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I’m teaching a webinar for Writers Digest this Thursday at 1:00 pm EDT (90 minutes). “Critique Series: Pitches and Queries” I will teach about crafting an effective pitch and query letter. Then I’ll do real-time critiques of query letters and pitches. Everyone who registers will be able to send a pitch ahead of time for…

I’ve received several questions lately about how to handle things when an agent calls (or multiple agents call) offering representation. How do you decide what to do? It’s exciting to get The Call, but it also means you’re going to want to find out as much as possible about the agent before agreeing to representation.…

I’m wondering if the plethora of publishing blogs and the wealth of advice available for aspiring writers is making it more difficult for you, rather than easier. It seems the more information and advice we give via our blogs, workshops, webinars and books, the more writers clamor for even more detailed advice. It also seems…

Cartoon from xkcd.com. Click for many more. Thanks to Rachel Held Evans for the link to the site! (Comments are closed.) .

Recently I visited the U.S. Olympic Training Center here in Colorado, one of only three in the nation, where elite athletes live and train full time. It’s like a college campus, but instead of classrooms there are different kinds of gyms for everything from martial arts to volleyball, gymnastics and weightlifting. In order to qualify…

I was wondering… if I go on vacation for almost two whole weeks and I never Tweet or post to Facebook about it, did it really happen? If I travel through six states, put 3500 miles on the SUV, and never mention it on my blog… was I ever really gone? And if I go…

(Re-post) Several people have asked me about “voice” lately. I’ll barely be able to scratch the surface because it’s a big topic, but let’s get started. What do we mean when we say we’re looking for “new voices”? What do editors mean when they say it’s the writer’s voice that captures them—or doesn’t? Let’s start…

(Encore presentation.) A big part of dealing with this business of publishing is managing your expectations. If your expectations are out of whack to begin with, your publishing journey will disappointing. I realize there is so much information and misinformation out there that it’s hard to know what realistic expectations are. And when you first…

(Encore presentation.) There are always myths floating around in publishing, so today I’m going to try and explain just a few of them. Myth: Publishers & agents know exactly what they’re looking for.Back in 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was wrestling with what defines obscenity and pornography, and in his famous quote, he said…

(I’m taking a blog hiatus and re-posting some oldies this week. So if this feels familiar, you’ll know why.) “The best time for planning a book is when you’re doing the dishes.” -Agatha Christie Lately I’ve been having conversations with a friend about the importance of the menial, everyday tasks in our lives, and how…

(I loved all your responses on the Friday Free-For-All, and will answer questions next week. I’m taking a blog hiatus and will re-post some oldies but goodies this week. Hopefully they’re just as good the second time around!) Last week our book group had our monthly meeting. We were discussing The Forgotten Garden by Kate…

Every once in awhile I want to stop talking on this blog, and just listen. Today’s one of those days. You get to say what YOU want. You could tell us all a joke. You could ask a question (I don’t know much about anything but publishing, so good luck there.) You could make an…

I was chatting with a friend and she happened to mention a mutual acquaintance of ours, a multi-published author who is widely regarded as an incredible novelist and has several books out. It so happens that this author delivered a manuscript to the publisher, only to have the editor reject it and send the author…

Last week I had a little epiphany that made me just the teensiest bit less enthusiastic about e-books as the primary delivery method for books in the future. I’d been reading The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow by Joyce Magnin on my Kindle. Then Joyce did a guest post for me and in the course of…