Mastodon
Close

Goodreads

What Does It Mean to Give Up?

White flag with text: What Does It Mean If We Surrender?

Ever heard the advice: “If you can stop writing, you should stop writing”? I’m here to say *pfft* to that. I gave up writing for years, yet I’m now a multi-published author. Choices we made about writing yesterday don’t determine today.

Pin It

May 21, 2015

Read More

How Do You Handle Negativity from Others?

Megaphone on a security fence with text: Do You Listen to Negativity?

At some point, we’re likely to run into negativity in our writing-lives. Feedback might be filled with cruel “give up” put-downs. We might be attacked by internet trolls. Reviews might rip apart us, personally, instead of focusing on our book. So the question then becomes, what are we willing to do to avoid it?

Pin It

January 13, 2015

Read More

Handling Bad Reviews: Lessons from Amy’s Baking Company

Kitchen Nightmares logo with "Kitchen" crossed out and "Author" added in

On Facebook a few weeks ago, my friend Angela Ackerman dared me to order a pizza from Amy’s Baking Company and send it back (and to record the confrontation). Not one to create drama, I declined. *smile* But then I had to know what prompted her dare. The details were even […]

Pin It

May 28, 2013

Read More

How Fake Reviews Hurt Everyone

Close up of fake fruit and text: "Reviews: Are They Real or Fake?"

I had the idea for this post over a month ago after seeing a Slate article about the “epidemic” of niceness in online book culture. Their point boiled down to whether all the friendliness on social media made people feel they couldn’t say bad things about books. I was going […]

Pin It

September 25, 2012

Read More

You’ll Look Like a Spammer If…

Screen shot of spam subject lines

If you’ve had email for a while, you’re familiar with email spam.  Spammers often try to make their emails seem relevant, with fake warnings about our PayPal or eBay account, etc., but their messages have nothing to do with us (um, yeah, Viagra doesn’t apply to me).  We’re just an email address to […]

Pin It

May 22, 2012

Read More