Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Tara Sparling Tara Sparling is an Irish blogger and humorist. I stumbled onto her award-winning blog, “Tara Sparling Writes: A Sideways Perspective on the Bonkers Business of Books” through a Tweet, and I’ve been an avid follower ever since. Her take on the writing life is uniquely quirky and hilarious… and oh, so Irish. Seriously, […]
by Anne R. Allen Last week I talked about some of the writing scams that Ruth and I have heard about recently in my post 5 Scams that Target New Writers. Sometimes we’re contacted by the scammers themselves and sometimes we get questions from readers who aren’t sure if they should accept an offer […]
by Anne R. Allen Welcome to our new blog!! I hope you’ll find our new WordPress site is easier for comments and searches. Because we have a high-profile blog, a lot of people contact us because they want us to promote their services to our readers, usually through contests or deals. Sometimes these services are […]
by Ruth Harris It is a truth universally acknowledged that no writer ever knows when or where his/her next great idea will strike. Because of that inconvenient fact, notebooks are essential. Although the back of a grocery receipt or a dry cleaner’s ticket will do in an emergency, a notebook will help create order out […]
by Anne R. Allen So what’s this about missing reviews? Go to any author forum or social media group for writers and you’ll see the plaintive posts: “Help! My Amazon reviews are disappearing.” “Amazon rejected my review because they say I ‘know’ the author. I don’t. All I did was friend her on Facebook!” “Amazon […]
Rejections. We all get them. In fact, there are only two things we can absolutely count on in the writing business: rejections and bad reviews. There’s no doubt rejections make us feel terrible. As Brian Doyle wrote in Portland Magazine and was quoted in Letters of Note, “To receive one is to instantly and all at once […]
by Anne R. Allen Last week I wrote about five delusions that can keep a new writer from professional success. I admit to succumbing to most of them myself at one time or another. Writers need to be a little delusional to embark on a road that we know is fraught with obstacles. It’s the […]
by Anne R. Allen We writers tend to get a tad delusional about our own work. Most of us know the average writer doesn’t make great money, but we secretly believe our own efforts will bring us fabulous fame and fortune. When we start out, we can’t help visualizing our books leapfrogging over all the […]
8 Bestselling Authors Share Tips and Tricks for Finding and Keeping Joy in Your Writing by Ruth Harris The Joy of Writing? During National Novel Writing Month? You’re kidding, right?A 55K word novel in a month?You’re fretting, nervous, sweaty. Performance anxiety in excelsis? Brain block? What brain? Writing should be fun and NaNo is […]
by Anne R. Allen Should I pay to copyright my manuscript? Will a publisher or agent steal my plot from a query? How can I protect my ideas? We get asked these questions a lot. Until recently, our standard answer was: “Stop worrying about it. Your work is automatically copyrighted as soon as you type […]
by Chris Syme Self-publishing and social media have empowered writers in ways we never dreamed of a decade ago. They’ve also forced us to learn a lot of stuff we never used to have to bother our artistic little heads about. These days, whether you’re trad-pubbed or indie, the rise of social media has put […]
by Anne R. Allen Blogging can boost your career in so many ways, as I wrote in my September 13th post, “Does an Author Really Need a Blog?” This blog sure has helped mine. Plus if you write non-narrative nonfiction like, ahem, How to be a Writer in the E-Age, a blog is pretty essential to your platform. […]
by Ruth Harris What’s a Style Sheet? Look, guys, I don’t want to freak you out but, if you’re writing a book (or a short story or a novella), you need a style sheet. If you plan to self-pub, a style sheet will save your sanity while you’re writing—and after because a style sheet will […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris