Aug 9, 2023Liked by James Carran, Frank Kidd, Brady Putzke, Frank Theodat, Zack Grafman
funny how the more things change the more they stay the same. or more accurately the more things come full circle. we are solidly back in an era where the more you write and the less time you waste on editing and polishing the more rewarding financially you become. only difference now is we don't have to sell to magazines or publishers, unless we want to, but that takes time. or we can go directly to consumers. you can write a short story one day and have it ready to be bought and sold the next. you can write a novel in 3 or 4 weeks and have it published on the 5th week. you can write 2 novellas and have them both published under your own imprint in the same month. the more product you produce, the more money you make, and that's without hitting any homeruns. but eventually you will hit a home run or two and that will bring in some nice extra ching you didn't count on. note: sorry about the lack caps where they should be. i beat the shit out of my 3 years old laptop and now the cap locks and the left shift command no longer works...
Thanks, Vincent! 1000% agree with everything you said. So many can't see the opportunity that sits in front of them. The P3 team is deeply entrenched in the Pulp Work Ethic and has great ambitions for this new age of publishing. We're just getting started
Amen. Always nice to hear the confirmation from successful veterans like yourself, even though we know these things here at P3. You're in that class of contemporary writers doing what we want to do, walking the talk, and I think I can speak for the guys that we look up to you. Honored to have the comment, Vince.
Aug 9, 2023Liked by James Carran, Zack Grafman, Brady Putzke
thanks brady, i literally beat the crap out of lenovo thinkpad. my dear old ma who is a big supporter and reader offered to buy me another. not a bad deal. she says, 'that's your livelihood.' she gets it.
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Frank Theodat, Brady Putzke, Zack Grafman
Loved the article and the encouragement (kick in the pants) to develop that same kind of work ethic.
A question popped up in my mind at the line about “feed[ing] the demand for a hungry readership.” Do present-day writers have to rely a little more on the old adage that “supply creates its own demand (aka, “Say’s Law”) than the writers of the pulp era? It seems like there are noticeably fewer readers now (hungry or otherwise) than there were in the past.
Great question. I can't pretend to know the answer but I believe you're on the right path with Say's Law approach - that's in line with what P3 is doing, actually. I've expressed to my partners that we shouldn't "write to market", but instead create our own.
I believe most readers won't really know what they want until you give it to them, which creates exciting opportunities to play and experiment with your own fiction. Media is always changing and evolving. Many film producers and radio executives of the 50s shuddered when TV was growing in popularity. No doubt the number of readers have shrunk, but I still think there is a hungry readership (albeit smaller) that will exchange their coin for books provided they are presented with something that is interesting and a quality product. Just my two cents. Thanks for the great question!
Aug 10, 2023·edited Aug 10, 2023Liked by Frank Kidd, Frank Theodat
I have switched back to a daily writing goal. 2000 words a day, everyday (or as close I can manage). Months ago I switched to a deadline system but after little under half-a-year it hasn't done what I wanted, which is to get far ahead of my own publishing schedule. I figured if I had more rest I could write more and better when I did. That didn't happen. I need momentum, speed, and a daily goal is the way to do it. To get ahead, to get back to novel writing alongside short stories and novellas, to be firing on all cylinders as it where. 2000 words a day is paltry compared to the writers you mentioned, a "mere" 730'000 words a year. 2 million words is almost 5500 a day, a mortal such as myself can only dream of such a rate of daily creation but that won't stop me aiming for it.
Great article, thank you. Thoroughly enjoying all these tidbits, interviews, and articles you guys are uncovering, and adding too, in this pulp renaissance.
We all have to start somewhere. Giving yourself a target to hit daily is a good habit. If you keep showing up and putting in the time, your skills will only compound and your muse will reward you with more ideas than you know what to do with. Setting a time limit also helped me. Some days I only had 25 minutes of writing time, sometimes only 10 minutes. Regardless I would focus on putting words on the page. The real "secret" to all this? Just have fun telling the stories that you want to tell! The rest will take care of itself.
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. There will be more like this in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!
Thanks David. Glad you enjoyed it. There will be more articles like this featured in the magazine, along with pulp writer profiles in my newsletter, The Pulp Fictioneer.
It was a fascinating time in American literature, which produced many of the writers now thought of as the giants of their genres, but also many others whose work is worth knowing about, if only as representative examples.
