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December 8, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 34 Comments

The Secret to Writing the Dreaded Synopsis…and its Little Friends: the Hook, Logline, and Pitch

The Secret to Writing the Dreaded Synopsis…and its Little Friends: the Hook, Logline, and Pitch

by Anne R. Allen If you “won” at NaNo, and you’re madly editing that manuscript, you’re probably thinking about how you’re going to go about sending it into the marketplace.Or you may have spent years working on a manuscript and one of your New Year’s resolutions will be to get it published.Whether you’re going to […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, Writing Craft Tagged With: Catherine Ryan Hyde, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, how to pitch a book, how to write a synopsis, Kathy Carmichael's pitch generator, logline, Shirley S. Allen

September 8, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 43 Comments

Rejection 101: What Authors Should NEVER Do When They Get Rejections

Rejection 101: What Authors Should NEVER Do When They Get Rejections

I know. Rejections hurt. But they’re also a necessary part of your career as an author. So when you get your first one, give yourself time to feel the pain, then do something to celebrate. Maybe even print it out and frame it. Yup. You read that right. Congratulations! You now have the one thing […]

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Filed Under: The Writing Life, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection, Writing Craft Tagged With: Agent rejection, Anne R. Allen, Catherine Ryan Hyde, How to deal with rejection, rejection, The Lady of the Lakewood Diner, Walk Me Home, What rejection means, When I Found You, Where We Belong

June 23, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 58 Comments

Is Your Author Website Working Against you? Top 10 Things to Avoid on your Author Site or Blog

by Anne R. Allen   I visit a lot of author websites and blogs. Most are delightfully creative. I love how so many of the sites—especially the blogs—express the author’s personality and genre in a unique and clever way. But then there are the others… I’m talking about the sites that seem to have forgotten […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Self-Publishing, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: 21st Century prose, Anne Gallagher, author websites, C. Hope Clark, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Christine Ahern, GIFs, how to blog, mystery meat navigation, Steve Wilhite, web design, websites that suck

May 12, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 28 Comments

Top 10 Questions from New Writers: Answers to Your Most Burning Questions

Top 10 Questions from New Writers: Answers to Your Most Burning Questions

by Anne R. Allen   We welcome questions from readers, and we always try to offer an answer or at least steer you to a place where you can find one. A good place to get more detailed information is a book I co-wrote with Catherine Ryan Hyde: How to be a Writer in the E-Age…and […]

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Filed Under: Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business, Writing Craft Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Bloghops, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Do I need an agent? platform, Facebook, How to be a good blog guest, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, pseudonyms, Publisher rejections, Social Media, Twitter

December 9, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 56 Comments

Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing? Which is the Right First Step for YOU?

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. […]

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Filed Under: Self-Publishing, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Big Six publishing, Catherine Ryan Hyde, David Gaughran, Jane Friedman, Janet Reid, Porter Anderson, Publisher's Lunch, Publishing alternatives, Rachelle Gardner, Ruth Ann Nordin, self publishing, Writer Beware

August 12, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 32 Comments

How a 91-year-old Author’s Debut Mystery Hit the Bestseller List

How a 91-year-old Author’s Debut Mystery Hit the Bestseller List

by Anne R. Allen NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Recently, my publisher, MWiDP, relaunched Shirley S. Allen’s cozy mystery, ACADEMIC BODY as an ebook. Sales had slowed for the print version published by Mainly Murder Press in 2010, but Mark Williams saw my ad for the book on this blog, read it and loved […]

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Filed Under: Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Writing Life, Writing Craft Tagged With: Academic Body, Bob Mayer, Catherine Ryan Hyde, cheap ebooks, cozy mysteries, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, KDP Select, Kindle ebooks, Mark Coker, Shirley S. Allen

July 15, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 37 Comments

Social Media vs. a New York Times Book Review Cover: Which Sells More Books?

by Anne R. Allen   Yesterday Catherine Ryan Hyde and I spoke with a wonderful bunch of eager authors at the Digital Authors Seminar in San Luis Obispo. They were full of lots of great questions, some of which I’ll address here on the blog in coming weeks. We talked about the two events that […]

