Blog
Choosing an Independent Book Editor
You need an editor—of that much you are certain. But how can you avoid falling prey to incompetent, untrained, or inexperienced pretenders who may insert more errors than they correct? (Yes, it happens alarmingly often.) And how can you avoid falling prey to the scammers?
Self-Publishing on Amazon
Free Self-publishing on Amazon Self-publishing a book on Amazon is easy and free! Their platforms for both ebook and print are user-friendly, and plenty of help is available if you get stuck. This article does not go into costs associated with production of your...
One Thing You Need to Get Traditionally Published: A Hearty Dose of Rejection
I teach an eight-week course in writing picture books, and on week eight, our final class, it's Rejection Night. That's right: this is the evening I bring in my teetering pile of rejection letters (and that doesn't count the email rejections) and my students look...
9 Mistakes that Authors Make—And How to Fix Them
You’re going too fast Every author needs an editor, but authors need to know how to edit themselves too. Carefully evaluate what you’ve written and then go back to improve it. Are you saying everything you have to say? Is your argument clear? Are your characters...
Manuscript Evaluations And Line Editing — Trying To Get Your Book Published
Who are you trying to please? I'm one of those editors who say that you should never change your book based on what an agent or book-buying editor says would be "a good idea," or "just the thing your story needs" . . . unless that agent or editor says he will...
How to Decide Between Self Publishing and Traditional Publishing
For authors who want to get published but don’t know how to start.
The Challenge of Writing Good Fantasy
I read a lot, but it's mostly just for entertainment. It's not often that I tell myself, "Damn, I wish I could write like that!" and start studying someone else's work for pointers. In this essay, I'm going to tell you about someone whose work hit me that way,...
Writing a Book. The All-Important Opening.
Novels that most of us read while in school probably opened very differently than successful novels of today. In the past, an author was allowed the luxury of giving the reader details right away about the main character's past, sometimes even going back to their...
Writing Historical Fiction that Sells
I'm in a book store perusing the aisles when I run across a novel that takes place during a time period not well-known to me. I slip the novel from the shelf, read the back cover, and realize I've discovered another piece of historical fiction I'm going to buy and...
Should You Meet Your Editor Before You Sign a Contract?
My publishing house was located in Aurora, Colorado, not exactly a known hub for publishing. I've probably critiqued and/or line-edited somewhere between 300 and 400 manuscripts. Granted, some were repeat authors, but I only remember meeting six before I either signed...
Prolific Novelists on How It’s Done
Writing one novel is hard enough. But how about 50, 100, even 500—all of them published, and with more to come? We asked six super-prolific writers for their secret and were unsurprised to learn that there is none. It’s all about work and passion. A calling? A...
Self-Publishing Requires Professional Editing
A self-published book goes out “as-is.” Whatever mistakes you make in the original are there for the entire world to see. See our list of book editors.
Good Indexes Sell Books
Put yourself in the mind of a librarian or professor searching through the year's new crop of nonfiction books, deciding what to purchase for the library or the college. The pile of suspects is overwhelming, there's no time to read each book, and decisions must be...
Get Readers to Fall in Love with Your Romantic Plotline
How do you write a love story that sweeps people away? Here’s a start: make sure your leads don’t fall in love at first sight (or, if vampires are your thing, “first bite”). While I worked at Random House’s Ballantine Bantam Dell imprint, I read hundreds of romance...
Editing a Nonfiction Book
I find that many of the nonfiction writers I work with are maybe just a little too smart for their own good. I say this with affection and appreciation for how hard it is to communicate paragraph after paragraph of complex information and insight in a coherent way....
