Barry B. Longyear Webmansion

FOR WRITERS

About Comments

August 6, 2018

Tags: comments, advertising, reading services, self-worth, writing success, art

Recently I've been getting comments posted to this page that are not written in plain text English. They appear to be some of the incomprehensible gobbledygook one gets when opening a text document or image using the incorrect program. The Authors Guild Sitebuilder program requires that I accept a comment before it can be published. If I cannot understand your comment, I have not and will not approve it. Plain Text English, please.

Some of the problems might be attempting to paste in commercial or political ads incompatible with the AG Sitebuilder program. Doesn't work. I don't take ads in any event (except for my own stuff, curiously). I may put in a link for someone else's stuff if I find it valuable. but that has nothing to do with the For Writers page. If you have a comment regarding a particular article, have at it. If your comments have to do with advertising reading services, don't post them here. Such services cannot tell you what your art is supposed to be. Early on, when I was searching for some assurance that I was not wasting my time, I sent a piece to a reading service. The response I got back was that I should quit writing and take training in driving a truck. A word to the wise. Read More

Art, BS, Illness, Success & Rotten Apples

November 27, 2011

Tags: art, success, principles

I admit: There are times when I feel filled with the writing wisdom of the ages. All one need do is ask and I shall bless you with beginner, intermediate, or advanced sets of pearls from the fountainhead of literary profundity itself. At other times I feel so full of crap I could be the featured ingredient in a truck bomb of substantial proportions.

Observe: On October 23rd of this year, a shade more than a month ago, I blogged about defining literary success, and how defining it in terms of art, instead of money, is the path to true literary fulfillment, happiness, and sanity. So there I was, beginning a week ago until last night, on a hook because I was so frustrated that a certain book of mine is not a commercial $ucce$$.

"Hypocrite!" you shout from the battlements, or from your window if your castle has no battlements. Perhaps you only mutter it. In any event, Read More

3 Comments

Nobody's Buying! What Do I Do?

October 23, 2011

Tags: sales, art, business

Writing the best stories of which you are capable

The economy is in the crapper, the promised turnaround is out there somewhere hiding with "prosperity is just around the corner," losing pro ball players are getting multiple millions, and long-established professional writers are on seemingly permanent raman noodle diets. Editor George H. Scithers once told me that, in tough economic times, books and magazines have to compete with beer, and when it comes to a choice between beer and something to read, well, bet your investment dollars on Bud.

Where does that leave writers? Okay, the big-name blockbuster writers, the airport newsstand authors, those blessed by Imus and Oprah, might possibly see a slight decrease in sales. Perhaps they might have to put off the diamond-studded yacht until next year. They are not running from the wolves.

The so-called "midlist authors," however, are wolf meat. As it was explained to me once, "midlist author" is a term of sales art used by marketers to avoid identifying a publisher's other-than-bestselling-writers as "bottom list" or "bottom-of-the-barrel." The reality, however, is that the vast majority of professional freelance writers are "bottom list." And don't get your nose out of joint--I number myself among them. Read More

4 Comments

Comments

Oct 31, 2011 6:58 AM EDT

i read and agree with all of the above. but i recall my comment when my brother told me that, several years after i moved east from B.C., he still has people coming up to him and saying how much they miss me being gone from the local paper in Revelstoke. this after i went for years without a decent pay raise and having to scrape by and driving myself into the ground trying to cover all the council, school board, regional district, cops, court, sports, and whatever else was going on, while some jerk churned out a crap "sunday shopper" that competed with my paper for local ad revenue with its dirt-cheap rates and offered nothing in return but shoddy production and editorial filler using whatever press releases showed up in the mail from all over B.C.
my comment to my brother was, "It would have been nice to at least hear that appreciation BACK THEN!"
too little far too late.
i try to keep that in mind when deciding how to budget my book and magazine spending these days. when i can i buy from the little book stores and i try to at least make sure my favourite authors get first go.

- Gregg Chamberlain

Nov 19, 2011 4:22 PM EST

It's not just for writers but for every walk of life there are dwindling buyers for an over-supply of sellers. The top-echelon gets the majority of the attention, and the financial success that comes with that.

- http://igtsoft.com

Nov 20, 2011 5:13 AM EST

Interesting how many times I've had to read this installment of my own blog over the past few days. Artist or businessman; Success or failure. Appreciation or crickets. This mire of destructive pondering is bad enough when things are going well. In tough economic times, it moves danger into the redline. Add on top of that a fairly debilitating illness, and alarms go off all over the place.

In such times I really have to put together what those in Twelve Step programs call a "gratitude list." Instead of focusing on the lack of sales, the lack of mail, my guest-of-honor days are long past, and that no one is throwing a celebrity roast in my honor, I list the things I should be grateful for: I am still alive. Here and there published books of mine are found and purchased, I have food on the table and a roof over my head, and most important, I get to spend most of my time planning, researching, and writing stories. And every now and then a nice word comes in. A fellow emailed me about a year ago saying that he thought I "am one of the gods of science fiction." I wrote back that "god may not be dead, but he has a definite cough." His comment goes on the gratitude list. Even if he was lying his ass off, it was a nice thing to say.

- Barry B. Longyear

Jan 16, 2012 4:56 PM EST

Barry,

I just want to let you know that I love your work. Sea of Glass is among my favorite all time novels. Just read Hangman's Son, and loved it! Passed your work on to my gifted son, now 20, and he loves it too. Success can be measured in many ways. Many people quietly appreciate your work, and see the quality! I don't know if commercial success will find you (again), but you are deserving! Keep writing, master. I anxiously await your next book!

- Andrew Sanford

What About This Blog?

For writers & readers. For writers, this is stuff I've learned, am in the process of discovering, and stuff that is imparted to me by other writers. For readers, I believe the more one knows about what goes into the writing of a story, and into the life of being a writer, the more one appreciates an author's writings.

This is a two-way blog. Your comments on the blogs are welcome, as are your questions. Comments on blogs can be made directly on each blog entry. For questions and comments not related to specific blogs, use the eMail link below.

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Barry B Longyear

Barry B. Longyear is the first writer to win the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer all in the same year. In addition to his acclaimed Enemy Mine Series, his works include the Circus World and Infinity Hold series, Sea of Glass, other SF & fantasy novels, recovery and writing instruction works, and numerous short stories.

How to write the best stories of which you are capable