Where should your book be reviewed? What literary journals and magazines should you submit excerpts or adaptations to? Which bookstore events will be worth your while? Are there podcasts or radio interviews you should book to promote your new release? These and other questions you may have when you begin to put together a marketing strategy are not easy to answer. Studying your comp titles… [Read More]
When you are writing for print, ideas and stories are communicated in a visual-linear mode which engages logic and thought. The kind of writing you do for a listener is quite different than when writing for readers. Writing for print addresses the intellect: the intent is to communicate an idea or present the facts and let the reader infer the meaning and significance of the… [Read More]
As an editor I see one four letter word overused and abused more than any other. T. H. A. T. That. Many times it serves no grammatical purpose whatsoever. It is a filler word. You use it in conversation to signal to others a pause, like a verbal comma, to give the impression to a listener you haven’t finished speaking. In writing, however, it is… [Read More]
Who are your readers? They are not your family and friends. And don’t expect them to buy the book when it comes out. Unless they are in it. And that might not always be a good thing. Who are the people who don’t know you and will be pulled to your book enough to take money out of their pocket to buy it so they… [Read More]
It can be intimidating to think about writing your life story. Relax. Memoir isn’t your entire life story. It’s a slice of life, not birth to death. Don’t confuse memoir with autobiography. Today the only autobiographies which find publishers are those written by presidential candidates, retired statesmen, and superstars. And typically written by authors who don’t trust biographers to paint their portrait in a flattering… [Read More]
Let me introduce my guestblogger today, Ira Rabois. Rowman & Littlefield released his new book, Compassionate Critical Thinking, in late October 2016. I invited Ira to write a meditation for today because we all need compassionate critical thinking to write well. “How do you write well? Probably thousands have written about this. On the surface, it seems writing is about language, which to a large… [Read More]
One of the things no one tells writers about becoming a successfully published author is the importance of building your literary community and participating in book culture long before you land an agent or a publishing contract. There are no shortcuts to creating a career as an author. I hate to disillusion you of the idea that you will be “discovered” and become rich and… [Read More]
Not every book gets a starred review from Kirkus. Whether it’s a review from a literary critic or the crank on Amazon, negative reviews hurt. They hurt a lot more than you’d think and in ways you can’t always imagine. But how do you react to the pain inflicted from a negative assessment of your book? What do you do with your feelings? It’s increasingly… [Read More]
During this month of December, I offer a one-time special to writers who seek professional editorial feedback on their work-in-progress. Send me 10 pages of your writing and I’ll do a developmental edit and provide you with a tracked version of your Word document with a one-hour consultation by phone or Skype for the special rate of $150. Why 10 pages? I can diagnose common… [Read More]
The shortest days of the year are here. In my family’s Scandinavian tradition, TODAY, December 13 is Santa Lucia Day. According to legend, she brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the catacombs in the third century. In the annual holiday festivals, Lucia is represented by a blonde girl in a white dress with a red sash who wears a crown of candles on her… [Read More]
