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- [DIGEST] It's Christmas Tim...
[DIGEST] It's Christmas Tim...
Your weekly stackable roundup
Hi friends,
It’s almost time for Christmas, which means I get a chance to talk about one of my favorite holiday characters, Christmas Tim. Oh, you don’t know Christmas Tim? I’m not surprised. While most children are told stories of Santa, Rudolph, Mrs. Claus, and even Santa Elf, nobody pays any mind to ole Christmas Tim.
And that’s just the way Tim likes it. They don’t need a fuss to be made about them. They’re happy to do their work in the background, but who do you think coordinates all those shipping routes and logs the flight plans so Santa doesn’t crash into a plane? Who do you think is responsible for sourcing packaging and making sure materials arrive in Santa’s factory on time? Do you think Santa gives a flying fart about a 10% rise in the cost of steel in Japan?
No. That’s Christmas Tim’s job, the unsung hero of the North Pole.
So, on this festive weekend, I salute you Christmas Tim, and all the millions of Tims out there working for clueless old men who take all the credit and work you too hard, just so they can eat cookies all day and take a trip around the world once a year off the sweat of your brow.
If you want to share how you are doing this week, then there are two ways to interact with this post.
1 - If you don’t want to say anything, or bristle at identifying yourself, then you can reply with this nifty poll.
2 - If you’re feeling very brave, then reply below and tell us how you are doing right now on a scale from 1-5.
This month was supposed to be restive, but instead it’s been a roller coaster of emotions. My heart rate has been going wild. Maybe next week will be restorative since I don’t have to travel. At least I don’t feel worse this week, but I don’t feel better. 2.5
WHAT WE WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I crossposted an article I wrote for our Author Ecosystems Substack about conventions, conferences, and book signings for every Author Ecosystem
I started my career at shows, and it's how I mainly built my business for the first several years. It's how I learned about my audience and how I kept myself going in the dark times.
also wrote an article for us about the movie May December, about the Age Gap trope.
Finally, makes his Author Stack debut with a post about embracing your inner uniqueness and how we're entering the age of the iconoclast writer. If you're tired of the rapid-release book-publishing game, he shows you another way.
What a convoluted mess. All I wanted was for Benny’s people to call off the hit on me, and now I was running around Washington State like a chicken with my head cut off, trying desperately to do what? Find a murderer? I wasn’t an investigator. Nowhere close to it, and yet—here I was, sitting in front of a stupid warehouse, waiting for somebody to come that I could interrogate and hopefully, mercifully, get a lead on finding the blonde from the photo. Yes, Ollie, you really stepped in it. Just remember, five million dollars are waiting for you at the end of this—assuming you get to the end of this.
I didn’t love stake-out work, but it was an essential component of any good investigation. Still, in desperate times we took desperate measures, and these were desperate times, with five million dollars on the line.
When I reached the warehouse, the fire had been quelled into a smoking ember. Fire trucks and ambulances were beginning to disburse, leaving only the police officers at the scene. By now, they would have found out who owned the lease to the building. If my hunch was correct, they would run into a dead-end, as the individual likely paid in cash under the table to remain anonymous.
That didn’t change the fact, though, that somebody worked in that warehouse, and eventually, they would return, maybe tonight, maybe tomo—oh, that looks like an interesting candidate.
All chapters of The Godsverse Chronicles are now free for all subscribers. You can read the whole series from the beginning right here.
You still only get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog by becoming a paid member. You can start your membership with a 7-day free trial.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME THIS WEEK: Just one interview this week…while I’m supposed to be on break…but I’m busier than when I’m busy.
WRITERS AT WORK: I interviewed with about direct sales and how to build an author ecosystem that can sustain you. LISTEN
UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’m releasing an article all about how to print an offset run of books. I enlisted the help of my friend and long-time printer rep Lily Wong to answer some questions as I dive deep into how to print books for fun and profit.
I’ve always been fascinated with printing books. Even before I started printing them myself, back before I even considered myself a writer, I loved the feel and smell of books. So, when I made making books my profession, I dug in deep on the best ways to print books.
For years, I would try to talk to authors about how to print books in more economical, and more beautiful, ways, but my enthusiasm fell flat. Nobody cared. Why would you print and store books if Amazon could just print and deliver books whenever somebody ordered one?
