[DIGEST] Happy Ke$hagivings...

This year I went from zero Kesha experiences to three. First, I went to the activation where she screened her whole album before release. Then, we met Kesha when she came to a signing in Long Beach. Last week, we saw Kesha at the Hollywood Palladium, and it was amazing. This has truly been the year of Kesha.

We got VIP tickets that overlooked the whole venue, which made us feel very baller, and that is because we went full baller.

I tried to find a way for us to see her last month, too, but I guess three is good enough. Otherwise, I’ve been trying to recover as I’m basically trying to chill out until the end of the year. I’m done with traveling and launching new things, so now it’s time to figure out how to take over the world in 2024.

Also, for those that live in the USA, happy Thanksgiving. Hope you had a great turkey day. I know I’m thankful for all of you this year, so thank you for being here with me.

It is corny to say I am thankful for all of you, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

In a world filled with 8 billion people, most of whom would walk past you if you’re dying without even noticing, to find anyone who resonates with your specific frequency of weirdness is so rare.

Honestly, it is the only type of magic I am sure exists.

That you actively choose to read my work, even excitedly doing so while I send just so many emails, is as close to a minor miracle as I can imagine.

That we can all find each other and use our own resonance to amplify and magnify each other, making us all stronger in the process, is the greatest kind of magic in the universe.

So, thank you, for choosing to open yourself to my type of weird and letting me resonate with yours.

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.

I’ve been recovering from 2023 all week and living in the afterglow of Kesha. Thanksgiving was very nice to see everyone I haven’t seen since 2019, and it rejuvenated me. I think I’m about a 2.5 now, but I’m hoping to head up to 3 territory next week. I guess I’m thankful for that, too.

BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY SALE: I don’t promote many other products here unless I really believe in both it and the team, which should give you a send of how much I like the team behind Plottr. I know a lot of you have trouble plotting longer pieces, and I think this software is fab for that purpose. You don’t have to take my word for it, though. You can check it out for yourself with a 35% discount good through Monday.

WHAT I WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I wrote about how writers can stop feeling lost in all the new people swamping the Substack platform.

I also released an article for The Author Ecosystems about utilizing conventions, conferences, and book signings for every Author Ecosystem.

Finally, I cross-posted an article from breaking down the launch week of our Direct Sales Mastery for Authors Kickstarter campaign.

A new chapter of Magic also dropped this week.

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.

BLACK FRIDAY OFFER: As above, so below. I don’t generally share offers unless I use the product all the time, and Thrivecart has been my main checkout solution for years. I like it better than Samcart and others, plus you pay a one-time fee and then it’s yours forever. If you’re implementing landing pages, or if you want to add things like one-time payments, Thrivecart is awesome.

One of the things I like best about them is the ability to offer pay-what-you-want pricing. Yes, you can do this through Gumroad, but if you want to create a more streamlined experience, Thrivecart is great. Plus, for Black Friday you can save $100 on their pro plan, making it $590 for a lifetime deal, which makes Thrivecart 14.5% better.

UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’m releasing a new segment that I’m testing with , who was kind enough to answer our new Awesome Creator Spotlight. I can’t wait to share it with you.

ROUNDUP: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week.

Business-y:

• gives the conditions where money will follow doing what you love, gives an interested normie's guide to OpenAI drama, and animates with glass.

• slowplays their productivity, decides how they want to live, and exploits the Black Friday deal nobody is discussing.

• needs a worker revolution for the AI era. is not going to steal your business idea, and does more with Google Docs.

Publishing-like:

• claps for Jane Austen’s clapback, shares new ways to share stories, and asks you not to ask them to leave a review.

• talks short stories during a short week, wakes up at 5:30 am to write, and explains how to write a blog post people will actually read.

• shows how to (not) talk to your family about your writing, subjects us to the extreme subjectivity of book acquisitions, reflects on a year of change, and creates something for someone they actually like.

• clenches their bum while talking about what they’re working on, takes stock and gives thanks after landing an agent, talks turkey, and answers the end-of-year writing question.

Culture-ish:

• mentors a mouse named Theseus, makes a case for the soul of their bookcase, fearshares, and deals with the lifelong condition of grief.

• makes no a complete sentence (sometimes), is better, faster, stronger…and slower, and defines how not to have children. 

• gives notes from a die-hard (not Karl) Marxist, did a wacky, suspend-disbelief thing, is bored of the internet, and explains why turkey, eggs, and air travel just got cheaper.

• shows gratitude for simple things, wonders where they fit in, tries to be kind while there’s still time, and reveals the surprising quote on C.S. Lewis’ grave.

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 dystopian fiction novel, The Vessel.

A million years ago the world ended. Since then a group of five have kept the City running. Now, one of them has died.

Every generation, the five most powerful people in the City transfer their consciousnesses into nubile, teenage hosts. This allows them to continue their important work of keeping the city functioning and protected from the nuclear wasteland beyond its borders.

When one of the Five dies, though, the others decide that their bodies are too fragile and decide to find new hosts earlier than usual. This triggers a competition, where children from across the City travel to its center to compete for a chance to earn a place as a Vessel for one of the Five.

If chosen, their families will be taken care of for the rest of eternity. There is great prestige in being a Vessel, along with enormous wealth for the families of the chosen, which means every participant has their own motivations for competing.

Althea is one of those competitors. She is from a poor farming family on the outskirts of the City, and with the money she receives from her sacrifice, her family would never have to work again. She is willing to risk her life for them.

So, she decides to compete, traveling from her home in the outer rings through the inner rings and finally to the center where the competition is held.

Along the way, she discovers the City she once venerated is a more dangerous place than she ever thought possible. Every turn is fraught with peril, and the competition could be the death of her, even if she doesn't win.

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.