Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen Bad marketing is worse than none. And I’ve seen some breathtakingly bad marketing strategies recently. I assume authors are hiring cut-rate online marketers who have more experience selling real estate in Mumbai and knock-off designer sunglasses than books. Do I need to say this is a bad idea? Being annoying may […]
Make a memorable introduction while building your author brand by Mike Bohdan A bookstore employee outed Richard Bachman as Stephen King in 1985 despite all his efforts to hide the fact. The clever person recognized King’s style following its breadcrumbs scattered in Bachman books. One of the breadcrumbs was the word “mangler.” The characters in […]
By Anne R. Allen. This week, Jane Friedman reports some bad news for new novelists who want to go the traditional publishing route. She says fiction markets are increasingly “more competitive and risk-averse due to continued dwindling sales.” And she tells us that agents and publishers are now combing queries looking for “authors who demonstrate they […]
Aggression, greed, and paranoia do not enhance your author brand. by Anne R. Allen Recently there’s been a bizarre drama going on in the book world. It’s been given the name #cockygate, because it involves a cocky author who managed to trademark the word “cocky” in a deluded attempt to eliminate the “competition” and “protect” […]
Ben Franklin used many pen names. Should you? by Anne R. Allen Should you use different pen names if you write in different genres? Do you need to write under a pseudonym because people at work might find out you write steamy romances? Is it easier to write freely if you hide your real identity […]
This Week Twitter rolled out its new “mute” function for mobile phones. Muting will soon be available on all devices including your PC. That means you’ll be able to mute anybody who tweets too often or annoys you with spam. So it will be more important than ever to avoid annoying your Tweeps. Here’s some […]
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 […]
