December 16, 2014 Leave a Comment

The Joys of Being an Indie Author-Entrepreneur

A New Tradition: Patria Christmas Stories

Yesterday afternoon I was busy preparing for the submission of the next installment in my children’s Kingdom of Patria series, a Christmas novella entitled The Chronicles of Oliver Stoop, Squire Second Class: The Quest for Clodnus’s Collectibles. (Absorbed with this novella is where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks.) As I type this, the book has not yet been green-lit for sale on Createspace and Amazon, but I expect confirmation any time now. Inspired by Dickens, I have long wanted to inaugurate a tradition of Patria Christmas stories, and am gratified that I’ve finally begun to do so. I don’t know if I will publish a Patria novella every Christmas, but at the same time I don’t want this book to be a one-off project.

The original idea was to write something in the neighborhood of 12,000-15,000 words. In the end it weighed in at over 16,000, which seems to be just the right length for such a thing. While not nearly the length of a Patria novel, it’s long enough to engage a child for a good part of a lazy afternoon before the fire over the Christmas holiday.

It dawned on me while writing the novella that I had never written a work of fiction of this length before. I find that I like this length. With my high school English classes I’ve been reading an essay by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which Poe, in the context of discussing the origin of his famous poem, “The Raven,” explains how his first consideration in writing the poem had nothing to do with its theme, but with its length. He wanted to write a poem that his audience could read in one sitting, because he believed that was necessary for the poem to achieve maximum emotional impact. Granting that literary works of different lengths will pack different emotional punches, I agree with Poe that there is a distinct experience that comes with reading a work in one sitting, including a novella.

The Joys of Being an Indie Author-Entrepreneur

I was saying to someone just yesterday: I am not an ideologue when it comes to indie publishing. There are many ways to skin the proverbial mole and I remain open to all opportunities and adventures. But today I come to praise the joys of being an indie-entrepreneur. Which brings me back to yesterday afternoon.

At one point in the proceedings I was doing some 11th-hour work on both the final PDF of the interior design of the book and the final PDF of the cover design (see above). I was triangulating with two others: Ted Schluenderfritz, the illustrator who has been doing most of the art for the books and kingdomofpatria.com since the launch of Trojan Tub Entertainment in 2011, and Melanie Stephens, who has designed the interiors for all three Patria print books. As Melanie is also an illustrator, she’s also contributed some wonderful drawings and other creative elements to Stoop of Mastodon Meadow and, now, The Quest for Clodnus’s Collectibles. By mid-afternoon there were still some of Melanie’s illustrations for me to approve, some last edits to make of the text, some back-and-forth between me and Ted on aspects of the back cover design. The emails were flowing freely. I had set a deadline for submission to Createspace by close of business. But what struck me at one point during all of this creative flurry was, simply this:

That, with assists from two talented illustrators, I was able to sit in my rocking chair more or less at my ease, sip some free-range chai tea, and produce a highly attractive book which I will soon be taking to market. I was busy no doubt, but I was also stirring some other pots while minding the Patria production line. My hardest work was already done, of course, but still: how wonderful and joyous it is in our digital age to be able to pick oneself, create one’s best work, and ship it–all from the laptop sitting on one’s lap.

And now, from that same laptop, I am able to announce this good news to fans of the series. Never has it been easier to become an author–provided one is committed, as I happily am, to taking up the challenge of combining the creative work with the business of being an entrepreneur.

So what are you waiting for? Do you have a book inside you that you are eager to share with the world?Are you intrigued by the idea of building a business around your writing? The joys of being an indie author-entrepreneur can be yours with extraordinarily little inconvenience. Just pour yourself and cup of free-range chai tea and go to it.

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur, Kingdom of Patria Series Tagged: , ,
December 1, 2014 Leave a Comment

Exclusively for Subscribers: FREE Consulting

What are your writing plans for 2015? 

Looking to make a fresh start on an old project, or to begin something entirely new that you’ve been waiting to launch for some time? 

