My Take on Gatekeepers, As a Reader

First things first, a personal note - I cannot stand arrogance. The attitude that people have sometimes that they are better than me. Not more skilled at some certain activity, or more accomplished. I'm talking flat-out snobbishness.

I'm just saying. We're all big boys and girls. We should be pretty well capable of picking out the books we want to read, right?

My reaction to the gatekeeper argument, the idea that big publishers are necessary as gatekeepers, to tell the readers what is or isn't good? I don't buy it. Every time I pick up a book in a library, browse it, and decide not to read it, I'm being my own gatekeeper.

No matter how much crap is out there, it's easy to avoid.
Especially with book sampling, social networks, and so on. I have a huge to be read list, and it's all stuff recommended by friends. Not publishers.

If a gatekeeper function is all big publishers offer readers, I don't see readers continuing to be willing to pay three times the price for a paper book vs an ebook. I certainly don't see why an author would want to accept 1/4 the royalties just for the approval of a publisher.

This all may read as bitter, but I assure you it isn't. I have no ill-will towards any publisher, big, small, or self. Nor do I have any bias against any writer's choice on how they disseminate their work.

As a reader, however, and a consumer (which every reader is), I don't see the value in dealing with intermediaries, when the cost is so high.

Day Off Story Challenge - Round Two

The challenge - write one complete short story on my day of, once per week, start to finish. Using pre-thought ideas is okay, but not stories that already have more than a cursory word count.

The short of today's post - I was victorious, for the second time in a row. I was off on Wednesday, July 13, and I wrote for approximately six hours. I completed a 3,400 word SF story, entitled "The Day the AI Died". Go me!

The intention of this challenge was to write shorter, easier stories. I seem to have gotten away from this today, even more so than last week, when I banged out a 2,300 word story. My original goal for this challenge was between 1,000 and 2,000 words.

Both stories have been fairly straight-forward, as expected. My
alpha reader felt that the the last story was good, but the ending was too predictable. I have a sneaking feeling this one will have the same reception. Really original fiction may require more processing time than I am giving these.

On the other hand, the first few stories I ever wrote took far longer than these, and are much less interesting too me. So perhaps letting that startling plot twist happen, without spending days or weeks thinking of it, is a learned skill as well.

This story had a slight bit more background than the last one, a text file totalling about 200 words or so. It was also an idea I recorded on a voice recorder while working. It also bore little resemblance to the original concept.

This is not surprising, as I write mostly by discovery, and  none of my stories ever end up where I think they will. I rarely even start with an idea for the ending.

One really exciting fact is that this story is equivalent to about three days worth of daily writing goal word count, and will require very little editing. In practical terms, this is a week's output for me, done in a day. That creative momentum is a really powerful thing.

Welcome to the Journey

I'm pleased to announce the first episode of my new podcast is up at http://silverbowen.podbean.com/ The podcast title is Welcome to the Journey - a self-help podcast for new writers.

I recorded it on my Sansa Fuze+, so the quality is certainly not excellent. This was actually the third or fourth try, the early ones were unlistenable. I hope to upgrade to a better recorder soon, but I wanted to start recording with what I had, and get going. Momentum is important to me.

I am deeply indebted to podcasters like Mur Lafferty and Nathan Lowell for the concept I am following. My podcast is just me, speaking extemporaneously in a conversational style, on the issue that affect me and ideas for improvement I have. All through the lens of being a new writer.

Hopefully some of you will find it useful, or entertaining, or amusing. I will be releasing new episodes at least weekly, possible more often (decisions, decisions.) All constructive feedback is welcome.

Welcome to the Journey!

More on the Seven Point Structure

First off - none of this is my idea. All credit goes to Dan Wells. I mentioned this last post, but I want to make sure to give credit where credit is due.

Check out this video series for a great lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C430F6A783A88697

Or go to his blog, specifically this page:

http://www.fearfulsymmetry.net/?p=405

All of that stuff will help in understanding the example below. One note of caution - this is just my attempt at applying this structure, allow for mistakes. Probably lots :)

Onward! The following is this structure applied to my newest novel. I generally don't like sharing details of a work-in-progress, but this work is hardly even begun, so what the hay.

