Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson Is Not in Audible

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has established himself as the king of neopatronage with his record-smashing Kickstarter campaign. And while his secret novels project earned him four times more than his publisher pays him, the oldpub gravy train turned newpub mogul has a beef with an industry player that's not Tor…
January 22, 20247 Comments
2 Adventures Across Eternity

Two Adventures Across Eternity

One of  the biggest hurdles that newpub authors face is a lack of promotional support from influencers who are nominally on our team. That's why I do what I can in my corner of the internet to boost likeminded writers' signals. In that spirit of professional fraternity, it's my pleasure…
January 19, 20242 Comments
Heavenly Light

Heavenly Light Music Video

For those who enjoyed superversive musician Ben Zwycky's rendition of "Silent Night", you'll be delighted to learn that the second - and title - track from his new album Heavenly Light is now live. As promised, here is the second music video from my first album, this time for the…
January 3, 20242 Comments
Foundation Father

Foundation Father

My whirlwind tour of the newpub podcast scene continues as I stop by to chat with M.A. Franklin on his Foundation Father Twitter Space. He's an up-and-coming newpub author who's Kickstarting a children's book, and he's good people. Listen as we discuss newpub, Neopatronage, and the Witch Test. Catch the…
November 15, 2023
Pacing Watch

How to Master Pacing

The Burned Book is now funding. Get the highly anticipated dark fantasy before launch, plus a ton of awesome perks. Pledge now. Writing is an art, and like any form of art, it requires skill, practice, and patience. For aspiring writers, one of the most crucial elements to master is…
November 6, 2023
Authors Outpost

On Author’s Outpost

Take even a passing look into the online newpub scene, and you'll find the X threads, Facebook groups, and YouTube chats abuzz with talk of Neopatronage. It's not hard to understand why. Those who've kept even cursory tabs on the state of publishing are aware of two indisputable facts: Amazon…
November 2, 2023
Fantasy Genre Setting

Genre vs Setting

Friend of the blog author David V. Stewart's recent stream on speculative fiction settings uncovered a curious phenomenon. It seems a lot of people, even some new authors, have trouble telling the difference between genre vs setting in speculative fiction. It's a worthwhile stream, covering a range of topics from…
October 26, 20232 Comments
Amaranth Angels

Neopatronage Ascendant

Big news broke in the indie comics world this week as the upcoming manga Amaranth Angels met its ambitious funding goal. The brainchild of Ascendant Fiction writer Yakov Merkin and artist Philip San Gaspar, this sci fi adventure features all you could ever want ... Cute girls in space. Watch…
October 20, 20234 Comments
Writing Spiral

Escape the Writing Spiral

Look around the pop culture moonscape, and you'll notice that former titans of entertainment like Lost and A Game of Thrones have become bywords and lolcows - grim warnings to writers about the price of failing to deliver. Everybody says that these shows disappointed viewers because their storylines devolved into…
October 19, 2023
Twitter X Ban

Burned Book Banned?

A year ago, I went on record speculating that Elon Musk may have bought Twitter to destroy it. If the latest wave of censorship on the embattled platform - including dissident account ban waves and the apparent implementation of a subtler "social credit" style policy are any indication, Twitter's demise…
October 13, 202311 Comments