Writing about writing. Mostly.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
by Ruth Harris I’ve known and worked with a lot of 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 these days some write […]
by Anne R. Allen Somerset Maugham famously said, “There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.” But pretty much everybody you meet in this business will tell you there are a whole bunch. (One is “never start a sentence with ‘there are’” —so watch yourself, Mr. Maugham.) I recently read […]
by Roni Loren If there is one question that all writers would love to have a definitive answer to, it’d be: How do I reach my current readers and attract new readers? For many of us, the most practical place is online. We don’t have the funds to fly around the country for […]
by Anne R. Allen The list of million-seller “indie” authors is growing every day. Self-publishing has not only become mainstream—it’s edgy and cool. Persuasive blogs by self-publishing stars like Joe Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith, David Gaughran and Kris Rusch have inspired a staggering number of new writers to self-publish in the past two years. […]
by Anne R. Allen Amazon’s Kindle turned five years old last week. What an exciting half-decade it’s been! Jeff Bezos showed his genius when he gave his e-reader that name. The device sparked a conflagration that is still pretty much out of control. The old publishing world is in chaos, and nobody has a […]
I think it gets worse at this time of year. The holiday frenzy adds its own brand of crazy to our already pressured lives. I talked about that pressure a couple of weeks ago in my post on White (or Red) Queen Days: Why Are We Running as Fast As We Can to Stay in […]
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 […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris