Podcasts for Writers
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October 25, 2016

The work of being a writer is never ending. When you’re not writing, you’re reading. When you’re not reading, you can listen! Podcasts are a wonderful way to learn about new books, hear authors talk about their writing practice, learn new skills, improve your writing craft, and gain fresh perspectives on the business of publishing. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite podcasts… [Read More]

Podcasts for True Crime Writers
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October 18, 2016

Perhaps you got hooked on podcasts last year by listening to Serial. From the creators of This American Life, produced by WBEZ Chicago, and hosted by Sarah Koenig, Serial offered listeners a true story told over the course of a season with weekly episodes. The first season focused on the disappearance in 1999 of Hae Min Lee in Baltimore and the conviction of her boyfriend,… [Read More]

Q&A with Ira Rabois
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September 27, 2016

This week Rowman & Littlefield releases Compassionate Critical Thinking: How Mindfulness, Creativity, Empathy and Socratic Questioning Can Transform Teaching by Ira Rabois. In his new book, Ira demonstrates how to use mindfulness with instructional effectiveness to increase student participation and decrease classroom stress, and it turns the act of teaching into a transformational practice. Many books teach mindfulness, but few provide a model for teaching… [Read More]

American Daredevil: Biography of America’s First Celebrity Travel Journalist
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May 31, 2016

More than 75 years ago, Richard Halliburton set sail in a Chinese junk, “The Sea Dragon,” hoping to arrive in time for the San Francisco Golden Gate International Expo. Instead, he vanished without a trace when his craft sank in March 1939. Halliburton had been a household name since 1930, known for his bestselling books published by Bobbs-Merrill. The first biography written about this nearly… [Read More]

Six Myths About Copyright Permissions
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August 25, 2015

Myth #1: “Fair Use under the US Copyright Law covers this.” It does not. “Fair Use” pertains to educational use only; not for profit. Publishing, however, has a commercial intent and therefore authors are not excused from seeking copyright permission for work that is not original. This includes photographs, poems, song lyrics, artwork, or an excerpt from another book or publication. Myth #2: “It must… [Read More]

Paths to Publishing
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August 11, 2015

The business of publishing continues to evolve and new finance models have emerged in recent years. There is a lot of new middle ground between self-publishing – Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu – and the traditional route of finding an agent who sells your work to one of the big commercial trade presses – Penguin Random House, Hatchette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster…. [Read More]

Narrative Arc for Nonfiction Writing
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August 4, 2015

Blame Aristotle.  Blame classical Greek culture. Blame all of Western Civilization. But every story must have a beginning, middle, and end. And more than that. Without narrative structure, non-fiction writing is just a boring recitation of one thing after another. You may think because it is based on your experiences, historical events, scientific experimentation, or natural observations that you don’t need a story to write… [Read More]

Adventures with a Small Publisher
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July 28, 2015

Often when people plan to write a book, they dream their book will get published by one of the big publishers – Hatchette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, or HarperCollins. My story is different and I’ve always been grateful to have gotten in on the ground floor with a small publisher. When my son was about 6 months old, I began working very part-time… [Read More]

Literary Journals and Platform Building
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July 7, 2015

Getting your writing published in a literary journal is an important way to improve your chances of getting your nonfiction (or memoir) book manuscript published. When your writing is published in a literary journal it provides a publisher with evidence you can meet professional standards and others find your work compelling. Literary journals are often considered gatekeepers to the publishing community. Which literary journals should… [Read More]

Recommended. Summer. Reading.
by,
June 23, 2015

Two novels. Both are set during the Second World War and yet neither is a war story.      Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, won the Pulitizer Prize for fiction this year. Read it to gain an appreciation for what editors mean when they say “character-driven plot.” This is much more than a story about WWII. Marie-Louise is a blind 14-year-old girl… [Read More]