Avatar photoSteven Savage

Book Update 2/1/2010

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And now the latest update on the Fan To Pro Book!

Updates:

  • I rearranged my current schedule to get the book formatted and in beta early so I can spend time tweaking it – or get it out early.
  • It's going to be 100-120 pages long, as noted, but I'm still tweaking things.  There's an awful lot of choices about fonts, margins, and spacing that really you can't see until you try them on large parts of the book.
  • I have devised a marketing plan based on my readings I'll be getting to soon.

Things I learned:

  • Covers are a pain. Think it's simple?  Wrong, it's horrible to decide.  I've had people offer to help which is nice, but only recently did I figure out the approach I wanted to take – I'm going to go more simple and businesslike for the first edition because the cover will be easy to make out on the sites that will show it.  Plus, really, there's so many possible messages I'd rather let the text speak for itself right now.
  • It's better to get a book in ready-to-print format early.  It teaches you a lot that may affect your plans for marketing, distribution, etc.
  • Formatting is a lot less fun than writing it.

Still on track for March/April 2010!

– Steven Savage

Fandom And Persistence

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You'd like to be a writer.  Or an artist.  Or a webmaster.

You create fanfic.  You create fanart.  You make fansites.

There's just one problem – you're sort of bad at it.  Your worries are that you're never going to make it to "good" on the fandom level, let alone on the professional level.  Your biggest concern is you're lousy next to amateurs.

My advice to you is – if you want to do it, don't give up.

Wanting to do something will spur you on.  You'll spend more time, double down on your efforts, and in general, keep trying to grow.  You'll keep trying.  If anything, you'll put in enough effort that by sheer dint of trying you'll improve, or at least become less worse.

This isn't meant to be sarcastic, it's meant to be true.

If you're good at something you can almost certainly look back at a time you were lousy at it or didn't even know what it was.  You're in that state right now as you assess your horrid writing, bad organizational skills, or inability to make a simple seam on a costly costume.  Your incompetence is merely the start of getting better.

Persistence in the face of our own mistakes is one of the major things that leads to success.  Keep that in mind.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea: Different Prizes

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The List of Convention Ideas is here.

How many conventions have contests with assorted prizes?  Figures and books and comics and more are given out for guessing songs, writing, skits, and more.

Having run a few contests, I certainly enjoy finding interesting prizes; obscure videos, interesting collectables, and more.  However I also enjoy giving away books.

Career-oriented books.

Now I'm not recommending your Sci-Fi con use copies of "What Color is Your Parachute" or "The Unwritten Secrets of the Highly Effective Job Search".  What I'm recommending is making some of your contest prizes books relevant to careers appropriate to the attendees.

I've given away books on anime and manga-style art at anime cons.  Think of what else you could do:

  • There are how-too books on virtually everything out there, from art to writing.
  • There are career-specific books on various geeky careers.
  • Considering books that profile the careers of famous people – those are often inspirational.

I you're going to add profan elements to your cons, why not take it a bit further and work it into your contests.  It may seem a small thing, but it's just one more addition to making your convention cater to those who want to use their hobbies in their careers.

– Steven Savage