Image: start-finish line painted on a road for a foot race

The End May Only Be the Beginning: Infusing New Life Into Your Fiction

One editor’s technique to add narrative tension, deepen characterization, and force you to think past the original boundaries of a premise.
Image: miniature figure sitting atop a pair of wired earbuds, reading aloud

Securing Audiobook Rights: The Rights You Need to Bring Your Audiobook to Market

Whether you’re an audiobook producer, a publisher or an author, here’s a breakdown of the rights needed to bring an audiobook to market.
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How to Move From First Draft to Second Draft to Publishable Book

When you’ve completed a draft but it’s falling a bit flat, it’s time for the Story Draft: creative work done technically.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Amazon Pre-Orders

Ebook pre-orders can be a great tool for KDP authors, but it might not be right for everyone—especially those without an established audience.
Priya Doraswamy and Carly Watters

Literary Agents Discuss Foreign Rights and the International Book Market

Literary agents Priya Doraswamy and Carly Watters discuss foreign rights, translation logistics, a book’s chances abroad, and much more.
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Pick Your Pond: How Nonfiction Authors Can Find the Right Positioning

As an author, it’s good to be a big fish in a small pond—but you’ll benefit even more if your pond is connected to a larger system.
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The Charm of the Large Word

Use of a big word can be beautiful, as long as it meets two criteria: it must be the right word and the best word.
Fiona Higgins

A Successful Author Was Rejected By Her Publisher. Here’s How She Found Another.

When big publishers rejected a book due to marketing concerns, one author forewent an advance to work with an indie that saw potential.
Image: Melissa Storm

Maximizing Book Sales with Facebook and BookBub Ads: Q&A with Melissa Storm

The bestselling author discusses best practices for ads, how to keep your spending in check, the top three mistakes authors make, and more.
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Emotional Truth and Storytelling: Why It Works and How

Emotional truth is the lens that allows us to see ourselves in a story, resulting in a heartfelt connection in a fictional narrative.
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4 Story Weaknesses That Lead to a Sagging Middle

If your middle’s lost momentum, check to see if your plot, characters, stakes and suspense consistently propel readers along the story arc.
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Should You Hire a Social Media Assistant?

Virtual assistants take over tasks that you could do yourself. What you’re buying, in effect, is the freedom to use your time in other ways.
Why Waiting Too Long to Register Your Copyright Is a Big Mistake

Why Waiting Too Long to Register Your Copyright Is a Big Mistake

Though registration with the Copyright Office is no longer required for protection, there are still many reasons why it’s important.
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Don’t Hold Out for Publishing to Make You Feel Seen. Here’s Another Goal Instead.

Publication is elusive and in many ways out of your hands, but feeling seen is something that writers can offer each other right now.
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I Spent Nearly Two Decades Writing and Editing My Book. It Finally Found a Publisher.

Perseverance isn’t just about finding the right agent or publisher—it’s also about refining your work into the best version of itself.
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What You Can Learn About Platform From a 12-Year-Old

Building a platform is akin to making friends at a new school: invite, engage, be helpful, share and, most of all, be your best self.
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The Benefits of Writing Flash Fiction

Let go of description, extra words, and clever exposition. What’s left is a tightly crafted nugget of concentrated gold—flash fiction.
2 Methods for Structuring Your Memoir

2 Methods for Structuring Your Memoir

Authoring a memoir, the gift of hindsight allows you to invest moments with deeper meaning than they may have had at the time.
letters

Letter Writing as a Powerful Prompt

From Franz Kafka to Bob Dylan, history shows that letter writing can be a portal to discovery that benefits a wide variety of projects.
Writing and Publishing Horror: Q&A with Todd Keisling

Writing and Publishing Horror: Q&A with Todd Keisling

The horror author shares what scares him, the authors who taught him the most about the genre, crowdfunding, trigger warnings, and more.
3 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count (Without Giving Your Whole Story the Ax)

3 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count (Without Giving Your Whole Story the Ax)

Like pruning the extra sprouts out of a garden, sharper and tighter prose makes the details you keep stand out.
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Writing True Crime: Q&A with Janis Thornton

The Indiana author discusses publishing and promoting close to home, plus the logistical, ethical and legal issues around writing true crime.
Writers Often Ask Me a Question I Can’t Answer

Writers Often Ask Me a Question I Can’t Answer

The field is saturated, so many people wanting to tell their interesting stories. You wonder: Am I a good enough writer to keep doing this?
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A Successful Daily Practice Requires Honesty

A daily practice can only succeed if we're 100% honest about our doubts and weaknesses, because one area of denial can scuttle the ship.
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Where Novelists Get Stuck: 3 Common Issues with Early Drafts

Writing can be a lonely process, and it’s easy to feel stuck. Editors and coaches can help identify the common problems—and their solutions.
To Avoid Rejection, Take the Writer Out of the Story

To Avoid Rejection, Take the Writer Out of the Story

Experienced editors look for a story so engrossing the reader forgets that he’s reading—story in which the author’s voice seems not to exist.
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4 Lessons from 4 Years of Self-Publishing

It’s hard work and there’s no magic formula to boost sales, but you’ll also find a passionate audience and a strong sense of accomplishment.
What Your First 50 Pages Reveals

What Your First 50 Pages Reveals

To gauge your manuscript’s pitch-readiness, turn a critical eye to the query letter, synopsis, and first fifty pages.
Message inside a glass bottle washed up on the beach

Are Editors Responding to Submissions During Coronavirus?