Thanks Big Philly. It took me a while to track down the book at a reasonable price without going broke! I think I might revisit it again. Thanks for reading
funny how the more things change the more they stay the same. or more accurately the more things come full circle. we are solidly back in an era where the more you write and the less time you waste on editing and polishing the more rewarding financially you become. only difference now is we don't have to sell to magazines or publishers, unless we want to, but that takes time. or we can go directly to consumers. you can write a short story one day and have it ready to be bought and sold the next. you can write a novel in 3 or 4 weeks and have it published on the 5th week. you can write 2 novellas and have them both published under your own imprint in the same month. the more product you produce, the more money you make, and that's without hitting any homeruns. but eventually you will hit a home run or two and that will bring in some nice extra ching you didn't count on. note: sorry about the lack caps where they should be. i beat the shit out of my 3 years old laptop and now the cap locks and the left shift command no longer works...
Thanks, Vincent! 1000% agree with everything you said. So many can't see the opportunity that sits in front of them. The P3 team is deeply entrenched in the Pulp Work Ethic and has great ambitions for this new age of publishing. We're just getting started
Much love, sir. Hugely encouraging when the hard-bitten warriors tell the apprentices they are headed in the right direction. 🖤
Amen. Always nice to hear the confirmation from successful veterans like yourself, even though we know these things here at P3. You're in that class of contemporary writers doing what we want to do, walking the talk, and I think I can speak for the guys that we look up to you. Honored to have the comment, Vince.
and hilarious about the keyboard haha
thanks brady, i literally beat the crap out of lenovo thinkpad. my dear old ma who is a big supporter and reader offered to buy me another. not a bad deal. she says, 'that's your livelihood.' she gets it.
Battle scars! Love it.
Ma sounds like a generous and wise woman. I’d take the deal haha
“He decided on a five-year apprenticeship.”
Boom. There’s my outlook for the next five years. Fantastic article, thank you.
Yes! Go forth and study your craft. Thanks for reading.
If you all could stop being so productive I would appreciate it. I'm going to have to up my game and that requires real work!
🤣 best comment I've read all day. Sadly, there is more on the way, Brian!
I'm all out of excuses unfortunately. 🤣
Loved the article and the encouragement (kick in the pants) to develop that same kind of work ethic.
A question popped up in my mind at the line about “feed[ing] the demand for a hungry readership.” Do present-day writers have to rely a little more on the old adage that “supply creates its own demand (aka, “Say’s Law”) than the writers of the pulp era? It seems like there are noticeably fewer readers now (hungry or otherwise) than there were in the past.
Great question. I can't pretend to know the answer but I believe you're on the right path with Say's Law approach - that's in line with what P3 is doing, actually. I've expressed to my partners that we shouldn't "write to market", but instead create our own.
I believe most readers won't really know what they want until you give it to them, which creates exciting opportunities to play and experiment with your own fiction. Media is always changing and evolving. Many film producers and radio executives of the 50s shuddered when TV was growing in popularity. No doubt the number of readers have shrunk, but I still think there is a hungry readership (albeit smaller) that will exchange their coin for books provided they are presented with something that is interesting and a quality product. Just my two cents. Thanks for the great question!
I have switched back to a daily writing goal. 2000 words a day, everyday (or as close I can manage). Months ago I switched to a deadline system but after little under half-a-year it hasn't done what I wanted, which is to get far ahead of my own publishing schedule. I figured if I had more rest I could write more and better when I did. That didn't happen. I need momentum, speed, and a daily goal is the way to do it. To get ahead, to get back to novel writing alongside short stories and novellas, to be firing on all cylinders as it where. 2000 words a day is paltry compared to the writers you mentioned, a "mere" 730'000 words a year. 2 million words is almost 5500 a day, a mortal such as myself can only dream of such a rate of daily creation but that won't stop me aiming for it.
Great article, thank you. Thoroughly enjoying all these tidbits, interviews, and articles you guys are uncovering, and adding too, in this pulp renaissance.
Dude the momentum part is so huge. 200 word days lead to 3000 word days.
We all have to start somewhere. Giving yourself a target to hit daily is a good habit. If you keep showing up and putting in the time, your skills will only compound and your muse will reward you with more ideas than you know what to do with. Setting a time limit also helped me. Some days I only had 25 minutes of writing time, sometimes only 10 minutes. Regardless I would focus on putting words on the page. The real "secret" to all this? Just have fun telling the stories that you want to tell! The rest will take care of itself.
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. There will be more like this in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!
Wonderful read!
Thanks for reading. I plan to touch upon pulp writers in the future.
👀
Wonderful. It's useful to know the background of these authors and the issues they faced.
Thanks David. Glad you enjoyed it. There will be more articles like this featured in the magazine, along with pulp writer profiles in my newsletter, The Pulp Fictioneer.
It was a fascinating time in American literature, which produced many of the writers now thought of as the giants of their genres, but also many others whose work is worth knowing about, if only as representative examples.
Thanks Big Philly. It took me a while to track down the book at a reasonable price without going broke! I think I might revisit it again. Thanks for reading