- The Author Stack
- Posts
- [DIGEST] The long way home...
[DIGEST] The long way home...
Your weekly stackable roundup
This is it. We’re on our way home this week, and my safari is over. What should I talk about next week? I have no idea.
Our final stop was Grumeti in the northwest of the country, where we took a night safari and saw a lion feed with her cubs. The first picture below is the only time on the whole safari that I was truly terrified. It all ended up okay in the end, though.
After the night safari, we woke up the next day to take a very small plane back to Arusha, but not before we had to clear the runway of zebras. This runway was so small they didn’t have a control tower. It was basically a grass field, a bathroom, and a bunch of zebras hanging out.
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.
It hasn’t been a great week physically. I wasn’t sure why I’d been so sluggish or in so much pain this week. Then, the middle of the week came and I realized my alerts didn’t email me to take my pills. I hadn’t taken them in 4 days. So, now I know why I feel terrible, but I still feel like poop as I readjust to them.
I’ve been very up and down, from a 2 to a 3. I will average it to a 2.5, I guess, but this week has been full of violent swings.
WEBINAR FINALE: If you've been part of our ecosystem for a while, you probably know most of our webinars are two-parters. This last one was no exception and we’re excited to announce the big finale. If you missed part one, you can watch our webinar, 5 Trends That Are Shifting The Future Of Publishing, here.
Then, get ready to join us live on Wednesday, August 30th at 12pm PT/3pm ET/8 pm BST, for The 5 Biggest Publishing Opportunities You're Missing Right Now.
You've uncovered the trends shifting the future of publishing. Now, learn how to pounce on them. We'll talk about how to build a direct sales ecosystem, how to take advantage of the trends we're seeing, and how to make it all work with your ideal author ecosystem.
Even if you don’t have time to watch the first webinar, you should still plan to join us live. You won’t be lost and we always try to catch people up. Hope to see you there.
The landscape of written content has been ever-evolving, with ghostwriting solidifying its mark as a notable and rewarding profession. Within this vast and varied realm, it's essential to continually learn, adapt, and connect with those who have charted successful paths.
That's why I am both honored and excited to be presenting at the upcoming Six-Figure Ghostwriter Summit. Join 21 industry mavens, including me, for this awesome free event beginning on Thursday, August 31st. I’ll be doing a deep dive all about author ecosystems with host Cody Blocker.
What I wrote on Substack: This week, I wrote a scathing critique of venture capital and social media. I really, really did not intend for this piece to be quite so blistering, but I have a lot of feelings about capitalism recently. This helped calm the white-hot anger festering in my soul.
As much as I liked brute force, you generally got more bees with honey and more money with smiles than you did with being a thorn in somebody’s side. I was great at my job because criminals were surly and suspicious of each other, and I made a lovely go-between. I was unceasingly patient when money was on the line. It was only when things went tits up that I relied on my other skills—which were equally impossible if I said so myself.
So, when Candy gave me a list of possible criminal masterminds who could have fenced Lily, I knew it would be a slog, but I was up for the challenge. Not a particularly long list, it was filled with people I didn’t know. It had to be. Nobody we knew would pay me that enormous of an insult. They’d know I would be after them with fire and brimstone.
New chapters are free, but paid subscribers can access the archives. You also get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog.
Upcoming article: Next week, I’m releasing a follow-up to my article, How to create a world-class Substack publication, with an article about how to get noticed on Substack. Once you have a great Substack, it’s time to get other people to see it.
Subscriptions are probably the hardest business model, at least to get going, and a lot of the advice is basically “It’s really hard for a long time and then it all takes off at once”.
While you’re on the “really hard” part of the growth curve, it’s…really hard.
The only thing you want to know is “When will it start getting easier, bro”.
Unfortunately, the only advice somebody can give is “IDK, maybe never”, because nobody knows anything.
That’s not a cynical stance, either. I’ve worked in publishing for most of my adult life, and in creative fields since I graduated college.
The best we have come up with is:
I’m not kidding. One of those two is the business model of every creative business that exists.
Either they found a hit and are riding it, they are putting out a bunch of quality products and betting on the law of averages, or they are doing both.
If you read my first article and wondered what the next steps were to actually get subscribers, then hopefully you’ll get some direction this coming week.
Roundup: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week. I’m refining my process for finding stories, so this week is a bit more manageable. I don’t know why 40 is my cap where I consider it ridiculous but 37 is just fine.
That still feels like too many, but it’s not 40, which is apparently the danger zone.
breaks down what works to publicize a book, writes “full-time”, banks 3,567 sci-fi ideas, and opens his playbook to help you write better B2B content.
walks the independent path, pays forward the real cost of making good movies, and puts forward a different way to think about screen time.
never let go of her teenage self, tries to figure out what the heck happened in 2012, and explains how an angry woman in Baltimore almost killed The Jazz Age.
wants their kids to stop touching them for a second, rains pennies from Heaven, pens a delicious guide to Porto, and recounts an origin story.
is bored of modern marketing, deconstructs how Headspace created an ocean, and engineers serendipity.
gets jealous, climbs out of burnout, doesn’t live in hell (probably), and is woken by rage.
builds a benevolent universe, questions whether her writing is enough, warns of the dangers of Substack for chronically low self-esteemed writers, and hosts a doll revolution.
talks to an author who traveled 9000 miles to visit 21 bookstores in three weeks, survives as a writer without being a star, wants to be a writer, and crafts a perfect writing routine.
wonders whether to write a series or standalone novels, makes a clarifying cut, taps into creative potential, and automates creativity.
sells a book for $1 million dollars, gives luck a place to land, explains three keys to grow from 0 to 2,000 subscribers, and values traveling as a creative writer.
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 satire, Worst Thing in the Universe.
Worst Thing in the Universe is a satire about karma, hypercapitalism, and fate. It is narrated by God, as he pontificates on the horrible fate of Vikram Suresh, expounds on the nature of the universe, and explores the flaws in the whole system. This book is EXPLICIT. It deals with child abuse, sex trafficking, and all the worst things in the universe. It also might be my masterpiece.
Albert Ross is an anomaly. Karma doesn't think anything he does is wrong. It's a glitch in the universe that God can't fix. Every trillion or so births in the universe, there is a karmic anomaly.
That's not to say karma doesn't have its retribution. For every horrible act Albert Ross commits, karma punishes Vikram Suresh. Poor, sweet Vikram.
He doesn't know why his life is so horrible. He doesn't know why the universe is unkind. It's unkind because of Albert Ross.
That is the crux of the karmic anomaly. Karma thinks everything that Albert Ross does is actually carried out by Vikram Suresh. What a horrible lot in life.
That's why Vikram kills himself. It usually doesn't matter when a poor, miserable schlub dies, but this death has instant ramifications.
With his death, Karma can instantly see Albert Ross again and realizes its mistake. Like a rubber band, all the horrible things that Albert's ever done slingshot back to him at once, and God watches with glee as karma has its revenge.
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.