Besides, this is work I would have to do to get started, anyway. So turning it into a blog post and getting double-duty out of it seems like an efficient use of my work time, right?

Basic Structure - Monster Attack! (place-holder title)

Hook- Three main Characters (MCs). MC one is Monster, newly created, small. MC two is Scientist young, brilliant, insecure. MC three is Soldier, battling inner demons, torn up.

Plot turn 1- Monster escapes. Scientist discovers older colleague, mentor, is responsible. Soldier struggles after homecoming.


Pinch 1- Monster growing, goes on rampage, small and stealthy at first. Scientist begins trying to decipher colleagues notes. Soldier called in to fight.

Midpoint- Monster growing larger. Soldier/military on full attack. Scientist learns Colleague/Mentor was somehow set-up by Corporation, key to notes is at separate site in Monster-controlled zone, must go there physically.

Pinch 2- Entire city in peril, many deaths, Monster huge. Military barely holding it back with Scientist suggested tech (radio, Soldier's, from zone.) Plans to nuke city. Soldier and scientist ally, trying to make it to secret lab.

Plot turn 2- Scientist discovers key to secret notes, left by Mentor. Military applies solution, Scientist and Soldier must make it stick, somehow personally deliver when Military fails. Monster mutating, may break free any second.

Resolution- Monster neutralized, Scientist expands quest to stop Corporation, be responsible, Soldier feels better about self, can see hope for future. City saved. Ya!

There are some obvious sub-plots here - love interest between Soldier and Scientist, Evil Corporation fights back, Military/Government corruption and spy stuff, some daily life interrupted moments, and so on.

Also, very clear possibilities for a sequel or series expanding the quest against those responsible.

Next step is to expand this outline into a full storyline, and/or scenes.

Narrative Structure and Novels vs. Short Stories

I've been stuck at around chapter three on two different novels for about a month now (okay, maybe just three weeks.) This is just frustrating.

I certainly don't have writer's block, I've been producing plenty of short stories. It's just the novels that I'm bogged down on.

Key question - why? These are both interesting projects. One is YA (ish) horror/adventure, the other is torchpunk fantasy. Both have cool characters, some original (ish) ideas, interesting settings, and so on. One has an outline, the other I have been discovery writing.

So, no obvious culprits there. I just can't seem to get excited about them anymore. I don't know where I'm going with either of them. Even the outlined book, I still just don't feel like I have my fingers on a narrative thread.

I mostly do discovery when I write shorts, sometimes with just a starting scene, sometimes with a bit of an outline. I almost never stick to what I start with though, adding in newer and better ideas as they present themselves. This doesn't seem to work for me for novels, though.

My characters don't seem real enough, the narrative is twisting, the third chapters are drifting far from alignment with the first. So what to do?

I am going to try another idea, a different work-flow. Instead of my short story methodology, I am going to do a much more complete outline, a lot of background, full character studies, and then plot scene by scene. If each scene is essentially a short story, and I can think of each scene, when complete, as the same accomplishment-wise as a short story, I think that will help me get through learning the longer form.

I'm figuring on some combination of three act structure, seven point structure a la Dan Wells, or even the eight point screenwriter's structure. Or all at once. Whatever works, however the book shapes up.

But it is clear to me that I need to build a framework first, before I try to hang drywall, to mix metaphors.

Also, the new book is an easier concept, easier setting, and so on. As easy as I can make it. It is crucial that I complete a novel, just like it was crucial when I wrote my first story that I completed that. have to prove to myself that I can do it. Even if it's not the best book ever. As long as it's coherent, and complete.

Don't worry, though, about the unfinished books. I hate leaving things unfinished. Once I have a success (as in, a completed book), I'll go back to them, with a better idea of how to proceed, I hope.

I'll let you know how it's going in a few weeks.

A Math Post

We all love math, right? There have been a number of math posts that have been helpful to me. So I thought I would show my personal math, how planning works for me.

First off, I am not writing full-time, yet. My goal is to be writing full-time in one year. That may sound like I'm over-reaching, but I'm not. The amount I need to make to replace my current income is pitiful. I am not rolling in riches.

