Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published over two hundred novels and over seven hundred books in forty years, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories. He has over thirty million copies 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 cold case mystery series, Cold Poker Gang series, and the superhero series staring Poker Boy.

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 X-Men to 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. He took over the editorship of the acclaimed Pulphouse Magazine in 2018.

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

How to Write Fiction Sales Copy by Dean Wesley Smith

USA Today bestselling author and former publisher Dean Wesley Smith knows how to navigate the complicated world of publishing. And now, he shares his experience to help writers tackle the most challenging writing of all: Fiction Sales Copy.

In this WMG Writer's Guide, Dean addresses the major challenges that lead to bad sales copy—including using passive voice and too much plot—and offers 32 examples from his own stories to illustrate his points.

Want to make your books stand out from the pack and grab the reader's attention? Then learn from Dean's experience and discover how to write copy that best sells your stories.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Dean is one of my best friends in the business, and we began our careers at about the same time. When we started as pro writers, the path to take was well understood and we all followed the same decisions without many variations. But Dean was always innovative, seeking the road less traveled; he was a pioneer in non-traditional publishing with Pulphouse Publishing in the 1990s, and in recent years he and his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch have pushed the envelope further with their WMG Publishing. Dean has not only explored new techniques, but with his popular blogs and his instructional books, he has also shown other writers how to do new things for themselves. How to Write Fiction Sales Copy is an often overlooked skill, which can make or break your indie-published book. – Kevin J. Anderson

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

In July of 2015, I managed to write one short story a day. Actually had one extra, so ended up with 32 stories.

I did a cover for all of those stories as well, usually the next day.

My goal seemed simple on the surface:

  • Write 31 or 32 short stories.
  • Put them all in a book titled Stories from July.
  • Later publish all of them as standalone stories in electronic and paper.
  • Also put each story in my monthly magazine (Smith's Monthly) one or two a month, mixed with other stories and new novels.
  • Include the stories in themed collections.

In the book Stories from July, I wanted the blogs about writing each story, a cover, a blurb, and then the story.

To do that, I needed first to write the story each day. Check. Got that done. And it was great fun, more fun than I had imagined it would be.

Second, I needed to do a cover for each story, branded to me, the author. Check. Got that done.

Also fun.

And third, each story needed some sales copy. It would need it for the blurb on all the sales sites and for the back cover on the paper versions of each story and at the start of each story in Stories from July and in Smith's Monthly.

So that's what this series is all about.

Sales copy.

I need to write the sales copy for all 32 stories. A couple people asked about how I was going to do that. So I figured why not explain some about how to write the sales copy, since I also teach doing this in a workshop, among other things.

I will include my thinking about each story as I wrote the sales copy for it and how I got out of author problems and wrote sales.

Maybe I can help a few writers with their own sales copy if I talk about this process and show examples. At least that's the hope.

So onward.