In today’s Journal
* Topic: Writer Seeks Actual Publisher
* Wimped out a little
* The Numbers
Topic: Writer Seeks Actual Publisher
A couple days ago I posted about numbers, and yesterday I posted about priorities. Who knew I was building up to posting about Heinlein’s Rule 4: “You must publish” (in today’s parlance)?
I just read another post about organizing, or rather the consequences of the lack of organization. And I was moved to leave a brief comment. I wrote “For me, at least, that’s why Heinlein’s Rule 4 is so easy to fall off of.”
(Yeah, I know. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition. And I’m sure you all know the old joke about the southern waitress. So if the “of” at the end of the comment bugs you, just insert a comma and your name afterward and move on.)
But as I posted that comment, a thought struck me. The big reason it’s so easy for me to fall off Heinlein’s Rule 4 is that I really don’t care.
The joy for me is in writing the stories. And I’m not saying that from some haughty “I’m an Author” stack of fresh, steamy bullcookies. I’m saying it because I really, honestly don’t care. I’m a very fortunate guy.
* I get to talk with my friends almost every morning (that would be you) and maybe help a few along the way.
* I get to spend hours alone doing what I love to do. And best of all
* I get to see my characters come to life and act out their various roles in romantic and action-adventure and SF and hard-nosed detective and other scenes, none of which I know in advance. Every scene is a surprise.
Don’t get me wrong. My books sell when I put them out there so folks can find them. And I have a huge back catalogue with over 50 novels, around 220 short stories and a bunch of collections.
But whether other people read them really is secondary to the storytelling itself. And publishing, for me, is increasingly becoming a secondary evil.
However, there are people out there who have a natural penchant for publishing. Or designing covers. Or marketing. Or whatever else.
Not that I can’t design covers or publish, etc. But I don’t want to.
Dean would say this is because I “want to be taken care of.” Nope, that’s not it. It’s because I don’t care.
And I’m becoming increasingly uncaring about the slogging through the work side of all this. The business side of it. I don’t think I’ve even updated StoneThread Publishing (my publisher website) for a few months.
So I’m looking for a publisher. No, not Random House or one of those other scam outfits who would pay me a pittance for all rights to my work. That is never gonna happen, nor do I want it to. (I would sell all rights, but my price is in the high six-figures.)
I’m looking for a person to take over StoneThread Publishing. A person who will run that part of the business and be the publisher of all the stories that flow out of my apparently prolific computer.
I need someone who actually enjoys the business side of things.
The right person will enjoy my work to the point they will be avid about designing covers or having them designed, then publishing and marketing my work. (I’ll provide the promo doc and the sales copy.)
That person will be paid on a commission basis. Meaning how much that person earns will depend on his or her skill and ability. And with the right person, I’ll be very generous.
I’m writing this because I hope you might know someone who will fall into that category. If you do, please have that person email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
If I don’t get a response fairly soon, I’ll probably put an ad in a few places. This is one of those win-win situations that come along so very seldom. So if you know anyone who might be interested, let them know. I appreciate it.
Wimped out a little yesterday and missed my daily goal by just under 500 words. But I only worked until 2. I wanted to watch the Bears-Saints game on TV. (grin)
Well, what a bust that was. I haven’t watched for a long time, and frankly I’d forgotten how politicized the NFL has become. The whole experience was ruined for me by those paid to narrate the action. Why can’t they just call the damn game? (I know they’re paid to teach us all [cough, cough] valuable social and life lessons. It’s a rhetorical question.)
The real value was in finally putting a personal end to the NFL. The players need to grow the hell up and be thankful for what they have, and the on-air personalities need to just call the game. Barring that return to reality, watching a bunch of spoiled millionaires playing a child’s game is truly a waste of my time.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “That’s Annoying” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/thats-annoying/. Another cautionary post on organizing your IP.
See “Writing Tips from Elmore Leonard’s Boyd Crowder” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/01/writing-tips-from-elmore-leonards-boyd-crowder.html.
See “George Saunders: ‘These trenches we’re in are so deep’” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/george-saunders-these-trenches-were-in-are-so-deep/. I link to this primarily because it contains a link to A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, “In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.”
See “The ‘Green’ Test for the ‘F’ Bomb” at https://mystorydoctor.com/david-farlands-writing-tips-the-green-test-for-the-f-bomb/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 800 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 5 (novel)
Day 1…… 4179 words. Total words to date…… 4179
Day 2…… 4825 words. Total words to date…… 9004
Day 3…… 2746 words. Total words to date…… 11750
Day 4…… 4032 words. Total words to date…… 15782
Day 5…… 2873 words. Total words to date…… 18655
Day 6…… 2052 words. Total words to date…… 20707
Day 7…… 4313 words. Total words to date…… 25020
Day 8…… 3501 words. Total words to date…… 28521
Total fiction words for January……… 31739
Total fiction words for the year………… 31739
Total nonfiction words for December… 8430
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 8430
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 40169
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 54
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 214
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
The Bears/Saints game was well worth taking time off to watch.
Not for me. Too much political crap.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain looks great, but choice is strange for me. This authors are too different.
Gogol wrote in same age as Edgar Poe, he mixes gothic narrative with Ukrainian and St. Petersburg setting.
Turgenev wrote French-style realism, mostly in middle of 19th century. His works are more melodrama, with Byronic hero who has to deal with Dickens-like ordinary people.
Chekhov is one of the greatest authors of short stories, laconic as Hemingway. His short story “Wolf” was praised by fantastical depth created just by a few phrases. So sad I can read only his humorous short stories – the serious ones like Ionych, The Petcheneg, In the Ravine or Peasants are truly depressive.
Tolstoy is better in his 3 major novels, his talent was too epic for short stories. His later stories are descriptive, but there’re not stories in common sense, more like slices of life.
I would include stories by Pushkin, Pogorelsky, Leskov, Mamin-Sibiryak, and Saltykov-Schedrin (if we are limited by 19th century).
It might be interesting to see the similarities or differences in their advice.