Yes, it’s totally not fair that New York is getting its third meet-up while Cincinnati hasn’t had its first. I agree. This one isn’t my fault, though. I’m going to be in NY for BEA next week, and a handful of bestselling authors have invited me to sign books with them at the W Hotel in Times Square. Tina Folson, Jasinda Wilder, Liliana Hart, and CJ Lyons will all be there. After the signing, we’re going to have a super-duper combined meet-up at a nearby bar.

If you want to join us, drop by the W between 5 and 7 on Saturday, June 1st. Bring books to sign or snag one there (I’m giving copies of WOOL away. Everyone will have books!) Then follow us to the meet-up afterward. It should be the biggest and baddest one yet.

BEA is mostly about showcasing upcoming releases and doing business between booksellers and publishers. Some bookstore owners do their catalog ordering right there on the floor. There are authors signing copies of books and stacks of advance copies and free books to whoever wants them. I’m expecting a little chaos.

I have a couple of talks planned and interviews scheduled. Most of my time will be spent at booth #966: Bestselling Indies. I got an invite a while back from a group of the bestselling authors in the business. Even though I sell a fraction of what they do, they took pity on me and asked if I wanted to go in on the booth with them. It’s going to be a chance to hang out with my heroes and trailblazers like Bella Andre, CJ Lyons, Barbara Freethy, Stephanie Bond, and Tina Folsom. I can’t wait!

I think Amazon’s servers are keeping tabs on my word count for DUST. To put some pressure on me to write faster, both WOOL and SHIFT are Kindle Daily Deals today. That lowers the price to $1.99 for each book. I’d call that a steal . . . except that both books are all over the torrentz and warez sites. Let’s just say it’s reasonably affordable.

And here’s the real trick: If you have the ebook, the full audiobook is only 99 cents! Which means you could get the full recording for three bucks. Insane in the membrane.

Maybe it’s a sign that I think my books are overpriced that I rarely urge people to buy them. But at $1.99, it feels like a good deal. And if you don’t own a Kindle, you can still read the thing on any device. There are apps for that. Or, since the book is DRM-free, convert it to whichever format you prefer. But get them while they’re cheap!

(You should also snag Stephanie Bond’s book, Our Husband, while it’s only 99 cents. Stephanie and I will be sharing a booth at BEA this year. She’s one of the bestselling and coolest indie authors around!)

I have a routine. Every single morning, I get out of bed, grab the New York Times off my driveway, and put on pants. Sometimes in that order. And then I sit down with a bowl of cereal and read a paper made out of actual paper. It’s my favorite thing in the world, something I got hooked on when I lived in New York and returned to while working in a bookstore. It feels quaint, sure, but it’s not like I’m trying to live in the past. That’s for the editors of the New York Times to do.

More specifically, it’s what Pamela Paul wants us to do. The new book editor has decided that e-book bestsellers will no longer appear in the print edition of the New York Times Book Review. The argument is that they belong online. I haven’t heard what this means for the combined list, but my guess is that it’ll stay combined (the first list and most important one right now jumbles the print and digital together).

Interestingly, when Simon & Schuster launched the print edition of WOOL, the New York Times refused to count the print and digital as the same book, which kept us off the combined list. That was how WOOL could show up on the hardback bestseller list, the paperback bestseller list, and the e-book bestseller list, but not on the combined. Three versions of the book hitting the charts in competition with one another but not on the main list. It shook my confidence in those lists in general. This move does as well. These lists should reflect what you, the reader, are . . . reading. Not what publishers want to see advertised. For that, it should cost them. You know, so the paper can stay in business.

The whole thing smacks of a child hiding their eyes, assuming if they can’t see something then it’s not there. Change scares the shit out of some people. The rest of us know it has never been a better time to be a reader or a writer. And if you see me with my pants off in the driveway, squatting over a copy of the New York Times, I’m not making a political statement. I’m just grabbing my favorite paper in the entire universe, and sometimes I get my morning routine all out of order.

Edit: @Swedgeland informed me via Twitter that this has an ugly precedent.

And then I gave a talk at my wife’s university, and the first question out of the audience of college freshmen was whether or not authors deliberately put in the metaphors and allegories they are expected to learn. I remembered being that student. I told him, “Hell yes it’s there on purpose.”

When I write, it has to be about something more than the plot and the characters and the conflict. What’s the central idea behind the story? What am I exploring? And let me be clear: I am exploring for my own benefit. These are the layers added to keep myself engaged. I don’t expect them to be uncovered or appreciated. In fact, I halfway expect them to annoy if spotted, these deliberate repetitions of theme and circumstance. But when you plan on doing seven or ten passes through the same work, you better make it entertaining for yourself. Otherwise, you’ll write a rough draft and hit “publish.” You will not have any desire to immerse yourself in the work any further. Well, that’s my approach; every author is different.

