Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 25

Free copies of NaNo What Now for Camp NaNoWriMo participants (winners or not)

Camp NaNoWriMo is kinda weird, isn’t it? It’s quieter than the November event, for one, and I also find it much harder to keep yourself motivated without all the trappings of the main event. But for those of you that stuck it out, I have a little present for you whether you hit your goal or not.

The April session of Camp NaNoWriMo ends on April 30th and I’m celebrating what you accomplished this month that by giving away copies of NaNo What Now?, my guide to the next steps including revision,...

Some candid talk on running a blog, profiting from your work & rethinking how you earn

I started The Whine Seller on September 30th, 2008 for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, I really enjoy talking, er, writing about e-commerce and I wanted an outlet for that. I don’t claim to have a perfect brand in this dual life of fiction and non-fiction that I live, but eBay rants just didn’t fit in with news about my latest play or inspirational writing pep talks for my NaNoWriMo region so I folded that content out into it’s own blog. But while it started as a simple outlet for mysel...

Playwrights, start a mailing list of past productions to market your latest plays

This is post 10 of 12 in the series “Self-Publishing a Stage Play”

I’ve mentioned that most of my productions come from my mailing list but what if you don’t have one yet? This question come from a comment on one of the other posts in this series, but I’m popping it out to give it better visibility.

Great info, Hillary. How do you get those email addresses? I’ve gotten about 300 productions through my publisher over the last five years, mostly from schools and community theatres, but when I...

What’s the best place for bulk orders of a printed book or script?

This is post 9 of 12 in the series “Self-Publishing a Stage Play”

Do you dobulk orders through CreateSpace?

This was part of a longer Mailbag question that I separated out because the answer is long.

In 2002, when I started this self-publishing journey, print-on-demand printing was WAY more expensive than it is now. I used POD printers to source to the distributors (Lighting Source aka LSI and Booksurge which was then bought by Amazon and merged into CreateSpace) and then had a printer out...

Three Padded Walls is coming to YouthPlays

I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to say anything about this news yet but then I visited theYouthPlays website and, well, just look at it.

Not seeing it? Let me do the zoom for you.

Whoa! Hey! That’s me!

One of many reasons I’m excited that YouthPlays going to be managing this play going forward is that they are very popular with the forensics and drama competition market which are two things that were a huge part of my school experience. And, while I love the idea that one of my works is going...

Three Padded Walls is part of The Dover Little Theatre’s One Act Play Festival April 22nd-24th

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I didn’t even realize there was a theatre in Dover and it’s practically in my backyard! But now that I’ve been clued into this wonderful local gem, I’m excited to announce that Three Padded Walls will be part of their Third Annual One Act Play Festival this upcoming weekend. For more information, please visit the Dover Little Theatre website. Performance dates: Friday, April 22nd at 8:00 pm Saturday April 23rd at 8:00 pm Sunday, April 24th at 2:00 pm My husband...

eBay Spring Seller update: Mobile optimization, Store Subscription cost increases and more

It’s time once about for eBay’s Spring Seller update. Let’s just dive right in a take a closer look, shall we?

View Item description summaries for better mobile viewing

The new View Item description for mobile features a clean and consistent item description summary. eBay derives a brief, 250-character, text-only description summary from your full item description. This provides relevant listing information that allows shoppers to make fast, informed buying decisions.

Hopefully this isn’t new...

Invoicing and getting paid for productions of your self-published stage play

This is post 8 of 12 in the series “Self-Publishing a Stage Play”

Back in this mailbag post, we talked about how you figure out what to charge for licensing a production and how I like to offer a bulk discount on printed scripts for schools and groups doing a show. But what we didn’t address in that post was how you actually get paid for a production, though that’s the next logical question.

Here’s how I handle getting paid…

Once we agree on prices, I invoice the group for the scripts, shi...

Licensing productions, performance agreements & contracts for a self-published stage play

This is post 7 of 12 in the series “Self-Publishing a Stage Play”

Someone wants to perform your self-published play, woohoo! But, uh, how do you know what to charge? How do you go about licensing productions? How do you craft a good performance agreement? That’s what we’re covering in today’s question from the Mailbag about self-publishing a stage play.

I would be interested to know more about your licensing and bulk orders biz. How do you handle licensing and stuff? Do you have standard co...

Trailer from RPI Players production of The Love of Three Oranges (+ TLOTO reaction GIFs!)

Afriend called my attention to this great trailer from RPI Players production of The Love of Three Orangesthat I totally missed back when the production happened back in November of 2015. I enjoyed it so much I just had to make myself an animated GIF of that dove transformation because it was just too perfect. It’s a reaction GIF waiting to happen, people! While I was at it, I also grabbed the “fish face” part with Clarice and Leandro because it’s also adorable.… Read more

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