Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen Everybody tells authors we must use social media to have successful careers in the E-age, but nobody talks much about the dangers that lurk here. Here’s the thing: the Internet is still the wild frontier. And it’s so huge nobody’s quite sure how to police it. Big, loosely regulated social […]
This week Ruth Harris gives us more must-have tools for writers in the second installment of her “Writer’s Toolkit” Series. Lots of stuff here that’s available FREE or cheaply. This is another post—like the one about global markets last week—that reminds me how much I still don’t know about this business. I have to […]
by Anne R. Allen What’s the difference between a dream and a goal? Short answer: reality. A dream is a creature of the imagination, full of sparkles and rainbows and magic. It’s our castle in the air where we live our fantasy lives. We all need them. But we also need to recognize them […]
by Anne R. Allen Authors are getting hammered with more and more demands on our time. We get escalating pressure to blog more! tweet more!! send more newsletters!!! churn out 12 books a year!!!! And don’t query unless your Klout rating is as high as Justin Beiber’s !!!!! It’s making us all feel as […]
by Anne R. Allen Ruth Harris will be posting on June 2 instead of today. She kindly switched with me because I’m going to be out of town next weekend, celebrating my Mom’s 92nd birthday. Thanks to all of you who downloaded my mom’s pioneer saga, ROXANNA BRITTON, and sent it to #1 in […]
by Anne R. Allen We welcome questions from readers, and we always try to offer an answer or at least steer you to a place where you can find one. A good place to get more detailed information is a book I co-wrote with Catherine Ryan Hyde: How to be a Writer in the E-Age…and […]
This week the bookosphere saw something of a teapot-storm when a formerly indie author—now signed with a Big 5 publisher—got an odd notice from Amazon. It said her readers had been asked to delete their old versions of her book and get the new Big 5 version—at the author’s expense. It sounded like […]
by Anne R. Allen Whether you’re a freelance journalist trying to place an article, a novelist looking for literary representation, or an indie author seeking reviews and/or guest post gigs, every writer needs to learn to write a smart, short, compelling query letter. (And no, it can’t be a Tweet or personal message on […]
by Anne R. Allen First: Many thanks to Writers Digest editor Robert Lee Brewer, who put this blog in his list of “Blogs that Rock” in his BEST BLOGS FOR WRITERS TO READ IN 2013 this week. Yes, you should do frequent Internet searches of your own name. I have to laugh when I see writers apologizing on their […]
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, some don’t. Some write on a computer, some on legal pads, and these days some write […]
by Anne R. Allen The list of million-seller “indie” authors is growing every day. Self-publishing has not only become mainstream—it’s edgy and cool. Persuasive blogs by self-publishing stars like Joe Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith, David Gaughran and Kris Rusch have inspired a staggering number of new writers to self-publish in the past two years. […]
This week, we’re honored to host Laurie McLean, a senior agent at the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency who is also a pioneer in the indie revolution. Since she’s been pretty good at predicting the big changes in the publishing industry in recent years, I asked her to look into her crystal ball and tell us […]
by Anne R. Allen This post was originally written in October, 2012. Here’s an update: July 14, 2013. It seems the critically acclaimed detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling was written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Here’s an article in the Telegraph with details about the new revelation. It got great reviews, but […]
