Do you struggle when marketing your book? If so, you’re not alone. Book marketing remains one of the biggest challenges—if not the biggest challenge—for writers wanting to expand their careers. It’s easy to see why writers are struggling. More books are published every year, with self-publishing flooding the market. BowkerContinue Reading
For me self-doubt has been a major hurdle. It took me six years from the time I started writing my mystery Kat Out of the Bag to when I signed a publishing contract. For the first few years I kept it a dark secret that I was writing a book.Continue Reading
When authors ask me how to pick a book title, I tell them to brainstorm a few options first and then get feedback. Unfortunately, many authors skip the second part of that recommendation. I get it, because I’ve been tempted to skip feedback too. But I’ve published several books now,Continue Reading
When I lost my job, got cancer and my mom died, it finally pushed me to pursue my dream of writing, but I had no idea if I was any good. I think that was one of my biggest emotional challenges as a writer. I know a lot of writersContinue Reading
How about a year’s worth of writing tips in one post? This year has been a crazy one for sure, but looking back, we’ve talked about several topics that may be helpful in your writing life. Some apply to your health as a writer—extremely important to your longevity in theContinue Reading
It could be that parts of your writing personality aren’t serving you. In the spirit of Halloween, it’s time to tap into your inner murderer. Dark thoughts are welcome here because you’re not going to be hurting anyone, not even yourself. Instead, this is a cleansing process, an exfoliation ofContinue Reading
Do you have gremlins messing up your writing process? Back when the COVID-19 was in full swing, I was visiting my parents. There were no new releases at the movie theater, but the small local theater was playing an old favorite: Gremlins. My mom and I hadn’t seen it forContinue Reading
by Leah Roper In the world of creativity, nothing is worse than hitting that dreaded wall. You know the one I mean…bloc de l’auteur. Though that’s only one way of saying it. You may be more familiar with other descriptions for writer’s block—burnout, work paralysis, brain strike, or creative constipation.Continue Reading
by Melinda Rucker Haynes I love to laugh so I always open with—I learned to write fiction when I was a grant writer. In that reality, we also used to joke that grant proposals were judged by the weight. Therefore, repetitive and wordy details, explanations, descriptions, and narratives (much likeContinue Reading
Struggling to make any real writing progress in your busy life? Writers dream of having uninterrupted months to attend solely to writing. If you’ve ever managed to grant yourself an extended weekend or even a week or two to write, however, you may have noticed—it doesn’t make it easier toContinue Reading
Here’s what we writers tend to do: We work super hard for long periods. We strive, push, try new things, spend our nights and weekends learning and writing and editing and publishing, take classes, go to conferences, write and write some more, blog, present, do public readings, and on andContinue Reading
I’ve been writing for over 25 years now, and I did some reflecting recently. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and I can see now where I made some important mistakes early on. I’m sharing those mistakes with you here, in the hopes of saving you from making the sameContinue Reading