Mastodon
Close

professionalism

‘Tis the Season to Be Chaotic, Is Reblogging the Answer?

Chaotic colors with text: Is Reblogging an Easy Way to Handle Chaos?

I don’t know about anyone else, but this is a rough time to get any writing done. I did great throughout November for NaNoWriMo, but since then I think I’ve gotten in only 7,000 words. And most of those words were written the first weekend of December, right after NaNo […]

Pin It

December 20, 2012

Read More

Fan Fiction to Published Book: A Case Study

Into the Dark cover image with text: ...And the Journey from Fan Fiction to Published Book

Last time, we discussed the different options for publishing a story that had its genesis in fan fiction: name-change-only, reworking, and rewriting. Whether we believe there’s ever a “right” way to publish a story that began as fan fiction (fanfic), authors who completely rewrite their story should be recognized for at least […]

Pin It

December 13, 2012

Read More

Can Writers Reuse Their Own Work?

Printer control screen with text: Can We Copy Our Own Work?

On the surface, this might seem like a clear-cut question. Unless we’ve turned the copyright over to another entity, it seems like we should be able to reuse our own work. However the issues surrounding what is sometimes termed “self-plagiarism” are more complicated than they might first appear. Many of us […]

Pin It

December 11, 2012

Read More

NaNo Wrap-up, Part 2: Can Slow Writers Win Too?

Giant tortoise with text: Can "Slow" Writers Win Too?

Whether we officially “won” NaNoWriMo or not, most of us who participated probably racked up higher than normal daily word counts. And building on my previous NaNo wrap-up post, that success can carry over into other areas of our writing life. Author Roni Loren and I have talked several times about our “slow” writing […]

Pin It

December 6, 2012

Read More

NaNo Check-In: Lessons from the Halfway Point

Image of Jami Gold's "My Month" NaNo calendar

Today, November 15th, marks the halfway point for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November). That means all NaNo participants should reach 25,000 words on their NaNo project by midnight tonight. Yikes! That sounds like a big number—and it is—but I passed that milestone on November 11th. […]

Pin It

November 15, 2012

Read More

Series vs. Stand-Alone: What Should We Work on Next?

New leaves branching from a twig with text: Should We "Branch Out" with Our Writing?

Whenever we finish a writing project, we’re told the best way to keep moving forward, especially when we’re dealing with querying/submitting nerves, is to start another project. But that brings up the question: What should that next project be? Should we write a follow up to that previous book? Or […]

Pin It

November 13, 2012

Read More

Can We Tell When We’re Getting “Close”?

Mobuis strip sculpture with text: Our Publishing Journey... Can We Tell When We're Getting "Close"?

Everyone’s journey along the writing path is unique. Yet it’s natural to watch for milestones and sign posts that might indicate when we’re getting “close.” When we get our first request off a query, we might think our query won’t hold us back anymore. When we get our first contest […]

Pin It

November 6, 2012

Read More

Goodbye, Feedburner! Hello, Ownership of Our Platform

Picture of Keys with text "Do You Own All the Pieces of Your Blog"

Months ago, I wrote about the death of Google Friend Connect (GFC). Many people who used the GFC social media and feed reading service couldn’t believe that Google would drop a service used by so many. When it died, people lost blog readers and newsletter subscribers. Rumors are swirling that Google […]

Pin It

October 2, 2012

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

The Inbox Explosion: How Do You Manage Yours?

Screen shot of email inbox

I fully admit that one of my weaknesses is an out-of-control email inbox. Between my accounts for writing and day job, I have an obscene number of unread emails. (As in, a hundred times the number depicted in this picture.) Granted, the vast majority of those unread emails are list […]

Pin It

September 20, 2012

Read More