Some professional writers claim writer’s block doesn’t exist. They’ll tell you they never have any trouble banging out their daily pages—and laugh at people who do.William Faulkner said, “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.”Terry Pratchett—not earning himself any fans in my home state—said, “there's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write.” And Steve Martin was even harsher. He said, “writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they...
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Blogger seems to have spirited away my whole followers window this morning. Anybody out there having the same problem? Got any suggestions for a fix? This is so weird. You can still follow me if you go to the menu across the top of the blog. (In a very small font in the left top area.) Or you can subscribe if you scroll a-a-all the way down past where the follower window is supposed to be. Thanks Ann Marquette for pointing this o...
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Today’s guest post is from one of my favorite authors, Ruth Harris. She’s a bestselling author--and a former Big Six editor and publishing executive who has gone over to the indie side. She knows what she’s talking about. Her sales numbers are in the millions. Her fiction has been translated into 19 languages, published in 25 countries and selected by the Literary Guild and Book-of-the Month Club. A Former Big Six Editor Talks about Rejectionby...
Sunday, 15 May 2011
If you’re like me, you’re getting a little bored with the indie vs. legacy publishing debate. People are talking a lot of crap on both “sides” of what shouldn’t be an either/or argument in the first place. (See sci-fi author Jeff Carlson’s great post on the subject here.)But this week I heard some fairly earth-shaking news I figured I’d better share.It came in an email from a self-published Brit friend who’s been having some success in the UK Kindle market. He needed advice. He’d been approached by somebody claiming to be from a U.S. literary agency....
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Twitter terrifies me. Seriously. It’s been described as the world’s biggest cocktail party and that sounds about right: cacophonous, shallow, time-consuming Hell for shy, writerly persons. But many experts say authors who are serious about publication MUST be on Twitter. So a year or so ago I steeled myself and crashed the soirée. I now have 850+ followers and a Klout rating of 49. (Not Twitterific, but respectable.) And it’s where I get most of my blog traffic. Ten times more readers find this blog through Twitter than click through Google....
Sunday, 1 May 2011
—maybe with some help from BookCountry.com?One of my favorite moments in film happens in Star Trek IV, when the Enterprise crew find themselves back the 20th century. Kirk refers to “the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins,” and Spock replies, “Ah... The giants!”Funny bit. But the thing is—they were giants. Not great writers, but great storytellers. They provided the stories people of their era were eager to read—the same way Jane Austen, the Brontës, and Dickens did. WH-A-A-A-T!!? I can hear the English majors...
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