The interesting thing about these layers of meaning is that you rarely get to discuss them with anyone. You don’t want to spoil the work for those who haven’t read them. I don’t want to post anything about these themes because there are always new readers. So stop reading if you don’t want spoilers. They’re coming.

An Amazon review of THE WALK UP NAMELESS RIDGE showed me how important it can be to have this discussion. The reviewer enjoyed the work but felt as though she was missing some vital piece, some message. I responded by explaining what the story meant to me:

A man who secretly wishes others to die so that he can be the “first” to conquer a goal is saved by a climber who cares nothing for notoriety. Ziba is a diminutive woman who ends up being the bigger man (pardon a sexist phrase; it’s meant to be ironic).

What would our nameless protagonist have done if he’d found one of the earlier climbers dying on the summit? I can picture him shoving the body off and staggering back to camp a fingerless and footless hero. I can’t see him trying to save the man’s life and thereby creating a hero in another. To Ziba and Cardhill, saving the life is all that matters. And climbing the peak is all that matters. Being famous for anything never crosses their minds.

Mountaineering seems to me a good metaphor for ego. Not because climbers are egoistic, but because mountains are stand-ins for every sort of accomplishment. This, then, is a story with that framework but the opposite message. And the real protagonist is Ziba, not the nameless observer. It’s her story, slyly told by a witness. Why is she nearly invisible in the tale? Because that’s what the narrator’s audience does to her after he survives the climb. He tells them the true story, but all they hear is that he was the first to make it. They (we) care more about primacy and less about worth. In this way, the short story is also about us.

But wait . . . the best is yet to come. Someone is finally doing away with the ten minutes of instructions you get whenever you call a friend and get their voicemail. You know, you can press * to leave a callback number (don’t we all have call waiting by now?), or press 1 for more options, or listen for the beep, or oh-my-god-we-have-to-treat-every-caller-like-they’ve-never-called-anyone-before-in-their-lives . . . just-in-case.

Yeah, T-Mobile is going straight to the beep. Granted, as they say in the article, it’s easy to upheave an industry when you’re at the bottom. But still, I decided to reward these business decisions by taking my business elsewhere. Goodbye sucky carrier of old, I’m now with T-Mobile. And while I was worried about reception in my house (my sucky carrier gave me half a bar at home, dropped calls, and wouldn’t send me a tower to fix the problem), my new buddy at T-Mobile actually hops onto my WiFi for my calls, giving me perfect reception! (Like that $200 tower . . . but free).

It feels good to reward excellent business practices. It would be even better if everyone else on the planet jumped ship with me. Not because it would force the rest of the sucky carriers to treat us like human beings, but because I would never again have to listen to some voice tell me what to do after the beep. Just get me to the part where I leave a message. Not that anyone listens to them, of course. They just ring me back and say, “Hey, did you just call me?”

At least, that’s what I do.

Read the story. You’ll be glad you did.

I just saw these cartoons for the first time today. I asked Mike if I could share them on the blog, and when I messaged him I noticed he had already messaged me to see if I minded that he was selling prints. He assured me he was selling them at cost. I begged him to up the percentages a bit so he could get paid before I ordered my prints. Done and done. The postcards and prints are all extremely affordable, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Mike G. Burton Foundation er . . . wallet. Check them out here.

Another of his cartoons after the break! (And I hear he might have ideas for others).

Check out the list as it currently stands.

I find this incredibly inspiring. To put this into perspective, I have met quite a few New York Times bestselling authors who rely on their day jobs. While working at a bookstore in Boone, I worked dozens of author events and never met a full-time author. We hosted award winning authors who dreamed of the day they could quit their day jobs. The only full-time writer I met worked as a journalist to afford the ability to write his fiction; most taught creative writing at various universities. Read this chilling account to see how bad it was within my genre BEFORE the e-book revolution.

The estimate in 2006 was that 50 to 100 science fiction and fantasy authors subsisted solely from their craft. In 2009, I remember hearing estimates of 300-500 authors in all of fiction (a number Dean Wesley Smith has famously refuted, though not to my satisfaction). I’ve read elsewhere that it’s closer to a thousand authors within fiction. It’s a number many of us are dying to know. I was interested in this before I wrote my first book, as someone who dreamed of one day becoming a full-time writer.

