A Writer’s Life

I’m blogging at Books & Such today. Here’s a preview: The business of publishing gives us frequent opportunities to feel like a success or … not a success. At every step of the journey, we receive feedback and results that tell us whether our efforts are working. It’s an uncertain path riddled with possibilities for…

The title of this post is a bit exaggerated — but not as much as you might think! I’ve always loved both fiction and non-fiction, and I have a hard time understanding people who say they don’t read novels because they prefer to read things that are “true.” I try to explain that sometimes, fiction…

I don’t know a single writer whose publishing dreams included being a full-time marketer for their books.   The writing and publishing dream usually includes visions of spending several hours a day at the laptop, sending manuscripts off to a publisher, receiving big checks, getting fabulous starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, hearing from awe-struck fans…

I’m blogging at Books & Such today. Here’s a preview: I do a lot of reading around the web and I devour business-related books and blogs. One of the themes that is arising again and again lately, in all the business literature, is resilience. More than ever, employees, entrepreneurs, and entire companies depend for their…

I am a reader of memoirs. I love them as much as I adore good fiction. I love the way great memoirists unflinchingly bare themselves to us, showing the good and the bad, the admirable moments and the shameful ones. I just finished reading an unusual memoir (Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas) which is…

There’s a new writer blog in town, The Write Life, and I’ll be posting there occasionally. Today my topic is 13 Ways to Impress a Literary Agent. Click over to read! Here is an overview of The Write Life blog: We understand that integrating writing into your life is about more than sitting down to…

When an agent or editor requests your partial or full manuscript, it’s nerve wracking to wait and wonder, day after day, if they’re reading it and whether they like it. If they finally decide not to offer representation, it hurts and you just want to know… why? Most agents try to offer some kind of explanation…

A blog reader wrote, “The topic of posting a rough draft of a novel has become a hot topic with my writing friends. Some of us do it and others don’t. I’ve heard different opinions on this when it comes to publishing. Some folks claim an agent wouldn’t touch the project, while others say having a blog…

If you’re anything like me, you want to keep up with blogs that interest you, yet it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information available on the web. To make sure you’re not missing anything important yet avoid being crushed by the number of blogs, you need an easy way to keep…

If you’ve been writing books for long, you may have come across the challenge of keeping the details straight so that you can be consistent throughout the book. If the hero has blue eyes on page 1, he shouldn’t have green eyes on page 50. If your non-fiction book capitalizes “Servant Leadership” in the first…

I have noticed that our culture is permeated with scarcity thinking, and the world of books and publishing is no exception. Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? ♦ Another author just got a 2-book deal. That’s two less spots for me. ♦ An agent just announced a new client. There goes my shot. ♦ Look how many…

Lately I’ve been hearing this question over and over again: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? It’s a good question, meant to inspire us to dream beyond our boundaries, to “think big,” to pursue our goals. But I think we tend to hear it and then brush it off, not really spending time with…

It’s April 15th, woohoo! One of my favorite days of the year. NOT. Awhile back I blogged about making a living as a writer (Part 1 and Part 2), so today we’re going to talk about the unfortunate side effect of getting paid for your writing. Yup, it’s…. Taxes. Disclaimer: I’m not going to thoroughly…

I’m going to make this very simple: The secret to making a living wage as a writer lies in two words: volume and variety. Today let’s talk about the first one. Volume The biggest mistake writers make with respect to their “publishing dreams” is hoping for one big break that’s going to change their lives,…