Author: Ben East
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Finding Your Market
This video is about examining your manuscript to find its best market opportunity. For me the process took ten years, failed representation, and an entire rewrite. But it was worth it. In this segment from my interview with Matthew Whiteside, I share lessons learned from the process of bringing out my first novel. Hint: I…
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Lousy Book Covers
This clip from my interview with Matthew Whiteside explores the marketing side of writing books, and why a title like Two Pumps for the Body Man can be a real challenge to promote. The cover didn’t help, not even when it was featured on a website called LousyBookCovers(dot)com (their snark goes to 11…). Check the design…
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A BenEast FilmFirst Production
This week I enjoyed a 30-minute interview with Matthew Whiteside, head impresario at Uniweb Productions. The man’s doing a lot for indie writers, pumping out interview after interview exploring the challenges we face, the inspirations that drive us, and the rewards that come with pursuing our creative demons. He even inspired me to put up…
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Re-Blogging: Notes from the Slush Pile: Endings — Al Kratz
This is where it all ends. This is the opening lyric to the Cult’s 1989 album Sonic Temple. I remember it like it was yesterday. Standing in my dorm room, unwrapping it to the excitement of getting to hear something new, the first few guitar riffs unrolling to Ian Astbury announcing as much as singing […]…
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Billionaires vs. 1/3 of 1%
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dismissed the 800,000 federal workers threatened with the loss of a second paycheck this week, saying they represented a paltry “one third of a percent” of the U.S. GDP. Hmmm…. Recent studies show there are about 540 billionaires — people like Ross — in the United States. As a nation of 325…
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Ele-Vader Pitch
Like so many of their peers, my sons are obsessed by the Harry Potter books. No wonder, then, that while introducing them to Star Wars I came upon this happy epiphany. As I brought popcorn into the living room, I overheard one of them reading the Amazon plot pitch for The Empire Strikes Back as if it…
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Darth Vader’s Henchmen…
Darth Vader’s taskmaster Admiral Piett, promoted under choking duress during the Star Wars Trilogy, bears an uncanny resemblance to a peculiar and unlikeable figure serving the current administration. See if you can tell them apart. That’s Piett in the Nazi-looking uniform. Miller, rhetoric notwithstanding, dresses a different part. But let’s go to the tapes. Here…
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First Lit Mag Layout in the Books
Last week I took on the role of layout designer for a community literary magazine. It was a satisfying experience with a few lessons learned. The Job The challenge included formatting and organizing 120 pages of photos, art, poetry, and prose fiction and nonfiction between 50 and 1,500 words, in three languages and three different…
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