Aspiring authors often seem puzzled that their work isn’t read more carefully, or positively, or even at all, when they send their work out to an agent or an editor. Those would-be authors aren’t thinking enough about the competitive pressure on the gatekeepers’ time. Editors and agents have a lot of hot projects, and to… [Read more…]
January 23, 2009
What is curb appeal? According to the real-estate business, curb appeal is what potential buyers see first when they drive up to your property that’s for sale. It “embraces everything between your front door and the street” (per the MyHomeIdeas site). That site goes on to note: “It doesn’t take much to make dramatic style… [Read more…]
January 6, 2009
Here’s a tough-love news flash: To Get Published, You Need to Beat the Competition! It’s a fundamental problem I see in a lot of aspiring, emerging writers. First, their work is pretty good. Second, their work isn’t good enough. Why not? Well, it isn’t original or appealing enough to draw a reader away from other… [Read more…]
December 30, 2008
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.” – A.A. Milne, in Winnie-the-Pooh Short words and phrases are effective. Whether it’s a query letter to an agent, or a review blurb excerpt, keep it short and sweet, and you’ll impress more than you would with a long version. Why is… [Read more…]
November 20, 2008
I’ve decided to review my library of hundreds of books of writing advice and put together a list of a small number of top recommendations for your library. I’ll review my favorites and compile a list of the essential works (IMHO) for writers (to be kept on a permanent page of my blog). I’ll tell… [Read more…]
May 13, 2008
“If you can’t describe a book in one or two pithy sentences that would make you or my mother want to read it, then of course you can’t sell it.” — Michael Korda, editor-in-chief, Simon & Schuster, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, June 26, 1984 (and included in The Quotable Writer, ed. by William… [Read more…]
April 22, 2008
An author platform. To pitch a nonfiction book, you need one . . . because literary agents want you to have one . . . because publishers want you to have one. . . . But what are author platforms and what do they do? Let’s tackle the second part of that: what do they… [Read more…]
February 29, 2008
Not sure which genre your novel is? In your mind, hey, it’s a hydrid! Maybe a science fiction/fantasy, or a romance/thriller/time-traveling mystery. Maybe you think that’s a good thing. But if it’s more than one thing, in terms of genre, that’s a problem. Specifically, a marketing problem. Why? Genre is basically a label. It assigns… [Read more…]
February 26, 2008
Want to learn how to pitch? Try visiting one of the top movie sites: The Internet Movie Database. Check on any movies, forthcoming or in release, that are similar in any fashion to something you’re writing. Let’s say you want to check out the coming Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. You’ll see a summary of the… [Read more…]
February 18, 2008
What people are saying about The New Writer’s Handbook 2007: (To order from Amazon.com, click here.) “. . . from the preface by Erica Jong to the closing piece by Mary Pipher, it surprises and satisfies.” – Library Journal (Starred Review) “. . . a holistic approach in reaching out to new writers, nurturing their… [Read more…]
The Writer's Handbook
June 23, 2009
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