David R. Michael's Blog, page 18
December 13, 2011
Artisan Author
Recently, Camille LaGuire coined the term "artisan author" on her blog, The Daring Novelist. She expanded on the concept with her post "What Does Artisan Mean To You?"
I tend to be All Things Indie™, and "artisan author" fits into that. I work on my own projects, from beginning to end, from concept to completion to end-user sales.
I also tend to like projects I can do all by my lonesome (more or less). I can play and work well with others, but I have a loner streak that was never properly socialized out of me. Writing fits well with this tendency, even better indie software development. Indie software development requires a lot more outsourcing of essential, non-trivial tasks (usually in the form of third-party libraries, services, etc). For indie publishing, on the other hand, I really only need to outsource the cover art (and not always that). Everything else is all me, all the time–with a bit of input from first readers.
Another aspect of this type of writing and publishing is that I'm closer to the reader. That is one of my favorite aspects of indie software development: interaction with the people who use my software. I love feedback (good and bad). I love hearing from the people who use The Journal, from the people who played my games, and I'm looking forward to hearing more from the people who like my books. I like seeing the impact I've made on the world.
I like the phrase "artisan author", but I think I prefer "indie author" and/or "indie publisher". Probably because of that All Things Indie™ angle.
I thought I had more to say on this…but, really, I like how Camille said it. And I'll continue to call myself "indie".
-David
Related Posts:
Do Indie Writers Need Editors?"Indie" is not a BrandMy First Full Year as an Indie Author
December 12, 2011
Do I Already Know the Answer to this Question?
NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2003 for The Journal's monthly newsletter. Last week, reading The Flinch by Julien Smith made me remember this article. This has been one of my primary ways of dealing with "the flinch".
I've discovered a simple way to use journaling to help me solve personal, professional, and spiritual problems. It boils down to this simple question:
"Do I already know the answer to this question?"
For example, I may be trying to figure out why my wife is upset at me. There I was, innocently reading a book on the sofa, and *Boom!* We have a problem. Seemingly out of nowhere. Later, after the weapons of spouse warfare have been laid aside and peace restored, I fire up The Journal and ask myself, "Is there really a mystery here? Or do I already know the answer to this question?" Often I find myself listing out what I knew all along and simply hadn't heeded or acted on. Of course, this exercise only works if I'm honest with myself, and jot down everything I know that I know about the current situation.
I've used this simple question, "Do I already know the answer to this question?" in numerous situations. Here are a few other examples:
* Why aren't I happier?
* How can I be a better husband?
* How can I be a better parent?
* How can I do a better job?
* How can I improve sales?
* How do I end this scene/chapter/novel?
When I find myself stumped (or when I notice that I'm stumped), I stop and reflect. Am I really stumped? Do I really not know the answer? Or am I just avoiding admitting what I already know? Sometimes I really don't know, but then I at least have acknowledged my ignorance and can work to solve that.
How does this exercise work? I'm no psychologist, but I've been a human being all my life, and as a group we all tend to *know* better than we *do*. Whether out of habit, laziness, or whatever, we prefer to do what we've always done, even when we know there's a better way to go about it.
By sitting down with your journal, though, and writing down (or typing out) what you know that you know about a given situation or problem, and what you know you don't know, you may be surprised. You may find that you already know the answer you've been desperately seeking (or actively avoiding).
So, next time you find you're facing a question or problem, and you're not sure how to solve it, sit down and ask yourself, "Do I already know the answer to this question?"
Make your possible answers as detailed as you can. And don't just list the answers that favor you being right, or a helpless victim. Branch out into new territory. Explore all possibilities.
Give yourself at least 10 uninterrupted minutes to answer. You may want to take longer, of course. Even if you don't find an explicit answer, you will better understand yourself and your situation.
Odds are, you already know the answer to the question or problem that has been plaguing you. Take the time to ask yourself. You might be surprised what you can tell you.
-David
Related Posts:
I Think Too Much…More Planning Than WritingWhat I Need are … Readers
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, December 5, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2 outline timeline.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
Publishing/Marketing
Monday
Tuesday
Created separate writing category in The Journal for Gunwitch2.
Updated Gunwitch ebook pricing.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Reading List
The Flinch by Julien Smith.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
December 9, 2011
Excerpts Should Include a Blurb
I'm slowly accumulating experience and useful bits of publishing tradecraft. A couple weeks ago it was "Free Ebooks Should Include Excerpts".
This week, I realized that I should also include the backcover blurb.
Excerpt Structure
Cover image with "An excerpt from…" announcement
Backcover copy
Excerpt
Link to book in appropriate bookstore
Like this:
[image error]
An Excerpt from
Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven
by David Michael.
Copyright © 2011 by David Michael.
Published by Four Crows Landing.
