Blarg!

Bill's blog. Writing, guitars, gratuitous Simpsons references, you'll find i​t all here. Almost certainly a waste of time for both you and the author. On the internet, that's actually a plus.

"Start Your Author Blog in Five Easy Steps," my new column at Writer Unboxed

Photo credit: Beth77 on Flickr. 

Photo credit: Beth77 on Flickr.

 

You'll sell millions of books if you read Start Your Author Blog in Five Easy Steps, my newest Hacks for Hacks column at Writer Unboxed. Since I know all there is to know about blogging, you'll get great advice like this:

Once you’ve written a few starter posts, it’s time to go out and meet your fellow bloggers. Blogging is like a never-ending online writing conference that focuses on the panel discussions and business cards, without all the pesky bar crawls, romantic entanglements, and face-to-face meetings with your literary idols that get in the way. Start your online networking session like this:

  1. Simply find an interesting blog article about a book that you loved.

  2. Carefully read the article to pick up as much wisdom as you can.

  3. Go to the comments section and write, “THRILLING ADVENTURE, MY NOVEL “CHUPACABRA-CADABRA” FREE ON AMAZON! 14 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS!!!”

  4. Go to Amazon and watch your sales rank skyrocket.

And that’s pretty much how networking works.

Start Your Author Blog in Five Easy Steps via Writer Unboxed

Guitar-building project status update

I haven't had much time to work on my guitar-building project lately, but I was able to do a bit over the weekend. Here's how it looks with a neck.

my-guitar-with-neck.jpg

Here's the neck pocket I routed out. I'm not much of a luthier (or especially skilled in woodworking in general), so I was pretty scared I was going to wreck the whole project right here. It was far from flawless, but it's good enough. The neck sits pretty tight, too, if I shim it with some cardboard from a twelve-pack of Coke Zero. Now I can tell my wife my soda addiction is beneficial!

my-guitar-neck-pocket.jpg

I got an agent!

Evan Gregory, known far and wide for his agenting skill and great taste in books.

Evan Gregory, known far and wide for his agenting skill and great taste in books.

I now officially have a literary agent. Evan Gregory of the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency has taken me on as a client after reading my mystery novel The Other Van Zant.

For the benefit of folks who don't know the intricacies of the publishing industry, here's why getting an agent is a big deal for me: 1. Big publishers buy almost all their books through literary agents (not in all cases, but most cases). 2. Agents only get paid when they sell a book, so they tend to only take on clients with books they believe they can sell (it also means they're highly motivated to sell it). 

I'm really glad to have somebody do the wheeling-and-dealing portion of the publication process for me. All this stuff about foreign rights, remainders, subsidiary rights--is that even a real thing? I didn't start writing so I could negotiate contracts, and I wouldn't know what a good deal looks like if somebody rolled up the contract and swatted me in the face with it. You see that analogy I just made? That's my best guess for what a good deal looks like. Now I've got Evan here to handle all that nonsense so I can get back to the hard work of writing about a wannabe rock star who solves mysteries, and college curriculum for aspiring superheroes.