In Today’s Journal * Revamping Finished * Writing Better Fiction Is in Paper * Did You Know? * Of Interest Revamping Finished On Friday I finished uploading all of my 5-story and 10-story collections to my online store, then linked the covers on the publisher site to the store and deleted the individual book pages and 300-size covers from the publisher site. So I’m done with that. And I won’t be updating anymore of my fiction covers, though I might update some sales copy here and there. Writing Better Fiction Is in Paper My friend and TNDJ subscriber Tiffanie Gray … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Revamping My Publisher Site * The Process to Effect This Change * The Upshot * The Wes Crowley Rebrand Revisited * Of Interest Revamping My Publisher Site Yesterday I mentioned the work process involved with rebranding a series. After I posted that update, I started revamping my publisher site. That’s actually more of an evolution than a revamping, and it’s a lot more intensive. But Potential Buyer’s click-through process—from discovering StoneThread Publishing to buying a book—is now streamlined and more user friendly. Previously, the potential buyer’s experience went like this: Potential Buyer finds StoneThread Publishing PB … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Writing Better Fiction, 2nd Edition * Revamping and Republishing Writing Better Fiction, Second Edition The second ebook edition of Writing Better Fiction is available now. If you bought a copy earlier, email me to let me know that and I’ll send you the 2nd edition in PDF. If you’d rather have an .epub or .mobi file, let me know that in your email. In other news, I should be able to release the paper version of the 2nd edition of WBF on July 1. I’ll announce the release here when that happens. Sorry, no freebies on … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * My Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A Few Thoughts on Apologies * A Few Story Starters * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” P.G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories My Quote of the Day “Apology, n. 1. A device intended to soothe wounds and put a potential victim off his guard. 2. A precursor to … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Branding and Rebranding * Of Interest Yeah, I know, it’s way late in the day. This post is primarily to pass along the items in Of Interest, at least one of which is time-sensitive. Branding and Rebranding In the increasingly overcrowded world of digital publishing, all the pundits agree that today it’s more important to build a reader base that’s loyal to You (Author Name) and Your Work regardless of genre. Most pundits also agree that you need only 100 (not 1,000 and not a b’jillion) die-hard, dedicated readers who absolutely love your work to make … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * On Length in Short Fiction * I Love Catching Them Young * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “How do series or sagas come about for we who write into the dark? Simple. A character from a previous story or novel tugs on our sleeve or pops back into our mind and says, ‘Seriously, don’t you wanna know what happens next?” And we say, ‘Why yes. Yes I do.’ And a series is born.” On Length in Short Fiction Yesterday in My Quote of the Day I wrote “Technique … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * Questions? * Recommendations * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “Technique transcends genre. In fiction writing, if you master the technique—hooks and cliffhangers; openings and resolutions; dialogue; and depth of description in settings, scenes, and characters—the content will take care of itself.” The Bradbury Challenge Report Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer. The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre … Read more

In Today’s Journal * A Bit of Fun * If You’re Having Trouble Writing * Of Interest A Bit of Fun My favorite comment from readers on my stories is also my biggest aspiration as a writer: “I feel as if I’m in the story with the characters.” I achieve that end by being sure to describe—sometimes focusing down to details—every bit of the setting that the POV character notices, along with his opinions of the overall setting or parts of the setting. Doing that requires no great skill. It requires only attention to detail and practice. I’ve said before … Read more

In Today’s Journal * In Yesterday’s Post * The Truth About “Big” Publishers * Of Interest In Yesterday’s Post In yesterday’s post I mentioned that studying only the works of Stage 4 writers who are traditionally published (or were before jumping over to indie) doesn’t fit the current publishing environment. There are a lot of Stage 4 writers who’ve never had novels or short story collections published through traditional publishers. I’m one of them. Likewise, there are Stage 3 and even some Stage 2 writers who are best-sellers (and therefore not worth studying) who have been traditionally published by the … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * On Writing, Marketing, & Best-Seller Status * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “I can teach best-practices in writing fiction all day and into the night, but I couldn’t successfully market and sell space heaters to people in Point Barrow, Alaska.” On Writing, Marketing, & Best-Seller Status The catalyst for this post… Recently, a writer who has taught me a ton about writing fiction said in a video that aspiring and beginning writers should study the works of Stage 4 writers they admire. I couldn’t agree more. But then … Read more