Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 123

Advice to a Self-Published Friend

So I have this friend (no, really....) Anyway, she e-mailed m on Facebook the other day asking for some advice. She's got a self-published poetry book and she wanted to know how to get people to buy it. What can she do?

Hmmmm.

I probably shouldn't have, but I ended up telling her the truth: I'm sorry. Not much.

Poetry is a tough sell even when it's published by a New York publishing house to rave reviews in the New Yorker. Heck, fiction books are a tough sells.... and publishers aren't always even

Smart Things

My friend Beth smart things about choices.

updated to add my friend Stephanie saying smart things about another friend, James Hall, and the 15th birthday of the operating system he wrote: FreeDOS. More here.

Kelly's CONvergence Schedule

So, I'm going to be GOHing at CONvergence this coming weekend and thought I ought to post my schedule.

Wednesday July 1:

Evening: Reception

Thursday July 2:

5:00 PM: Going from a Poor Unpublished Author to a Poor Published Author (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Pat Rothfuss

7:00 PM: Opening Ceremony Main Stage

Friday July 3

12:30 PM: Beta Reading: Relying on the Honesty of Friends (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Terry Garey, Elise Matthesen, M. K. Melin, Kathy Sullivan

2:00 PM: Kelly McCullough GOH Re

Bowie's in Space

I'm orbiting Pluto
(Ooh-ah-ooh!)
Drawn in by its groovitational pull
(Groovitational pull)
I'm jamming out with the Mick Jaggernauts
Ooh, and they think it's pretty cool . . .

Friday Cat Blogging

The committee for feline domination takes a meeting



I will killz teh chipmunk with mah mind



I needs mah beauty sleep



Well, I needs mah cutie sleep, so there



Waz an otter in previous life, sometimes I has flashbacks



What? Dis da gluten free shelf, right? I'z 100 percent gluten free

Smart Things

Lilith Saintcrow saying smart things about a bunch of stuff: you need more than a good book, self-promotion—the hard sell doesn't work, and the secret to getting published which includes the same be professional message I was talking about at SFNovelists a while back among a myriad of other good advice.

Plus Dean Wesley Smith on what life would be like without agents, parts one, and two.

Time to Publication

John Scalzi is talking about why debut novelists are so often so much older than debut musicians or actors. I commented over there with my own timeline and it seemed worth noting it here too. Please feel free to post your own both here and there.

My novel publishing timeline:

1967 – 1991: Time spent learning to write well enough to write a novel (26).

1991: Wrote first complete novel (26)

1992–1993: Wrote two more novels, one of which is possibly publishable with rewrite (28)

1993-1998: Wrote a bunch

Catch of the Day

"If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy."
—Dorothy Parker

Partnered Work Ethic

I'm about to drive Shawn (who HATES to travel) off to the airport for her big trip to Washington, D.C. She'll be gone until Friday. And I'm just curious... those of you out there who are married/partnered/SOed writers, do you find you get more or less work done with other half gone?

For me, it varies. I can sometimes become hyper-diligent, particularly in the evenings when I'm usually willing to say "screw writing!" to hang out with popcorn, my sweetie, and a Netflix movie. Other times, I find my

I just can't help myself . . .