The Creating Pros Podcast

We're seeing a lot of churn in businesses right now, and the publishing industry is being hit hard. What happens if your agent, publisher, artist, or services company goes out of business? The owner can't handle the business for one reason or another? What happens if you work for one of these companies?   It's a hard discussion, but you need to know what your options are, and how to prepare. And i...

The USPTO has found works of generative AI to be public domain, we have a writers strike facing streaming and AI in the writer's room, and the Supreme Court found Andy Warhol didn't meet the "Fair Use" standard, and should have paid licensing fees. What do these three events have in common, and what might it mean for creators?

There's a trap all of us have fallen into at some point, personally and professionally. And while it's not entirely unavoidable, there are things we can do to understand when we're falling into the trap, and ways to mitigate it.  This week, we will talk about the Sunk Cost Fallacy. What it is, why we fall into it, and how to manage it.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, The Internet Archive launched the National Emergency Library program. Which then set into motion a lawsuit by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House accusing the Internet Archive of "mass copyright infringement." The finding of the court is in, and this may direct the next phase of copyright law in the digital age, affectin...

Myth is the foundation of society, culture, and our belief systems. As creators and storytellers, we depend on and build upon the stories that came before us. As creators and business owners, myth is an important part of creating not only work, but our brands. Find out how you can use the power of myth to build your brand, your reputation, and how you can set off in your own journey!

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of being on a panel at Jordancon about the influence of STEM and STEAM programs on science fiction, and how fiction can inspire new technologies. This week, I dive into the benefit of STEAM programs, and the importance of arts and creativity for those in the science and technology fields, and how improving your hard skills can benefit you as a creative.

I do a lot of events - sci-fi and fantasy cons, business and technology conventions, workshops, and more. I get a lot of questions - how do they work, what are the benefits of doing them, and is it really worth it? It can be a lot of time, money, and resources. I'll talk through the top ten reasons I do them, and how you can decide if it's right for you! 

Do you know the old quote, "Information wants to be free." As creators, and business owners, we're always looking to balance how and where to spend resources - from creating to marketing, and building our brands, there's a lot of tools out there. What does it mean to use these "free" resources? And what has this meant for our fans and customers? Find out what the quote really meant, and how you ca...

I got a chance to meet sociology professor Tanya Cook and clinical psychologist Kaela Joseph on Hot Off The Press with their release of Fandom Acts of Kindness: A Heroic Guide to Activism, Advocacy, and Doing Chaotic Good, and needed to dive deeper. Their work takes a deep view of the value of community through fandom, and how it can serve to help one person with a life saving transplant, create s...

Every business has it's tools, especially creative ones. There's a set that every business needs, especially creative ones. This mini workshop kicks off looking at a few of the main ones everyone needs, including commercial and open source (free) options!

In the few months since Chat GPT hit the public consciousness, a lot has changed. Business, creators, and the publishing industry are responding. In the conferences, conventions, and industry meetings I've been in the last few months, this has been the top point of conversation. I'll run through what I'm seeing, hearing, and how you can expect things to continue to change!

Just home from teaching workshops at the SAGA writer's convention. I brought home a lot of great experiences and conversations. One of the workshops I taught was on pitch sessions, and how to pitch your book in query letters to agents and publishers. In this week's mini-workshop, we cover the big points, and some of the questions that came up over the weekend.   The session was recorded, and we pl...

It's another mini-workshop. Over the weekend, I was teaching a business fundamentals workshop for a writers group, and after, a few of us had a deeper conversation about managing money as an author, and the power of understanding cash flows. This week, I give a recap of the discussion, discuss the power of cash flow, and how you can calculate it.

Marketing is the foundation of every business. For creatives, it's also about who we are. But what is it, really? In this mini-workshop, it's all about marketing, and an overview of the STP Method, and how you can start to use it!

No matter what business you're in, or what kind of work you create, the most valuable resource any of us have is time. Are you taking advantage of the time you have? Are you trying to fly before you know how to walk?

Jonathan Maberry (JonathanMaberry.com) joins James P. Nettles this week to talk about the business of publishing in 2023, working in different mediums including novels, short stories, comics, and licensing rights for film and TV. We also go into the workshops he'll be teaching at the Saga writers conference in March (SagaConference.com). Jonathan offers a lot of free material for writers on his we...

What does it take to be successful as a creator? A creative? In the creator economy? We often hear that it takes ten years to be an "overnight success," and luck is still a big part of it. This week we talk about being in it for "The Long Haul." How do you approach the work? What are the key elements that give you a better shot at success? Do you chase trends? How do you deal with the frustration?...

Linda Robertson Reinhardt is an artist, musician, and novelist. This week we dive into her career, her creative process, using different technologies in the creative process, being an introvert on stage, and how she combines all three mediums as a storyteller. Find out more about Linda and where you can get her work at AuthorLindaRobertson.com!

The social media landscape is changing by the day. The big players are giving ground to decentralized networks, large platforms are offering more AI, CR and AR tools to content creators as they also look at going to subscription models, the move to entertainment platforms instead of social media, and much more. Many of the old rules are out the window, and what fundamentals are the same? What are...

Chat GPT and tools based on AI are proliferating. We're seeing the rapid spread of Chat GPT and AT Driven content solutions being pitched as replacing writers, copywriters, programmers, customer service and more. What is Chat GPT, how does it work, is it violating copyrights, and is this the end of writers?

JD Estrada is a poet and fiction author, but is also a professional translator of marketing materials into Spanish. We take a deep dive into the power of language, and how you go about translating into a different language, working with regional context, idioms, and dialects, and crossing the barriers of storytelling across languages. How do you change a language, but keep the message and the expe...

Happy New Year!  In Creating Pros 10, I reflect on a few college football bowl games, and the lessons creatives can take from them. This one is especially if you're not a sports fan! What inspired this episode was something I heard from a player right after the stroke of midnight on NYE, and I end this with eleven takeaways for anyone trying to build or grow a following.

For the last creating pro's of the year, I'm going to touch on some of what I learned from 2022, and the last few years, but also dive into setting goals and intentions for 2023. Often we look at New Years Day as that great chance to do a big reset, and commit to huge changes, ones that fall away within weeks, or even days.  In this episode, I touch especially on the interviews with Alex Simmons a...

Joelle M. Reizes writes as herself and as J.D. Blackrose. After setting aside her love of creating writing in lieu of family and corporate career, she returned to it in her 40's with a blog, urban fantasy, romance, horror, and children's books. We talk about her passion for creating, how she started, and how she restarted her life and creative passions! We build on a lot of the topics discussed wi...

Alex Simmons has written for numerous publishers, including Disney Books, Penguin Press, Simon and Schuster, Marvel, DC Comics, and Archie Comics, and is the creator of the Blackjack comics series. He has also written for animation, stage plays, film, educational documentaries, and has led master classes internationally.  Today we talk about the importance of creativity through life, and his work...