Christina’s thread goes a long way toward uncovering the changing dynamics in the world of writing. In two days, her list has amassed nearly two hundred names. This must be a fraction of the real number. Many who qualify won’t have heard of this thread. But I hope they do. And I hope more and more daydreamers and daily writers (as I once was) see this list. These aren’t New York Times Bestsellers (not all of them, anyway). These are people who write every day, who attempt to hone their craft, who tell entertaining stories, and who work in their PJs.

Is it a dream to one day write fiction for a living?

Yes.

Is it a ton of hard work and thankless years of published obscurity?

Absolutely.

Is there some luck involved, some good fortune needed?

I certainly think so.

But is this list growing? And will it continue to grow?

You tell me. What did you write about today?

Now, this is only for those of you who own the Kindle edition of the book. But even if you don’t, that means you can get the ebook AND the unabridged audiobook for $6.98. That seems outright crazy to me. The newer Kindles will even read the work to you in the actor’s voice and highlight the words as she goes. It’s called Whispersync, and it’s badass. You have to see (and hear) it to appreciate it.

If you know anyone who hasn’t checked out the work because they don’t do ebooks, maybe recommend this little secret as a way of getting the audiobook for cheap. Oh, and this is a new recording that includes the chapter we added for the Random House edition. Also: SHIFT is now up for pre-order on Audible and should be out in a couple of weeks! You won’t believe Tim Reynolds’ reading. It’s AMAZING.

Hugh, your response is valuable to a lot of us. As you say, it’s definitely a good time to be a writer, and the opportunities are exciting. Can you offer your thoughts on how to deal with the feeling of needing to reinvent yourself as a writer. What I mean is, I imagine many aspiring writers have regular jobs and regular lives and writing is something done privately, very much on the side. Suddenly faced with the need/desire to get their work out there, they are faced with an uneasy disconnect between these two worlds–worried about criticism, or questions about their decision to share their art. It sounds ridiculous to think of being controlled by what others might think of you, but I think it’s a fear that sits just beneath the surface sabatoging dreams. Anyway, not sure if this is something you’ve dealt with, but curious how you might respond. Thanks!

That’s a great question, Eddy. I can only speak for myself, but the fear of publishing is almost crippling. I dread putting my work out there for others to critique. I always assume people will hate it, even as I pass my manuscript to my wife and mother for them to go over. When I first realized that strangers were reading my work, it kept me up at night. This is why you will never find me saying anything like: “My book is awesome; you should read it.” It’s not something I believe.

I don’t think this is true of all writers, but I don’t think it’s uncommon either. I meet writers all the time who know their work is great. Justin Cronin had that confidence about him, and deservedly so. Maybe getting your MFA and surviving the gauntlet of so much professorial and peer-based criticism hones your craft and your confidence. Many of us who are hobbyists don’t have that rigorous training. We go from writing on the side to announcing to friends and family that we’ve produced a novel. We go straight from this to making our works available to the world. There is very little build-up. There isn’t much time to come to grips with the idea of being a writer.

My method of bridging this gap was to start small and start with people I knew and trusted. I pounded out my first novel in very little time. When I realized I’d written a book — a lifelong dream — I began the process of convincing the world (and myself) that I was a writer. While editing my work to make it suitable for digestion, I started a blog, a website, a Twitter account, and later a Facebook page. I initially used these to write from the perspective of my main character, to share chapters and writing samples, and to make short stories and autobiographical accounts freely available. I also sent my manuscript to anyone who would read it. I didn’t concern myself with copyrights, the chance of ideas being stolen, the fear of giving away my work. I simply put myself out there in dribs and drabs, starting with the people closest to me.

Getting anyone to read my work was a chore. I think this helps. You combat the fear of people reading your stuff by the reality that nobody really wants to. This gets you begging them to give it a shot. “Here. It’s not very good. I have a lot of work to do on it. But what do you think?” You slowly get used to not hearing back from people, from hearing that it’s merely okay, and then — maybe — that they really liked something.

My first cousin Lisa was an early fan of the Molly books. She raved. She made her mother and friends read my manuscript, and they raved. This gave me the strength to get the work out there. However — and this has been the hardest thing to work on (I haven’t made much progress) — thinking that my work sucks makes it easy to discount the raves from those who think otherwise and even easier to believe the criticisms, however harsh. I don’t have good advice on how to handle this. The answer is probably to stop looking at what people say about your work, but this is difficult.

As painful as the process can be, having dreams stifled — as you point out in your question — is far worse. This is where we overcome our fears. For most of us who write, I think we can’t *not* write. It’s a compulsion. It starts from our being avid readers and wanting to concoct our own stories. We have a dream of writing a novel one day. And the high that comes from completing this journey, which anyone who has finished a book can attest to, is usually enough to move our baby out into the world.