Or maybe you haven’t yet given a thought to 2015…?

For reasons both liturgical and professional, I am starting my 2015 business planning today. This is, after all, the beginning of a new year according to the Christian liturgical calendar. But I also want to use this month of December to engage in a much deeper reflection about the direction of my writing and of my business than I customarily do in the first few hours of January 1.

I would love it if you would join me–sharing your goals, projects, dreams, and links to helpful articles in the com boxes below.

And by way of helping you achieve your goals, today I’m offering, exclusively to new subscribers to The Comic Muse Email Newsletter, ONE FREE HOUR OF CONSULTING.

We can use this hour however you would like. We could–

  • Brainstorm a new project
  • Critique the direction of a current project
  • Get you introduced to the world of indie publishing
  • Chart some worthy, doable goals for 2015

The choice is yours.

To win this FREE HOUR OF CONSULTING, all you have to do is be the first one after I publish this post today to subscribe to The Comic Muse Email Newsletter.

That’s it. That’s all you have to do.

Can’t beat that on a CyberMonday.

In The Comic Muse Email Newsletter, which wings its way into your email Inbox absolutely free some 2-3 times per month, you’ll receive

  • Inspiration for your writing career
  • Bonus extras on the craft of storytelling not available on danielmcinerny.com
  • Links to all sorts of helpful writing articles and books
  • Behind-the-scenes access to what’s going on at Daniel McInerny Productions
  • More special offers of consulting for writers

What’s more, by subscribing to my newsletter you’ll also receive a free digital copy of my dystopian romance, “The Bureau of Myths.”

So don’t delay! Subscribe to The Comic Muse Email Newsletter right now!

Direct Me to the Muse!
Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur, On Being a Writer, Productivity, The Craft of Fiction Tagged: , ,
July 10, 2014 1 Comment

Digital Platforms for Writers: A Master Class with J.K. Rowling

The other day in the New Republic Esther Breger proclaimed J.K Rowling’s latest short story, the first glimpse she has given us of Harry Potter since the publication of Deathly Hallows seven summers ago, a “marketing scam.” This is utterly to misunderstand what savvy authors of fiction are trying to do today in building digital platforms for their writing.

Yes, Rowling has proved that she has a keen marketing sense. Anyone smart enough to retain the digital rights to her books, as she did, deserves an A-double-plus in 21st-century Digital Publishing. But what Berger fails to appreciate is the way in which Rowling’s story–a vignette, really, written from the point of view of gossip columnist Rita Skeeter, about the reunion of members of Dumbledore’s Army at the 2014 Quidditch World Cup–is part of an entire world that Rowling has been building now for at least two years on Pottermore, an immersive, RPG (role-playing game) experience for Potter fans. Rowling has written a good deal of other original material for Pottermore in the past couple of years. The story she published the other day is unique only in that Harry Potter himself features in it. And sure, Rowling looked to exploit as much as possible the buzz such a story would create. But that doesn’t make the story a “marketing scam.” This new story is not an isolated scrap of meat intended to stir the blood of Potter fans and get them to buy more Potter-themed stuff (again, not that selling stuff is not part of Rowling’s equation). It is, rather, one more entry in a much larger online experience.

Pottermore, in fact, sets the gold standard, at least in the children’s market, for digital platforms for writers. Drawing one’s audience deeper into one’s fictional world with short pieces, if only vignettes and backstory, is a key strategy that authors are using both to develop their worlds and meet the demands of their audience. This isn’t scamming anybody; this is actually a fun and useful way to write and to engage with one’s readers.

Any author, traditionally or self-published, should take Pottermore as a master class in how to build a 21st-century digital platform. Those looking for a more introductory lesson should go here.

 

The image above is reproduced courtesy of Pottermore.