This could be a negative, could be something that I let drag me down. However, my day job is very conducive to working on my writing education. An added benefit - this job will be easy to leave behind :)

Anyway, the math -

I write about 500 words an hour. I believe this to be a fairly average pace, at least among all the authors I have heard figures from. There are 40 hours in a normal work-week. 48 weeks of productivity in a year (time off for vacations, holidays, and sickness.)

500 x 40 x 48 = 960,000. Almost a million words.

Now, some more qualifications. I only edit as fast as I write, currently. So immediately cut that in half. Only 480,000 words. Two doorstoppers, four decent length novels, six slightly short books, or five shorter books, two novellas, and about eight short stories.

This is what I could get done, working a normal work schedule, if I was writing full-time. This is the hardest part of writing for me, actually, knowing how much more I could be accomplishing if I could go full-time.

My actual output is about 1,000 words a day, on average, in about 2-3 hours. Some days are much more, and some days (editing or not writing) are much less or none. I don't take days off, unlike the average work week above.

So my personal math-

1000 x 7 x 52 = 364,000. A little more than a third of a million. Only 120,000 less than produced by the full-time schedule above. Hmm...

So if I could average, say, 1,250 a day?

1,250 x 7 x52 = 455,00. 25,000 less than the full-time output. Double hmm...

So, what have I learned from my math? I am producing nearly as much as I think I would, writing 2-3 hours a day, as I would writing full-time. Absolutely nothing for me to feel bad about. The hardest thing to deal with as a part-time writer, wanting to be full-time and get more done, is a complete self-fabrication.

I am hanging a lot on that only actually writing new words four hours a day, of course. But I think that is pretty valid. So...


Wow.

What Isn't There, Is important

My wife is my alpha reader. Besides being smart, intelligent, beautiful, good-looking, and hopefully reading this post, she is very well-read. Her natural tastes align fairly well with the stuff I write, which is also helpful. And she knows me well enough to understand the style of critique that is most helpful to me.

An added bonus is she's handy. I just have to ask her to read something, or lay it out on the table. No chasing her down, no emailing or (shudder) snail-mailing. We can talk face-to-face, which is the best way for me to benefit from her insight.

Often times, complaints she has about a story are symptoms of a problem she doesn't have the language for, or quite know how to pinpoint. But between the two of us, we can work out the root improvements I can make.

For instance, the classic "bad ending" which generally indicates a poor beginning. Or "what happens here is confusing" which is usually related to incomplete world-building. And so on.

One of the most interesting things for me about this process, though, is when she explains how she imagines the characters and worlds in her mind. Or her understanding of the meaning or significance of some of the symbolism. Often, it's completely different than what I had in mind writing the story.

Not wrong, mind you, just different. Because I took to heart Stephen King's advice to leave room in the story for the reader, I don't usually go into much detail about clothes or physical appearance (or any, sometimes). I leave out all but the descriptions that are key to the plot, or anchor dramatic moments. I want my worlds to be "just real enough."

And sometimes, when I'm really lucky, I not only have something I didn't realize I put in pointed out to me, but I see where I can expand on it and make the story better.

So, here's my proverb, newly minted - Leave room in your heart for love, room in your wallet for money, and room in your stories for your readers.

Day Off Challenge, Week One - Complete!

I am happy to announce that week one of my day off story challenge is now completed. I wrote 2,300 words in one sitting thursday morning (with breaks, of course.) It took me almost 4 hours, from not long after I got up to just after noon.

Close to 600 words an hour is a pretty good clip for me. I vary between 500 and about 750, depending. The more thinking, the less words written, is the basic equation. This is the first full story I've ever finished in one go, and I'm quite proud of myself.

I had the idea already, just a basic seed I recorded the day before. I developed it as I wrote, and the only thing that stayed consistent was the setting, and the genre. I went into it with the idea that I might try to make more of a heroic story, but I fell back on tragedy.

The story does a fair amount of jumping around in viewpoints, for being so short. I feel good about the necessity of the switches though.