What’s amazing is how quickly you will go from being terrified that anyone will see your words to convinced that nobody ever will, and from there to asking the next question every writer faces. What begins as crippling self-doubt and fear of exposure normally graduates to insecure self-promotion and the fear of obscurity. How to have your work discovered becomes the next major hurdle. You may loathe the day that your words are freely available to the eyes of strangers, but you’ll get used to the idea of putting yourself out there while nobody is really looking. So by the time they finally do, you’ll have braced your soul for impact. Besides, the worser danger is never giving yourself a chance to fail, however painful.

I’m Doug Rigsby and I came across your books on amazon looking for kindle science fiction books. My goal is to earn my living via writing science fiction novels. I’ve been writing in my spare time for the past 7 years. I’ve learned a tremdious amount during that time. I figure I’m within a year of launching my first ebook. Would you part with me some of your experiences? Things to do, not do? Developing a platform or online presence isn’t something I”m use to doing even though I’ve been in technology for the past 21 years. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.

Take Care,
Doug

Hey Doug, that sounds like a familiar dream! I always wanted to make it as a full time science fiction author. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned: It’s hard work; you really need to do it because you love it; and it’s never been a better time to be a writer.

The key is to get a lot of writing done. You need to produce many quality stories, not just put all your dreams into a single work. Form a habit of writing every day. Spend your free time when you aren’t writing dreaming up your next scene or plot. Obsess over your work. Read quality material in your spare time (or watch movies, TV shows, read comics, poetry, or preferably a mix of all these things).

Once you produce something you’re proud of, get some eyeballs on it. Join a writing group (in person is best; online if you must). Trade editing services with others. Or hire an editor if you can afford it. Get the best cover you can make or afford. Hire someone to format your ebook (Jason at Polgarus Studios does amazing work at rock bottom prices). And then make the work available to readers. Don’t sweat whether it takes off or not; this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Building a platform is also a slow and steady affair. Start while you’re writing. Craft a few short stories or scenes from your works and post them online. Introduce your characters. Write some backstory. It’s good practice, and it showcases what you can do. Tweet and Facebook and blog these things, even though nobody is listening. For the first few years, there’s a good chance no one will listen. But you’re writing; you’re practicing; you’re seeding the world with your craft. A blog needs content. It needs a history.

It’s actually better if you don’t take off for a few years or more. By the time you start gaining an audience, you’ll have tons of content on your blog, some practice with Twitter, and a back catalog of published works. If you devote time to it, even with a full time job and a family/household, you can produce two or three novels a year. In a few years, you might have ten or a dozen works out there. They will never go out of print, never grow stale, will always be there to become discovered.

Again, it’s important that you are writing because you enjoy it. If it makes you happy, you can’t lose. There’s the satisfaction of creating something that will outlive you. If it feels frustrating that you are writing these works and no one seems to be reading them, think of John Kennedy Toole, Stieg Larsson, Philip K. Dick, and the many others who never knew the impact they would eventually have. It might be delusional to think we could have the same impact, but there’s nothing wrong with daydreaming and staying positive if it helps you attack a hobby with cheer and gusto.

Another thing: Check out KBoards and read through the threads in the Writers’ Cafe. I’ve learned a lot from this forum and made some lasting friendships. Best of luck, man. I wish you every ounce of success. Most of all, I hope you stick with it because you enjoy it.

-Hugh

I’ve read a few articles on this, and it has shocked me to hear how brutal Marvel is with their negotiations. Not that I assume filmakers are or should be overly generous, but you see the quality of actor and director they hire, the ability to put together an ensemble like this, and you figure it comes from paying people what they deserve. Instead, you get the sense that, like every Bruce Banner to date, the actors are expendable. It’s the tights that matter.

Could we see an Avengers 2 that features a mostly-new cast? It would be weird, but I’m sure they could pull it off. It burst my bubble a little bit, as I would love nothing more than two more films with the existing crew and Joss at the helm. In fact, I would love to see an odd experiment performed. Offer two different ticket prices, one with an extra $2 tacked on that goes to the entire crew (not just the cast), evenly distributed. Every single penny makes it back to them, no administration costs. How many moviegoers would pay an extra $2 knowing where it would end up? As much as I complain about ticket prices and the cost of popcorn, I would do it gladly. Then again, I stayed through the credits of Iron Man 3 (totally worth it), and it looked like a few million people were involved in the making of the film. So I doubt the extra $10 in everyone’s pockets would be all that appreciated.