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Are Writers Entrepreneurs?
Have you ever visited a restaurant where the food was fantastic, but the service was atrocious? I’ve known several places like that. People who love to cook might dream for years about opening their...
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Are Writers without Business Sense Doomed?
The comments of my last post led to a great conversation about how not having a business mindset will likely hurt authors. However, I didn’t say writers absolutely, positively must be...
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The Insanity Behind the Pressure to Have “Numbers”
Confession: I broke one of the unwritten rules of the Writer Code. I ranted. In public. On an agent’s blog. And yet I’m still here to tell to the tale. In fact, the agent responded to my comment...
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Publishing Debates: Should We Take Sides?
Some days it feels like the publishing business has endless debates and choices where people want us to take sides. Plotter vs. pantser, plot-driven vs. character-driven, traditional publishing vs....
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What Is the Internet Missing?
That seems like an odd question, doesn’t it? After all, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Google knew what I had for lunch on Wednesday five weeks ago. In fact, computers and the internet have...
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How Much Are You Willing to Pay for an Ebook?
Readers come in all types. Some buy hardcovers, others wait for paperback, some only borrow from libraries, and still others buy the super-deluxe collector’s edition of their favorites. I’ve always...
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Are All Cheap Ebooks Crap?
In my last post, I asked how much people would be willing to pay for ebooks. Most comments agreed with my thoughts: Ebooks should be less expensive than paper books because of DRM, ownership,...
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Do You Call Yourself a Writer or an Author?
Recently, the Awesome-Dipped-in-Glitter (TM) Kristen Lamb pointed out that “aspiring is for pansies.” We are not aspiring writers. Aspiring: to have a plan, desire, or hope for something. Writer: a...
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Who Cares about Quality Writing Anymore?
No, that’s not a rhetorical or trick question. Recent events in the publishing industry have left me asking that as a serious point of confusion and discouragement. I know this is an ongoing...
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Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy — Guest: Roz Morris
I’m excited to share today’s guest post by author Roz Morris. After ghostwriting many bestselling books, Roz recently self-published My Memories of a Future Life, her first novel under her own name....
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Are Ebooks Ever Done?
In the world of traditional publishing, if errors make it through the editing process for a book, authors (and their readers) are stuck. A lucky few authors are able to get egregious mistakes like...
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What Are You Looking for in an Agent?
*Shh* Be very, very quiet. We’re hunting agents. (Sorry, with that picture, I couldn’t resist the Bugs Bunny reference. *smile*) Many—if not most—writers want to find an agent at some point in...
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Are You in This for the Long Haul?
It’s tempting to put all our effort into a big debut or breakout book. It’s natural to want our work to make a big splash and gain attention. We might think that if we break out, we’ll have it made....
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What Do We “Owe” New Writers?
The last couple of posts have been about beta reading, beta readers, and authors helping each other. I love positive, uplifting conversations like that. But the comments brought up an important...
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The New Publishing Paradigm, Part One: It’s Not about eBook vs. Print
The Keynote Address at this year’s Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference was unusual. Instead of sharing an inspirational or funny story about her trudge to success, Stephanie Laurens...
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The New Publishing Paradigm, Part Two: What Value Do Publishers Add?
Last time, we discussed how our decision about which method we go with for publishing should focus more on our readers’ online versus offline buying habits than on their preference for ebook versus...
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Bookstores vs. Backlist: A New Decision
Several weeks ago, we discussed why authors shouldn’t worry about the ebook versus print debate but should instead focus on their readers’ online versus offline buying habits. Shortly after that post,...
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The High Bar of Finding an Agent or Publisher
I think this week might secretly be listed on agents’ and publishers’ calendars as National Rejection Week. *smile* Okay, not really. But judging from the online conversations I had with writing...
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How Fake Reviews Hurt Everyone
I had the idea for this post over a month ago after seeing a Slate article about the “epidemic” of niceness in online book culture. Their point boiled down to whether all the friendliness on social...
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Introducing the Query/Blurb Exchange Club!
The response to my request for help on my query in my last post was amazing. I really shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, we all know you are amazing, right? *smile* But the tremendous...
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