It's also modern day, and I had to do a bit of research (online) as I wrote. I kept the questionable details to a minimum and tried to concentrate on the story. There may very well be some stuff that knowledgeable (or even not so knowledgeable) folk will laugh at. I did the best I could, and made up what I needed to to make the story work.

The above is one reason I stay away from hard SF in general, or anything that I feel requires heavy research. At least in fields I'm not already well informed about. Write what you know, right?

I chose from four different ideas before I started writing, all ones I had recorded and transcribed of the last few months. I will likely do all three remaining ideas over the next few challenge slots, since they all are good for shorter stories.

I haven't decided yet what to do with this story. It is (in my rather biased opinion) worth sending out to paying markets, so I am a hesitant to use up first serial rights by putting it online. If I had more stories written, or more readers, I probably would, though.

As it is, this story is my eleventh completed one, and represents a ten percent addition to my (potentially) saleable output. So I am going to think on it for a bit.

The biggest lesson here, for me - It is entirely possible to develop a bare idea into a complete quality story in not just one day, but one sitting. And it's also a lot of fun :)

Happy Endings

First of all get your mind out of the gutter. Second of all, if your mind wasn't in the gutter, get it in there for a minute. Massages in seedy back alley sailor bars. Okay, now get your mind out of the gutter.

I have noticed lately that I don;t write very many happy endings. More often than not, my protagonists are unlikeable, and fated to die horribly. I have no idea what that's about.

I have written several stories where the hero triumphs, so it's not that I am morally incapable of writing a happy ending. I just like tragic horror. I find the ills I visit on the poor schlubs in my stories to be like balm on my own psychic scars (feel free to snort at that purple sentence.)

I recently read part of Ben Bova's "How To Write Fiction that sells". I found it to be not that helpful to me, except that it got me thinking about the lack of heroic outcomes in my work, and whether I need more of them.

Which is actually a pretty big help, and as much as I find myself disagreeing with his rules of good fiction, I still like that he is getting me to think, and try new things.

And yes, I know it is sacrilege to disagree with Ben Bova about writing. I'm a heretic, not by choice but by sorry circumstance. Woe unto me. I will probably never sell anything now.

I have resolved to give his preferences a try, and write at least one full-on, hero saves the day, stretches past glaring flaws, and so on type story, with a happy ending, and see how I feel when I'm done. One of the great things about writing a lot, especially shorts, is I can afford to experiment.

Let's face it though, no experiment like this can ever truly be a failure. I'm bound to learn something, at the least.

Challenges

I got the idea to start using challenges to motivate myself form Dean Wesley Smith (among many other great ideas.) I am sure the idea doesn't originate with him either, but he makes great use of it.

Basically, the idea is that you come up with something that you think you can do, but that is at the limits of your abilities, and set a repetitious goal related to the concept as a challenge. Example - for competitive eating - fifteen hotdogs at a sitting, every day. This is a slightly silly (and possible completely wronhgeaded, by virtue of being to easy or too hard) example, but it shows the concept.

If you repeat a difficult task, it gets easier. Soon hard becomes bearable, becomes cake. And the achievements, small on day one, pile up quickly.

As a writer, my biggest self imposed challenge is writing 1,250 words daily. This is about two or three hours worth of work for me, but sometimes only takes me one hour, especially at the beginnings of stories. I find word count much more concrete and measurable than pages or time spent, and thus more motivating.

The magic here is that a week of 1,250 days is easily a short story, maybe two. Or a few chapters of a novel. A few months make a collection, a short novel, or half a doorstop. And so on. It all adds up.

I have two new challenges I am imposing on myself. One, My daily blog post challenge, you are reading right now. I am on my fourth consecutive day, I believe. Whee!

The other  is my day-off story challenge. I intend to complete, from scratch, one new short story every day I have off (once a week.) I will use existing ideas, or new ones, but nothing I have already been working on.

I am giving myself some wiggle room - editing later is okay, so long as the story is done in one day. I don't expect epic length opuses (opi?) here, flash fiction to a few thousand words is fine. I am also still counting these stories as my daily word goal, so no double pressure.

Can I do it? I don't know. Will I succeed every week? Probably not. But I bet I learn a whole heck of a lot about tight storytelling, and how to get my creative process on a fast track.

