Research Matters: The Devil is Always in the Details

Research can be a double-edged sword. It can elevate writing to an entirely new level, but can also be a place we hide, procrastination masked as ‘work.’ Recently, I posted on the dangers of premature editing and gave tips to help keep us moving forward on that first draft until it is FINISHED. A common …

Continue reading

Hook Your Readers: 3 Tips to Catch & Keep Your Audience

How do we sell our stories? That is the big question. It is the reason for craft classes and editing and cover design and agents and editors and all the time on social media. And while platforms and covers and algorithms do matter, there is one tried and true way to sell more books. Write …

Continue reading

Platform: What IS It? Why Do Writers Need One?

A platform offers major advantage when it comes to selling books. Before social media, non-fiction authors had an edge. These authors already had an existing audience by the time their books were ready for sale. Novelists, conversely, found themselves relying on a lot of pure luck, prayer, and alignment of the stars. The fiction author …

Continue reading

Branding & The Brain: How Social Media Changes but Humans Never Will

Branding is a word that seems to have one day—POOF—appeared out of the ether. In fact, when I began blogging in 2006 almost no one in publishing used the term. The rare few who did were hard-pressed to properly/clearly define what a ‘brand’ was. In fact, many authorities believed authors didn’t need to be bothered …

Continue reading

Diagnosing a REAL Writer: Do You Have Terminological Inexactitude Syndrome?

Being a writer is the best job in the world, aside from those fortunate enough to be paid to pet kittens or sample new ice cream flavors. But is writing a REAL job? This question has set fire to the entire psychiatric community. Okay, most of them…the ones in my head *turns off fire alarms*. …

Continue reading