R.K. MacPherson's Blog, page 9
August 28, 2012
You Can’t Buy Success
The old saw “You have to spend money to make money” should fit this idiocy of paying people for five star reviews of their books. It should work. It’s not really about reviewing the book so much as it is about marketing it. After all, Amazon rewards five star reviewed products with more prominent placement, and a bump in the search algorithm.
Whowouldn’t pay for some five star reviews? $15 a pop? Five or six of those and a new book is off to a good start, right?
Wrong.
Gaming the system this way...
August 20, 2012
Guest Speaking
I’m guest-posting at Brooke Johnson’s Blog today, where I discuss listening to the voices in your head, or my head, or something like that. 
Head on over and check it out!
August 14, 2012
Freelancing
I wish I could say getting laid off didn’t affect me. I also wish I could say I found a briefcase full of money with a note that said, “Have fun!” Alas, neither of those came to pass. Guess I’ll make my future happen the old fashioned way–hard work.
I wrote up a list of ten articles I could research and write (and hopefully sell). Many of my skills or areas of expertise don’t lend themselves to non-fiction writing, but until I can build up enough momentum with my books to turn that into a regu...
August 10, 2012
Unemployed
I’m cross-posting this on both Tales of the White Raven and Raven’s Nest since it affects both.
On Wednesday, I was laid off from En Masse Entertainment, my home for the past two years, eight months. It hit hard yesterday, where I allowed myself a full day to feel peeved, hurt, scared, and doubting. I also saw the new Total Recall (Spectacular visuals, a few amazingly ignorant-of-science moments, Kate Beckinsale and Bokeem Woodbine were great. Needed more humor. 4/5 stars) for distraction purp...
August 7, 2012
What’s Writing Like?
A young waitress asked me that a few days ago. She said she hated writing, and didn’t like her college courses because of it. I have similar thoughts about algebra and higher math, so I can empathize, but the truth is that I love writing. Always have. Scratch that—I love telling stories. Whether researching post-Chacoan Anasazi sites or describing the database used for a mass graves project, writing gives me a chance to help someone else understand something new.
Kind of weird, I admit, descri...
August 1, 2012
Taking a Level in Genius
I advocate writers learning all they can, experiencing all they can, and smooching all they can. Experience counts and informs our work. I jump at any chance to learn (I draw the line at eggplant), and encourage other writers to do the same. To that end, I found a new resource on Monday. I just didn’t have time to share it until today.
https://www.coursera.org/offers free online courses from top schools, on a variety of topics.
Writers don’t need to be experts at everything, but we usually need...
July 30, 2012
Wrapping Up
The Clarion West Write-a-thon ended, closing one of the sterner tests I’ve taken recently. My goal was to help raise money for Clarion West, as well as to write 63,000 words. I did great on the fundraising–far more than I expected thanks to the generosity of others. I fell short on the word front, however, ended up at 59,728 words. Sadly, this last week’s output suffered due to family medical needs.
I got 45,000ish words written on Eldritch Legacy, which is roughly half of where I want to be....
July 18, 2012
An Industry on the Brink---Five Mistakes that are Killing Traditional Publishing
Reblogged from Kristen Lamb's Blog:
Old School Meets New School
As many of you know, last week I was blessed enough to get to present at Thrillerfest, which is a conference held by the International Thriller Writers in the heart of New York City. What a blast and a WONDERFUL conference! If you ever get an opportunity to go, take it. Yet, now that I’m home, I feel compelled to share my observations and make the most of my $5000 investment.
This fantastic little gem ex...
July 13, 2012
Heart of Darkness
I finished writing Chapter 8 last night. For the past week or so, I’ve struggled to find a way to get the story moving again. The outline didn’t help and I wasn’t really certain how to rectify the situation.
Inspiration struck, but not how I expected. Isaura,Eldritch Legacy‘s heroine, got called out by the bad guys. A no-win scenario that routinely gets won by the good guys in a lot of tales. In writing it, however, I realized Isaura might “win” the fight, but this would be a terrible, pyrrhic...
July 9, 2012
Clarion West Write-a-thon – Week 3
Well, week 3 of the write-a-thon is firmly in my wake, and I’ve reached 31,698 words thus far—right on target. I confess that this slower, more deliberate pace is actually tougher than I thought it might be. After burning through NaNoWriMo in 10 days, I figured taking the slower approach for the write-a-thon would be cake.
Foolish me.
Eldritch Legacy is just a first draft. No one will read it in this form, not even beta readers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about it. My biggest obstacle i...