In 1718, in an England that might have been, the law found Rosalind Bainbridge guilty of witchcraft. In lieu of execution, she became Private Bainbridge of the 101st Pistoleers…
A Gunwitch of the King's Coven.
Twenty-four years later, dishonorably discharged and working as a scout on the Amerigon frontier, Rose's past comes looking for her. A summons and a request from the officer who saved her from the hangman's noose. A reunion with another veteran of the 101st, someone she never wanted to see again. And a meeting with the Misses Janett and Margaret Laxton, the daughters of the man who pressed her into service as a gunwitch.
Reluctantly, Rose agrees to take Janett and Margaret to their father at Fort Russell. No one knows the swamps around New Venezia better than Rose and her bloodsister, the enigmatic Chal. The trip should take only a few days.
But there's more waiting in the swamps than mud and mosquitoes. War and betrayal threaten Rose and the girls, while an ancient, unspeakable evil pursues them all the way to the walls of Fort Russell.
An Excerpt from
Chapter 1
Rose
Rose, rifle again slung over her shoulder, presented herself to the sergeant on duty. "Rose Bainbridge," she said. She resisted the urge to give him a salute. "Scout," she added. She pulled the folded summons out of her blouse and handed it to him. "Here at the request of General Tendring."
The sergeant took in Rose, her worn cotton and buckskin clothes, and her similarly attired native companion, and managed to express extreme annoyance and displeasure, all without moving a muscle on his lined face… (and so on)
Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven
By David Michael
Available from !
Learn more at Four Crows Landing:
www.fourcrowslanding.com
# # #
Seems so simple, doesn't it? And yet this is probably my 3rd or 4th iteration on excerpts in ebooks.
I will learn. I just know I will.
-David
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December 6, 2011
Flintlock Fantasy
Is there already such a thing as "flintlock fantasy"? Or did I inadvertantly create the sub-genre with the release of Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven? (Though, if I created the sub-genre, it won't technically exist until I finish and release the sequel.)I'm betting it's already out there, and not just in the form of RPG's and tabletop wargames like the Iron Kingdoms or WarMachine by Privateer Press. (And I will not deny that my Iron Kingdoms RPG campaigns were a big influence on Gunwitch. Dig a bit through the session logs and you can find the first appearance of one Rosalind Bainbridge.)
If anyone can suggest examples, I'd love to read 'em. Especially if the protagonist is a woman with magic and a gun. Because, as I've said before, I love women with guns.
-David
Related Posts:
Win a FREE Signed Copy of Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's CovenOutline to Completed Novel Word Count RatioNow Available – Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven
December 5, 2011
"Done Enough"
I'm declaring the outline for Gunwitch2 "done enough". Any additional work I do on that is goldbricking. Dawdling. Not, in fact, writing. The outline will evolve during writing, but for a day or two this week I can pretend that I know how everything goes.
I *might* start writing tomorrow. Maybe. Or maybe I'll let the whole thing "gel" for a day, then start. Because I'm a wuss sometimes.
The word-count for the outline is 5600. That's longer than I expected, but still in the ballpark for an outline written by me.
My target for the book is ~100K words (AKA, about the same length as Gunwitch). With 24 planned chapters, I think that won't be a problem. Anything from 90K to 110K words is acceptable, of course.
How long will it take to write? I have no estimates that I'm willing to make public.
-David
Related Posts:
Outline to Completed Novel Word Count RatioPlanning (Almost) FinishedI Can Haz Story?
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, November 28, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2 outlining.
Tuesday
Gunwitch2 outlining.
Wednesday
Gunwitch2 outlining.
Thursday
Gunwitch2 outlining.
Friday
Gunwitch2 naming characters and locations.
Saturday
Gunwitch2 outline tweaking.
Sunday
Gunwitch2 outline tweaking.
Total
Publishing/Marketing
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Related Posts:
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November 30, 2011
Outline to Completed Novel Word Count Ratio
Was chatting with a friend yesterday and showed him my outline for Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven (since he'd already read the book I didn't have to worry about spoilers). Giving the outline a quick read myself, I noticed how much the story had evolved in the writing. That always happens. But I also noticed that a 4700-word outline grew into a 100000-word novel (a ratio of 1:21).
Made me curious. Especially since in the process of getting Gunwitch2′s outline finished.
Here are the ratios for all my completed novels (in the order written):
Threads (unpublished) – 4700:125000 (1:26.5)
The Door to the Sky – 3700:35000 (1:9.5)
The Summoning Fire – 4600:64000 (1:14)
The Girl Who Ran With Horses – 3300:64000 (1:19)
Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven – 4700:100000 (1:21)
GoSH1 (in production) – 8300:67000 (1:8)
Not much pattern there. And I'm kinda stunned at how long the outline for GoSH1 came out. I'd forgotten how long that outline was (and I only wrote it back in February). I was including lots of detail in that outline. More than normal.
