Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen I’m not going to pretend that picking a title for your book is easy. In fact, it gets tougher all the time. We have to consider a lot more than how grabby a title looks on a bookstore shelf these days. In choosing a title now, we have to think […]
by Anne R. Allen Last month the Seattle Times reported that Amazon is suing a bunch of paid review mills. Unfortunately, many paid review sites don’t feel they’re doing anything wrong. A spokesman for one of the companies Amazon is suing said: “We are not selling fake reviews. However we do provide Unbiased and […]
by Dr. John Yeoman Have you ever entered a short story contest and failed to win? And wondered why? You may have made one or more of these seven ‘killer’ mistakes. How do I know? Since 2009, I’ve judged more than 6000 entries in the Writers’ Village short story award. And I’ve given every […]
by Anne R. Allen Mashable reported this week that the buzzword of the moment is “snackable content”—described as “bite-sized chunks of info that can be quickly ‘consumed’ by its audience.” That’s why short fiction is hot. Ditto creative nonfiction essays. But the word hasn’t reached all writers. Recently I saw a newbie writer ask for […]
by Ruth Harris Every writer has (at least) one— The trunk book The published bestseller to which the rights have reverted but which is showing its age The half-finished book, the abandoned book, the book—published or not—that fizzled The manuscript languishing on a hard drive or gathering dust under your bed The aargh draft aka […]
by Anne R. Allen Having a popular blog has helped me feel a lot of empathy with agents and publishers. That’s because Ruth and I get a ton of queries, too. Most of ours are from authors or publicists who want a blog tour promotion, guest blog spot, or a book review. Some want us […]
by Robin Houghton One of the questions I’m most asked is “how do you find time to write a blog?” I can answer this quite simply – I find the time in the same way that I find time to do the grocery shopping, or read poetry, or stroke the cat. We all find […]
by Anne R. Allen Internet spam! Everybody hates it, right? Not only is it annoying, but vigilante groups can be cruel in enforcing anti-spam rules. But here’s the thing: not everybody defines “spam” the same way. I thought I knew what was acceptable on social media. I know that it is social and shouldn’t be be used for direct […]
by Ruth Harris I’ve known and worked with a lot of professional writers over the years (decades). Some work first thing in the AM, others in the PM, some don’t get started until near midnight. Some write sober, some don’t. Some write on a computer, some on legal pads, and some write on tablets or […]
by Anne R. Allen Ruth and I get lots of email from fledgling authors, both indie and trad-pubbed. The majority ask pretty much the same question: “I’ve got great reviews, I’m on social media, and I send out a newsletter—just like [my publisher/agent/a blog guru/this book I read] told me to: why isn’t my […]
by Anne R. Allen Let’s face it. Authors do a lot of obnoxious things online in the name of “marketing.” I think that’s because the average author isn’t educated in the field and we don’t realize that not all marketing is created equal. Good marketing is not about bullying your customers. It’s about enticing […]
by Editor Jodie Renner Writing short stories is a great way to test the waters of fiction without making a huge commitment, or to experiment with different genres, characters, settings, and voices. Even if you’ve published a novel or two, it’s a good idea to try to release a few high-quality, well-edited short stories […]
by Anne R. Allen Ruth and I often get requests to censor our posts when a word or link or piece of news has offended somebody. We usually comply. We don’t want a minor distraction to interfere with our purpose—which is to share information about the writing business in a straightforward, lighthearted, encouraging way. But […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris