Category: On Writing

A New Edition of The Dinosaur Diaries (and Some Thoughts About WIBBOW)

dinosaurdiaries2_ebookcoverMy first short story collection, The Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time, has been republished by Flying Raven Press  (links to retailers below).  This is my own publishing company, of course, which gave me an opportunity to package the book in the way I really wanted it, with a snazzy new cover and everything.  The eighteen stories originally appeared in places like Asimov’s, Analog, Ellery Queen, and Weird Tales, among others. I have nothing against the fine folks who published the book originally back in 2010, but it was just time to make a change. 

I never liked the original cover much, and I also didn’t like that in the print edition they tried to squeeze 80,000 words into under 200 pages. It made the book seem quite thin, and even if the number of words is the same, it can give a potential reader the sense that the book is not worth the money if they happen to pick it up.  This print edition stretched it out to around 250 pages.  The original ebook was also four years old, so I took the opportunity to reformat it with some of the better tools available today.

From a business perspective, this was probably not the wisest use of my time. Yes, I’ll see a higher royalty, but honestly, if I was interested primarily in what was in the best interest of my bank account, the time spent re-publishing this book should have been spent working on new material.

From a writing perspective, however, it feels great.

Here’s how I see it.  I know there are writers who can approach writing purely from a business perspective, but that doesn’t work for me.  A few years ago, when Dean Wesley Smith and I were co-teaching some “Indie Publishing” workshops to help writers get started in this arena (this was way back in the cave man days of indie publishing, you know, circa 2011), I coined an ugly acronym as a test writers could use whether some non-writing related task was worth their time:  WIBBOW.

Which stands for Would I Be Better Off Writing?

Lo and behold, this ugly acronym actually caught on and I see mentions of it around the Internet, often by people I’ve never met.  The idea was that as indie publishing gained popularity, there were even more tempting ways to spend your time other than writing new material that could make you feel productive but, when playing the long game, might not be the best choice.

However, the thing about WIBBOW is that it is entirely subjective. It’s up to each writer to decide whether something is worth doing when measured against spending that time writing.  For me, re-publishing The Dinosaur Diaries passed the test, because I also operate by another motto:  Write for yourself, publish for the shelf.  What I mean is that no matter what happens with my writing career, I want to feel good about my choices.  I want to feel like I wrote what resonated with me (hoping it does for others) rather than writing what I think resonates with others (and hoping it will for me). And when I publish something, I want to be able to look at it on the shelf (even if that’s metaphorically, online) and feel that the book’s presentation is giving it the best chance to find an audience—and even if it fails it that regard, that I’ll always be proud of it when I look at it.

I’m proud of this book.  I hope my readers will feel the same.

* * *

dinosaurdiaries2_ebookcoverThe Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time

More About the Book

Available Now:

Ebook:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo 

Paperback:
Amazon  | B&N

 

Presenter at North Coast Redwoods Writers’ Conference September 19-20

redwoodLife is so busy these days I don’t have a lot of time for workshops and conferences.  However, a couple years ago I was a presenter at the North Coast Redwood Writers’ Conference in Crescent City, California and had such a good time that I couldn’t resist making a return appearance this year when I was invited to be a presenter.

It’s a cozy little conference held at the College of the Redwoods, Del Norte. I have been to the area many times to hike in the Redwoods, which of course is why I have a hard time resisting the temptation to go again. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of walking among trees that were around when the dust was still settling on the Roman Empire.

On the panels I’m on and the workshops I’m presenting, I’ll be talking a lot about what’s happening in publishing right now, on both the traditional and indie side, and what writers can do to find success.  If you’re anywhere close to the area, take a look at the conference schedule to see if it’s something that might interest you. Since it’s a very small conference, there will also be a lot of opportunity to chat and ask questions. Hope to see you there.

All The Ways to Find Success as a Writer Start With Thinking for Yourself

Over at The Passive Voice, there’s a great post titled, “Indie Authors Quitting Their Day Jobs” that’s worth a read:

If you care to contribute such anecdotal evidence in comments to this post, please do.

If you think it’s your private business, don’t be offended. Just don’t post anything.

Feel free to post anonymously or under an online pen name if you like. If someone points out a trollish comment, PG will probably delete the comment when he gets around to it.

If you’re a writer, or simply a reader who’s interested in the many ways writers have found success outside of traditional publishing, read all the comments. Very inspiring stuff.

choiceAnd I want to add something here, something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for a while. As you can see from the comments, there are lots of ways to skin this cat.  We’re four or five years into this “indie publishing revolution” now, depending on how you measure it, long enough that some of things that I advocated to writers a couple years ago, both at workshops and online, I wouldn’t advocate today. I know of writers who have done well since then, and others who are bitter that things didn’t go as well as they’d hoped — and some of these bitter folks direct their anger at the people who were trying to help them. Why? Because whatever technique or method or approach that was advocated didn’t work for them. Therefore all of that advice is suspect.

