Tag Archives: writing business

Working Alone: A DIY/Indie Creative’s Lot in Life

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“Too many cooks spoil the dish.” Creatives instinctively know the truthfulness of this. Wisely, though lonely, they squirrel themselves away in order to focus on the vision. Sometimes the loneliness can be overwhelming and we cry out, “Where, oh where, is anybody who cares?” Personally? I love working within a team environment. It’s nice to have people with whom to celebrate the successful conclusion to a project. As a DIY/Indie creative, though, I find most of my work begins, continues, and ends alone. For my books and music — sure, of course — editors, musicians, singers, production, and so forth, come into play. But these are usually work for hire whose only interest in the project is to do a thing for this amount of money. In other words, they are not part of the project as a stakeholder. And nothing wrong with that. I do the same thing when I Continue reading Working Alone: A DIY/Indie Creative’s Lot in Life→

Condo Log: 6790-1225

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START: Condo Log. Star Date: 6790-1225 (06:05 Post Meridian Earth-time) Mother ship’s journey through the year has been successful. Though mostly friendlies have been encountered, some protective measures were needed for other interactions with inhabitants met on the journey. The Team met with unexpected delays. This captain for one had her foot broken when a friendly was thrown onto it. A six-inch steel pipe of a high-heel shoe landed square on it and — crack! — broke right there. Other members of the team were attacked in various fashions as well — we lost a few, sad days, and some were injured. We had several others join us on the journey, though, thus necessitating realigning of time allotments. But, as all excellent teams do, they did not quit, they did not cry Uncle. There was no whining. Shoulder to the wheel, and push. Here we are almost 365 days out and infinity has been challenged. Continue reading Condo Log: 6790-1225→

Put Your Foot In It: Part Two

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I know a story about a man who does not know I know this about him. I shall not name him nor his industry other than to say it isn’t entertainment related in any way, shape, form, or fashion. The previous blog (Put Your Foot In It: Part One) set the premise for this narrative. I’ll call the man Wesley, though that is not his name. (It is my daddy’s name, though, so I like it.) Wesley was a young man whose father was very well known and had made plenty of money in Industry A. Wesley grew up in that business, but decided he wanted to be in Industry B. He went for it whole hog, too. He bought an existing business that was in a wee bit of trouble and decided, like all people do who have never been in a particular business before, that he had it Continue reading Put Your Foot In It: Part Two→

Condo Log. Star Date: 6790-0101

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START: Condo Log. Star Date: 6790-0101 (11:02 Ante Meridian Earth-time) Mother ship launch successful. Broke free from gravity forty minutes after zero hour. Future readers of this Condo Log will conclude correctly: Zero hour was at nine ante meridian. (If a reader did not conclude this, then I must wonder if they are familiar with music at all. But I shall save that for private musings in my second memoir.) The Team worked hard in Star Date 6789. There were glitches, missed steps, and stumbles. But, as all excellent teams do, they did not quit, they did not cry Uncle. Instead, they worked hard to put their ship in order, outfit it for the journey, and got themselves in prime shape ready to go to infinity and (dare I say it?) beyond in the next 365 days. But what will by our infinity? What will be our beyond? As my Continue reading Condo Log. Star Date: 6790-0101→

The Curse of the Multi-Level Marketing Mentality

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“With this system and these products, you too can be [fill in the blank].” “In this business you will meet fine people who want you to be successful.” Every multi-level marketing company there is uses the exact same key phrases when it comes to enticing you to grow your own business, develop a strong downline, make lifelong and true friends, and become financially independent. The above are but two. Through the years I’ve looked at several of those whose products I loved. But the interesting thing is this: None of the business models actually work for the majority of those involved. You see, there’s all that fine print that somehow you didn’t see when you signed up. I truly wanted only to sell the products. When I came up with interesting and profitable ways to do it, I was told I couldn’t, that it “wasn’t allowed.” Oh, that fine print Continue reading The Curse of the Multi-Level Marketing Mentality→

So, I did nothing.

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“I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing.” Have you ever heard that? Forbes magazine just had an article about that concerning the Madeline books. Remember those? The cute little Parisian girl and her adventures? I loved those. But the author died many years ago and left everything to his wife and daughter. The wife is now dead. The daughter had three sons and they all own little bits of this and that and now… Oh, it’s a mess. I won’t even go into it, but you can read all about it here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/11/27/madeline-and-the-family-business-2/ The daughter said she doesn’t know what to do, so she’s done nothing. And the problem is getting worse because of her inaction. How many of us live like that every day. We are confronted with something confusing on which we must decide, but because we are overwhelmed with that lack of understanding, we Continue reading So, I did nothing.→

Publishers and Agents aren’t Completely at Fault

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Okay. So I ragged on publishers and agents. And it’s all true what I said. But now I shall take their side. What is it they see coming at them? I’ll tell you: A river of substandard material, that’s what. And by substandard, I don’t mean publishers and agents say the writing is brilliant but they disagree with the content. No, no, no. Let me be clear about this. I mean the writing stinks. I should know. I’ve turned down editing gigs because authors gave no thought to the reader and what they sent me was so bad they could not afford for me to fix it. And I couldn’t fix it without rewriting it because that’s how badly thought was given to it. And I couldn’t rewrite it because I couldn’t figure out what it was about. Why are we all doing this? To sell a book. Who buys Continue reading Publishers and Agents aren’t Completely at Fault→