Well, the holidays came and went with the usual fanfare. Lots of food, lots of gift wrapping, lots of good times. And it’s raining a lot again here in the Willamette Valley. Rainy and cold in January — no shock. All the traditions continue.
I’m co-teaching a workshop in “indie publishing” with Dean Wesley Smith next month in Lincoln City, Oregon: “The Indie Writer’s Tool Kit: How to Sell Better and Make More Money,” February 25-28, basically from 7 p.m. on Friday until noon on Tuesday. My own publishing company, Flying Raven Press, has added a nice secondary income to my life, and I know Dean is doing fantastically well with his own WMG Publishing. Although I have no plans to abandon working with traditional publishing (Wooden Bones is coming out from Simon and Schuster this August), the opportunities to go direct to readers, and skip the middlemen, are incredible for writers today. It’s given me tons of options I didn’t have two years ago.
Contact Dean if you’re interested in attending.
This is essentially a “level 2” for those who attended the Think Like a Publisher Workshop last year, or for people who already have the basics of publishing an ebook and POD and want help taking it to the next level. Should be a lot of fun. The full workshop description is below, and Dean also has a very good post about why we tweaked the title — and the writer vs. author mindset in general.
Preparing for this workshop has also clarified my thinking about how best to spend my time as a writer and a publisher. It’s also lead me to what other people might find are some surprising conclusions. I no longer have a Facebook or Twitter account, for example. And I no longer feel a need to blog regularly (in fact, I think doing so can actually be counterproductive). Though I think it’s more important than ever to maintain an informative and accurate website. It’s amazing how many author websites fail that simple test.
I’ll be talking about all that and more next month. There are lots of things a writer can do to sell better and make more money.
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The Indie Writer’s Tool Kit: How to Sell Better and Make More Money
For writers who attended the Think Like a Publisher Workshop, or people who aready know the basics of publishing an ebook or POD, here’s a workshop to help you take your publishing enterprise to the next level. Learn the basics of writing effective book descriptions, techniques to make your covers look professional, how to use the Internet to promote (and how not to), and how to get your print books into independent bookstores. Audio books, author bios, loss leaders, pricing effectively, boosting productivity, website tools — all this and more is packed into four
intense days of learning. Includes in depth discussions about the current
state of publishing and the exciting opportunities that exist for writers. Contact Dean Wesley Smith for more information.
The fateful first of January. That’s how Abraham Lincoln described New Year’s Day in 1841, the day he temporarily broke off his engagement with Mary Todd.