I haven't decided what to do with these stories, I may put them up here for free, for a short time at least, or I may shop the ones that I feel or saleable around. Haven't got that far yet. I am wanting to do podcasts, so maybe some of these will be useable for that purpose, after Tes-Nin is done.

All depends on what I write and how the challenge goes, really. Wish me luck.

Tes-Nin's Elbows

It looks like it is time for me to self publish my first short story. In the last few months I've written a bunch of them, and many of them are in submissions various places. I would love to sell all of them to magazines first, before I put them up, but that is probably unrealistic.

I also need to get some experience with epubbing, need a story to podcast, and want to start getting some stuff out top the readers. I am prolific enough (so far) that sacrificing a few stories to this end is no big deal. Especially if they exceed my expectations, which are pretty low.

To clarify that last point, I think Tes-Nin's Elbows is a great story. It's funny, it has lots of clever bits, my wife liked it and my mom hated it. What more could any writer ask for?

But, selling fiction online really needs a presence. Even if the story is actually good (I'll find out soon enough, right?), it will be the only one I have up until I get the next one up. And it will be thirty or so more times doing that before I have a decent, interconnected web of content, which is necessary to snare all those readers. Like flies, muah ha ha ha ha.

So this is mostly just a test-case/DIY workshop for me. Laying down that first brick on the (yellow) road sort of thing. I'll  let y'all know how it goes, when it goes. And of course put up a link.

The other salient points about this particular story are that it is fairly long, I have already written another story in the same universe, and it is ripe for a sequel, or more. If it does well, tomorrow or ten years from now, it has potential for expansion as an IP.

It also has potty jokes, orcs, and a really big hammer.

I'm planning on making it free on smashwords, because I want readers more than money right now. Maybe always keep the latest story free, I haven't planned that far ahead yet. The podcast will be free as well. If I ever get my own web-site, I may put them up for free there as well. We'll see.

Un-Platforming

Here is something I've been thinking about a bit lately - the frenzied buzz among writers about their platforms, marketing, how to get exposure, and on and on and on. I grow weary of it, even as I half-heartedly pursue the same ends.

Basically, I am a child of punk rock. I hate commercialism, hate advertising, am so not interested in shilling anything for anyone, including myself for myself. I'm a terrible salesman, even though I am really good at it (I've tried it, of course. I annoyed myself.)

My idea of really effective sales is to produce a product that sells itself. Do a good job, price it right, be pleasant. This is all that should be necessary. And is, as far as I can tell.

All the look at me, look at me, like me, friend me, re-tweet me is just off-putting. So I don't do it. Much. I'm not perfect either, being human is always a limiting factor. But I do try to avoid that sort of thing.

So, what about this blog? What about the twitter feed I have? Well, basically, this isn't meant to be advertisement. I am not setting out to build a platform. I do hope to provide some content that is of interest to other people, new writers especially. And, this is fun for me. Yep, fun. The main reason for all this.

Also, the writers who have helped me so much, with their blogs (Dean Wesley Smith, J A Konrath, in particular) have inspired me to try to do whatever little bit I can to help anyone I can. If this gets me readers and makes me friends, so much the better.

But that's only tangential to the real goal. A great perk, sure. But no heartbreaker if I never get there.

If I never get to the point where I can write full-time, because I don't write enough well-crafted fiction to make a minimal living, because I'm too busy trying to convince people to join my network, that's a heartbreaker.

Don't worry, the one post a day challenge still stands. This blog only takes me about 15 minutes a day. Cake. And I'm actually learning a lot writing it, so it's educational cake, the best kind.

Creative Commons

First order of business - I tried for the second time today to record a podcast on my cell phone. No dice. Great tool for jotting down notes, terrible to listen to. I am hoping to either get a better microphone, or step up to a portable recorder (like the Olympus WS 710M). That, however, will have to wait until I can find the money.

The other option is if I get enough time, somehow, to record a podcast at home. Which I might try sometime this week. I certainly am not going to do a daily podcast from home, but weekly might not be to bad. The style guide there would be Mur Lafferty's excellent "I Should Be Writing".