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur, On Being a Writer Tagged: , , , , , , ,
July 1, 2014 2 Comments

Writing Goals and Writing Tasks

As opposed to a set of vague and far-reaching goals and ambitions (“I’d like to write a novel that will sell a gajillion copies!”), good execution depends upon linking goals to a small set of highly-specific, well-defined tasks with a clear idea of the means necessary to accomplish them (“I’m going to write 1,000 words today on the train in my moleskine notebook because I’m going to be away from my laptop.”).

Thus as I look ahead into the second half of 2014 I’m going to resist making a list of all the things I would love to write in the coming months. Of course I would love to write a novel, a screenplay, a stage play, short audio plays, a new Patria novel, etc. etc. It’s all too easy to make such lists, and even easier to forget all about them. So I’m going to concentrate simply on this month of July in which I would like to finish 1 literary short story as well as write no less than 20,000 words toward the next Kingdom of Patria novel. Breaking these goals down into daily tasks looks like:

  • no less than 500 words per writing day toward a literary short story, working every other writing day until the draft is done; then into revision mode
  • no less than 800 words per day toward next Kingdom of Patria novel

On any given day, of course, these tasks will have to be broken down into even smaller ones: “Given that I finished the draft of the short story yesterday, I’m going to let it “cool” for a few days while I devote 1,000+ words per day to the Patria novel.” (I hope this day comes soon!)

How, then, are you distinguishing between writing goals and writing tasks?

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur, On Being a Writer Tagged: , , ,
June 30, 2014 1 Comment

Halftime! So How is My Writing Year Going?

On January 1st of this year I published this post with my writing resolutions for 2014. Today is June 30, the halfway point in the year, so it’s a good time to assess how well I’m doing following through on my resolutions.

Where I’ve Failed

In the January 1 post I listed several projects I aimed to pursue. My Number 1 goal was to create more content. The first item on the list was a trio of comic mysteries based upon characters in my novel, High Concepts. I spent a lot of time working on these stories in the first and second quarters of the year, completing drafts of the first two and parts of two different approaches to the third story. In the end, and for more than one reason, I just wasn’t happy with how things were going and ultimately decided not to go forward with them. Such dead-ends are natural enough, I suppose, but I can’t help feeling frustrated with all the (apparently) wasted time and effort. Sometimes I think I depend too much on feeling in assessing whether a story is working or not. Yet at the same time, I felt there was something forced in my approach to these stories. Maybe in time I will return to them but I have no plans to do so at present.

In other project abandonment news, I also decided to abandon a prequel to my Kingdom of Patria children’s series which I spent a good deal of effort on in 2013. It was a good decision in the end, but again, I’m frustrated by the time and energy lost.

I further dabbled in writing a one-act play for audio but did not commit to it decisively enough.

Generally, I change my mind overmuch about what projects I will pursue. On my January 1 list, for example, was a novel for adults. I flirted with a beginning of such a project but without real commitment. I can see in my datebook for May 23 a fresh list of new projects, a list I had abandoned almost as soon as I had written it down.

So clearly one of my biggest failures is being all over the place in terms of the project(s) I’m absolutely committed to.

In the second quarter of 2014 I also was not as consistent as I would like to have been in writing every day. I need to recommit to that goal today. This postfrom The Daily Beast, “How I Wrote 400K Words in A Year,” as well as this post on my New Year’s Writing Regimen, serve as a good, swift kick in the pants.

Where I’ve Succeeded

a. Works Published

On April 23 I published a play, The Actor. Writing drama was one of chief goals for 2014.

On June 16 I published a post-apocalyptic short story with a comic-romantic twist, “The Bureau of Myths.”

b. Developing My Digital Platform at danielmcinerny.com

On May 12 I committed to blogging at danielmcinerny.com every day. While I haven’t posted absolutely every day since then, I have posted much more regularly and I’m glad to report that the number of page views on the site has doubled from May to June. My email subscriber list has also been increasing more regularly in the last several weeks. The list receives an email newsletter from me once per month. (If you’d like to join the list, just go to the email signup form on the homepage of danielmcinerny.com.) In January I thought I would also develop a podcast but that idea is on hold for the present.

c. Developing My Platform as a Public Speaker

On May 17 I spoke at the IHM Maryland Homeschooling and Parent Conference in Mt. Airy, Maryland: “Children’s Literature, Catholicism, and the Golden World.”