With the recent uptick in interest regarding direct sales, people are finally catching on to all the different ways that producing beautiful books can be a boon to your author business. Besides, it’s fun to create something beautiful, especially when you have fans who appreciate the effort.
I’ve been printing books since before companies like Bookvault and 48 Hour Books significantly expanded what you could do with print-on-demand books, back when the only economical way to create hardcover books was to print 1,000+ copies.
ROUNDUP: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week.
Business-y:
points out the elephant in the room, shows new data that Waymo crashes a lot less than human drivers, and achieves a soft landing.
haunts an AI world, chats about churn, and connects art and money laundering.
revisits the biggest business lessons of 2023, is beaten down by software beating the world, and is mystified by the production of success.
introduces David Beckham to Ted Lasso, predicts what 2024 will bring for the world of entertainment, and weighs progressive syntheticization vs. progressive control.
is elite but ubiquitous, gets over fashion’s glory days, and explains how Bing Crosby made Silicon Valley possible.
Publishing-like:
goes paid using three tips, learns from a YouTuber who abandoned 600k subscribers, has an author brand, and learns lessons from having 500k followers on social media.
says no to saying yes, pushes for a creative reset, and cringes at the art of self-promotion.
rails against pictures of people in straw hates writing in sun-dappled fields, writes about the novel they didn’t have to write, and levels up their craft.
starts a writing retreat in an organized and safe manner, collects National Geographic Magazine, and enters a popularity contest she doesn’t necessarily want to win.
litmus tests writing advice, minds the gap, and can’t outline.
urges lessons learned from reading thousands of manuscripts, unlocks the power of loving what they do, and breaks down why Goodreads is broken.
Culture-ish:
outlines why disabilities are created by culture and technology, dissolves into goo to become a butterfly, releases a "don’t buy more stuff” gift guide, and lists 23 things they learned, discovered, and appreciated in 2023.
stops shrinking themselves for men, obsesses over Emrata’s body (of work), and can only talk about celebrities.
does chemo on Wednesdays and it’s so fetch, actually apologizes, and fights the tyranny of getting ready.
is doing too much stuff with not enough time, gives their fave holiday films about dysfunctional families, and outlines how to create a safe environment after a child comes out as trans.
gets smaller and bigger with their goals for next year, prefers artificial Christmas trees, and unlonelys themselves.
explains narcissism, turns 47, and wonders when burnout will burn out.
only gives intentional f***s, gives three tricks for surviving the holiday season, and is the drama.
releases a puppy story, reads fantasy to expand their capacity for empathy, and will never get tired of It’s a Wonderful Life.
is bigger than who they were but smaller than who they will become, others people’s habits, and learns why to use an out-of-office message.
Find anything you loved enough to swoon over or hated enough to make your blood boil? Let me know.
LIVE ON KICKSTARTER: If you care about direct sales at all, you must have this two-volume guidebook to mastering direct sales for authors.
and I have been working on this book for basically our whole careers. This book contains a combined 25 years of hard-won practical experience from building our own direct sales empires and helping hundreds of authors build them, too.
If Author Ecosystems is the lens by which you look at direct sales, then Direct Sales Mastery for authors is the guidebook. Whether you are just thinking about direct sales or you want to take your business to the next level, this is a must-read book, and it’s available exclusively to Kickstarter backers. It won’t be on retailers for several months after we deliver it to Kickstarter. If you want to get ahead of the curve and hit 2024 running, then we hope to see you behind the backer wall.
If you like what I’m doing around here and want to check out the archives, you can do that with a 7-day free trial, or simply go straight to being a paid subscriber. You also get access to my ya novel, Sorry for Existing.
It started with a bang. No, a slap. My mother's head hit the floor. My father stood over her. We had to get out. If we didn't, my dad would kill her. So, we ran.
My mother dragged me out of the house in the middle of the night. Where will we go? How will we survive?
There's nobody who can take us in, except for my grandfather... ...and mom hates him more than dad. There's no way we could wind up there, right?
If you love coming-of-age stories, fantastical adventures, family drama, and heartfelt romance, you'll love this book.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.