Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
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 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 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 […]
I’m excited and honored to be hosting a superstar today! Terence Stamp is one of my favorite actors of all time. His career has spanned more than four decades, from his Academy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning title role in Billy Budd to his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award winning role in The Collector to his portrayal of General […]
First: The big day has arrived!The ebook version of HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE…And Keep Your E-Sanity which I wrote with my mentor Catherine Ryan Hyde is now available on Amazon from MWiDP. For a limited time, the e-book price will be $2.99 in the US and roughly the equivalent in the UK. (This book […]
by Ruth Harris I‘m a TradPubbed NYT bestselling author gone indie. I was also an editor for over 20 years (Macmillan, Bantam, Dell) and the Publisher of Kensington—so let me put rejection into a little perspective. Let’s be clear: Manuscripts get rejected; not writers. Trust me. (Most of the time) it’s not personal. Let me […]
by Anne R. Allen I started feeling it this last week: that dark heaviness lurking somewhere just below my conscious thoughts. It makes me burst into tears for no reason. I get clumsy and out of touch with my own body. I feel raw and unprotected. My joints ache. All I want to do […]
by Anne R. Allen Guest posting on blogs is a great marketing tool. The frenzy for blog tours seems to have quieted down a bit recently, but whether you’re launching a new title, promoting an editorial service, or simply building platform, providing content for other people’s blogs is still an effective way to reach potential new readers […]
I have to admit that when Ruth Harris first talked to me about “writer masochism,” I cringed. I realized she was describing me. Not so long ago, I fell so deeply into the writer-masochism pit, I couldn’t see a way out. I gave exclusives, signed onerous contracts, accepted puerile assessments of my work as gospel truth, […]
This week we have a returning guest, literary author and college professor Samuel Park. Last year when he visited us, Samuel had just published his first novel, THIS BURNS MY HEART with Simon and Schuster. (And he told us NOT to kill our darlings.) His spectacular reviews are the kind most of us just fantasize about.) Now he’s preparing for […]
by Anne R. Allen When you’re beginning to write, you’re likely to be bombarded with advice from all quarters—your family, your friends, your hairdresser, and that know-it-all guy at work. I don’t know why, but everybody who ever watched a few minutes of Oprah’s show seems to think they know all about the publishing […]