I've been thinking lately about the way I outline. It would seem that the first, full outline is my first draft of the novel. A rather short first draft (more like a treatment), and not entirely readable or coherent, but still a first draft that I then expand and (hopefully) improve by writing the *real* story from it.
Not sure that it *matters* how I think of it, but that's been wandering through my head.
-David
Related Posts:
Planning (Almost) FinishedScenic PlottingA Sigils Progress Report
November 28, 2011
Don't Eat Your Seed
NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 for my Joe Indie blog, so it focuses on indie game development. Much of what it says, though, can be easily applied to writing and indie publishing.
The Millionaire Next Door provides a simple, almost 100% guaranteed way for any American to become a millionaire within their lifetime:
1. Spend less than you make.
2. Invest the difference.
3. Re-invest all earnings.
Those who have a bigger income that they can spend less than have an edge, but it's an egalitarian plan that will work for pretty much anyone with an income.
This is only a slight modification of the advice you get from a lot of financial advisors:
1. Invest $25/$50/$100/whatever (it goes up as you get older) per month, every month.
2. Leave it alone until you retire, letting all earnings remain in the kitty.
With this plan, any 25 year old can become, if not a millionaire, at least comfortably set, even at historically conservative interest rates. That's the magic of compound interest.
Both plans involve the same principles:
Self-imposed scarcity (AKA, "self-discipline")
Time
Re-investing the earnings
I take the same approach to indie game development (and indie software development, or "micro ISV's", and indie publishing). You take a portion of your available resources (time and money) and invest them in a game (or product or book) of your own creation, and let the result(s) increase over time, assisted by re-investment of your early earnings.
No one serious about building a "nest egg" for their retirement expects it to replace their regular income stream in less than 5 years (unless they are over 60 when they start and/or are hopelessly optimistic). Yet how many indies expect exactly that from their efforts?
Quite a few, in my experience. They're Big Plan is to "burn the ships", focus their efforts, and release their game/product/book. Then it's all "Sit back and relax and spend the profits."
How many actually achieve that? Not so many.
Depressed yet?
I'm one of those evangelists who try to win converts by pointing out how much hard work is involved rather than focusing on the Potential Riches That Could Be Yours. You get fewer converts, but maybe they stick around longer.
So what am I suggesting? In the words of the farmer, "Don't eat your seed."
The only way investing and compound interest work for anybody is by taking the early proceeds and re-investing them. Apply this to your indie projects. Don't try to live off the proceeds of your efforts, not at first. Take what you make from your initial game and use it to improve the game (adding more value for your existing players and new players) or make a better Next Game. Don't eat your seed by spending it all on a new Blu-Ray/DVD player. Or rent.
Treat your indie efforts as an investment, with an eye to the long term, instead of as a slot machine where you insert the proper coin and pull the lever. Accept that it may take more than a few months–or even a few years–for you to be a full time indie, earning enough to live off of.
Though obviously not a Get Rich Quick recipe, this is an approach with some advantages. Here are a few:
The freedom to take creative risks. You're not investing anything you can't afford to lose, so you're free to try anything.
The freedom to be wrong. Time is on your side. You don't have to get it right the first time.
The freedom to change your mind. Life is change. No one remains the same forever. Sometimes we have things we want to try. So try them. Maybe you'll move on, maybe you'll stay. You never know until you try.
Or look at it from the reverse angle. If your indie efforts MUST support you, then you will find that you've lost all of those advantages. You no longer have creative freedom. Instead, you have to do something that generates $X. You must be able to extract your investment, starting immediately. Which means you can no longer afford to be wrong. Welcome to the world of endless clones and sequels. And changing your mind could prove disastrous, since you have nothing else to fall back on. What you started out doing because you wanted to, is now something you have to do, nose to the grindstone day after day, or you starve.
Be content to build with what you have, not gamble on what might happen. Take the long view, invest–and re-invest–in yourself. Don't eat your seed.
-David
Related Posts:
The Indie Alternative Part 2The Day Job Strikes Back!The Indie Alternative Part 1
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, November 21, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2 brainstorming.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Gunwitch2 brainstorming and outlining.
Friday
Gunwitch2 brainstorming and outlining.
Saturday
Gunwitch2 brainstorming and outlining.
Sunday
Gunwitch2 brainstorming and outlining.
Total
Publishing/Marketing
Monday
Tuesday
Updated "He Came" to include an excerpt of TSF.
Updated "When Writers Attack" to include an excerpt of Door Sky.
Updated Gray Angel stories to include an excerpt of Gunwitch.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Reading List
The Man Who Did Too Much by Camille LaGuire.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – THE DOOR TO THE SKYNow Available – "Insanity"
