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Business Musings: Licensing Expo Recap
As I write this, it’s been a little over a week since the Las Vegas Licensing Expo ended and my brain is still trying to deal with the fallout. I knew that this Expo would be important to all my...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Rethinking The Writing Business (Part One)
When the disruption hit the publishing industry ten years ago, I watched with a wary eye. After I finished The Freelancer’s Survival Guide in the summer of 2010, I repurposed this weekly blog to help...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: The Licensing Business (Rethinking The Writing Business...
When a writer dies, usually one of three things happens to her writing estate: It goes dormant. This is the most common thing. Most heirs have no idea how to deal with the mass of writing and published...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Expect Success
I’ve been doing a series on licensing for writers, which is subtitled “Rethinking the Writing Business.” Normally, I would put this particular blog as Part 8 of the series, but I’m afraid that would...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Money 2 Licensing Out (Rethinking The Writing Business Part...
So, those of you who regularly read this blog are thinking, now are we going to talk about how much we can earn? Yeah, kinda sorta. I want those of you who haven’t yet read this series to read two...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Then And Now
Recently, Dean told me about a conversation he was having on Facebook with a group of writers who, in the 1990s, shared the table of contents in an anthology featuring stories about the X-Men....
View ArticleBusiness Musings: The Kickstarted Game Changer (Part Three)...
So, I’ve just spent the past two blog posts talking Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter as a game changer in the publishing industry. I know that my posts inspired a few of you to take our free class...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: A Cautionary Tale (Hollywood Part 1)
I’m starting a tiny new series because of everything that’s been in the news of late. But first, let me give you a caveat. For decades, Dean and I have said “Hollywood” when we really mean the film...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Content, Content, Content (Hollywood Part 2)
A few weeks ago, I got a survey from the Global Licensing Group, the people in charge of the Las Vegas Licensing Expo. They wanted to know my opinion (and probably hundreds of other people’s opinions)...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Writing Screenplays (Hollywood Part 3)
The short version of this post: Don’t. Just don’t. Don’t write screenplays, even if someone tells you “you’ll make more money if you do.” The medium version of this post: Write screenplays only if you...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Money (Hollywood Part 4)
About the time I started planning this series, I got an email from a writer friend. The writer friend is one of those people who think they know business, but have never really bothered to learn much...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Copyright Fun Part One
When I wrote my year in review for 2021, all seven posts of it, I was going to write a single post on copyright, highlighting all the interesting things from the year. Copyright issues dominated the...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Copyright Fun Part 2
This post is probably just for me and Dean and other copyright geeks out there in the world. And it’s mostly U.S. specific, although we will touch on Duran Duran and U.K. law farther downstream. Also,...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Copyright Fun Part 3
Let’s talk money for a minute, because really, copyright and copyright licensing translates into money, if you do it correctly. Copyright is one of those lovely assets that will continue earning for...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Long-term IP Management
In writing about the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, held in May, I spent a lot of time discussing how writers should think about their intellectual property. In short, writers should consider their IP a...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Kate Bush and the Multimillion Dollar Long Game
This summer, Kate Bush broke three Guinness Book of World Records: Oldest Female Artist To Reach Number One, Longest Time For A Track To Reach Number One On The UK’s Official Singles Chart, and Longest...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: The Business Mindset
Artists: I want you to pay attention here because this post is for you. The rest of you, those who love business, please read because you might find some inspiration here. But I’m talking to the folks...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: AI: The Year in Review Part 9
I used to train radio news announcers. I trained them how to read live and on air, a skill I learned myself while still in college. In 2021, I took a voiceover class from an impressive-as-hell studio...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: Year in Review 2022: The Final Post (A Process Blog)
In some ways, 2020 and 2021 were straightforward years. 2020 was a long scream of a year, one in which we all were trying to survive against a tiny unseen foe. We got vaccines in 2021, and while that...
View ArticleBusiness Musings: AI, Copyright, And Writers
To Get a Free AI Audio Version of this blog, click here. Here we are—the mess of the mess of the mess. Right now, we’re in one of those technological befuddling moments, where the technology is ahead...
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