113: Get Published (Part 2) Indie Publishing - Interview with Dean Wesley Smith

Hey there Word Nerds! Thanks for joining me for this episode of DIY MFA Radio. You’re gonna love today’s guest. Today I’m speaking with one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction: Dean Wesley Smith. A USA Today bestselling author, Dean has published far over a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds upon hundreds of short stories across many genres. In total, he has over seventeen million copies of his books in print.

His monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly, consisting of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and has not missed an issue yet. With over 60,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month, this magazine goes to show that consistency is king when it comes to modern publishing, especially indie publishing.

In this episode Dean and I discuss: How to get out of your own way and get writing. Killing the sacred cows of publishing Giving your creative voice permission to play and putting the critical voice away. Running a small publishing company. Training yourself to shift gears from creative work to business work. Plus, Dean’s #1 tip for writers. More about Dean:

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published far over a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres. He has over seventeen million of his books in print.

At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and the superhero series starring Poker Boy.

His monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly, consisting of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and has not missed an issue yet, with over 60,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown. Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as executive editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

To learn more about Dean’s books and ongoing projects, check out his website. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/113