In the discomfort zone? How to get through the day. by Ruth Harris “It’s a cut-throat industry,” said English author Sean Thomas (his real name) quoted recently in the Wall Street Journal. The international bestselling author of The Ice Twins, S.K. Tremayne aka Tom Knox, (both pen names of Mr. Thomas), was not talking about violent drug cartels […]
Publishing Industry Cults, Weaponized Amazon Reviews, and Organized Cyberbullying
Cults are as dangerous now as in Savonarola’s day by Anne R. Allen Over the years I’ve written quite a bit about the dangers of author-on-author cyberbullying. A few years ago, a group I called “Mean Girls-meets-Lord of the Flies” terrorized authors on Goodreads and Amazon. A lot of us left Goodreads and never went […]
Audiobooks are the Fastest Growing Book Market: How to Get Your Book Recorded
Audiobooks narrator C. S. Perryess at work. An Interview with Audible Narrator C. S. Perryess Audiobooks are hot. Especially for adult fiction. People like to listen to audiobooks on their phones. New audio platforms like Amazon Echo and Alexa and Google home make listening to audiobooks convenient and fun. Millennials like audiobooks. There are lots […]
How To Write Contemporary Fiction: Don’t Write for Leo Tolstoy’s Audience
Writing contemporary fiction? Don’t rewrite War and Peace. by Anne R. Allen I recently read on an agent’s blog, “Nobody’s looking for War and Peace.” And alas, I fear it’s true. I can’t remember the last time I said, “I want to get into a big 19th century novel.” (And there was a time when […]
6 Fantasies Standing Between You and Writing Success—and How to Fight Back
Writing Success happens, but you need to leave Middle Earth, Hobbitses by Ruth Harris Whether we write Space Opera or Women’s Fiction, Romance or Thrillers, our job is fantasy. We make up characters, imagine lives we never led (Spy? Shifter? Wizard? Supermodel? Yarn shop owner? Billionaire? Serial killer?), go to places we’ve never travelled to […]
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Blogging Can Lead to Many Career Paths
Blogging can open up many career paths for writers by Anne R. Allen Most people who choose a career in writing first imagine ourselves as novelists or memoirists, not nonfiction writers. But these days, writers, even novelists, can’t just write books. We need to start “A Multi-Media Author Business.” And that involves writing a lot of […]
Hiring an Editor: Who, When, Why, and How to Avoid Scams
Hiring an editor too soon wastes time and money. by Anne R. Allen Learning to write books is hard. Earning money from books is even harder. So some writers figure they’ll bypass the expensive stuff like hiring an editor. This is not a good idea if you’re planning to self-publish. We are all blind to […]
Why Writing Rules (Usually) Don’t Work, But Writing Guidelines Do
Writing guidelines can help us climb that “book mountain” by Ruth Harris A breath-taking article about a Polish team of mountaineers planning to climb K2 in the winter—a risky-to-the-max feat that has never been accomplished—reminded me that every book is K2, a mountain that has never been climbed. Like expert climbers, writers make progress step […]
Practice Novels: 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Publish that 1st Novel…Yet
Most authors start with practice novels. Some may be publishable…later. by Anne R. Allen We often hear stories about authors who have phenomenal success with a “first novel.” I’m sure most writers fantasize about being one of those success stories as we begin our careers. I sure did. But here’s what I didn’t know when […]
What’s Your Author Strategy? 3 Mini-Strategies To Jumpstart Your Career
Author Strategy? You mean there’s a strategy to this? by Carmen Amato I’m not sure what I was thinking of when I chose this quote from Louisa May Alcott to adorn my high school year book picture: “Far away there in the sunshine sat my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can […]
10 Writing Career Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To
Writing career mistakes will happen, but these are some you can avoid. by Anne R. Allen Ruth and I like to say we made all the writing career mistakes so you don’t have to. I figure that I’ve collected nearly the full set of authorial faux pas since I embarked on a writing career. So today I’m […]
Rejection and Failure: Why There’s a Difference, and Why Neither Means You Should Quit
Rejection and failure make you think of quitting? Be like Thomas Edison instead. by Ruth Harris Rejection can make us want to cry and/or break things but rejection is almost never personal and often has nothing to do with your book, either. The sting of rejection can be bullied into submission with a can-do, eff-you […]
Are Slow Writers Doomed to Fail in the Digital Age?
by Anne R. Allen I first blogged about the plight of slow writers back in 2014, at the height of the indie publishing boom. All the indie superstar gurus were telling writers to grind out ebooks as fast as they could type to take advantage of the “Kindle Gold Rush”. Three years later, the Kindle […]
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