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Filed Under: E-Books and Technology for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Alan Rinzler, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Dr. Who, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, Jennifer Weiner, KDP Select, New York Times Book Review, Publisher's Weekly, Shindig, Social Media Marketing

July 1, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 38 Comments

What if Hollywood Rewrites Your Book? Survival Tips from Catherine Ryan Hyde

What if Hollywood Rewrites Your Book? Survival Tips from Catherine Ryan Hyde

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 […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, The Writing Life, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Dave Congalton, Digital Age Authors, Don't Let Me Go, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, Kevin Spacey, Pay it Forward

June 3, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 149 Comments

The Slow Blog Manifesto…and 8 Reasons Why Slow Blogging Will Help Your Career, Your Love Life, and Protect You From Angry Elephants

The Slow Blog Manifesto…and 8 Reasons Why Slow Blogging Will Help Your Career, Your Love Life, and Protect You From Angry Elephants

by Anne R. Allen   What is the Slow Blog Manifesto? It’s an essay written in 2006 by Canadian software designer Todd Sieling at the height of the everybody-must-get-a-blog frenzy.  Slow Blogging is modeled on Alice Walker’s “slow food” movement (the opposite of McBurgerish “fast food.”) The point is quality over quantity. Todd wrote: “Slow Blogging is […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Catherine Ryan Hyde, Digital Age E-Authors, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, Mark Williams, Miss Snark, Nina Badzin, Pay it Forward, San Luis Obispo, Slow Blog Manifesto, slow blogging, Todd Sieling

April 8, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 50 Comments

12 Myths About Being a Writer

12 Myths About Being a Writer

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 […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, The Writing Life, Writing Craft Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Book Luvin’ Babes, Catherine Ryan Hyde, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, J. K. Rowling, James Patterson, Writing myths

February 19, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 54 Comments

How to Blog Part V: 12 Dos and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers

How to Blog Part V:  12 Dos and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers

by Anne R. Allen   This is the 200th post on this blog. Since I started it on Friday the 13th  in March of 2009, I’ve learned an awful lot. (The first thing I learned was that you have to actually post stuff. My second post wasn’t until late June.) Another thing I’ve learned is […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: 21st Century prose, Anne R. Allen, blogging for authors, blogging tips, building platform, CAPTCHA, Catherine Ryan Hyde, how to blog, Ruth Harris

January 15, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 38 Comments

Rejection: Why it Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means

Rejection: Why it Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means

    NEWS: The book I’ve been writing with Catherine Ryan Hyde, HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE—and keep your E-sanity! will be published by Mark Williams international  in June of 2012. The book will be available as an ebook that will include free six-month updates. AND it will also be available in paper in both a US and UK edition. We’ve […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, The Writing Life, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Catherine Ryan Hyde, How to be a Writer, Mark Williams international Digital Publishing, Pay it Forward, Walter's Purple Heart, Writing Workshop

January 8, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 45 Comments

Hooks, Loglines, and Pitches: What Every Writer Needs to Know

Hooks, Loglines, and Pitches: What Every Writer Needs to Know

by Anne R. Allen If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to start sending that masterpiece out into the marketplace, you’re going to run into words like “hook,” “logline,” and “pitch.” The terms come from the film industry, but they’re becoming standard in publishing as well. So what do they mean? Are they just sexy […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, Writing Craft Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Catherine Ryan Hyde, how to pitch a book, Kathy Carmichael's pitch generator, Kristen Lamb, loglines, Miss Snark, The Wizard of Oz

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writers digest 101 best websites for writers award

Anne R. AllenAnne R. Allen writes funny mysteries and how-to-books for writers. She also writes poetry and short stories on occasion. She’s a contributor to Writer’s Digest and the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market.

Her bestselling Camilla Randall Mystery Series features perennially down-on-her-luck former socialite Camilla Randall—who is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong, but always solves the mystery in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.

Ruth Harris NYT best selling authorRuth is a million-copy New York Times bestselling author, Romantic Times award winner, former Big 5 editor, publisher, and news junkie.

Her emotional, entertaining women’s fiction and critically praised novels have sold millions of copies in hard cover, paperback and ebook editions, been translated into 19 languages, sold in 30 countries, and were prominent selections of leading book clubs including the Literary Guild and the Book Of The Month Club.

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