On to other topics. I recently read the collected intros to Cory Doctorow's books, in one big PDF. Basically, a bunch of stuff about Creative Commons licensing, and how piracy is good for exposure, and not a threat, and so on. I am pretty much in agreement, and am now considering licensing my e-stuff under Creative Commons. And yes, the term "e-stuff" is my intellectual property, and is licensed for your use under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial attribution. (I probably got half of that license terminology wrong, hah, just making it up as I go along.)

Anyway, my take - Go to craphound.com, download the PDF, and read it. It will only take an hour or so of your time. Not only are his ideas interesting, most of the essays are from before ebooks got big (pre-2010, basically.) So the lens of hindsight adds interest.

Final note - I did some math this afternoon. Since I started writing fiction approximately 3 months ago, I have completed 9 short stories, and written about 42,000 words. I am very pleased by this. At the same time, I feel like this is an almost glacial pace, compared to the amount I got done in the last 3 weeks - 24,00 words, 4 short stories.

My current daily goal is 1,250 words of new fiction (not counting story ideas, blogging, or editing time.) Or 2 hours. I was at 500 words 2 months ago. I hope to work up to 2,000 in a few months (still in the 2 hour time frame.) Wish me luck :)

Link - http://creativecommons.org/

The Way Forward

So, it's easy to admit that I haven't got much done around here. No new content in weeks. Not by intention, but by lack of goal setting. I think I have a handle on things now, though. If all goes as planned, I will be updating this blog regularly, aiming for a near daily posting schedule.

I still don't have a super-clear focus for the content, or a catchy name, but hopefully that stuff will fall into place as I do this. Sounds backwards, I know. As a writer I've found sometimes the only way out is through, and I just have to start typing until something catches.

So, main thing I will be covering is the beginning writer's journey, tips that have worked for me, other options, and so on. My sense is that a lot of writers make the actual work of writing much harder for themselves, by mentally getting in their own way. So hopefully I can provide some perspective on that.

This won't be a heavily edited or planned blog, my goal is to spend only fifteen or so minutes a day on it. I am going to accomplish this by using some of my downtime at work to voice-record ideas that I want to cover for the day. If I can get good enough quality, I hope to put these recordings up as podcasts as well, so you folks get the condensed (and possible different mental take) version as a blog, and the expanded version as a podcast.

I love podcasts, by the way. I listen to probably twenty or thirty hours worth a week. One of the main advantages of my otherwise hum-drum day job.

Voice-recording has worked very well for me as a way to cut down my time spent on new ideas. Instead of scribbling them on paper, as I have them (always carry a notebook, or some way to record your thoughts. Always.) I record them, and transcribe later.

I would estimate I save at least a half-hour of precious writing time a day using this method. I haven't yet applied it to actual new works, but I intend to. And of course, this blog (and the coming podcasts), are also going to benefit from this method.

My biggest worry is that I will end up spending so much time recording, that I will get behind on my listening :)

Welcome to the journey, I hope y'all  enjoy it.

(See that up there? That's what I meant about just getting fingers on the keys until something comes through. New podcast and blog name is Welcome to the Journey. Y'all saw it happen.)

If You Are Going To Be a Writer, Be the Hell Out of a Writer

To rip off a line from Dean Wesley Smith - a writer is a person who writes, an author is a person who has written. It's that simple. If you are working on a story, if you just finished a story and are going to start a new one soon, if you are putting butt to chair and producing, you are a writer.

Please, for the love of all that is good and true, believe in yourself. Support yourself. Give yourself permission to be what you want to be. Don't be modest, don't be insecure, don't be phony. Stick with the facts. If you write, you are a writer.

You may be a new writer, a beginning writer, and so on. You are not a aspiring writer. You are not a wanna-be writer. Unless you are not actually writing. Simple.

It doesn't matter how many publishing credits you have, if any. It doesn't matter if you've been on bestseller lists, or won awards. It doesn't matter what critics, any critic, even your own internal critic, think of your work. This is a binary attribute. Any level counts. If you write, you are a writer. Be a writer, then. Own it. Believe it.

