In Today’s Journal
* Discoverability Hacks
* Last-Minute Christmas Gifts
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Discoverability Hacks
If you actually want discoverability…
1. First, follow Heinlein’s Rules.
I strongly recommend following all five: Write, Finish, Do Not Rewrite, Publish, and Leave It Published.
- Rules 1-2: If you don’t write and finish, there’s nothing to publish and nothing for readers to ‘discover.’
- Rule 3: If you rewrite, chances are great you’ll make the work worse, not better, and move it farther from the authentic story. That said, do whatever you want.
- Even if you choose to omit Rule 3 and rewrite during the ‘writing process’ (i.e., before publication), once you do finally publish (Rule 4), leave the work up so other readers can find it (Rule 5).
Re Rule 4 again, don’t complain about discoverability if you haven’t published anything yet. Readers can’t discover your ‘trunk’ or ‘desk drawer’ or ‘folder’ stories or novels. They can’t discover what you haven’t published.
I recently received an email from a friend complaining about how many AI-generated books are flooding Amazon and D2D and what that might mean for discoverability. Yet he’s never uploaded (published) anything to Amazon or D2D.
How many other books are there, legitimate or not, doesn’t affect you in the slightest if your own books aren’t up there competing. Readers can’t discover what isn’t there.
2. Always keep moving forward, not back.
This goes to both Heinlein’s Rule 3 and 5.
In the case of a published work, leave it up and let it stand as a marker of your skill level at the time. You see me doing exactly this every week over at Stanbrough Writes (free short story every week) and Your Morning Serial (free serialized novel).
You might occasionally update your work with a new cover or new branding or new sales copy. But again, if the work isn’t available for days or weeks or months on end, readers can’t buy it.
3. Screw Mistakes.
You’ll make mistakes as you progress along the learning curve with your writing or your website or whatever else. Shrug. Everybody makes them.
The key here is to learn from your mistakes, correct them if you can, then (as before), keep moving forward.
Forward progress leads to discoverability. Moving backward is tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot.
4. Be Immediately Available.
Your full published name (either your real name or your pen name) should be everywhere: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. And it should be in the signature line of every email or every response to every email you send out.
For an excellent example, see any email from me. If you don’t have one, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. (See what I did there?)
This isn’t a matter of being pushy. It’s a matter of believing in yourself and being available. It simply makes ‘how to find me or buy my books’ available to as many people as possible at the exact moment when they’re curious enough to wonder.
Last-Minute Christmas Gifts
I won’t repeat this again. If you’ve already seen it, thanks for your patience.
for Readers
contains 20 stories that cross the genres from noir to action-adventure to literary to science fiction to fantasy and more.
The anthology features 13 authors from bestsellers to prizewinning prolific professional storytellers to amateurs. And every story had its seed in a story or novel by Ernest Hemingway.
Echoes of Ellison contains 14 tales reminiscent of Harlan Ellison’s stories, ranging from the not-quite normal to the fantastic, from the tragic to the comedic, from the dark tale to the fairytale.
And for Writers
These are not books that promote the myths and suck you into the vicious circle of forcing you to buy more nonfiction books. Many of those books by Bell, et al were recently featured in another friend’s blog post.
(Of course, the books below were not mentioned. I can only imagine they were omitted because they do not promulgate the myths. Respect is a flimsy thing when it’s flowing in only one direction.)
The bottom line is, I’m not looking to fleece you in an ongoing operation to sell the myths and increase my bank account. I’m looking to help you write and publish, period.
Hell, if you can’t afford them and if you email to tell me that, I’ll even give them to you free. Do you suppose Bell et al would do that?
25% off Quiet the Critical Voice At checkout, add coupon code MHGUD585KD.
25% off Writing Better Fiction At checkout, add coupon code Q9KFJT62D0.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 740
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 740
Writing of Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level
Day 1…… 2035 words. To date………… 2035
Day 2…… 2217 words. To date………… 4252
Day 3…… 3751 words. To date………… 8003
Day 4…… 2218 words. To date………… 10221
Day 5…… 2181 words. To date………… 12402
Day 6…… 1673 words. To date………… 14075
Day 7…… 1972 words. To date………… 16047
Day 8…… 2081 words. To date………… 18128
Day 9…… 2694 words. To date………… 20822
Day 10…. 2712 words. To date………… 23534
Day 11…. 1581 words. To date………… 25115
Day 12…. 1155 words. To date………… 26270
Fiction for December……………………… 26270
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 780197
Nonfiction for December.………………… 23630
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 288760
2025 consumable words………………… 1062108
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 122
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29