Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 8

Nothing useful, but everything else, by Catriona

Apartfrom print and e-books, what other formats have you explored—suchas audio books, foreign translations, film rights? Do you have advice for anewbie writer exploring additional income streams from the same book?

This is a great question for indie authors - they'll have useful stuff to say. "Explored" isn't really the word for traditionally published authors like me. It's more like I've sat here at my desk, writing, and some of these things have happened out there in the world of publishing....

Options by Eric Beetner

  Business - apart from print and ebooks, what other formats have you explored - such as audio books, foreign translations, film rights? Do you have advice for a newbie writer exploring additional income streams from the same book?

I certainly think having your work available in as many format options as possible is a good thing. I know readers who have abandoned print books entirely. I know people who prefer the audio version. I can’t say I have a whole of people in other countries clamoring for...

Publishing Makes No Sense

Apartfrom print and e-books, what other formats have you explored—suchas audio books, foreign translations, film rights? Do you have advice for anewbie writer exploring additional income streams from the same book?

 

I’m probably the wrong person to ask. To riff on SergeantSchultz from Hogan’s Heroes: “Iknow nothing. I see everything. And nothing about this business makes sense.”

E-books?Yes, of course. That’s a given these days.
Audiobooks? Not yet—NO COMMENT.
Foreign translations? Pfft. L...

Eeny Meeny Miney Moe!

 Apart from print and ebooks, what other formats have you explored - such as audio books, foreign translations, film rights? Do you have advice for a newbie writer exploring additional income streams from the same book?

This is a great question to think about it. Especially since we seem to be living in the time of the entrepreneur. Multi-million-dollar businesses have sprung up all over the internet turning bored housewives into a whole industry. Have you heard of #MOMTOK? Apparently, there is a...

Not 27, but 10 - the surprises of a writing life, by Harini Nagendra

Tell us one thing that you didn't anticipate about the writer's life, which surprised you once you became a writer. 

I loved all the responses to this week's question. Taking inspiration from my friend James Ziskin, who came up with 27 things that surprised him - but restricting myself to 10 - here's my list. 
The good 1. Getting The Bangalore Detectives Club on the New York Times Notable Books list. (I was so green, I didn't know there was such a thing - when I saw the excited email from my publi...

Twenty-Seven Writerly Surprises from James W. Ziskin

Tell us one thing that you didn't anticipate about the writer's life, which surprised you once you became a writer. 

I decided to be a bad boy this week and answer this question with twenty-seven things that surprised me instead of just one.

In no particular order, here they are:

I was surprised by…

How vicious some readers are when reviewing books.How hard it is to sell books.How generous and welcoming most writers are.How great it feels to find your book in the wild.How quickly I change the subjec...

Get under the skin

Tell us one thing that you didn't anticipate about the writer's life, which surprised you once you became a writer.

by Dietrich 

Some writers getting into storytelling might anticipate overnight success, only to find it’s more of  a slow burn—and that the myth of the “starving artist” isn’t necessarily a myth.

I heard all that too, but I did it anyway. Before I set out to write, I envisioned myself in my studio weaving tales of bank heists, coming up with gritty scenes filled cunning villains and i...

Surprise!

 

Terry here with our question of the week: tell us one thing that you didn't anticipate about the writer's life, which surprised you once you became a writer. 
There are so many things I didn’t anticipate about the writer’s life, that I can’t hold it to one. I’m going to list a bunch! 
It starts with those last two words: writer’s life.I always wrote stories. Even when I worked long hours in computer programming and analysis, during lunch hour I often went to my car and wrote. And I wrote after ...

Introducing Myself - by Matthew Greene

I'm so excited to join these Criminal Minds! I tried to think of a more erudite first tine than that, but it never hurts to lead with a little enthusiasm. My name is Matthew, and I'm relatively new to the crime writing world. My first novel—There's No Murder Like Show Murder—came out last summer, and it's been a whirlwind debut year. During that time, I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the kindest, funniest, most generous folks I've ever known. That's crime writers for ya!

My background is ...

Flaw. Want. Need. (my not-so-secret recipe to writing)

Poppy teaching a crime fiction workshop at Logan North Library last week.
Craft - How do you come up with character personality sketches for your books - do you plunge in and let your characters develop on the page, use real life people as inspiration, turn to personality frameworks like the enneagram? Especially for those who've written a lot of previous books - how do you keep your new characters from looking and feeling like your old ones? 
Initially, I thought this was a hard question to answe...