Kameron Hurley's Blog, page 34

Writer Seeking Assistant (Can Work Remotely. Must Love Epic Fantasy)

I’ve been putting off my growing need for an assistant for a long time, mainly due to money issues, but with more freelancing work coming in and a desperate desire to finish this next book so ya’ll will actually see a new book from me before 2020, I’m sucking it up and putting out the call for an assistant.

Initial work will be updating the wiki for my current series (it will look a lot like the one for mylast series). Because you’ll likely be handling the rough draft of said work to cross ref...

Unpacking the “Real Writers Have Talent” Myth

I taught a copywriting class last November, which isn’t something you’d generally ever see me doing. Classrooms aren’t for me. Public appearances are exhausting, and teaching a class is one long song-and-dance routine. You have to prep for it. Then, afterward, you’re exhausted and need to recoup for a week and then do it all over again.

But what I loved about this opportunity was that I could impart some wisdom to folks about how to actually make money writing. One of the things that astonishe...

Welcome to Skyhorse’s New Night Shade Imprint

As the news has now broken, I wanted to share some postmortem thoughts on the Skyhorse/Night Shade deal which has now gone through.

For those wondering if I took the deal: Throughout the last couple of months, a lot of information has been gathered about Skyhorse and Start, it’s epublishing arm for the new imprint. Like any publisher, there’s good and there’s bad, but by all counts, Tony Lyons at Skyhorse is a shrewd businessman, and, I’ve been assured, will adhere to the letter of our contrac...

Dear SFWA Writers: Let’s Chat About Censorship & Bullying

So. I get it. The world used to agree with you. You used to be able to say things like, “I really like those lady writers in this industry, especially in swimsuits!” and your fellow writers, editors, agents, and other assorted colleagues would all wink and grin and agree with you, and Asimov would go around pinching women’s asses, and it was so cool! So cool that he could just sexually assault women all the time! You used to be able to say, “Black people are fine. As long as they are clean an...

Survivorship Bias and Writing Better Books (with Bonus Marketing Chat)

If you haven’t read this article about Survivorship Bias (via Toby Buckell), and our tendency to give more weight to successes than failures, go read it. I’ll wait.

Done?

Survivorship bias plays into all sorts of things. In fact, it has a great deal to do with how we teach history, too, which I touched on in my “We Have Always Fought” post (hence we focus on populations we perceive to be successful *now* and ignore ones that actually have a lot of relevance both now and in the past). But that’s...

Thoughts on the Writing Grind

I recently read this piece by Judith Tarr reflecting on how the publishing world has changed since the 1980s, when writing a book a year was nice, but don’t let a publisher know you can write faster than that….

I’m often gobsmacked by how much my peers churn out every year. It’s an astonishing output, and I always feel like I’m scrambling to keep up with the book a year pace, and maybe that means there’s something wrong with me and I’m not going to be able to hack this. I also know I’m not the...

Your job is not to be a writer. Your job is to be a published author.

I read this piece from Lauren DeStafano today about anxiety, and specifically how the challenges of managing anxiety are compounded by the demands of being an author. Though the whole piece is very good, this bit in particular stood out for me:

“…there is a lot of pressure to be normal, and, as an author, to be what readers expect. During Wither’s launch week, when faced with more reading and signing events than I was able to handle, I broke into tears and told my agent, “My job is to be a wri...

“We Have Always Fought” Guest Post at A Dribble of Ink

I invite you to check out this guest post I did over at A Dribble of Ink on women fighters:

I’m going to tell you a story about llamas. It will be like every other story you’ve ever heard about llamas: how they are covered in fine scales; how they eat their young if not raised properly; and how, at the end of their lives, they hurl themselves – lemming-like- over cliffs to drown in the surging sea. They are, at heart, sea creatures, birthed from the sea, married to it like the fishing people w...

The Joys of Marketing: Changing Human Behavior with Advertising

This morning I came up with an idea for a customer campaign I’ve been gnawing on this week. I was selling a product to a rather conservative industry. I wanted to come up with something fun and relevant that hit their pain points. Something interactive. Most of what I do at my day job is lead generation, but there’s some direct sales work, too.

When I finally hit on the idea, it was like a firework going off: sudden burst, then glorious comet tail of delirious excitement.

That’s when I know I’v...

God’s War UK: Two Years After My First Novel, Some Thoughts

Today’s the release date of my first novel, GOD’S WAR, in the UK. It’s been a long time coming, and a process not without its hiccups. But the day’s here. I’m told book stores have ordered it, even(!), and it’s sitting out on shelves across the pond and hopefully soon, across the globe.

Writing a book can be a lonely process, often done in a vacuum. You do the best you can, and you work intensely hard. I wrote the first line of God’s War: “Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen,...