On June 20 I spoke at the IHM National Homeschooling and Parent Conference in Fredericksburg, Virginia: a revised version of the Maryland talk. At both conferences Trojan Tub Entertainment maintained a booth in the vendors’ area. I sold a good number of books at the Fredericksburg conference, especially, which has helped make June 2014 my biggest sales month ever across all my titles.

In 2014 I’ve also appeared on Sheila Liaugminas’s radio program, “A Closer Look,” twice (the first having to do with The Actor and the second having to do with children’s literature and my Kingdom of Patria series), and on my friend Karen Hornsby’s radio program, “Wake Up! Lousiana” twice.

I have one speaking engagement scheduled for October at Villanova University. In the fall I plan on pursuing many more readings at schools and public libraries.

Where I’ve Changed My Mind

In January this site was still called The Comic Muse, but it wasn’t long before I decided that my own name was a better title for my platform and so I changed the name and asked my illustrator, Ted Schluenderfritz, to revise the banner on the site accordingly.

Also, in January I was looking to make what is now danielmcinerny.com the hub of an online community of Catholic writers. Though I am happy to identify myself as a Catholic author and am delighted by the presence of Catholic writers who have joined my subscriber list, I changed my mind about how I want to profile my platform. Now I’m interested in taking an approach to writing that is certainly inspired by the Catholic tradition but which is not exclusively focused on explicitly Catholic things. This is itself a Catholic position. For given a Catholic understanding of the goodness of the natural order, it makes perfect sense that a concern with the natural principles of storytelling will reflect what is ultimately a Catholic understanding of the good, the true, and the beautiful. This doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes blog about Catholic things or that my writing doesn’t reflect my beliefs. It’s simply that I want to find as much common ground with non-Catholic writers and even non-religious writers as I can.

Tomorrow I’ll let you know how I plan to proceed in the second half of 2014.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear how your own writing year is going. What are your successes and failures? How have you changed course? What have you learned?

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur, On Being a Writer Tagged: , , , , , , ,
June 3, 2014 Leave a Comment

Self-publishing is the Future of Literary Fiction

In which I concur with Hugh Howey.

Because the traditional publishing industry is now dominated by a handful of big houses characterized by an increasing homogeneity of literary sensibility that is less and less open to taking risks both literary and financial.

Because there is such a glut on the traditional literary fiction market that the odds of getting picked by a New York agent and publisher have become astronomically high.

Because the counter-argument, “Good writing will always find a publisher,” presupposes that we have a broadly shared cultural conception of what constitutes good writing–which very arguably we do not.

Because more and more writers are going to realize that these traditional gatekeepers are not necessary in order for them to get their work in front of an audience. Yes, these writers will feel the burden of having to build an editorial team that will challenge them in the name of excellence so that the ease of self-publishing does not allow them to become artistically complacent. They will feel the burden of having to publicize their work themselves. But they will also be energized by being able to pick themselves and by being able to offer their literary gifts directly to the world.

Because, as Howey argues, the self-publishing stigma is quickly becoming vieux jeu, so that more and more authors will begin to regard self-publishing as the purer medium of expression. “No tampering with style or voice.”

Because more and more writers are going to wake up to the fact that the boutique presses that publish a lot of literary fiction are not that different from a self-publisher with a well-organized and savvy team (editor, cover designer, etc.).

Because our reading culture is trending toward digital and smart writers will realize there’s no stopping the coming of the railroad.

Because in the short-term future more and more established and celebrated literary writers, like David Mamet, are going to self-publish at least some of their work and in so doing inspire less established authors to follow suit.

