by Ruth Harris Style was once described as “looking like yourself on purpose.”I don’t know who said it but the words and the idea behind them always made sense to me. Certainly Barbra Streisand, Audrey Hepburn and Tilda Swinton are examples. So are Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Woody Allen. They don’t look like anyone else and are instantly […]
Is it Really Time for Authors to Stop Blogging?
by Anne R. Allen In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on March 15th, L.L. Barkat said “blogging is a waste of time” for experienced authors. She feels blogging is only helpful for beginning authors who need “to find expression, discipline, and experience.” Her piece suggests blogging is for farm-leaguers only. Once writers […]
So You Want to Use Song Lyrics in Your Novel? 5 Steps to Getting Rights to Lyrics
This week the bookosphere saw something of a teapot-storm when a formerly indie author—now signed with a Big 5 publisher—got an odd notice from Amazon. It said her readers had been asked to delete their old versions of her book and get the new Big 5 version—at the author’s expense. It sounded like […]
The #1 Reason for #QueryFails—How to Avoid Automatic Rejection from a Reviewer, Agent, Editor or Blogger
by Anne R. Allen Whether you’re a freelance journalist trying to place an article, a novelist looking for literary representation, or an indie author seeking reviews and/or guest post gigs, every writer needs to learn to write a smart, short, compelling query letter. (And no, it can’t be a Tweet or personal message on […]
5 Ways “Difficult” Women Can Energize Your Writing and Make Your Fiction Memorable
by Ruth Harris Before there was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Lisbeth Salander, there was Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen, the heroine of a novel called Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. Smilla is part Inuit and lives in Copenhagen. According to the flap copy of the FSG edition, “she is thirty-seven, single, […]
Self-Editing 101—13 Questions to Ask Yourself about Your Opening Chapter
By Anne R. Allen This is usually Ruth’s week to post, but she’s busy proofing galleys of her much-anticipated new novel The Chanel Caper. And next weekend, I’ll be busy teaching THE TECH-SAVVY AUTHOR workshop. So we switched. On March 3rd, look for Ruth’s post on why we like a tough, flinty heroine. OK, […]
12 Social Media Mistakes for Authors to Avoid
by Anne R. Allen Are you “building platform” or just annoying people? This week, author Mary W. Walters blogged that promoting your books on Facebook and Twitter is a total waste of time for book sales. That’s because Social Media is not for selling books. It’s for making friends—friends we hope will help us in our […]
Are You Neglecting This Important Book Sales Tool? 5 Steps to a Great Product Description
Today we have some valuable advice from Mark Edwards, one of the superstar authors who made indie publishing the powerful movement it has become. He and Louise Voss made history when their self-pubbed books soared to the top of the UK bestseller lists and got them a big-money deal with HarperCollins. One of the secrets […]
Why You Should Google Yourself: It’s Not Vain—It’s Good Business
by Anne R. Allen First: Many thanks to Writers Digest editor Robert Lee Brewer, who put this blog in his list of “Blogs that Rock” in his BEST BLOGS FOR WRITERS TO READ IN 2013 this week. Yes, you should do frequent Internet searches of your own name. I have to laugh when I see writers apologizing on their […]
DANGER: Writer at work…Where do Bestselling Authors Create their Masterpieces?
Oh, come on, you fantasized about the glamour, didn’t you? When you first harbored those secret desires to be a writer, you pictured yourself in a little villa in the south of France, maybe? A woodsy cabin by a New England lake? At least an oh-so-romantically seedy flat in a major metropolitan area? And there […]
5 Blogging Rules Authors Can Ignore…and 5 You Can’t
by Anne R. Allen Do all aspiring authors need to blog? The answer used to be: Only the ones who want to get published. Now, agents and publishers are letting up on the requirement. Recently, agent Rachelle Gardner changed her stance on blogs.“A few years ago, the standard wisdom was that authors, both fiction […]
The Number One Mistake New Writers Make
by Anne R. Allen Most complaints about authors by agents and editors as well as reviewers can be boiled down to the same offense. It’s the major reason so many reviewers won’t read self-published books by unknowns. What is that mistake? Rushing to publish too early. Nobody wants to read a rough draft. Your […]
Online Book Reviews: Games People Play
by Anne R. Allen Last year I wrote a post about the importance of writing Amazon reviews that caused something of a poop-storm in the bookish corners of Cyberia. Although most readers—especially in my own Boomer demographic—were grateful for the post, a furious minority exploded in fits of high dudgeon. I even got death threats […]
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