies might help you bring the writing in under the deadline?  Can you train yourself to be ready for this?

Those are all good questions. Hopefully we won’t run out of time to come up with answers…

Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Experiment with a “stay on target” time management tool, like the Forest focus app, or something similar.

Overly Sarcastic Productions (YouTube channel)

Archive Seasons 11-15, Career and Lifestyle, Season 15

15.09: Choose Your Own Adventurous Publishing Path

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Your Hosts: Dan, DongWon, Piper, and Howard

“Should I go self-pub? Should I go traditional? Can I do both? How do I decide where my book fits?”

In this episode we’ll cover these, and many more questions as best we’re able.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

Liner Notes:

¹ RWA membership is required for these forums. This episode was recorded in September of 2019

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Write the “choose your own adventurous publishing path” flow chart with decision points, and write a fun little fiction about your future career possibilities.

Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series, by Zoe York

Archive Seasons 11-15, Career and Lifestyle, Live Audience, Season 14, Theory and Technique

14.39: Positioning Your Book in the Marketplace

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

“Positioning feels like the most important question in all of publishing.” — DongWon Song

In this episode we talk about how to ask and answer the question of positioning, which is “who is this book for?”

Credits: This episode was recorded before a live audience aboard Liberty of the Seas by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Identify and describe your target reader. Use comp titles as necessary.

Black Girl in a Big Dress

Archive Seasons 11-15, Season 14, Theory and Technique

14.17: It’s Like “Car Talk” meets “Welcome To Nightvale”

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

This episode is about comp titles (comparative titles), which are those things you use to describe your project in terms of other works. We discuss the ones we’ve used (both successfully and unsuccessfully), and the criteria we use to come up with good ones.

Credits: This episode was recorded by Bert Grimm, and mastered by Alex Jackson

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Come up with six comp titles—three for existing projects, and three for projects you may want to write. May, in fact, need to write…

A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine