Memoir includes elements of both nonfiction and fiction, as I’ve discussed before on this blog. While literary agent Miss Snark calls it a pesky category buster, until today I was ready to call it the forgotten genre. Although literary agents seem eager to represent memoir, most don’t specifically address the genre or its submission guidelines […]
I hate word counts. The numbers mean nothing to me — How much is 10,000 words, anyway? It’s like describing the cost of dinner in Japanese yen, a currency I don’t understand. Word count is so useless to this newspaper journalist that when a magazine editor assigns one to my story, I immediately translate it […]
While working on my travel memoir this weekend, I wrote this paragraph: He softly kissed the corner of my mouth, then my jawline, then inched toward my ear, where he began whispering sweet nothings. At least, I assumed they were sweet nothings – his French words weren’t clear enough for me to understand. Then I […]
Happy Friday! This week, amidst family obligations and wrapping up my coaching job, I managed to write a slew of pages, meet with an ever-so-helpful critique group and pick up a few freelancing gigs. Along the way, I collected links for every step of the writing and publishing process: * Before writing your book, follow […]
When I tell friends I’m writing a book instead of working full time, they often inquire, “What do you do about health insurance?” Usually part of the reason they bother to ask is because they, too, have thought about leaving their job to pursue a bucket-list project. And most people who leave full-time employment are […]
Whenever I have a question about publishing, I turn to Julie Kraut. She entertains all my idiotic newbie inquiries, cracks me up with her sense of humor, and still manages to make it seem like she’s not laughing at me. Julie: I'm 26! This age defying moisturizer isn't working at all, is it? Tell us […]
At my grandmother’s assisted-living center, residents line up their walkers in the hall when they go into the dining hall for a meal. When I went to visit this week, more than a dozen black roller-walkers were up against the wall, each personalized with nick-knacks hanging from the bars. I planned to take a day […]
Taking a hint from a few of my favorite blogs, I’ve decided to post a weekly round-up of online writing tips, publishing news and other useful links I’ve come across during last week. You can expect this every Friday. What have I got for you this week? Novelist Jane Kennedy Sutton describes A Writer’s Most […]
Added 10/09. Author’s note: Don’t use this to calculate page count for your own book! I was just learning when I posted this, and these number are off. “How long will your book be?” Dad asked one day as I updated him on my writing progress. “Uh, I dunno,” I replied. “It’ll be as long […]
I’m not exactly racking in the dough writing this book full time. Hopefully I’ll make a little cash when it’s finally published, but for now my annual income is, well, nada. This is the first time since graduate school that I don’t have a salary. For the last few years, I worked my dream job […]