Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, with more than 30 million books sold, writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

At the moment he produces novels in several 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, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang, and the Mary Jo Assassin series.

His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 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, he 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 series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.

Make Me Read! by Dean Wesley Smith

How editors choose the stories they include in magazines and anthologies proves one of the greatest mysteries to writers.

But no more!

In this WMG Writer's Guide, prolific editor and writer Dean Wesley Smith runs through the major pitfalls he sees in submissions, from lack of depth and pacing to viewpoint and character problems and much more.

With more than 30 million books sold in his career, Dean leverages his vast expertise to shed light on this mysterious process to help writers improve their chances of selling their stories.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Dean Wesley Smith has sold over 35 million books in his career, with more selling every day. He has also edited fiction for decades. In other words, Dean knows what makes readers turn pages. He shares those tips in Make Me Read!, which is exclusive to this bundle – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • "Dean Wesley Smith's blog gives both a slightly different view of the publishing world than I'd seen before and detailed hands-on "here's how to get from A to B" instruction."

    – Erin M. Hartshorn, Vision: A Resource for Writers
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Introduction

Just a Few Things I Wish I Had Known…

This book consists of a series of blog posts I did over a month or so as I was reading manuscripts for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. I have edited these posts some to help them make sense here.

So the introduction starts in the first blog and away we go…

At the moment, I am reading a lot of stories for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. Pulphouse is never open for submissions, but these were rewards in the Pulphouse Kickstarter. Backers could write a story to a different topic, one per month, and I would consider it for publication.

I had planned to read them as I went along in the fall, but running too fast in a 5K fun run and a trip, crash, and burn that led to a new shoulder set back my reading almost three months. And since I like to give as personal a comment as I can on each story, I had to wait another month or so until I could once again type with both hands.

For some reason, one-handed typing just doesn't work for me.

So now I am reading and enjoying the process a lot, trying to do a set number of stories per day over various topics. And finding some stories to buy along the way, which is the point.

I go at each story with the hope I will like it, that the story will fit into Pulphouse, and thus I will buy it. But alas, something tends to derail me in most stories. And as I read more and more, I am seeing more and more patterns in why I don't buy (or sometimes even finish reading) a story.

So I figured I would do a series of blogs here from an editor perspective as to the patterns I am seeing. (I will NEVER talk about one story…these are just patterns.)

Don't try to write to these suggestions or go back and fix other stories. Apply these suggestions to the next story you write and always remember to keep writing fun. That really is the secret.

Dean Wesley Smith
Editor Pulphouse Fiction Magazine