Last week I called the cable company to ask how much it would cost to get Internet installed in my apartment. (Until now I’ve managed to use my apartment complex’s access.) The guy on the other end of the phone tried to give me a price for both Internet and cable. “Oh, I don’t need […]
Some great links from this week: Publicist Jessica Lawlor tells how she helped an author publicize her book launch. Must-read piece from The Online Journalism Review about how to make money from writing. Brutal but truthful column from The New York Times on the problem with MEmoir. “If you didn't feel you were discovering something […]
A reader wrote me an e-mail earlier this week asking what, exactly, I meant when I wrote that a manuscript should have momentum. That wasn’t a literary term she’d heard before, she said. Was I referring to pacing? Or building tension? Or something entirely different? Which made me think: What exactly did I mean by […]
Know what makes it difficult to meet a deadline? Getting in a fight with your book. But I’d vowed to finish this revision by the end of January, and I did it. I e-mailed draft #4,067 of Please Send Pants to my agent in the wee hours of Jan. 31st. I’m pretty excited about the […]
It’s that time of the week again! Links to keep you busy this weekend: To increase your writing income, the Writing Coach tell us how to eliminate distractions. This is a new blog I stumbled upon recently, and it’s worth a browse. Some good ideas in this short video on pitching travel pieces for publication. […]
I’m so close to finishing this revision. So close. But I can’t even enjoy what should be a sense of accomplishment because I HATE MY BOOK. I know I should flesh out this post, tell you why I hate it and how I got here, but I hate my book so much that I don’t […]
Writers who don’t have many published clips often ask me how they can get their foot in the door. By this point, they usually have decent writing skills, but don’t know which publications to approach to get their first few stories published. Here’s what I tell them: Try your alumni publication. Alumni magazines are often […]
Happy Friday! Some helpful and interesting links from this week: Love this post from soon-to-be author Doug Mack about his first draft by the numbers. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how authors now move their own merchandise. Penelope Trunk his the nail on the head with this post about how to […]
During a recent phone conversation with my agent, she said we were almost ready to approach publishers. I suppose I knew that, but hearing her say it out loud made it real. It made me incredibly excited — and slightly panicked. Because I realized that this might be the last time I revise my manuscript […]
Helpful and/or interesting links from this week: Going to a conference? Hope Clark offers tips on how to prepare so you get the most out of it. When we travel, we often find ourselves alone, says Chris Guillebeau. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re lonely. Most visitors to your website don’t scroll down. What does […]