Issue 25: Thanks to YOU!

On gratitude, and writing for a living

Hi friends!

The holidays have arrived! If you’re like me, you may feel a little blue from Thanksgiving through the new year. For me, this always happens because the entertainment industry becomes a sleepy little place. Emails may go unreturned for days or even weeks. The people that I speak to regularly become quiet. My coworkers at the day job have their own holiday schedules which may put them in and out of my orbit without consistency. I suppose it makes me feel a bit lonely on the professional side of things.

Our family did escape to Florida for a few days this week for an early Thanksgiving with my brother-in-law, but Christmas travel is not on the 2023 agenda. If you were a newsletter subscriber last year, you got to hear all about my family’s terrible experience of traveling for the holidays. What should have been a week-long Christmas getaway saw us facing terrible winter storms, canceled flights, and three days stuck in a hotel room without our luggage. Happy holidays, right?

In just a couple of weeks I’ll be traveling again, this time for my annual holiday work retreat in Asheville, NC (rather than the dry deserts of Las Vegas, NV, that we visited last year). That’s right, let those west coasters have the long flight this time around! Upon returning from that trip, I’ll settle in the for the holidays and spoil my daughter as much as possible.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and regardless of your plans for Christmas, I hope you stay safe, healthy, and that your luggage is not lost.

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What Happened Last Issue?

I asked, nay, begged you to reach out to those who make your favorite art and let them know it!

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In This Issue:

• Feeling Thankful

• A Living Through Words

• Favorite Books on Writing: Part II

• Project Updates! (New project added + novel excerpt!)

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Feeling Thankful

As it is the season of gratitude, and I’m feeling the emotion in ample amounts this year, I wanted to thank YOU, dear reader. For the past two years, this newsletter has provided a wonderful outlet to share my thoughts and projects directly with (ideally) those who may actually care about them.

Social media just isn’t doing it for me anymore. Anytime I post on other platforms, the information gets lost in the shuffle unless I pay the company in question. Here, there are no gatekeepers between you and me, except your Spam Filter.

I’ve learned a lot about you over our time together. I’ve learned that a surprising amount of you actually open these newsletters. Whether you read them in their entirety or not as an unknown, but I hope you find something to like within my long-windedness. I’ve also learned that most of you are located in Florida or California (thank you, stats!). I’ve also learned that most of you aren’t interested in clicking links. (To each their own, I suppose!)

Regardless of your behaviors in engaging with this newsletter, thank you for being here and being a kind and attentive audience. In 2024, I’ll have more content coming your way. In the meantime, if you supported me over the past couple of years, or purchased my work across comics, games, or books, I greatly appreciate you.

A Living through Words

I recently read this Esquire article by Kate Dwyer titled Has It Ever Been Harder to Make a Living As An Author.

While the article focuses on the success rates of authors who focus strictly on traditional literary fiction (and it completely ignores successful self-publishing authors, ghostwriting, other forms of fiction), it’s still a well-researched article that should be required reading for anyone who sits in their comfortable chair, gazing starry-eyed into the middle distance, while dreaming about being a full time author.

However, if you’re up to speed on industry trends, this article isn’t revelatory. You know that one book does not equal a lifetime of steady sales, but Dwyer helps to demystify the why.

“Especially after an author sells their first book, we always caution them against quitting their day job, even if it’s a big advance,” said longtime Knopf editor Jenny Jackson […] “It's not necessarily a life-changing amount of money. If you hear somebody gets $300,000 for their book, that sounds amazing. But realistically, did it take them five years to write that book? Do they need to pay off an MFA?”

The article explores why authors can’t simply drop a book into a Barnes & Noble hoping for large returns.

[In] today’s business climate, where most titles, according to Sinykin, sell less than 5,000 copies. “Depending on who's doing the counting, only somewhere between 2% and 12% of books, as of today, sell 5,000 copies,” he said.

And so many writers still hold onto the dream of writing their books, insulated from the world, only to turn them in and let the marketing machine take care of the rest. However, that’s a thing that no longer happens due to budgets being spread thin for burgeoning authors.

Amid these budgetary issues, with publishing houses devoting the bulk of publicity muscle to a handful of titles, writers are now expected to become the spokespeople for their books. Jackson estimates that the full-time authors on her roster spend 20 hours per week writing op-eds, doing panels, communicating with their fans on social media, participating in PR campaigns, and taking meetings with Hollywood execs.

If you find yourself an aspiring—or in-process author—this is a great read that will help you better understand the state of the publishing industry in 2023.

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Favorite Books on Writing: Part II

We’re in something of a Writer’s Craft Renaissance. A lot of the books that writers turn to for advice and inspiration are “classics,” titles that have been around for decades. While those author’s facts on publishing may be a bit outdated, the advice for putting in the work and creating the words still holds true. However, in the last few years alone, a lot of great new titles have hit the market, and one of those titles is 2016’s Thrill Me.

Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy

What I loved about this book was that it functioned from a basic level. Percy is there to remind us of the things we know, but may lose sight of as we work toward piecing together a story. The author stresses the importance of various tids and bits and provides examples from classic works (as well as his favorites) to reinforce his suggestions. Those examples become easy reference points should you choose to adopt Percy’s suggestions to your own writing.

Each chapter tackles a different topic, ranging from thoughts on maintaining urgency, meaningful repetition, and creating iconic set pieces, as well as raising suspense across a scene (even if you’re not writing a suspense novel). With any good piece of writing advice, Percy’s points are things you may not catch until you are deep in edits, however, with time and practice, these elements will find their way into your first draft as well.

Percy’s thoughts all come down to keeping the reader engaged—thrilled, even?—and aiding the author make it look like they knew what they were doing all along.

I took a ton of notes as I read through this book, and once I’m in revision mode on my latest novel—be that months or years from now—I plan to bounce the manuscript against those notes in hopes of making it an even stronger piece.

Favorite Books on Writing Archive:

• Part I: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

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Project Updates!

Unit 44 [Comic Book]

As mentioned in my last Special Edition newsletter, new Unit 44 merch—featuring a blanket and a hoodie are still available for preorder! Gear up for what’s sure to be a long, dark, cold winter!

The final day to order these awesome merch items is Monday, November 27th, 2023 at 11:59pm EST!

The Lowlanders Project [Novel]

I was able to get seven chapters and 28K words into this novel manuscript since we last spoke. Considering that November is the month in which NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who may not be hip to the lingo) takes place, I inadvertently participated for the first time in my life. (Though, I fell far short of NaNo’s 50K word goal.)

My pal Aubrey asked for me to consider including an excerpt of the unedited work-in-progress, and since he’s an editor—which means I both respect and fear him—I thought I should oblige. Unfortunately, you don’t get any context for the following paragraphs. You’ll just have to enjoy the words as they sit.

Jenna sat across the conference room table from Sidney, all cheekbones, beady eyes, and a haircut that screamed “I want to speak to the manager.” The supervisor thumbed through the stack of papers that made up the employee review packet. With every page turn, Jenna grunted as though discovering vital and disappointing new information about Sidney.

Sid tapped her foot impatiently against the carpet, waiting for Jenna to say something. Anything. Any words—even the most foul or accusatory—were preferable to the primal grunting. “That bad, huh?” She asked.

Jenna gave Sid a sharp glance over her tortoiseshell frames before looking back down at the pages. “I’m reading.”

“Didn’t you write it?” Sid asked.

Jenna didn’t bother to look up this time. “Don’t do that annoying thing. When you talk.”

Sid’s green eyes shot daggers at the supervisor. More daggers…real daggers…would follow soon enough.

Sid sighed and scanned the windowless box that was conference room B. The place made her uncomfortable. Two reasons: first, there was just one exit. A door at the corner. Second, the entire room was decorated in different shades of beige. Beige walls. Beige chairs. Beige light switch plates. Slightly darker beige carpeting. It even smelled like beige, if such a thing was possible.

Sid hated beige. In a world of color, she never understood why something so lifeless and boring had become the go-to paint color of the human race. Sid didn’t think much of people, but she knew humanity was better than beige.

What do you think? Acceptable?

Molly’s Oddities [Graphic Novel]

Molly is still fighting for the attention of literary agents. As we move into the holiday season, I don’t expect to hear much on this project until agents return to their offices in the new year.

THE STATS AS THEY STAND:
Submissions: 12
Rejections: 4
Manuscript Requests: 1

While I did receive another rejection on my middle grade graphic novel in November, I also had a different agent request to read the full script! Never a dull moment here in Pitchville!

The Incoming Storm [Young Readers Nonfiction]

All seems to be settled up on this young reader’s book for Penguin Random House, and word on the street is that it’ll be released on January 7, 2025! Mark those calendars! I know, I know…that’s a year and change away! How are you supposed to remember that? How am I? Welcome to traditional publishing!

I’ll be excited to share some cover art and more backstory to this project in about five months or so. (And there’s a really great story here that I can’t wait to write about!)

The Weirdness [Young Readers Nonfiction]

My latest in-process project for Penguin, I completed the outline for this book and am letting it rest a bit before reviewing my proposed path with fresh eyes and passing it off to the editor.

The Space Case [Young Readers Nonfiction]

I was deeply humbled when another editor at Penguin reached out to me to take my temperature on a possible project. She’s putting together a new line of young readers nonfiction books and asked if I’d be interested in writing (the first?) one. As it turns out, I was very interested, and we’ve entered the beginning stages of developing something cool together.

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Exit stage left

I’m Wes Locher. I’ve been writing professionally for more than a decade. I write comic books, video games, fiction, and nonfiction. I write whatever seems fun, cool, and inspiring. I also love helping other writers to demystify the process of making a living through words. This is my newsletter.