Whether they are still in the planning phase, frantically pounding out the first draft, or up to their elbows in edits, here are a handful of ways you can support any writers who cross your path.
I’ve read 3,009 articles about how fiction writers need to become savvy marketers and self-promoters if they want their books to succeed commercially, and I fear I’m becoming a convert.
At first glance, the picture I painted of the well-adjusted writer might resemble some spineless creature. But even if writers tend to absorb ideas from the world around them like a sponge, that doesn’t mean they should lack backbones.
When one first decides to become a novelist, many important questions come to mind: What kind of stories should I write? Should I use my real name or invent something better? Can I pull off the pipe and beard look?
The traditional publishing model, if not dying, is being forced to evolve. And while The Way Things Are shift closer to The Way Things Were, many people are celebrating the fact that electronic formats make self-publishing an option for anyone with a tale to tell.
Jealousy is an emotion we unpublished novelists know too well. Every success story of an out-of-nowhere-bestselling writer stirs up a storm of frustration, indignation, and, at times, incredulity.
In an earlier post, I defined a dabbler as someone who has yet to write one million words while simultaneously implying that the one million words benchmark might be less of a milestone than a state of mind.
At a recent guest lecture on self-publishing, a fellow attendee asked the featured speaker if she had any advice for someone who is working full time and doesn’t have four to six hours a day to devote to writing.
I’ve never made my enmity toward blogs a secret. As a serious writer, I snubbed web logs (as “the kids” used to call them) precisely because “the kids” were using them.