Johnny Murdoc

“Every pro writer knows a better writer who started out at the same time but you’ve never heard of them. Why? Because they gave up when things got hard. And you know what? Fuck ‘em. They didn’t have the guts to stick it out. If you want to be professional writer, get yourself a truck-full of guts and a shot glass of ego and maybe you’ll make it. You’re not dead until you decide you’re dead.”

– Richard Kadrey

I have enough work to do as a writer right now to fill a full-time job and then some. If only the pay were comparable to the workload. Things are going well for me, so I shouldn’t complain. My mind races a hundred-miles-a-minute, just thinking about all of the possibilities.

One of my next steps is to work as a publisher. Not just a self-publisher. There’s one project that’s been in the works for some time now that will kind of kick this off.

There are so many great writers in the world, but not all of them are publishers or designers. I don’t know if I’m lucky, or if I work harder, or if I just happen to have the right sets of interests that make it possible for me to create books and ebooks, from the writing to the design to the production. I’ve already proven that I can be a one-man book producer. Now I want to help others.

The other day, I learned about Bloody Pulp Books, Steven Niles’ publishing collaboration with graphic designer Alex Lodermeier:

Niles is probably best known for creating 30 Days of Night, the vampire comic, but he’s written an impressive collection of horror comics. One of his creations, Cal McDonald, a supernatural investigator, lives in both comics and prose stories, and one of Bloody Pulp Books missions is to release some of Niles’ prose stories in handsome editions.

I love this idea of creators releasing their own work, and doing the labor involved in making sure that it’s an attractive release, something more than just words on a page. Something worth having. I’ve talked about Amanda Palmer before; she’s another artist who is taking things into her own hands.

Chuck Wendig has another ebook of writing advice out. I’ve talked about Wendig before, and I continue to enjoy his writing, his books and advice, and his sense of humor. Aside from his recent post about believing in ghosts, Wendig has a no-nonsense approach to writing (and other things) and his blog and books are always worth a look. 500 Ways to Be a Better Writer is currently only 99 cents, but will go up to 2.99 in a few days.

Damn. Writing that last bit reminded me of a former quote of Wendig’s that just clarified some things for me.

Micro-pub. Yeah.

Stay hard.

Every once in awhile, you hear a word—a label—that rings true to you. Last night, I found that word in a Chuck Wendig essay, “The Trials and Tribulations of The Modern Day Writer:”

Micro-pub.

As a sidenote, I like that term. “Micro-pub.” Better than indie, which carries its own debate. Better than self-published, which is a term that sounds about as dismissive and masturbatory as a term can get. (“I just ‘self-published’ my seed into this Kleenex!”) Ahh, but micro-pub! One man publishing. Like micro-brew.

Yeah. I like it.

I will hereby refer to myself as a “micro-pub.”

At least until I forget I came up with that term, which is in about — *checks watch* — ten minutes.

-Chuck Wendig

I can’t add much to Wendig’s statement—he pretty much sums up exactly why I like the term—but it struck me at the right time, as I was laying in bed having spent hours doing last minute formatting on an ebook that should be coming out today but may be coming out tomorrow because there are just not enough hours in some days. Yesterday was one of those.

Right now, the ebook is complete but I’m waiting for Amazon and Barnes and Noble to populate it on their sites before I launch it. That may be today, but it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be tomorrow. Hopefully this disappoints a few of you, but hopefully it doesn’t disappoint you too much.

This will teach me to announce ebook release dates ahead of time!

I’m about 3/4 of the way through Wendig’s book, Revenge of the Penmonkey. It’s well-worth the $2.99, by the way. I really dig his (oft times filthy and profane) practical approach to discussing writing and publishing. Some people approach writing as too much of an artform, but Wendig is realistic about both what he’s doing and his place in the writing hierarchy. He’s smart, and he avoids a lot of the politicking around the publishing industry and the best path for writers to take.

I’ve long given up the bullshit of “I don’t read books about writing,” because, really, how else are you going to learn? I write well, but I can always write better, and I can always learn from another writer’s perspective and experience.

I’m spending my morning working on a new ebook and a new mailing list. I’m pretty excited about the ebook. Each of the stories in it were originally published in an anthology or magazine. I don’t value my “published” work over my “unpublished” work, because those are largely arbitrary designations considering the state of gay erotica publishing, but I do know that these four stories are really damn strong. It will be nice to have the four of them collected and helping me make more money on them.

The mailing list will be solely for announcing new ebooks, stories and essays, deals on ebooks, etc… You can sign up in the right hand column of this site, or right here:

I promise not to span you or abuse your email addresses for nefarious purposes. If you’d signed up on my previous list, you’ll be included. Also, if you’ve provided your email to me when purchasing books, you’ll be added. Don’t worry. You can always remove yourself later.

Writer Chuck Wendig (whose blog I don’t read but I probably should because people I follow are constantly linking to great posts and essays he writes, like this one on 25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing) is releasing a new ebook, and he has a handful of awesome desktop images to help him promote the book, like the following one:

You can access the full-size options at his website by clicking the image above.

I almost feel bad for writing this next bit, as it feels a bit like picking on one of my favorite writers. And don’t get me wrong, Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. However, his new ebook, Mile 81, has some really fucking terrible writing in it. While the story has some genuinely creepy moments in it, and I’m not opposed to the basic concept of King writing about another haunted car (because, honestly, From a Buick 8 is one of my favorite King books, as is Christine), it has a handful of things that just rip you right out of the story. Namely, a scene featuring a state trooper who is playing on his iPad while sitting on the side of the road:

“He was playing a Scrabble-like game called Words with Friends, his Internet connection provided by AT&T.”

Are you fucking kidding me? Product placement in the middle of a story? I was suspicious of King’s inclusion of Bing in a previous novella, but calling out AT&T as an Internet provider has no place in the story. Even if King receives no compensation for dropping these mentions (and I can certainly understand occasional references to branded objects), noting the ISP that the trooper is using is just bad writing.

And now, a video of a young, fit guy stretching in the nude:
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