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[DIGEST] Golden time in The Golden City
Your weekly stackable roundup
Did you know that San Fransisco was nicknamed The Golden City? I didn’t, and I’ve lived in California longer than anywhere else in my life. It makes The Golden Gate Bridge’s name make more sense since it’s clearly red. I knew California was The Golden State, but not San Fransisco’s nickname.
More than just being a fun party fact, I learned that because I’ve been in Northern California all week hanging out with friends, playing with my friend’s kids, and generally trying to recharge before 20books in a little more than a week. I’ve been having a grand ole time up here. Did you know you can travel to cities without doing conventions in them or visiting during the holidays? It’s really weird, but also really fun. Highly recommend it.
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 started using the Visible app thanks to talking about it, and it’s showing me so many wild trends about my long COVID. For instance, spending one hour with an interview drains me as much as nearly a whole day of travel.
This isn’t making me feel much better yet, but it’s very interesting data that will help me make decisions in the future. I’ve been hanging out with friends and my friend’s kids all week, so I’m having a super exciting week, even if I’m dead tired most nights. Right now, I’m a 3, I think, tenuously though.
WHAT I WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I compiled several posts I’ve made about growth in the past couple of months into one post and gave it context. Lots of you asked about Refind for instance, and I talk about it in this article, along with a bunch more of my ad tests.
Also, The Author Stack released our first guest article this week, from the incomparable talking all about tropes in The Fourth Wing and the eleven tropes they found on the first three pages to help hook readers.
Phil didn’t love the idea of my mother hanging out with him and Candy, especially since the two of them were clearly growing close, but he conceded that having a frigging angel for protection until this all blew over would be a logical move.
“I hope she does not interfere in my bonding with your friend,” he said while walking me to the door. “I am becoming quite fond of Candace.”
“You dog,” I replied with a smile.
“I am very clearly not a dog. You would call me an alien, but that is not fair either, as my race is called—”
“It’s just an expression,” I said. “Just remember, Candy lied to me. She is a liar.”
“I have taken that into consideration. Don’t worry about that.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “I will always worry about you. That’s what friends do. They worry and look out for each other.” I pulled my hand away. “Now, did you find out where they took Benny’s body?”
Phil nodded. “They have moved it to their central medical examiner’s office. They are very concerned with figuring out what happened to him.”
“You would have thought they already knew what happened with how they are after me.”
Phil shrugged. “I think that was more of a show of strength. A mob can’t allow their boss to be killed without decisive action. It would undermine their credibility.”
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.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME THIS WEEK: In my effort to be everywhere all the time at the expense of my sanity, here’s where you can catch me this week.
DIRECT SALES FOR INDIE AUTHORS - NOVEMBER 4TH - Join me at the Direct Sales for Indie Authors 1-Day Event on November 4th! Discover various strategies from leading experts (including yours truly!) on how to boost your direct sales. It's free, it's informative, and it's going to be amazing. I’m doing a 30-minute Q and A at 4:30 PM ET/1:30 PM PT. REGISTER FOR FREE
TWB CONVERSATIONS - and I and I discuss the state of the publishing industry during an wide-ranging interview. READ THE INTERVIEW
9 SEXY TAILS OF THE KITSUNE - I wrote a story for the new Luminous Ages anthology on Kickstarter right now. My story is neither sexy or about the Kitsune, but it is a pretty haunting one about the White Cloth Demon. BACK THE CAMPAIGN
UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’m talking about the two major subscription models I’ve noticed across subscription platforms that most successful authors and writers seem to use.
There are basically two models you can use to build the continuity part of your author business.
We often call this “subscriptions”, which is wholly accurate, but the reason I call it continuity is because we wouldn’t say “I have a subscription to AAA”. Instead, we generally call this a membership fee.
As such, a subscription is not broad enough to define the entirety of this category, even though it is basically the same action people take across all available options
In publishing, I see two types of continuity programs working well right now.
ROUNDUP: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week.
Business-y:
fixes the internet, wants to destroy the system of making rioja and start again, and keeps looking for those corporate values but they never show up.
sees the end of the extremely online era, thinks cool people gentrified the internet, resets their social media to focus on smaller, and debates whether or not to be online at all.
reveals the most undervalued work skill of the 21st century, agrees with the Tiktok girl that the modern 9-5 is dumb, broke trust with themselves, and closes their business and a chapter of their life.
Publishing-like:
is a paid writer now, publishes in literary magazines, and revels in the glory of storytelling.
untangles how the Tangle newsletter reached 77,000 readers and $624,000 in annual revenue, shares Lewis Carroll’s playful notes, and confronts the book industry’s retail price problem.
lost his novel manuscript, gives a Substack Notes tutorial, and asks if a newsletter falls and no one is around to read it, does anybody care?
explains why the attention arbitrage is gone on Kickstarter and what to do now, wants to see the death of an author's body, and remarks on why your mobile device is ruining your creativity (and perhaps your life).
Culture-ish:
is somebody they used to know, explores the eternal allure of engagement chicken, is in the portal, and is a beautiful disaster.
is okay, little sister, loves a dreich day in the Scottish Highlands, sings through the Apocalypse, and learns the power of learning to unlearn.
gets bad doppelganger vibes, channels Taylor Swift, of course, is damned if they do but rejoices if they don’t, and feels the heft of it all.
knows that suffering is not self-improvement, is an artist, surfaces a lost Gumby essay, and benefits from catastrophizing.
highlights disability access at queer events, celebrates Diwali, wants to stop fetishizing fall, and upends a mansplainer.
explains why 13 explanations for the adolescent health crisis are all wrong, chooses the road less traveled, and and feel like screaming into the void.
Find anything you loved enough to swoon over or hated enough to make your blood boil? Let me know.
UPCOMING 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 non-fiction book, How to Build Your Creative Career.
How long have you been trying to build your career? How many hours have you spent banging your head against a wall? How much money have you sunk into ads and marketing that just don’t work?
Now, what if you had a blueprint that could show you all the elements you need to build a creative career without feeling gross about it. How much would that be worth to you?
This book can’t guarantee you a successful career, but it can give you all the fundamental knowledge you need to set you up for success because it was written by a creative for a creative.
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.