Rather than have me drone on aimlessly, is there anything in particular you want me to address about the language, the researching and writing process, or the business of making a living as a writer? Please address questions to: danbaum@me.com.
Whudduya wanna know?
~ Dan Baum
Published by Dan Baum
A freelance writer for 30 years, I've written -- along with my wife and writing partner, Margaret Knox -- four non-fiction books, a daily column from post-Katrina New Orleans for the New Yorker's website, and lots of magazine articles. We also enjoying mentoring young and beginning writers. If you are eager to write for magazines or write a book, you might find my page of proposals helpful. View all posts by Dan Baum
When do you head to the city at the center of the world?
LikeLike
Dan, I thought I’d update you.
We have Dropbox folders! And folders within them!
Me and sister Di (at our family home 1700 Lombardy). For our book about the fascinating puzzle of sociopathic life strategies, hopefully leavening and uplifting the painful reality of recent victimization. (You may dimly recall.)
Your blog helped get us over the hump! Thanks!!
But now it gets long. The horizon stretches. Outlines shuffle woozily.
Other books loom, unread — WHOOO ARE YOUUU TO BE CROWDING OUR SHELVES? they moan.
Order, order, we shout!
And — are books so yesteryear?
The -path- in sociopath made us realize that this is all about norms, and “strategy” is all about games. So our working title is “Game of Norms”. Hell, why write a book when we can write a game? Well, but a game may need book-length back story.
So there we are: trying to found a book+game multimedia empire (ha ha) in our spare time (ha ha).
Any advice welcomed.
And good luck with that dang brain of yours!
Best wishes,
Brian (and Diana)
LikeLike
Is social media the best and only way to generate interest in a book in order to find an agent or publisher?
LikeLike
Hi Dan
I previously published Nexus magazine. I hired writers for 36 years, gave them assignments, edited their stuff, wrote headlines and decks to package their words enticingly, and sold ads around it all.
Now I think about getting paid to write for someone else. But I am afraid that the pay scale is so low that I won’t be able to make a living. Or put another way, if I can make much more doing something else, should I choose to, say, prune trees instead.
I can’t be alone in noticing that billions of words are glowing free on my many screens.
So, where’s the money?
LikeLike
You don’t know that all those words are glowing free from your screen. Some of those writers may have been paid. If you write for a major magazine — Rolling Stone, Harper’s, Wired, etc. — the money can actually be pretty good. Margaret and I made an okay living for decades doing that. You can write for magazines and prune trees.
LikeLike