Mastodon
Close

professionalism

Finding Balance: Play Hooky

Woman lying down in a meadow with text: Is It Time to Play Hooky?

When we were school-age, many of us recognized the need to blow off classes and responsibilities once in a while to play hooky. The exhilaration of “getting away with something” can recharge our burned-out batteries just as much as the trip to the shopping mall or whatever we did with […]

Pin It

March 13, 2014

Read More

Could We Be a Good Editor?

Magnifying glass on a book with text: 5 Steps to Freelance Editing

Last week I wrote about how to find a good editor, partly as a rant against the flood of bad editors out there. It seems like everyone and their brother—and their second cousin three-times-removed—thinks they can be a freelance editor. And if my inbox is any indication, the flood is […]

Pin It

March 4, 2014

Read More

Is Hybrid Publishing Always the Best of Both Worlds?

Half moon with text: Hybrid Publishing: The Best of Both Worlds?

I’m going to admit right from the start that this might be a controversial post. My goal is to explore issues while not “bashing” specific groups, but we’ll have to wait and see if I succeed. We’ve often heard that having the cachet of a publisher name behind us will […]

Pin It

February 18, 2014

Read More

A Newbie’s Guide to Self-Publishing — Guest: Julie Musil

Picture of Julie Musil with text: A Newbie Guide to Self-Publishing with Julie Musil

More writers are considering self-publishing than ever before. Even traditionally published authors who love their publishers are taking the step to become hybrid authors—a mix of New York and self-published—as they release related novellas or new series on their own. Yet the prospect of self-publishing can be overwhelming. Self-published authors have to […]

Pin It

February 6, 2014

Read More

Ebooks: What We Buy vs. What We Read

Pile of books with text: What We Buy vs. What We Read

Between the rise of self-publishing and the agency pricing settlement, the industry is struggling with how to price ebooks. Before the settlement, many self-published authors enjoyed the attention they received at the low end of the pricing scale. On the other hand, many traditionally published authors bemoaned the high prices […]

Pin It

January 7, 2014

Read More

Branding 101: Do You Have a Tagline?

Burlap canvas with an overlay of text, "imagination unlimited..."

Taglines are like the phrases on a movie poster: short, intriguing, punchy, attention-getting. In addition to taglines for our writing, we might also want one about us and our author brand.

Pin It

December 31, 2013

Read More

The Best Reason to Blog – Part 4

Basket of harvested apples with text: Blogging: Harvesting Benefits

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for. Or in my case, see if I can resist seconds of mashed potatoes so I can justify another […]

Pin It

November 28, 2013

Read More

Handling Readers: Expectations and Disappointments

Angry bear with text: When Readers Get Angry

Most of us suffer from self-doubt in some way. Those of us doing NaNoWriMo might have reached a point in our story where events aren’t playing out as cool as they seemed in our head. Or maybe NaNo’s going great, but we’re not sure we can keep up the quality. […]

Pin It

November 12, 2013

Read More

How Book Covers Appeal to Readers

Rainbow with text: The Promise of a Book Cover

The Writers Helping Writers Amazing Race is still going strong, where an army of writers are trying to help as many other writers as we can in one week. One category where people can request help is an “Ask Anything” question. Ask anything related to writing and there’s bound to […]

Pin It

October 24, 2013

Read More