Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Today’s guest post is from one of my favorite authors, Ruth Harris. She’s a bestselling author–and a former Big Six editor and publishing executive who has gone over to the indie side. She knows what she’s talking about. Her sales numbers are in the millions. Her fiction has been translated into 19 languages, published […]
by Anne R. Allen If you’re like me, you’re getting a little bored with the indie vs. legacy publishing debate. People are talking a lot of crap on both “sides” of what shouldn’t be an either/or argument in the first place. (See sci-fi author Jeff Carlson’s great post on the subject here.) But this week I […]
by Anne R. Allen One of my favorite moments in film happens in Star Trek IV, when the Enterprise crew find themselves back the 20th century. Kirk refers to “the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins,” and Spock replies, “Ah… The giants!” Funny bit. But the thing is—they were giants. Not great writers, but […]
by Anne R. Allen I often hear from new writers who are afraid their plots will be stolen if they talk about their books online or in critique groups. But I tell them to rest easy. Writers have a lot to be wary of these days—faux agents, bogus publishers, e-book pirates, content mills, James Frey—but […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m working on a couple of new projects—watch this space for exciting developments—so I’m running a New! Improved! version of an oldie-but-goodie. The original post garnered a visit and an approving nod from agent Janet Reid—the Query Shark herownself. ****** I belong to the generation of women who were told we […]
by Anne R. Allen I have a confession to make. My high school nickname was “Zombie.” The moniker was intended as an insult, but I loved it. I dressed in black, dyed my hair a dead ash color and wore ghastly white lipstick. I was goth before goth was cool. My senior year, my family […]
by Anne R. Allen Gearing up for NaNoWriMo? Good for you. You’ve always wanted to write a novel and next month you’re going to do it. But remember that most first novels never see print. Editors call them “practice novels.” Like any other profession, writing requires a long learning process. But there are a […]
As promised, here’s a guest blog from Janice Hardy. I’m a long-time fan of her blog, The Other Side of the Story. It’s always full of great, solid advice on craft and navigating the publishing business. When she said she was doing a blog tour to promote her new YA Fantasy book, Blue Fire, the […]
by Anne R. Allen “WTF?” Sez you. “Luxury? Getting daily rejections? Living in this mousehole on a diet of ramen and generic Froot Loops? While the few friends I have left laugh at my “delusions” of being a published writer? I’m supposed to #%&!ing enjoy this?” Well, yes. It’s the only time in your […]
by Anne R. Allen I’ve been dealing with an evil computer virus which first attacked my desktop and now seems to have killed my laptop dead. They’re both old machines, so it may be better to replace them than try to fix them, but now I’m worried my back-up drives may be infected too. […]
by Anne R. Allen I’ve had a number of people ask me that question in the last few months. There’s tons of info out here in Cyberia, but not everybody knows how to access it. And along with the good info, there’s plenty of bad—especially from predatory vanity publishers and bogus agents. So here are some […]
by Anne R. Allen When you’re a beginning writer, you’re likely to get bombarded with advice from all quarters—your family, your friends, your hairdresser, and of course that know-it-all guy at work. I don’t know why, but everybody who’s ever watched a few minutes of Oprah seems to think they know all about the […]
by Anne R. Allen After reading a bunch of agent blogs, submission guidelines, and tweets on the subject of our #queryfails, it occurred to me that most of the complaints can be boiled down to one major offense: querying too early. It’s not only about holding off until you can give that book an extra polish: […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris