Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Fire up your fiction and don’t give anybody a reason to reject your novel by Jodie Renner …fiction editor and author of writing guides Have your trusted friends or beta readers told you your WIP novel is too long, confusing, or just doesn’t grab them? Here are some typical “big-picture” weaknesses to watch out for […]
by Anne R. Allen Recently I got a furious Facebook message from a stranger who accused me of “using her life” in one of my books. It’s amazing how sometimes life imitates fiction. She had apparently been a Facebook friend, and she dramatically unfriended me after sending a distraught DM describing the traumas in her […]
by Ruth Harris One of them is lying. Or are both of them lying? You mean maybe both of them are telling the truth? Could be, couldn’t it? No matter which answer is the correct one, what people say and the words with which they say it, will immediately bring your characters—and your book—to life. […]
Don’t embarrass yourself with a clueless query. by Anne R. Allen I don’t know why, but I’ve recently been hit with a barrage of requests from new writers who want me to critique their query letters. Most of them come from LinkedIn, which I’ve happily ignored for years, but for some reason I’m suddenly getting […]
BookBub: You can use it even if you can’t afford their ads. by Anne R. Allen Isn’t BookBub Just a Bargain Ebook Newsletter? They started out with the daily bargain newsletter. And it’s still going strong. BookBub has become the most successful of all the bargain newsletters in the US and UK. As a reader, […]
2020 Publishing Predictions by Laurie McLean, Co-founder of Fuse Literary Agency Hello again, everyone. I love creating this look-ahead in publishing each year. It makes me pick my head up and take a longer view of the industry than my normal routine of concentrating on the picayune changes in publishing contracts, the art of selling […]
Happy New Year from Anne and Ruth! With our sincere best wishes for a festive holiday and rewarding 2020. We love our readers and appreciate every one of you. Thank you for keeping us going for the last 10 years! Here are some things coming up on the blog in the next few months. Agent […]
The self-publishing revolution started on clunky computers like this one by Anne R. Allen In a few days we’ll be leaving the twenty-teens to enter the 2020s. We’ll be saying goodbye to a decade of wild upheaval in the publishing industry. It’s been quite a ride. On January 5th, we’ll host agent Laurie McLean from […]
by Tara Sparling Introduction: Ever wonder what it would be like to live with a well-known fictional character stereotype? At Christmas? Well, wonder no more, and count your blessings that you don’t… It’s December the Somethingth. You come home from a long day at work. You were supposed to buy Christmas gifts, but the traffic […]
By Melodie Campbell. I’m not talking about a room of your own, with all due respect to Virginia Wolf. (Although that is certainly handy. Writing your early stories on the floor of the bathroom with your kids outside shaking the locked door gets tiresome pretty fast.) But today I’m talking about what I tell the […]
by Anne R. Allen. I’ve seen a steep decline in the number of people commenting on blogs over the past few years. I’m not sure why that is. But commenting on blogs is still an easy, painless way to get your name into search engines and build an “author platform.” I realize I’m partly […]
The publishing roller coaster can drive you nuts if you let it. by Ruth Harris I don’t really have to tell you, do I? Success followed by failure. Ups followed by crashes. Sinatra sang it: Flying high in April. Shot down in May. Moodswings. One week you pop the Dom Perignon. The next, you’re knee […]
Writing your final chapter can be tougher than writing the first. by Anne R. Allen A new book by Patricia Cornwell, of Kay Scarpetta fame, has had 100s of scathing reviews on Amazon. Not only has she strayed from the mystery genre into scifi, but the book did not come to a satisfying conclusion. Readers […]
