It might not be intuitive, but a successful author is–most likely–a well-organized author. It’s all nice and romantic to imagine an office piled ceiling-high with stacks of paper, unpaid bills, absinthe bottles, etc, but let’s leave it at romance. If you don’t have to hunt for information every 10 minutes, if you can answer a […]
Archive > June 2011
The Benefits of Being a Hack (Or: Why You Don’t Want to Be Ted Chiang)
Today’s guest post comes from writer and editor James L. Sutter, whose anthology Before They Were Giants should be on every writer’s bookshelf. Thanks for contributing, James! There’s a thing that happens to me a lot, which I’ll bet happens to you as well. I’ll get a story idea–whether driving to work, talking science with […]
Podcasting and Promotion: The 21st Century Author
Today we are lucky enough to have a guest post by the Functional Nerds! Patrick Hester is an author, a blogger and a podcast producer, John Anealio is a musician and blogger who publishes his music online at johnanealio.bandcamp.com. Together, they host a podcast called The Functional Nerds, delivering interviews with authors, artists, and musicians […]
Fail better.
I live in a state of constant failure. Even this post represents a failure, since I’m not writing on the topic I’ve been struggling with for the past week, and I’m repurposing an old personal blog post instead. I take on more that I can realistically handle, and I aim much higher than I can […]
Awareness and Writing
Disclaimer: I do not claim to be someone who knows. I only claim to be someone who tries. This post is addressed to all writers. Even the ones who don’t think this applies to them. Because, however much we try, we will always make mistakes. The world is really diverse, and I mean, really diverse. […]
Quick Tips on Finding an Editor, by Lillian Cohen-Moore
We were asked on Twitter recently how to find a good free-lance editor. We turn today to Lillian Cohen-Moore for the answer. Be sure to leave your own tips and questions in the comments. Thanks for your wisdom, Lily! As someone who has been on both the editorial and writer side, I’ve picked up a […]
Know your markets
I occasionally overhear part of a conversation where someone mentions Duotrope and the other person admits that they’d never heard of it before before. What? I think to myself, How can you not know the holy grail of market research known as Duotrope? Then I remember that all knowledge is subjective and that, one day, […]