Writing about writing. Mostly.
This week, we’re honored to host Laurie McLean, a senior agent at the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency who is also a pioneer in the indie revolution. Since she’s been pretty good at predicting the big changes in the publishing industry in recent years, I asked her to look into her crystal ball and tell us […]
by Anne R. Allen Creating compelling narrative takes more than great characters, sparkling dialogue and exciting action. All those elements have to come together in one story. One story. Not a series of episodes. As creatures of the television era, a lot of us tend to think in episodes rather than one long story […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I finished the first draft of my fourth Camilla Randall mystery, NO PLACE LIKE HOME, and sent it off to my editor. What a relief! All my books are comedies, but they have a darker subtext, and this one, dealing with homelessness here in San Luis Obispo, CA— […]
This week we have some serious nuts-and-bolts advice from our own Ruth Harris. Ruth learned this stuff from both sides of the editorial desk, as an editor at Bantam & Dell, publisher at Kensington–and as a New York Times bestselling author of women’s fiction and thrillers. Since I’m in the middle of editing my […]
by Anne R. Allen This post was originally written in October, 2012. Here’s an update: July 14, 2013. It seems the critically acclaimed detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling was written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Here’s an article in the Telegraph with details about the new revelation. It got great reviews, but […]
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 […]
by Anne R. Allen First: full disclosure—I’ve never NaNo’ed. I’m a slo-o-o-w writer. My editor despairs. I’ve got a new Camilla Randall mystery due in November (No Place Like Home) which I’ve been working on for a year and haven’t finished yet. (Yes, I’ve been writing, editing and launching six other books and two […]
Ruth and I are totally jazzed to announce that this blog has been named one of the Top 50 Blogs for Writers by Tribal Messenger Daily. To be up there with Konrath, Kristen Lamb, and Jane Friedman is an amazing honor. Here’s what they said: One stimulating blog, two of the most prolific digital and print authors […]
by Anne R. Allen Aspiring writers are told we should all be blogging. If you’re willing to make the commitment, I do think it’s the best way to start building platform and getting your name out there. If you have no Web presence, agents, reviewers and readers are a lot less likely to take […]
by Anne R. Allen Maybe you’ve got a novel finished and you’ve been sending out queries. Lots. And you’re getting rejections. Lots. Or worse, that slow disappointment of no response at all. Or maybe you write short fiction and poetry and you’ve got a bunch of pieces you’ve been sending out to contests and […]
by Anne R. Allen The literary community was shaken this week by an article in the New York Times revealing how many “reader book reviews” are written for hire by book review mills. The most shocking revelation involved John Locke, one of the self-publishing movement’s greatest stars. Locke admitted to buying hundreds of reviews […]
We have a big announcement: Ruth Harris has started her own blog! No, she’s not going to abandon us over here. Her new blog is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish links. She will be posting a daily collection of links to articles she finds intriguing, unique, or just plain wacky. Fun stuff to […]
by Anne R. Allen No matter how much time and energy we put into querying agents and editors–or learning the ins and outs of self-publishing–it’s all wasted if we don’t have a polished piece of work. One way to make sure your book is the best it can be is to brush up on […]
