Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Ruth Harris The style sheet is a writer’s secret power — and best friend. A style sheet will save you time, frustration, and money. A style sheet will save you from yourself and prevent you from making the kind of mistakes that will send readers fleeing and guarantee one-star reviews. If you’re writing a […]
How to make your literary journal submission jump from the slush pile By Meredith Allard I’m the executive editor of The Copperfield Review, a literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction. Since 2000, I’ve read thousands of submissions of historical short stories and history-based poems. Despite what you might have heard, literary journals […]
When those “dreams come true” are publishing scams… by Anne R. Allen Because I have a lot of articles out there on publishing scams, I get frequent messages from writers who fear they’ve been ensnared by a scammer. I hear even more often from their friends. These friends or relatives see something iffy going on, […]
By Melodie Campbell Many of you know that in addition to being a writer of mob heist novels, I’m also the past Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada. (For my sins. Of which I’ve lost count…) I’m just coming up for air after serving as a judge for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards […]
by Anne R. Allen One of the things that will get you an automatic rejection from most agents—and a swift toss to the DNF pile from a lot of readers—is an unsympathetic character. Especially an unsympathetic protagonist. Personally, I have to admit if there’s nobody in a story I care about, I’m out of there […]
The life cycle of a writer can be as predictable as a frog’s by Ruth Harris A glimmer of an idea sparks in the writer’s mind. You’re in the shower, just waking up, cooking dinner, mopping the floor, or on the way to the supermarket, dentist, or a hot date with The One. It’s the […]
by Anne R. Allen The old-school advice for naming fictional characters was to comb the obituaries. But not a lot of people get newspapers these days, so we need other sources of inspiration. For me, spam is turning out to be one of the best places to find unique names. Every week I cull a […]
Make a memorable introduction while building your author brand by Mike Bohdan A bookstore employee outed Richard Bachman as Stephen King in 1985 despite all his efforts to hide the fact. The clever person recognized King’s style following its breadcrumbs scattered in Bachman books. One of the breadcrumbs was the word “mangler.” The characters in […]
Writing fashion changes, like the fashion in Easter Bonnets by Anne R. Allen Fashion. It sounds frivolous, but it has serious effects on us all. Right now, women are getting beard-burn from kissing men who sport the fashionable romantic-hero three-day stubble. And mothers are stifling their disappointment when their golden-haired boys get the fashion-victim shaved-sides […]
by Ruth Harris Your title is just right for your genre. Your cover is on-target, too. Perfect image, just-so font, come-hither colors. This is a cover that will end up in the book cover wing of the Louvre. You know, that premium spot right next to the Mona Lisa. Your blurb is totally irresistible. I […]
Today we have a guest post on writing a query letter from literary agent Lucinda Halpern. I realize many of our readers are indie authors or plan to publish independently. But these rules are important for any kind of query: to a reviewer, editor or blogger as well. by Lucinda Halpern Writers put so much love and […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I saw links to a couple of threads on social media about reader pet peeves. Then Buzzfeed weighed in, listing some of the biggest complaints from fiction readers. Some peeves are predictable but others are kind of surprising. I do some of this stuff myself, so I was grateful […]
How’s Your Amazon Bio? Can it sell books by the truckload? Today’s guest post is an excerpt from How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon: 2021 Amazon Ads Powerhouse Edition by Penny Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, a cutting edge book marketing firm. By Penny Sansevieri Since I first published […]
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