Traditional publishing

Q&A: Dana Bate on Publishing Her First Novel

February 25, 2013

We’re about to chat with an author whose book is on my bed-side table at this very moment. Excited! Unlike many of the interviewees who land on this blog, Dana Bate is an IRL (In Real Life) friend, although I now follow her online, too. We went to journalism school together, and I’ve eagerly followed […]

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An Amazon Reviews Tip That Will Help You Sell Books

September 12, 2012

I did a lot of driving over the last two weeks — like, 20 hours worth of driving, getting myself to and from a writer’s colony in Georgia. One of the ways I passed the time was listening to interviews with entrepreneurs on Mixergy and Blogcast FM. These (free) shows are priceless — listening, even […]

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The Magic Formula for Prolific Writing

April 23, 2012

When I meet blog readers and Twitter followers in person, they often remark that I put a lot of content into the world. Editors have said I’m prolific. And Problogger called me a “publishing powerhouse.” Whenever these compliments come my way, they’re often followed with a question: How do I do it? How will I […]

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When is it time to sign an author-agent contract?

May 11, 2011

It’s been nearly a year since I agreed to work with a literary agent for my travel memoir. My lovely agent has guided me through revisions, helping me strengthen my theme and story arc. She has, no doubt, helped me make my book better, all with the intention of eventually selling it to a publisher. […]

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Q&A: Chuck Sambuchino, Our Guide to Literary Agents

May 9, 2011

Update: The winner of the book giveaway is Dean Miller. Dean, Chuck will send you your choice of the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents or Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript. Congrats! One of the best blogs around for writers is Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents. (And I’m not just saying that because Chuck lets […]

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How Newspapers Played Bin Laden’s Death

May 2, 2011

On my lunch break today, I headed over to the Newseum — a fabulous museum about news — to see Today’s Front Pages. It’s an outdoor exhibit near the building entrance that features the front page of one newspaper from each state each day. You can see them online, but it’s not the same as […]

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My wish list

January 13, 2011

Book update: My agent has asked me to come up with my “wish list” of publishers. We’re making progress…

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The latest Little First: feedback from my agent

December 6, 2010

For every newbie author, there are firsts on the road to publication. There are the Big Firsts, like landing your first book deal and seeing your published book on a store shelf for the first time. But there are also lots of Little Firsts, firsts we each need to experience before hitting the big ones. […]

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Why you should sign with an agent who’s on Twitter

November 10, 2010

When your literary agent tweets something like this, then tells you she was referring to your book, it pretty much makes your day.

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What I learned from the query process

June 15, 2010

It’s kind of a shame each of us only has to land a literary agent once. Okay, not that much of a shame. Who wants to go through that again? But now that I’m done querying, I feel far more prepared to do it again. And since hopefully there will be no next time, I’ll […]

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