Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen Social Media is both a boon and a curse to new writers. Online writing groups and forums are an excellent source of insider information on the publishing industry—stuff we once could only find at expensive classes and writers’ conferences. But social media is also a major source of misinformation and dangerously […]
Ian Fleming worked as hard on marketing as today’s authors. by Ruth Harris. It’s not just today’s authors who work hard. Consider Ian Fleming. The Man With The Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming’s James Bond Letters is a collection by Fleming’s nephew of the author’s letters to his publisher, editors, colleagues, other writers, fans, readers, and friends. […]
An Indie Author CAN publish with dignity and rise above the sleaze. by Derek Murphy I was at a writer’s conference recently where a woman was upset because the agent she pitched didn’t believe in her book. She wanted more support, more sympathy, more understanding. The speaker pointed out that the agent’s job is not […]
Are old manuscripts gathering dust in your archives? by Ruth Harris. Every writer has (at least) one and probably more. They’re the old manuscripts we—most certainly including Anne and me—started but didn’t finish or did finish but somehow went off track. They’re our false starts, our duds and misfires, our first novels, our practice novels, […]
by Dave Chesson. I’m a big believer in making the most of the time we have to write and getting the best possible output from it. After all, for most writers, time is the ultimate luxury. We can always experience ebbs and flows in sales or followers, but time is truly a finite resource. Once […]
Writing a novel synopsis doesn’t have to be a miserable chore. by Anne R. Allen. I have yet to meet a writer who enjoys writing a novel synopsis. Unfortunately, we all need to write them. Yes, even self-publishers. I sometimes see people in writing groups and forums who gloat when there’s a discussion of how […]
I’m tired of book bloggers getting no respect. by Anne R. Allen The contempt some business people have for bloggers never ceases to amaze me. Every day I get emails demanding I do free work for companies that are obviously solvent enough to hire employees—so why do they imagine it’s okay to demand that bloggers […]
Novellas, novelettes, and serial fiction are no longer “old fashioned.” by Mara Purl Do you know what George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds have in common? They’re not novels. They’re novellas. Novellas went out of style in […]
Writing scams are like old-time snake-oil elixirs. Beware the smooth-talking charlatan. by Anne R. Allen A couple of months ago I wrote about some of the weird writing scams that have been showing up in my email inbox. A number of my online author friends have since told me they’ve been getting them too. So […]
Aggression, greed, and paranoia do not enhance your author brand. by Anne R. Allen Recently there’s been a bizarre drama going on in the book world. It’s been given the name #cockygate, because it involves a cocky author who managed to trademark the word “cocky” in a deluded attempt to eliminate the “competition” and “protect” […]
Yes! Traditional publishing is possible after self-publishing. by Eldonna Edwards I’d been writing a novel off-and-on for over a decade when life threw me one of those cosmic curveballs that sent me careening in a totally different direction. Actually, it was more like me running onto the field and catching a curveball between the eyes, […]
Not every first novel is a practice novel. by Anne R. Allen It’s a sad truth that most first novels never see print. Editors call them “practice novels.” They make up a good portion of agents’ slush piles, and if you self-publish, they’re unlikely to sell. On her Bad Girl Comedy blog this week, author […]
Alas, publishing is about the bottom line, not warm fuzzies and gold stars. by Anne R. Allen The biggest obstacle many new writers face in making the leap from beginning writer to professional author is accepting that publishing is a business. Newbie writers have often taken creative writing courses or read books that urge them […]
