Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Charisma can have a dangerous side by Ruth Harris You know who they are. The superstars. The BFDs. They get the best tables, fly private, live on palatial estates. They are the ones who Have. It. All. They’re actors, influencers, corporate honchos, entertainers, TV personalities, rock stars, religious leaders, politicians and presidents. They’re the Superstars, […]
You can market your book with these 10 strategies By Rachel Thompson It can be daunting for authors when you have no idea how to market your book, yet it is essential to get your book in front of readers to make it successful. Here are the most important and effective book marketing strategies […]
by Anne R. Allen This week, editor and former agent Nathan Bransford published a blogpost that I wanted to send to all the beginning writers I know. The title is: If You Think Writing is Easy you’re Probably Not Very Good At It. It’s a little harsher than what we usually hear from good-natured […]
Plus a COVER REVEAL!! by Anne R. Allen The term “beta reader” gets thrown around a lot in writerly circles, but I’ve discovered an awful lot of writers don’t really understand what they do. The term “beta” reader seems to come from the gaming industry. Early game developers would ask certain customers to test games […]
by Ruth Harris Meh. With a Shrug. The book’s not terrible. Not at all. The settings are well-drawn, the dialogue’s more than halfway decent, the reader can even tell one character from another — but, bottom line, it’s meh. With a shrug. Something’s missing. What’s the x factor? What’s the mysterious something that turns meh into mahvelous? OMG. Are […]
Website Mistakes Can Lose Book Sales by Nate Hoffelder No matter what industry you are in, the tech you use every day requires regular maintenance. You take your car in every few thousand miles. The office copier gets monthly visits from the service tech. And the software you’re using to write your next book gets […]
Publishing predictions from Laurie’s crystal ball By Laurie McLean, Co-Founder/Agent Partner at Fuse Literary Hello everyone! Well, to say a lot happened in publishing last year is a severe understatement. Simon and Schuster Merger that Wasn’t Among the legal news, the biggest merger in publishing history — Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon and […]
Fragmenting Social Media Creates a Problem for Book Marketing By Anne R. Allen I know how it is: your readers started fading from Facebook all through 2022, disgusted by invasive advertising and slimy tactics that spy on your every move. They are also fed up by those bizarre, arbitrary algorithms that send you to Facebook […]
Happy New Year to all pre-published and published authors! by Anne R. Allen I’ve been looking over some old journals from 25-30 years ago, and it’s amazing how many years I made a New Year’s resolution to become a published author. And it’s amazing how many years it didn’t happen. The journals gave me a […]
Anne and Ruth wish all our readers–from pre-published to professional authors– Happy Holidays and a Rewarding New Year! by Ruth Harris I’ve known and worked with a lot of writers over the years (decades). Some work first thing in the AM, others in the PM, some don’t get started until near midnight. Some write sober, […]
by Anne R. Allen Here we are reaching the end of another year. Some of us have reached our writing goals, and some even “won” NaNoWriMo. But a lot of us haven’t. You may have had trouble getting to that last chapter of the novel, even though you wrote the requisite 50K words. Writing a […]
Do you have a NaNoWriMo novel to revise? by Jodie Renner New authors often underestimate the importance of revising a novel before publishing. As Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.” While the first draft of your novel is definitely not crap, it’s likely a long way from being as powerful and […]
by Anne R. Allen “I don’t do realism. Sometimes people will mention that something I’ve written doesn’t seem realistic and I always picture them looking at a Chagall and thinking the same thing. You can say, “I don’t like what you do, or I don’t like Chagall, or I don’t like Picasso” but saying that […]
