Writing and Publishing News

Have you taken advantage of bookselling opportunities this summer? Do you recognize when an opportunity comes up and do you follow through with a sales pitch? Or are you oblivious to the bookselling openings that occur throughout your day? Let me ask you this: Is there a sample chapter or two packaged with your amazing [...]

This post appeared in October of 2007. I thought it was worth repeating. Do you write articles to promote your nonfiction book? If you don’t, you’re really missing out on an opportunity to strut your stuff. Your informative, educational articles help to position you as an expert in your field. Each article can also serve [...]

Today, I’d like to remind you of what I do and what tangible items I offer authors. I started out writing for publication in 1973 and discovered how to make a career of writing (I am so blessed). Over the years, because of pressure from other writers, I now focus on helping authors with their [...]

Do you ever fall into a writing slump? Perhaps you are between writing projects or you are burning out on the one you are working on. Maybe you suffer from writers’ block. You are poised to write, but your brain and imagination won’t cooperate. How do you handle it? For writers’ block, especially if you [...]

So you’ve finished your nonfiction book. What are you going to do next? Promote, promote, promote. Yes, there’s a whole lot to do in order to introduce your book to your audience and to become known (or more widely known) as credible on the topic of your book. You need to get out and speak [...]

Do you have a process of writing? Is it working for you? Or are struggling through your writing sessions? If you question everything you write, if you find writing distasteful, perhaps there is something wrong. And that something may be your mindset—your attitude—and not so much your approach. My grandson volunteered to write the obituary [...]

I once heard someone advise authors to enter contests so you can say you are an award-winning author. How do you feel about that? Are you impressed when an author tells you (or there’s a sticker pasted on a book stating), “This book was a finalist in the Little Miss Muffet contest,” or simply “Award-winning [...]

There are so many things we have to take care of as the CEO of our books, not the least of which is maintaining our Very Important Professional Bio (VIPB). One of my articles appeared in a publishing/book marketing newsletter yesterday and I noticed that my bio was outdated. I sure thought I’d made some [...]

Just as a newborn baby should come with instructions, so should a newly published book. Of course, there’s plenty of material out there to help expectant parents, just as there is for newbie authors. So why do so many parents and so many authors face their new roles with so little knowledge? Why are they [...]

I met an author via email yesterday who I’d like to use as an example in this morning’s blog post. Like so many, many people, he signed a contract with a pay-to-publish company without doing important research and comparisons. Things didn’t go well and he managed to get out of the contract early (after four [...]