Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
9 Ways Editors Can Make You Look Good…and 7 Ways They Can Make You Miserable by Ruth Harris As a former editor, I’m biased but, as a writer, I’ve learned that for me (and for just about every writer I know), editing is the most productive and transformative part of writing a book. Whether […]
by Anne R. Allen Piracy has become big business in the age of e-publishing. If your intellectual property is available on the Web—in ebooks, blog posts or other web content—chances are pretty good you’re going to be pirated at some point. If you have a Google Alert on your name and book titles […]
By Anne R. Allen We all make mistakes. It’s how we learn. But some mistakes have the potential to end a writing career before it starts. Today I’m talking about the things a lot of writers do that can keep them from having a career—or derail it for a long time. How do I know […]
Meet the faculty, tour the campus and calculate the tuition of the University of Hard Knocks by Ruth Harris Scammers and con artists have been around publishing since writers were using chisels to carve words into stone tablets. They loot, cheat and steal. They’re the faculty of Hard Knocks U. and they are out […]
by Anne R. Allen Bloggers sometimes feel like Rodney Dangerfield. We get no respect. This week, we heard how Amazon is banning 100s of book review bloggers and removing their reviews. Some of the bloggers may be violating “affiliate” rules, but others have no affiliation with Amazon and are having all their reviews removed anyway. […]
by Anne R. Allen The most dangerous concept in the universe is probably, “there is only one right way.” People who insist there is only one right way to live, think, behave, or believe are responsible for most of the world’s conflict and suffering. Merriam-Webster defines dogma as “a belief or set of beliefs […]
The Five ‘Insider’ Secrets Of Top Fiction Writers by Dr. John Yeoman How do you write a ‘killer’ novel or story that brings you a contract with an agent or publisher? Or that leaps over the short-list to gain a top prize in a contest? There’s a secret to it. But more than 90% of […]
by Anne R. Allen “Show-Don’t-Tell” is one of the most sacred commandments in the writerly bible. As Susan Defreitas wrote at LitReactor, “If writing advice were classic rock, this would be ‘Stairway to Heaven’.” “Show, Don’t Tell” is sound advice—up to a point. Nobody wants to read a novel that’s a dry recitation of incidents. […]
by Anne R. Allen The Harvard Business School recently did a fascinating study of toxic employees and their effect on a company’s bottom line. The researchers discovered the most difficult and costly employees aren’t the lazy ones or the gossipy ones. It turns out the worst are the ones dead-set on following rules to the […]
By Melodie Campbell To the elderly man in the khaki sweater who lifted his reading glasses to stare open-mouthed… To the unknown person who gasped and knocked over a chair behind me… To the woman with the stroller who stared in horror, and then wheeled her toddler frantically away toward the exit… False […]
by Anne R. Allen First I have to say how jazzed I am to be named one of the 16 Best People to Follow on Twitter by book marketing guru Penny Sansevieri at Author Marketing Experts, Inc. Thanks Penny! It’s a great list and I’m honored to be on it. Okay, I know why […]
by Anne R. Allen I had what is known as a “good education.” I attended East Coast and European prep schools and Ivy League colleges. Both my parents were college professors with PhDs in literature. All of which left me uniquely unqualified for my chosen profession: writing novels. Why? Because I grew up knowing […]
by Anne R. Allen Welcome to all our new subscribers! We had one of those crazy lucky streaks this week when one of my older posts 10 Things that Red-Flag a Newbie Novelist, suddenly went viral. Somehow moving the blog from Blogger to WordPress made some of the old posts hit social media radar […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris