Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen We writers tend to be a delusional lot. Most of us know the average writer doesn’t make a bunch of money, but we secretly believe our own efforts will bring us fabulous fame and fortune. Or at least pay the rent. When we start out, we’re certain our books will […]
I’m so jazzed we’re hosting Nathan Bransford this week! Mr. Bransford—who is a children’s author, former literary agent, and blogging legend—gave this blog its start when he offered me a guest spot on his blog in 2010. I wrote a piece on why you should keep writing, no matter what, called You May Be a Bestseller on Trafalmadore. […]
by Anne R. Allen Most writers have been picturing it since we started scribbling ideas for our first novel. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel, the goal that keeps us slogging along, the Holy Grail of our writing journey— It’s your BIG BOOK LAUNCH PARTY!! We’ve watched the scene in so many […]
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 […]
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 […]
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— […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
