publishing

Writers' Roundup: February 5

February 5, 2010

I am so close to finishing* my manuscript that I’m giddy. Giddy! It helps that I love revising; turns out this is my favorite part of the process. Everything is right there on the page and all I have to do is make it better! But. Enough of me being overly excited (especially since the […]

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Writers' Roundup: January 29

January 29, 2010

I’m on a high, about to jump into my final round of revisions! But I’ll pause for a moment to compile some links for you from this week: The paradox of memoir, Ami Spencer writes, is the more personal details you reveal, the more readers will relate. Author James Patterson is a publishing machine. And […]

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Writers' Roundup

August 28, 2009

I was pretty annoyed at Amtrak this week for canceling my train home from New York City. But while I waited a few hours for the next available train to Albany, I wrote some quality pages. It amazes me that I can produce some of my best copy while kids scream behind me and a […]

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Start your Monday with a Kick in the Butt

July 13, 2009

An author wrote to me last week with this advice: “There’s no substitute for finding your voice and writing brilliantly.” While he seemed to think my travel memoir had potential, he told me, very frankly, that I was spending too much energy figuring out the publishing industry when I should be focusing on writing a […]

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Writers' Roundup

July 10, 2009

Thanks to everyone who offered advice about getting over the fight with my manuscript. After a weekend break, I forced myself to get back at it, and completed drafts of chapters nine, ten and eleven! Largely because of that progress, I’m in back in love with the story. I can see the light at the […]

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Writers' Roundup

July 3, 2009

Little by little, my travel memoir is coming together. I’ve got a big (self-imposed) deadline coming up: I’m trying to finish the first 2/3 of the book — that’s 10 chapters — by Aug. 1. As I connect with more writers of memoir on Twitter, I’m thinking of organizing a #memoirchat. Let me know if […]

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Rachel Held Evans on the challenges of memoir

June 30, 2009

I’ll try anything to convince myself that even though I’m writing alone in my office, I’m not really alone. That’s why I love connecting with other writers online, particularly those who are working on memoirs. “Meeting” Rachel Held Evans, whose spiritual memoir will be released in early 2010, was particularly exciting because like me, she […]

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And finally… The book

May 12, 2009

If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know what I’ve been working on for the last four months: outlining my book, writing a book proposal and query letter, choosing agents to approach, applying to writers’ colonies, learning about blog book tours, and then some. I’ve also, believe it or not, written some of the […]

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Morphing a good title into the perfect title

May 6, 2009

Thanks for all the feedback on my working title, Madame or Mademoiselle? A Woman’s Solo Journey Through Africa. Here’s the consensus: Readers seemed to like the subtitle, A Woman’s Solo Journey Through Africa. But not everyone was satisfied with the first half of the title, Madame or Mademoiselle? It’s too long, some critics said. It’s […]

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Do I need a literary agent?

April 24, 2009

Until I began learning about the publishing process, I thought only movie stars had agents. Turns out wannabe authors do, too. But why, you ask, would a writer want to hire an agent? Literary agents serve as intermediaries between author hopefuls and publishers, helping writers polish their proposal, shop it around to publishers and negotiate […]

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