How to survive the end of the world

It’s been six months since the world ended. I spend almost all my time thinking about death, grief, and loss and worrying about the worst-case scenarios. I thought I would be prepared, but I wasn’t prepared. I immediately jumped into a thousand meetings that didn’t matter and filling my time with tons of projects that

The higher you soar

The higher you get in a profession, the harder it is to get to the next rung. So, if the “success” in a profession can be tracked from 1%-100%, with 100% being the most absurdly successful person in your industry, then it’s much easier to get from 80%-90%, than it is to get from 90-91%,

How to have success in any field

Success in any field comes down to a couple of things, and I’m going to give them to you because I’m sick of watching the SAME questions pop up on every forum I’m in, on repeat, every week. Are you ready? Here’s what it takes to have success in ANY field, or ANY platform, for

Keeping the creative spark alive

Since March, I have been on 81 podcasts, assuming I have not miscounted. In every one, they ask me how I became a writer, and I’ve answered a lot of different ways, but the one I keep coming back to is that I never knew that wasn’t what you were supposed to do. When I

10 tips for to survive being unemployed

I was once unemployed for 99 weeks during The Great Recession, where I maxed out literally ALL of the additional weeks of benefit Obama gave to people. So, I know something about unemployment, if nothing else. So, here goes some UNEMPLOYMENT tips, which is different from work at home tips.   1 – Pick a

Focus on a single genre?

Question from a forum, and my response: Q: How important do you think it is to stick to a narrow genre as a writer? I’m looking at the next book and, somewhat annoyingly, it seems that the idea that keeps bubbling to the surface is a comedy/romance. I’m cool with that but do you feel

Become the type of person who walks through the door

It’s weird to be on panels and have other panelists say “Wow, you know a lot about this topic. How did you learn so much?” Once I get over my assumption that they are mocking me and realize it’s a genuine compliment, I think about how many thousands of hours I spent studying publishing, and

So you want to make $50,000 as a writer…

So you want to make $50,000 as a writer…

Let’s say you would like to make $50,000 as a writer in order to lead a happy life. This is after expenses, which include editorial, marketing, and everything else needed to run your business. $50,000 is what goes into your personal bank account at the end of the year. If you are lucky, you can run

What can you do in five years?

Awwww, look at this tiny little baby budget from my first year in business. I found it randomly in my files while looking for something else. I think this is the first operational budget I ever created for Wannabe Press.    This is the budget I pitched to my wife to get her to agree

Nobody is going to find you

Nobody is going to find you, at least not at the beginning.   You have to find them.   It’s hard. Brutally hard.   It’s exhausting. It’s time-consuming. Most days it feels like a waste of time. Many days it is a waste of time. And you have to do it for years and years, bashing