Because authors of literary fiction will begin to realize that it’s very plausible, if they are good and they can generate buzz, that they can make real money as self-publishers.

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur Tagged: , , , , ,
May 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

The Question Nobody Asked Me

“Who published your book?”

Interestingly, no one asked me this question at my appearance Saturday at a homeschooling conference where I gave a talk on children’s literature and maintained a vendor table for my Kingdom of Patria series. No one asked the question simply because no one cared. It wasn’t relevant. The fact that I had been invited to speak at the conference had already created an atmosphere of trust around me and my work, and trust is above all what an author wants to inspire in his or her audience.

The traditionally published author seeks to generate trust with, say, the Scholastic or Walden Pond Press logo on the back of his book. The indie author needs to generate trust in other ways, but the point is that trust can be generated independently of a big name publisher.

How?

Through, for example, public speaking, a blog, positive reviews, professional production standards, consistent and friendly outreach to one’s readers (via email and a newsletter), and the much-coveted word of mouth.

Trust, not a major imprint, is what matters most between author and audience. And trust scales virtually to infinity.


So what are you doing today to earn trust?

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur Tagged: , , ,
January 8, 2014 1 Comment

The New Year’s Writing Regimen

Here in the fresh, frigid air of the New Year I’m working on building up my writing muscles. The analogy to running or any other exercise regimen is exact. You begin with muscles and willpower flaccid. Stretching is required (for me, that’s “Morning Pages”). Then you plunge in. And it hurts. And there’s resistance, physical and mental. But you push through the wall. Rinse and repeat. And the more you repeat, the easier it becomes. Muscles and willpower pump up. And you begin to experience the athlete’s “high,” which energizes you further.

Another analogy I like, appropriate to the season, is that of the fire. The more logs you toss into the flames in the fireplace, the more heat you’ll generate. A log = your writing stint, the prime time of original composition. But don’t discount the value of adding kindling in the between times: the short burst, if only a minute or two, of note-taking, brainstorming, revising, doodling. Don’t let the fire die out.

You have to keep pushing yourself, too, just as in the gym. At the beginning, 500 words might seem like Everest. But you have to consistently set higher goals. Make a game of it. “500 words is my goal for today, but I’m going to try and write them in just half an hour, or 45 minutes.”

Speed is not an enemy of creativity, at least at certain stages of the process. I’m trying to write faster on the first draft. Getting the stuff down before the Internal Editor walks in, grumpy and underslept, to over-analyze and criticize every thought and sentence. Writing fast seems to keep him on the other side of the locked door. The first draft is not the time for his contributions.

The opposite advice holds, however, when it comes to the companion activity of the writer’s life: reading. In his blog post this morning Seth Godin speaks of tl;dr, internet lingo for “too long, didn’t read.” That seems to sum up my response to most of what I find online. There’s too much stuff out there, even just counting the stuff I’m interested in, and I can’t possibly get to it all. The temptation is to flit like a magpie from branch to branch, sniffing and pecking at lots of different things, but learning nothing. “Limit the inbound to what’s important,” suggests Godin, “not what’s shiny or urgent and silly.” That requires rigorous habits of selection and attention, and a kind of mortification regarding digital pap, email checking, and mindless social networking.

This is not even to mention the supreme importance of reading slowly offline. This piece by author David Mikics is a salutary reminder of that.

The photograph above is reproduced courtesy of Elizabeth Lloyd at Flickr Creative Commons under the following license.

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
November 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

True Confessions of a Self-Publishing Author

And here’s Part 2 of my talk to the Annapolis Chapter of the Maryland Writer’s Association, in which I get into more of the practical details of self-publishing and marketing one’s books.

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur Tagged: , , , ,
November 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

Writing High Comedy in an Age of Irony

This is Part 1 of a talk I gave last week (November 20, 2013), to the Annapolis Chapter of the Maryland Writer’s Association. What a delightful evening I had with this group!

Filed Under: Indie Author-Entrepreneur Tagged: , , , , ,
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