by Anne R. Allen First: many thanks to Indies Unlimited, which named this blog to its 10 Blogs and Websites Every Indie Should Know. If you’re an indie, or thinking of going indie (self-publishing or small-press), do follow them for great tips and news from a very savvy team of writers. Most writers these days […]
Gangs of New Media: Twitchforks, the Hive Mind, and “Social Lasers of Cruelty”
by Anne R. Allen I spend a lot of time here telling writers how and why to use social media, but I don’t often address the dangers. Yeah, they exist. I don’t know why, but otherwise sensible people can morph into irrational brutes when they’ve got their fingers on a keyboard and a connection […]
Beware the Seven Deadly Writing Scams
We first ran into Lila Moore’s scam-alerts at The Passive Voice. We visited her new watchdog site, PopularSoda.com and were impressed with all her savvy advice. Indie publishing has generated lots of new money-wasters and scams. Popular Soda adds an indie-focused viewpoint to other author-advocate voices like Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, the following tips can […]
When Should an Author Hire an Editor?
by Anne R. Allen First: This week marks the anniversary of that fateful day three years ago when I started this blog…and then promptly lost it. But luckily I found it a few months later, and this blog now gets an average of 12,000 hits a month on its four monthly posts and […]
E-Book as Query Part 2: 10 Tips for Spotting Bogus and Predatory Agents.
by Anne R. Allen As I reported last month, the self-published e-book is fast becoming the query of choice for many New York literary agencies. Rather than slog through mountains of slush, agents are closing their offices to queries and shopping for new clients in the Kindle bestseller lists. Why not? That’s where they’ll find unrepresented […]
What if Somebody Steals Your Plot?
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 […]
Do You Know How to Spot a Bogus Literary Agency? 8 Red Flags to Watch For
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 […]
OMG I’M A GUEST BLOGGER ON NATHAN BRANSFORD’S BLOG!
by Anne R. Allen This has been hard to keep under my cyberhat all week, but Nathan asked that winners keep the info off the internets until the big day. Which is TODAY. So here it is: I’m one of the three winners of Nathan’s guest blogger contest. You can read my post on […]
Beware Bogus Literary Agents
Six Tips to Avoid Getting Scammed by Anne R. Allen I belong to the generation of women who were told we were more likely be shot by terrorists than find husbands. Several decades later, we’re all writing books about our fabulous single lives—as desperate now for literary representation as we once were for the […]
