Stacking BBs in a Bathtub…

Can you picture it? Stacking bbs can be fun, but it’s hard to make much progress. 😉 I used to wonder why professional publishers advise authors to select one genre–one style of story–and stick with it. I like to read LOTS of different genres, and the stories brewing in my head were not necessarily similar. […]

Get Thee to a Conference

One of the earliest—and most annoying—pieces of advice I received several years ago, when I first came back to writing with the aim of publication, was go to a writer’s conference. Isn’t going to happen, I said. I was a stay-at-home mother of seven, busy schooling my children, the youngest still a nursing baby. There […]

How NOT to Promote Yourself

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” So, last week I talked a bit about marketing and looking at it from a fresh angle. What might be some ways to NOT promote yourself (or others)? When looking for an opportunity to present your story to an […]

The Dreaded “M” Word

There’s much said in writing circles about “marketing.” Most of it I did my best to ignore, at least until getting my first contract, when I realized it was suddenly relevant and I better pay attention, because even traditional publishers have limited resources for that sort of thing. Over the years, I heard lots of […]

Writers Beware!

“Plagiarism and copyrights and trademarks! Oh, my!” (Read this in your best imitation of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, or the Tin Man in Oz.) Sometimes, like Dorothy and Toto, we may get into situations where suddenly we realize we’re “not in Kansas anymore” and are facing all sorts of previously unknown dangers. To help you become […]