Oh really? It’s not weakness to change your mind; it means you’re adaptable, capable of changing your approach to fit the reality on the ground. And reality can change.  One of the greatest dangers when you teach others, especially if you have a voice that leans toward the dogmatic (and sometimes you have to be dogmatic to break through people’s mental barriers), is that people will take what you say as gospel.  As rules to be followed to the letter, rather than suggestions to take into account.  As a formula to be copied, rather than a method to be studied to see if it might work for you.

Because here’s the only truth I know about this crazy business of stringing words together and selling them for money. All the ways to find success as a writer start with thinking for yourself.

There are people who have success in every genre—romance, fantasy, mystery, you name it. There are writers who are extremely prolific, following the “make a little on a lot” approach, the same approach that traditional publishing uses, and there are writers who make a lot on a little, using aggressive and frequent discounting and tested visibility techniques to boost their sales. To be dismissive of either approach is only an admission on your part that you are letting your biases get in the way of your learning.

DCF 1.0There are writers who publish only with Amazon, taking advantage of the promotional tools available to people who publish exclusively with them, and writers who think it’s better to cast a wider net, publishing everywhere and in every format.  There are writers who only work with traditional publishers, writers who are indie-only, and hybrid writers who do a little of both. There are writers who say never write to market, just write what’s in your heart and don’t chase trends.  And yet I just read about a guy who hit 1000 sales in one day by repeatedly targeting the market, specializing in 15-20K word serials; he does three, and if it takes off, he does more, and if not, he moves onto something else.

And it’s working for him, because he’s thinking for himself.

There are writers who hit a goldmine with one of their first books. There are writers who still scrape out a subsistence existence after a 100 titles— but would rather do that than even take on a part-time job. There are writers who bag groceries, bar tend, or other dead end gigs, to preserve their creative energy for what they love most, and other writers, like me, who made the decision to commit fully to two careers because I get tremendous value from both. That’s another thing I changed my mind on, by the way.  Because I had to change my goals to fit both my evolving needs and the circumstances of my life.

I’ve received a lot of great advice over the years.  Some I followed.  Much of it I thought about, then discarded—even if it came from people I admired.  I’m guessing that just about all the writers in that comment section at The Passive Voice have done the same.  They didn’t copy anyone. They didn’t blame anyone when things were going poorly any more than they would give someone else all the credit when things were going well.

This truth doesn’t just apply to writing, of course. It applies to achieving success in anything in life. Learn from everything and everyone—but in the end, think for yourself and find your own way.

The irony, of course, is that it is the only way.

Scott’s Surefire Formula for Achieving Artistic Commercial Success

Last year, Bookwhirl.com put out an infographic that’s been making the rounds again: “Ways to Publish and Sell Your eBook.”  Or maybe it’s never stopped making the rounds.  Hard to say.  In any case, I saw it pop up on a couple of sites. What’s funny about this one is that it reads as if it were written by someone who learned English as a second language, and it’s festooned with errors (see the descriptions for #4 and #6).  The fact that it’s making the rounds again is indicative to me that people often post this sort of thing because it looks impressive when scanned, but they’re not really reading it carefully.  It’s just something to post so they “advertise and use social media” (#7) and “create platforms” (#8).

So I decided to create my own impressive-looking infographic: “Scott’s Totally Surefire Formula for Achieving Commercial Success! in any Artistic Endeavor.”  In one snazzy and appropriately colored infographic, it shares what I believe is the ultimate key to making money not only as a writer, but in any artistic pursuit.  Feel free to copy and paste it far and wide.  If you wouldn’t mind linking back to this post, it’s appreciated, but truly, my greatest reward will come from knowing that I have passed along my special secret to other up and coming writers.

swc-formula-for-success
(click for larger, even more awesome infographic)

Sure, it’s a joke (what, the exclamation point after SUCCESS! didn’t clue you in?), but here’s the thing.  It’s also true.  If we’re talking about writing, then creating something awesome involves not just writing a great book (which means learning the craft of storytelling), but it also means packaging it well — an engaging book description, a professional copy edit, a snappy cover.  The whole thing has to make potential readers sit up a little straighter in their chairs and say, “Wow, that looks awesome.”

It’s not enough to create something awesome, though.  You’ve also got to put it in front of people who can pay you money for it.  Yes, this means publishing it in as many formats (paperback, ebook, audio) and markets (Amazon, B&N, iTunes) as possible, but it also means experimenting with different types of book discovery tactics to get more eyeballs looking at your awesome thing (advertising, bundles, loss leaders).  And of course, following the arrows, you repeat this as often as possible (in other words, practice).

Beyond that?  Well, you can certainly get more specific in your advice, but truthfully, everything else that has any value in achieving commercial success in any art should fit into one of those two areas.

I mean, it has to be true, right?  There’s an infographic and everything.