The Technical Stuff

This past week I got some disappointing feedback on my latest manuscript from an industry professional. (The feedback was, basically: do better). I ran through the usual gamut of emotions… [...]

I am a world-class avoider of things. Seriously, I could teach a class. Like… a graduate-level class. I am singularly talented at not doing what I tell myself I want to be doing. Be it [...]

What are revenge queries? I am in the process of querying for my second agent. It feels a little like walking across the gym to ask someone to dance, plus a job interview, plus being covered in [...]

Do you remember how much fun it was to get a pretty sticker on a paper when you were in the second grade? Well, yeah, stickers still feel good as grown-ups, too, which is why we like a [...]

The choice of first, second or third person is key when framing a new project. How do you decide? Here are my thoughts. All my written novels, including my published one, are in first person [...]

So you’ve published a book!  Congratulations!  Now here’s something you may not have realized when you sat at your desk polishing your baby: when you’re an author, you really [...]

My first completed manuscript was a memoir I have since (temporarily, I hope) shelved.  It didn’t sell for a variety of reasons, chief among them that it was pretty poorly written. If the [...]

If you’re looking to keep up a certain daily word count, Write or Die is a great tool. Enter your target word count of the amount of time you want to write and set the system to reward or [...]

I met an enterprising young woman at a recent conference who asked me for advice about the publishing industry and “making it” as a writer, specifically of YA (young adult, or books [...]

Before I got an agent, I heard one of the many legends about J.K. Rowling: she outlined Harry Potter for five years before she ever wrote a word.  It was one of those dark moments for me, one of [...]

So you want to build your author site.  Congratulations!  It’s a great treat to put your writing out in the world and have others respond.  But if you’re like a lot of writers, the thought of [...]