Day: August 29, 2024

GenrePunk Ninja: A newsletter about writing and publishing Banner
GenrePunk Ninja

003: Unpacking Writing Advice–Every Strategy Requires Capital

Writing advice is never a one-size-fits-all thing. Context and philosophy is everything, yet there’s a tendency for both the givers and receivers of advice to assume a bon mot of wisdom applies without questioning the resources, genre, goals, and ideology behind it.  I’ve built a career out of helping writers figure out their craft and their business, and I’ve seen the phenomena over and over: No sooner do you decide that you’re going to write that someone comes along to make you feel you’re doing things wrong. It doesn’t help that we’re now in the post Gold Rush era of indie publishing, where there is more money to be made selling toolkits and courses than selling books.  Nor that the publishing industry–whether indie or traditional–is so poorly understood by many people involved that it’s easy to buy into the feeling that you’re doing things wrong.  That frustration makes it easy for people to sell us solutions, whether it’s as well-meaning