Writer Unboxed

Another from Tom Bentley‘s stash. He’s gonna have to ante up another pile if I keep this up.

Don’t go here if you don’t want to get sucked in. I was just checking Tom’s link below, and had finished the entire article I landed on before I remembered that wasn’t what I was there for.

Writer Unboxed is not a single writer, but a site that hosts daily posts on issues of writing craft, the business and the vagaries of the writing life. The posters run the range from aspiring writers to authors with decades of experience and decades of publishing success. And the spirit of the site is open, generous and deep. (And they’ve even let me post a few times, despite my hairdo.)

p.s. Tom studiously and modestly avoided providing a link to his articles at Writer Unboxed so I’m doing it for him. Or to him.

p.p.s. I like Tom’s hair. Don’t you?

Outlining My Feelings On Outlining

A new list member asked about outlining; how to, more than why to (or why not to.)

Below is an enormous excerpt from my cute little book Getting Your Book Out of the Someday Box. While it describes my nonfiction writing process, it’s really an information-gathering-and-sorting process, which, in a way, is what outlining is about.

If this raises more questions than it answers, as I fear it will, ask and ye shall receive.

(more…)

What if I Want to Raise the Price Later?

The common perception is that a low price is hard to raise. It’s just not true.

It’s hard to resell the same thing to the same buyer at a higher price, sure. That’s why we whine about the price of gas, like that’s gonna do any good.

But if I sell my book to you for 99¢, and in a year when I’ve finished 5 of them and am famous for being Chandler reborn, do you really believe I can’t set the price of that selfsame book anywhere I like, and sell copies all day long to new readers?

In fact, would those early readers not tell everyone they know “I knew him when he was 99¢, and he’s worth every penny of ten bucks, go buy the book” ?