Konrath's Writer To-Do List

J A Konrath is one of thee top Heavyweight Ebook sellers, inspiring me and thousands of others to chance Kindle Direct Publishing. In hindsight, maybe he does not exist, and is merely a lure to entice manuscripts for Amazon, who can unpublish your work and make blockbusters with it when you're dead.

I will start/finish the damn book

I will always have at least three stories on submission, while working on a fourth 

I will attend at least one writer's conference, and introduce myself to agents, editors, and other writers  

I will subscribe to the magazines I submit to  

I will join a critique group. If one doesn't exist, I will start one at the local bookstore or library  

I will finish every story I start  

I will listen to criticism  

I will create/update my website 

I will master the query process and search for an agent  

I'll quit procrastinating in the form of research, outlines, synopses, taking classes, reading how-to books, talking about writing, and actually write something  

I will refuse to get discouraged, because I know JA Konrath wrote 9 novels, received almost 500 rejections, and penned over 1 million words before he sold a thing--and I'm a lot more talented than that guy

I will keep my website updated  
I will keep up with my blog and social networks  

I will schedule bookstore signings, and while at the bookstore I'll meet and greet the customers rather than sit dejected in the corner  

I will send out a newsletter, emphasizing what I have to offer rather than what I have for sale, and I won't send out more than four a year  

I will learn to speak in public, even if I think I already know how  

I will make selling my books my responsibility, not my publisher's  

I will stay in touch with my fans 

I will contact local libraries, and tell them I'm available for speaking engagements  

I will attend as many writing conferences as I can afford  

I will spend a large portion of my advance on self-promotion  

I will help out other writers  

I will not get jealous, will never compare myself to my peers, and will cleanse my soul of envy 

I will be accessible, amiable, and enthusiastic  

I will do one thing every day to self-promote  

I will always remember where I came from

Truth About Orphan Black

The same day I completed the main twist in a recent novel the whole file mysteriously disappeared from my online personal PC computer. The rescued document was page after nonsensical page of Latin symbols. If it had not been backed up on an external device, a helluva lot of book would have been like see ya later. As it was the loss was reduced to only a single morning. Not ideal, but a relief. That was almost a hat-trick of ‘losing’ books. Surely no author can be so unlucky!

Sorry, but the similarities between Orphan Black and some of my own content are 2 coincidental. I saw the first thumbnail for it on a torrent site soon after I nearly lost all that data. I’d never even heard of BBC America before until this. Hmm. Am I bothered? Well, the first time I was, years ago. This is at least the third time. Ask yourself this then: What is more likely, a nobody writer from Nowhere Street pitching his ideas to a Hollywood producer and making it big out of the blue, or organised cyber crime guys remotely fishing files? What happens more frequently on a daily basis, I wonder? No worries. The turnaround works both ways. It’s give and take. Wise up cockers. Bin that modem.

I missed the first and last episodes. Although very impressive, it was not soulful enough to make me care all too much. I could tell some of it came from me because I didn’t have the foggiest what was going on. You think I’m joking, don’t you? If you are, then you is correct, because part of me actually is; and if you aren’t, then you is correct, because part of me actually ain’t.