Blogs for Writers - Writing, Editing, and Self-Publishing Tips and Advice

How to Self Publish a Book

We cover everything in our comprehensive guide on how to self publish a book. Avoid the pitfalls and get it right to make your book a success.

A Self-Publishing Tale: Part 2. Cost, Categories, Keywords.

When self-publishing, cost is almost always a consideration (if you're not rich) With my cover image selected and sent off to the designer, I turned my attention to another key decision: which self-publishing vehicle to use? Seven years ago when I first...

20 Tips For Writing A Self-Help Book

Books for Dummies and Idiots You’ve seen the Dummies books— Lawn Care for Dummies, Adoption for Dummies, Gluten-Free Baking for Dummies. You’d think there were a lot of dummies out there. But actually, it’s the opposite---there are a lot of clever people who figured...

Hiring A Book Editor: 9 Reasons To Trust Your Gut — And Wait

Finding a professional book editor How long should you wait? What's reasonable? There comes a time in every good editor's life when they build up a backlog that's weeks or months deep, with customers waiting patiently (or not) for their services to become available. I...

A Self-Publishing Tale: Part 1

Online self-publishing There are three reasons to self-publish a novel: (1) You don’t want to go through the rigmarole of pursuing traditional publishing. (2) Your novel blends genres, or otherwise falls outside enough conventions to not meet the criteria of...

Elements Of A Manuscript Critique

Manuscript critique services The three primary reasons you want to hire a book editor for a manuscript critique and evaluation: You want to know: 1) Is it salable? 2) Is it good enough to offer to a literary agent or publisher? 3) Should you go through the expense of...

3 Must-Know Tips For Selling Books On Amazon

Back in the days of typewriters and carbon copies, publishing was a riskier financial business. Books were typically printed in runs of thousands for economy of scale, and then all those copies had to be stored somewhere, requiring renting or buying warehouse space....

3 Writing Tips For Novel Writers

In the first phase of editing fiction—some call it “development editing”—I focus on the structural issues in the crafting of the novel, such as point-of-view; character development; plot and subplots; and balance among action, interior monologue, and dialogue. I hope...