[DIGEST] The Future of Publishing...

Your weekly stackable roundup

March 09, 2024

Hi friends,

I’ve had a week to recover and gather my thoughts about The Future of Publishing Mastermind, and the only thing I know for sure right now is that my head is still spinning. I kept looking at , Mel Jolly, and Tawdra Kandle (our founding team) during the event and saying “I can’t believe we manifested this out of nothing”.

I know manifesting is a bit woo for many people, but I don’t have a better word for setting an intention and seeing it through to completion. More than 70 people ended up in that room because Monica, Mel, Tawdra and I willed it into existence. I used to be very against manifesting, but most of it is about setting an intention and being open to opportunities. Maybe you can’t will something into existence by thinking about it, but thinking about something is the first step to willing it into existence through intentional action.

When we met Mel and Tawdra, we knew we wanted to work with them on something, even if we weren’t sure exactly what that looked like. Over the next few months, we worked very hard to design something new and interesting that people would like. We poured all our knowledge and love into it before sending it off into the world.

It caught people’s attention, not necessarily because of anything the universe did, but because we designed it to exist in a way that would catch the attention of people who needed to hear it. Once we did that bit, the universe did help us carry it along so it found the right people, though.

One of the biggest things I learned about this conference was that on some level time just has to happen. Whenever we wanted more press coverage, more hype, or more people to know about us, we had to step back and remember this was a first-year event and time had to happen first. Time for word to get out, time for excitement to build, and time for people to make space in their lives for it to live.

Throughout the year, we tried dozens of things to help our little idea find the right people. We extended ourselves to the upper limit of what we thought we could do, and still, on the day of the show, people were commented on our posts “Why don’t I know about this?” as if we hadn’t spent a whole year shouting about it everywhere.

And yet…time still has to happen. We have still only scratched the surface of what we can do.

I couldn’t tell you a year ago what this event would become, but we allowed for what I have been called “planned serendipity”. We wanted to bring the smartest minds in publishing together and allow good things to happen.

I won’t lie. I wanted to quit so many times in the past year. This was easily the hardest, most stressful thing I have ever done, but it ended up more amazing than I could have ever imagined.

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.

Recovering from NOLA this week. Here are some more pictures from the event. I’m still tired, but still fulfilled. Our goal was to bring the smartest minds in indie publishing together, and by looking through these pictures it’s clear we did. These are some of the brightest names in indie publishing and the people I’ve learned the most from in my career. Next year, we want to do an even better job.

Did you like those? Then I have an exciting announcement for you.

We've been all abuzz about the Future of Mastermind, getting our thoughts together and now that we've had a couple of weeks to decompress, we want to share what we found with you!

So, we hope you'll join us on Thursday, March 14th at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET/8 pm BST where we'll show you five trends we saw at the Mastermind that are shifting the future of publishing.​

We hope you'll join us. Look forward to seeing you there. There will be a replay, but we will likely only send it out to those who register.

WHAT WE WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I cross-posted an article about how to integrate website sales into your author business depending on your Author Ecosystem.

“Are you sure about this?” Blezor asked after I filled him in on everything the imp told me.

“I’m not sure about any of this, but if you want to get some rest, then the best way is to make sure that the demon trying to kill you is dead, or at least sufficiently spooked, so they know we mean business.”

“I suppose that makes some bit of sense,” he said. “Though I’m not sure any of this makes any sense. I mean, she just tried to kill me. I don’t know how I feel about asking for her help.”

“That’s the most sensible thing I’ve ever heard you say. Unfortunately, unless you know any other people who can burn the fabric between Earth and Hell with Hellfire, our options are pretty limited.”

“I’m at a loss,” he said. “I won’t stop you from going—”

“Yeah, you can’t—"

“But I can’t go with you, either.”

“Fair enough. Stay here and drink yourself into a stupor, then.”

“I will!”

There was only one person who I knew had hired the Firestarter before, and I’d sworn the next time I saw that smarmy rat, I’d kill him. These extreme circumstances called for extreme measures and extreme flexibility to my usually rigid moral code.

I portaled to Ratinger Drug in Seattle and made my way inside. The pharmacist rolled her eyes and let me inside the hidden door behind the register. Gone were the half dozen monster guards protecting Dexter on our last visit, replaced by remote surveillance machine guns that followed my movements down the ramp toward his office.

“I thought we had an agreement,” Dexter said when we finally reached the bottom of the ramp. “You should know that these guns are filled with black metal and obsidian-tipped bullets. They will rip you apart with extreme prejudice. Thanks for that idea, by the way.”

“I’m not here to fight you, Dexter.”

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.

UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’ll show you some of the best techniques I’ve learned to get over your sales phobia.

Even though it’s critical to a business’s success, most people hate the idea of selling their products. They fear people will hate them, find them annoying, and turn away from them. More importantly, they believe selling is “gross”. This is especially true for Grasslands.

Today, I’ll hopefully show you how to overcome those mental blocks and see sales as not only an integral part of your success but also a fun way to build an engaged audience that loves your brand. Keep in mind as you read this that I’m a Tundra, so I have an unnaturally high affinity for standing up and seeing “Did you know you could buy this?” YMMV.

You absolutely do not have to learn this stuff. However, if you don’t occasionally remind people they can buy things from you, then there is almost no chance you will be able to build a critical mass of customers to make a go of it.

But maybe you don’t really want to make a go of it, and that’s cool. Maybe you finish this article and go “Yup, I hate every word of that and I’m never gonna do it.”

Then, at least you can stop beating yourself up about it. The first step to overcoming a problem is recognizing it exists, and fear of sales is a prominent problem for nearly everybody I’ve ever met.

Recognizing the problem and deciding not to do anything about it lifts a huge weight off your shoulders. It is a solution in and of itself.

After all, I would contend that the biggest thing holding people back from achieving the level of success they covet isn’t their ability to make something cool, it’s the ability to find people to buy that cool thing.

Usually, they can make something cool just fine, but they’re petrified about talking about it. They are petrified of people hating them, laughing at them, and shunning them. They’ve put their heart and soul into making something, and the idea that somebody won’t like it paralyzes them.

Does that sound like you?

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

Business-y:

Publishing-like:

Culture-ish:

Find anything you loved enough to swoon over or hated enough to make your blood boil? Let me know.

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 non-fiction book, Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors.

Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors (originally called This is NOT a Book) is a collection of essays on creativity and writing written on Facebook and in emails between 2015-2022 and we've now compiled them into one place for further introspection.

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