Despite the pandemic, getting that proposal off your desk allows you to shift your energy to platform—a bigger deal than most authors realize.
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The Joy of the Work: Q&A with Author Caroline Leavitt

In this interview, the bestselling author discusses her indefatigable enthusiasm for writing, the importance of writers helping writers, and more.
How to Do Honest and Legal Giveaways as an Author

How to Do Honest and Legal Giveaways as an Author

Whether using a third-party service to conduct a giveaway or managing it on your own, it’s important to protect the rights of your entrants.
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Why Write Memoir Right Now

Writing memoir won’t fix what’s wrong. But writing what you know will give you the kind of insight that begets a better sense of control in uncertain times.
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6 Principles for Writing Historical Fiction

Whether grappling with believable world-building or adherence to historical accuracy, these six tips will help you navigate this daunting genre.
Amazon Editorial Reviews: Are You Using This Incredible Section?

Amazon Editorial Reviews: Are You Using This Incredible Section?

Editorial reviews are one of the most underrated tools in a self-publishing author’s arsenal. Learn what they are and how to manage them.
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Making the Switch from Nonfiction to Fiction: Q&A with Kate White

The former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan discusses how a grounding in nonfiction can both help and hinder fiction writing, and much more.
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How Do Publishers Decide Which Books to Bet On?

Every book is a gamble, and publishers ask the same two questions any capitalist or gambler asks: how much should we stake, and how much might we profit?
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6 Tips to Create a Memorable Virtual Book Launch

Online or in person, the basics of public speaking are still what matters most: be captivating, interactive, and take your audience on a journey.
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Books to Film: The Option Versus The Shopping Agreement

If your goal is to see your book become a movie, it’s important to understand the rights you grant—and the money you earn—during initial development.
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Marathons, Sprints, and Pounces: 3-Tiered Approach to Book Launches

Promoting a book isn’t a one-off event. It’s a series of actions: long-lead strategies, mid-range tasks, and sudden opportunities.
Image: man standing in comma-shaped beam of light

You Win This Round Comma

Why sweat the commas? To save your reader from working to decode syntax-level meaning, enabling full focus on your protagonist, your plot, and your prose.
Ed Cyzewski socially distant book event

How I Hosted a Socially Distanced Book Event

One author’s experience with the pros and cons of promoting a new book to his community in the era of limited social gatherings.
Stefanie Sanchez von Borstel and Leslie Zampetti

Writing, Pitching & Promoting in the Age of the Coronavirus

In this Q&A, agents Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel and Leslie Zampetti tackle the complications of authorship and literary citizenship in the pandemic age.
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Stop Staring at a Blank Page: 4 (Not So) Silly Writing Tips to Get Words on Paper

If the idea of facing a blank page gives you the sudden urge to do chores, the problem might be that you’re trying to write in a way that doesn’t suit you.
How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family

How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family

Writing about the people you are closest to can be one of the most rewarding experiences a writer can have—but also the scariest.
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What I’ve Learned Writing Middle Grade Nonfiction

Librarians and teachers are clamoring for more history nonfiction for younger students. Author Tim Grove offers tips on writing to this unique segment.
Catherine Stine

On Multi-Genre Publishing: Q&A with Hybrid Author Catherine Stine

In this interview, she discusses writing to trends, the limits of writing what you know, taking the time to discover your identity as an author, and more.
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Do You Torture Your Metaphors? The Problem of Self-Conscious Writing

Unless a metaphor spontaneously suggests itself from your creative, subconscious mind, it’s probably forced and phony-sounding—and far from “literary”.
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What Writers Have to Learn from The 10X Rule

A goal 10 times bigger than what feels achievable is a psychological kick in the pants that gives you the motivation to achieve liftoff and sustain effort.
Developing a Writing Practice Pt. 7 Engrained

Developing a Writing Practice, Part 7: Engrained

The science suggests that repetition can make a new practice reach the “second nature” part of your brain sooner, creating a habit that’s hard to break.
Image: Lawrence Hill

Memoir Beyond the Self: Q&A with Lawrence Hill

In this Q&A, Hill discusses why he wanted his memoir to incorporate the observations and life experiences of other Canadians of mixed racial heritage.