Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Are you ready to publish? by Anne R. Allen If you’ve used the pandemic lockdown as a time to write that novel you always knew you had in you, congratulations! You’ve taken the depressing, horrific lemon that was 2020 and turned it into literary lemonade. You deserve a great big “Congrats!” and several pats on […]
by Joseph Perry You finally received the call from your agent that you’re going to be a published author. Congratulations! All the hard work and months (or years) of attending workshops, writers’ groups, and revising and revising again have paid off. As excited as you may be, the next step, negotiating the publishing agreement, may […]
by Nate Hoffleder If you Google author bios you will find a million different articles, each with their own recommendation. Be short and too the point. Use the third person. Simply say who you are, and give your publishing credits. Be formulaic. A lot of this advice is good, but I also think it is […]
Publishing Predictions: Laurie McLean Looks in her Crystal Ball by Laurie McLean Hold onto your pens, people…it’s going to be a wild ride. It’s that time of year again. I present to you Predictions in Publishing: the 2021 Edition! It’s hard to believe that last year at this time I was bemoaning the fact that […]
by Ruth Harris Between Covid and lockdown rules, cabin fever and cooking, sour dough and sour moods, 2020 is—finally!—dragging to an end. Anne dealt with non-Covid-related debilitating health issues. I had to navigate NYC’s soaring Covid infection rates. She had a meltdown involving a TV remote. I had one triggered by laundry. The good news is that with […]
By: Ruth Harris A Prince by any other name would still be a Prince. (I hope.) Meghan by any other name would still be a princess Ditto Diana. Lord or Lady. Peasant or serf. Professor or student. Beginner or expert. Titles orient us to where we are and what we should expect next. Doesn’t just […]
by Paul Dinas Once upon a time Publishing used to be a leisurely enterprise. Authors could submit their work directly to the “slush” pile. Editorial assistants would carefully sift through the submissions looking for books that could be turned into solid commercial properties. Submissions were sent in hard copy, and editors’ offices were piled high […]
by Ruth Harris A term used in scoring tennis, “unforced errors” are not caused by the actions of the player’s opponent, but they’re the responsibility of the player him/herself. S/he is caught wrong-footed, out of balance, unable to return the serve, incapable of making the winning shot. The concept of unforced errors can also be […]
Success comes from patience, practice, and persistence. by Ruth Harris We’re living in a world where everything—pizza, groceries, shampoo, a barre class, hot sex (or, in these days of Covid-19, a sex toy discreetly wrapped)—is a click away. Even in the midst of a shelter-in-place pandemic, everything anyone—including writers—could want is at our fingertips. We’ve […]
by Ruth Harris You might have thought because you’re staying at home that you’d have more free time to start/finish a book or take an on-line yoga class. But in reality, because we’re all spending so much time at home, much of that time is consumed by eating which means food prep and cooking (which […]
Amazon’s review rules are enforced by robocops. by Anne R. Allen One of the things we can do when we’re hunkered down at home during the pandemic is read books. And after we finish something, it’s helpful to other readers and authors if we write a review. (Good karma, too. 🙂 ) But that review […]
by Anne R. Allen A lot of the problems new novelists and memoirists encounter stem from one thing. I see their plaintive posts and emails all the time. “I self-published my novel last year and promoted it free with a Bookbub ad, but after the freebie run, I’ve only sold a handful of books.” “I’ve […]
by Anne R. Allen Recently I got a furious Facebook message from a stranger who accused me of “using her life” in one of my books. It’s amazing how sometimes life imitates fiction. She had apparently been a Facebook friend, and she dramatically unfriended me after sending a distraught DM describing the traumas in her […]
