Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
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 […]
Don’t embarrass yourself with a clueless query. by Anne R. Allen I don’t know why, but I’ve recently been hit with a barrage of requests from new writers who want me to critique their query letters. Most of them come from LinkedIn, which I’ve happily ignored for years, but for some reason I’m suddenly getting […]
2020 Publishing Predictions by Laurie McLean, Co-founder of Fuse Literary Agency Hello again, everyone. I love creating this look-ahead in publishing each year. It makes me pick my head up and take a longer view of the industry than my normal routine of concentrating on the picayune changes in publishing contracts, the art of selling […]
Happy New Year from Anne and Ruth! With our sincere best wishes for a festive holiday and rewarding 2020. We love our readers and appreciate every one of you. Thank you for keeping us going for the last 10 years! Here are some things coming up on the blog in the next few months. Agent […]
The self-publishing revolution started on clunky computers like this one by Anne R. Allen In a few days we’ll be leaving the twenty-teens to enter the 2020s. We’ll be saying goodbye to a decade of wild upheaval in the publishing industry. It’s been quite a ride. On January 5th, we’ll host agent Laurie McLean from […]
By Melodie Campbell. I’m not talking about a room of your own, with all due respect to Virginia Wolf. (Although that is certainly handy. Writing your early stories on the floor of the bathroom with your kids outside shaking the locked door gets tiresome pretty fast.) But today I’m talking about what I tell the […]
The publishing roller coaster can drive you nuts if you let it. by Ruth Harris I don’t really have to tell you, do I? Success followed by failure. Ups followed by crashes. Sinatra sang it: Flying high in April. Shot down in May. Moodswings. One week you pop the Dom Perignon. The next, you’re knee […]
Competing book titles can help sell your book! By Penny Sansevieri As an author you’ve probably been told to look at competing titles through multiple stages of your journey from writing, to publishing, to book promotion. Competing book titles can be lucrative references for cover design, book length, and choosing your categories and keywords. They’re […]
by Julie Valerie. From Book Blog to Book Deal. First things first, because I’m sure this question is on a lot of writer’s minds: does a book blog still land a book deal? My answer? Of course they do. Great writing and great content will always find an audience, and where there’s an audience, especially […]
Crisis management during an online attack needs a quick, savvy response. by Chris Syme I know what you’re thinking. You see the word crisis and say, that will never happen to me. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are wrong. As with all public figures, a reputation-tanking, book-disappearing, fan-stalking, Twitter-storm crisis can happen to […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris