Ask Questions for Tomorrow’s Live Writing Chat: Writing for a living, and Thinking Sideways

online workshop webinar or online smeminar meeting or conference

It’s a crazy dream—to sit down and take your thoughts, put them into a coherent order, and then sell what you imagined to strangers.

That’s what writing is, and it’s one of the weirdest ways possible to make a living.

But the funny thing is, for the first time ever, this dream is actually possible for people who are willing to sit down and do the work.

And I don’t even mean working by writing NOVELS.

My daughter got serious about writing fairly late last year, and so far, she’s exclusively writing and publishing short stories. And her income has gone from nothing, to making enough per month to cover one bill, to making enough per month to cover a lot of her bills.

I’m predicting that she will be making a full-time income by the end of this year, and that she’ll be making what writers call NICE money in about three years.

This has gone from being a field dominated by big publishers to being a field that has opened up to the people who want it enough to work hard to get it.

Don’t think it’s easy. My kid is writing three and four stories a week, and has a constant circle of manuscripts going to her beta readers and coming back, and she’s publishing with fervent regularity to a readership that is fanatical about what she’s offering.

My students are writing, and they’re selling. It’s exciting to watch. Many are going the commercial publishing route, many more are going indie.

I’ve done both, I teach both, and the question simply comes down to this.

Do you want it enough to work for it?

I’m taking questions and discussing the ins and outs of writing for a living tomorrow in a live chat.

And I promise to give you real, right-there-live-in-the-chat answers to your questions, not just a hundred variations on “Take the course.” I wouldn’t waste your time OR mine like that.

I’ll be online in my webinar room from 1:00 PM ET tomorrow until. I’ll be answering any questions you have about writing for a living, how you can get there, and how I can help you get there.

1:00 PM UNTIL?

That’s “Until you run out of questions, or I run out of energy.”

Ask your questions here before 12 NOON ET TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 5th. I’ll print them off and take them into the webinar with me.

Then register to join me in the live chat here:
http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/1864/aecfffb17b (Link opens in new window)

I look forward to seeing you there.

And I’ll answer the obvious question ahead of time. Did my daughter take How to Think Sideways?

Yes, she did.

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71 responses to “Ask Questions for Tomorrow’s Live Writing Chat: Writing for a living, and Thinking Sideways”

  1. Elanor Avatar
    Elanor

    Hi Holly!

    I just wanted to say thank you for a very informative webinar today. I’m looking forward to seeing what new content you come up with from all the unanswered questions. 😉

    I also wanted to say that I won’t be able to swing HTTS this year (finances. Blargh), but one of my goals this year is to start publishing, and I’m going to make sure to put aside some of that income to buy into HTTS next year.

    Thanks again!

  2. Ruby Avatar
    Ruby

    Hi, Holly,

    Thank you so much for doing this!

    I have yet to settle on a genre. Does that mean I’m not ready for the course?

    Stories come and I feel that I have got to find the right vessel for them. But, I don’t know a whole lot about the vessels of storytelling/the expectations of forms…and kinda get stuck there…

    I’d like to be more adept at taking the story as it comes and be able to practice with confidence that I’m writing what will be a honest-to-goodness, stand-alone story.

    Thank you,
    Ruby

    1. Holly Lisle Avatar
      Holly Lisle

      One of the things I help folks do in How To Think Sideways is figure out which genres they want to write in, or if necessary, how to create their own.

  3. Michelle Miles Avatar

    Will there be a transcript of the chat? I work full time so I can’t make the live chat (*cry*).

    I also have a question: I have a backlist of 8 books and several shorts. Would you recommend putting them all out at once? Or putting them out once a month? Or what sort of schedule should I be looking at to self-pub them? I do all the formatting and uploading myself to pinch pennies so I want to maximum my earnings when I getting them out there.

    Thanks for your time, Holly!

  4. Kelley Avatar
    Kelley

    I thought of another question when I was getting ready for bed.

    How do you set realistic goals and not overwhelm yourself? How do you make your personal deadlines matter, in particular if you are not needing the sales to survive?

  5. Kristina Avatar

    I am really curious about the making money side of the business:
    – Where are great places to start to get published?
    – Who pays? How much?
    – How much can I expect to make?
    – How are you getting deals and making money?

    Mostly, I’m curious about the real financials of the business and if its possible to make a living- even a small one.

  6. Connie Cockrell Avatar

    Hi Holly.
    I’m interested in how to increase my sales. How does your daughter make enough sales to bring in an income?

    I have a blog where I post a free story every week, last year I published 6 books, and did the year before as well. I’ve been going to book festivals to sell and to meet potential readers and develop a newsletter list. I have several short stories that I put out to ezines and magazines and add stories to that queue every year.

    What else can I do?

  7. C. L. Englehaupt (Roth) Avatar

    I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ll have book #4 going live soon and book #5 in June(book #5 is short childrens non-fiction)and I’ve tried everything I can think of to get seen. To step out from behind the curtain. To sell. I get good reviews. Not enough of them but what I get is 4 and 5 star. I keep telling myself that quality will count and the books will sell but I am running out of time. I need income and if the writing doesn’t bring it to me I have to use my time somewhere else. I’m not ready to give up but I need exposure. I’ve advertised, I’ve blogged, I’ve used a publicist, I’ve started a youtube series. I intend to create an hour long webinar on non-verbal communication. but I’m losing faith and I’m not quite sure how to keep going. So I guess my question is: How do I keep striving when I have so little coming back to me? I can’t live on less than 100 views. I need 10,000.

  8. Curtis Schrum Avatar

    Good afternoon Holly!

    I have read all of your writers craft work, watched all the videos you have and would be enrolled in HTTS (some financial barriers), I am excited you are having this Webinar.

    My questions answer as few or as many as you find time for:
    1) I am right brain dominant, this means I have stories in my head all the time. I find myself going over dialogue between characters in my head, all day especially during lull periods. I end up quite excited about writing something but within a few days my mind has already worked itself through the story and I no longer feel the need to write that story, do you have any suggestions?

    2) I have found through revision of work that I sometimes slip out of third person or out of past tense to present tense. I know this is quite common especially for newer writers. I think its because dialogue is present tense, action is past tense. Do you have any insight or tips on this?

    3) Ive read a lot, not as much lately with a 9 month old as I would like, I have noticed a propensity to tell stories from multiple characters view points. An excellent example would be Bob Salvatore (R.A. Salvatore) he transitions to multiple characters to tell a story. Do you find this style of writing effective?

    4) Ive had the privilage of talking to Bob Salvatore, and now you so I consider myself immensly lucky to have any questions answered. He mentioned he will outline even if he doesn’t follow it, Stephen King says that plotting is pointless, and having read your work I know that you are a plotter in a big way. My problem is I feel like once Ive plotted a novel down and outlined it on index cards there is no energy left for writing. How do you keep yourself focused on writing after you have done all this work?

    5) Last one. Its an opinion question. Adverbs, in reading your work Ive noticed you do use them and I know all authors do but as a starting author do you think it better to keep the pandora’s box of Adverbs locked away as much as possible? Id like to avoid, he said sadly, or he yelled angrily obviously but it seems are cases where an adverb is needed.

    Thank you in advance for all you do! If I ever get the resources to take HTTS I will sign up faster than Cadence Drake wanted to get paid.

  9. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Hi Holly,

    Another question : I am finishing the revision of my first novel with HTRYN, and I have written 10 flash stories. Should I already create a blog ? What kind of thing do you write on your blog when you are juste a beginner, with nothing published yet, or very little published ? How do you make it interesting when you don’t have a long list of achievements ?

  10. Alan R. Avatar
    Alan R.

    Hi Holly,

    I posted a question last night but don’t see it here this morning so I’ll post again.

    Since I don’t have a backlist to self publish, my plan is to write two novels and two novellas in the next two years without publishing them as I write them. I want to publish them close together (one every month or so) to build momentum and then continue writing/publishing new work, alternating between novellas/short stories and novels as I go to keep a steady stream of new material coming out.

    Is this a reasonable way to overcome not having a backlist in the beginning?

  11. Minna LaShae Avatar
    Minna LaShae

    I’m really excited, scared $#itless and diving into lesson 1 of HTTS anyway.

    Which of the lessons prove most helpful for non-fiction writing?

    If you’re just re-finding a love for writing again after 25 years, what would you absolutely avoid doing?

    Is there a traditional publishing path for short stories? What are the pitfalls? What are the benefits?

    What about the pitfalls/benefits for indie publishing of short stories?

    Would YOU use or create a magazine for publishing your work? Why/why not?

  12. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Hi Holly,

    It’s a really great offer to deal with all these questions in a webinar. However, I will be at work when it takes place, so I am really grateful there will be a replay on Youtube.

    Most questions I wanted to ask have been written above. I have a couple more :

    1.When you are already working full time, finding time to write is not always easy. So if you want to go from any full time job to a writing job, you have to be really efficient in finding your readership. How do you go abouts getting your name around when you sart from scratch ? Do I have to go through Amazon exclusively, or webzines, or other ? How do you advertise your work ?

    2.Is it better to make an e-book with 10 short stories, or two e-books of 5 short stories ?

    3.What is the right balance of time between writing, blogging and selling ?

    4.How do you get good beta readers, capable of constructive criticism ? The people around me always tend to say it is all good, even if it isn’t.

    5.What do you think of Amazon Createdspace to get your book published on paper as well as in e-format ? Is it Worth doing, or should I stick with the e-format for a while after I get started ?

    Have a great webinar. Looking forward to the replay.

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