The Journal: Insider Info About Traditional Publishing

In today’s Journal

* Insider Info About Traditional Publishing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Insider Info About Traditional Publishing

By his own admission, John Gilstrap was one of the last very fortunate writers for whom lightning struck under the old “traditional” publishing system. The lightning struck in the form of a very large, life-changing, six-figure advance.

Today on the Kill Zone, he posted a brief explanatory article along with links to a video he recorded. In that video, he, his agent, and his editor are chatting about traditional publishing.

I trust John for various reasons, so I’m publishing this edition of the Journal primarily for any of you who are still considering going the traditional publishing route.

I haven’t watched the video myself—no reason—but I suspect you can trust what you hear. However, I also recommend you give some thought to what is not said. For example, I would be surprised if they divulge any information about traditional publishing contracts, especially concerning the granting of rights, non-competition clauses, date-based rights-reversion clauses, etc. So I recommend you take what you learn from this with a grain of salt.

With that in mind, see “Chatting With The Pros” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/10/chatting-with-the-pros.html. Good luck.

Talk with you again later.

Of Interest

See “Think Like a Horror Writer to Create Better Villains” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/think-like-a-horror-writer-to-create-better-villains/. For your liesurely perusal. I’m not personally big on “creating” caracters.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 220 words

Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for October……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for October… 1580
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 167540
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 790822

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.