The Journal: Mentorships vs. Nonfiction Books

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Topic: Mentorships vs. Nonfiction Books
* The Fiction
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“Q: I WROTE LESS THAN 200 WORDS TODAY. DO I STILL DEPOSIT THEM IN THE WORD BANK?
A: Yes, because every word counts… (and you have written more than 99% of writers today).”
FAQs at “THE 200 WORDS A DAY CHALLENGE.” Can this be true?

Topic: Mentorships vs. Books

I’m looking for feedback here.

As I was looking over all the topics in The Writing Craft I mentorship, it dawned on me that I could write at least a short nonfiction book about each of those topics. Some shorter, some longer.

The books would all be branded The Craft of Writing Fiction, and then titled with each topic. (You can see all the topics at the link above.)

The books will be general in nature, of course. They can’t drill down into a particular writer’s story or current skill level. Except that in each book I would offer at least one assignment on which I would offer feedback via email.

But even if writers didn’t take advantage of the assignments, the books would still be useful for those who choose to purchase them. And they would increase the skill level of anyone who chose to actually put into practice what they learned. And best of all, there would be no large, up-front, out of pocket expense.

Finally, I’m thinking about doing a Kickstarter campaign to fund this idea.

Just off the top of my head, in the Kickstarter I would offer both ebook and paper versions of the books. I would also offer “package” deals with similar books packaged together, up to and including the entire collection. And finally, I would offer a reduced rate (only through the Kickstarter campaign) for the actual mentorships.

The only downside I can think of is that writing all those nonfiction books would take time away from writing fiction for a while.

So is this an idea you find interesting? If so, please let me know via email at harveystanbrough@gmail.com, or leave a comment on the website at https://hestanbrough.com/the-journal-mentorships-vs-nonfiction-books/.

Gracias!

The Fiction

Right now I’m enjoying reading through the Crowley Series and building a series bible (and The Wes Crowley Companion Guide) as I go.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Agent Perspectives on First Pages” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/agent-perspectives-on-first-pages.html. But remember that even an agent’s opinion is only one opinion. It isn’t special, and it isn’t necessarily “right” for anyone but that one person.

See “23 Mystery Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions” at https://authorspublish.com/23-mystery-publishers-that-accept-direct-submissions-no-agent-required/.

See “Discovery Writing” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/discovery-writing/. There you go. One more vote for WITD.

See “TKZ Marketing Survey – Part 2” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/tkz-marketing-survey-part-2.html.

See “Me Talking On Another Podcast” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/me-talking-on-another-podcast/. The actual talk with DWS begins at 20:52.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 460 words

Writing of (novel)

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

Total fiction words for May……… 71896
Total fiction words for the year………… 443175
Total nonfiction words for May… 17200
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 102060
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 545235

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 9
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 62
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.