Posts

Drat, I simply couldn’t come up with a post for today. But I have a cool fireworks picture right? And ten really good excuses reasons for no post. 10. Way too busy Twittering and Facebooking. 9. Negotiating deals for a few of my clients this week… it’s taxing, you know! 8. Sunshine beckons. Must. Get. Outside.…

(Updated re-post) I’m still musing over the vacation I took last month with my family. It felt like a magical time of connecting with my daughters and husband, totally “away” from the Internet and the phone and the office. I admit I find it challenging, but I was intentional in my efforts to stay unplugged…

A couple of days ago, Michael Hyatt had a terrific post on his blog, Four Reasons Why You Must Take Responsibility for Your Own Marketing. He reiterated truths about the important role you, the author, play in the promotion of your own book. He reinforced what we’ve all been hearing: Publishers don’t market books. It’s all…

Today I debut my video blogging. Please go easy on me – I’ve never done this before! I decided that in my video blogs I’ll answer questions readers have sent me via email, Twitter, my Facebook page, or the blog. So if you have a question you want me to answer in a video, send…

This has to be the most common question I get these days, from all kinds of writers including my clients. To use the words of one of my authors: Am I hurting my traditional career by self-pubbing? My pressing goal is to become a best-selling, traditionally published author. First of all, if you’re agented, the…

Writers often get freaked out by all our blogs and twitter posts about “bad” queries and big mistakes people make that can make them look…less than professional. But here’s the thing. If you’re reading blogs and books and getting yourself educated about how to get published, then I’m sure you’re going to be fine. You…

I’ve been writing this blog for three-and-a-half years and this whole time, I’ve been on a Monday through Friday blogging schedule. So now I’m experimenting with posting on weekends, too, which I think will give me more time for some fun stuff like comics and questions and polls and contests and videos. But I’m wondering if…

Is this perfect to finish off our week or what? Cartoon courtesy of “The Napkin Dad” Marty Coleman, Photographer and Artist Visit Napkin Dad Website See Marty Coleman’s photography View Napkin Dad Products

Every time time I mention a publisher's "editorial process" on this blog, invariably multiple commenters will mention the "fact" that publishers no longer edit. Others will talk about the terrible mistakes they find in published books, and decry the publishing industry's lack of standards. A typical example is David A. Todd's note on May 2: "...publishers no longer do careful line editing of the book, nor careful proof-reading." From my perspective, having been in the trenches for 16 years now, I believe this is an erroneous generalization.

Yesterday we talked about how slow everything seems to go in traditional publishing, and how it can be tempting to think of "quick" e-book publishing as better simply because it's faster. I have a couple of things to add today about how this industry is changing.

One of the most common complaints about traditional publishing is how long everything seems to take. We’ve heard these grumblings for as long as I’ve been in this business, but it’s certainly increased in this digital age where immediate gratification rules.

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Author Media , owned by Thomas Umstattd, Jr., is the company that built my new site - and all authors should know about them! They do so much more than build websites, and you can benefit from their incredible knowledge for FREE by following the blog, Author Tech Tips, and following them on Twitter (@AuthorTech). You'll get a constant influx of up-to-the-minute tips, all aimed specifically at authors.

It’s been a lot of work but we're finally putting the finishing touches on the new website. There are a few things that need smoothing out, and I'm still working on some of the pages, so please bear with me as we get this finished. Feel free to let me know if you see anything that should be fixed. There are a number of reasons I’m excited about the site, the first being that I finally have my own domain name, rachellegardner.com. Easy to remember! And the other most exciting thing is that we will finally—FINALLY!—have threaded comments, meaning you'll be able to respond directly to someone else’s comment, and they can respond directly to yours. I’ve wanted this for so long—I think it’s going to make the blog so much more fun!