Be proud. The majority of people who want to write, never do. The majority of people who actually try writing, never even  finish their first story. The majority of first time novelists never finish their novel. The majority of novelists who do complete an MS, published or not, only write one, or maybe two or three at most, novels. Every time you accomplish another goal, finish another work, you are beating the odds.

You've already beaten the most important statistic, crossed the great divide. You write. You are a writer. Go you.

I Know, I Know

I've been busy writing, not so much blogging. Mea Culpa.

Name Change?

Due to my recent realization that I am a dunderhead at internet meme recollection, I am contemplating a name change from Step5 Media to Phase3 Media. And/Or possibly changing the media part to transmedia. Other ideas include making Phase3 the umbrella corp. for Step5. All of this is easy to do, since these companies all exist only in my imagination.

Any opinions out there? I like Step5 slightly better based on cool-factor, but Phase3 is more accurate. Hrmmm...

background info on the conundrum

Just a Quicky

Ya! I've got 2 more people than the woman who gave birth to me following my blog! How exciting! I'm not just spitting in the wind anymore!

What's Coming

If you really want to see where digital distribution is taking us, look at Apple's app store. Volume sales of really cheap media. That is the model that works, at least for now. Some companies (and individuals) are getting rich because they understand the model. Most of the established video game companies are floundering around, and likely will not survive the digital shift, when the package goods market dries up.

Amazon, and the Kindle marketplace, are another example. Some authors are getting rich, a lot more are getting their work out in front of readers for the first time. The big companies are mostly trying to pretend ebooks don't exist. Guess who is gonna survive this little tussle?

Recorded music, where this all started, is a nano-second away from benefiting from all this change. Artists are finally getting smart, realising they don't need a label to put their recordings in front of fans.

All of this change is going to accelerate, rapidly, as we move forward. The tablet market is going to have a huge effect on comic books, board games, and visual art. Better screens, smarter phones, and so on will continue to erode the physical markets for media. And then there's file-sharing.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing is unstoppable, and the death of copyright (as a tool of artificial scarcity) is inevitable. Making money from content will depend on convenience, low price, and easy accessibility. In digital media, scarcity is obscurity. And obscurity is not much of a marketing strategy.

The network infrastructure will improve, or wireless networking will get faster. Processors and related tech will always get more powerful, and cheaper. I'm not sure what the optimal financial strategy becomes in that world, or if the low price/high volume backed up by convenience model will continue to rule.

Rank speculation, and/or wishful thinking: I'm not even sure money will continue to be a useful concept, at least for non-physical goods. Art-barter, anyone? Hmmm...

Exciting News!!!

As of 9:40 this am, my blog has been acquired by Step5 Media! Okay, not exactly acquired. Wait, lemme see, how to explain. Got it.

As of 9:40 this am, my blog has birthed a new invincible overlord, Step5 Media. and, er... Still not quite it. herm...

What I am getting at here (all goofiness aside), is I have created a new ruling media conglomerate. Except that it is a single entity, and not ruling quite yet (okay, some goofiness aside.)

My new company is called Step5 media. I will be releasing all my blogs, podcast (yes, coming soon), audio-books, e-books, and so on under this imprint. Time to start building a "platform".

And why Step5, you ask? Step 5 = Profit!

All one of you followers out there (hi mom!), I am running a contest. Win free copies of my first drafts for life! All you have to do is suggest a better title for this blog. Wheee....

Part-Time Writer

New strategy folks. The take-this-seriously-as-though-it-was-already-a-paying-job strategy. I want to kick my progress up to the next level, so I am now treating my writing career the same as my day job. In other words, show up on a regular schedule, clock in and out, work while I am there. I am leaving out the not thinking about it at all when I get home part, though.

I have been taking time basically whenever I have it free. An hour here or there, and so on. I have been making progress, for sure. But I want to get a lot more done a lot faster. So, like I would start an exercise program, or a diet, I'll start a writing program. Discipline is key.

I doubt I have the time or energy to be full-time (yet), and I don't want to burn myself out. So I am going part-time, for now.

Of course the ultimate goal is to earn enough writing that full-time is not just a goal, but a fiscal necessity :)