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Ask and You Might Receive – Marsha Moore

I’m lucky enough to be friends with Marsha Moore, author of the new travel book “24 Hours London” (Available from Amazon USA or in the UK). I love the concept of this book, because Marsha talks includes hidden gems that other guidebooks won’t tell you about. About the book: An around-the-clock guide from 5 a.m. fishing to midnight swimming. Fancy a hearty English breakfast with East...

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A Chat with Gary Murning

I met author Gary Murning on Twitter, and was so pleased when I first heard that his book If I Never was going to be published by Legend Press. Now that his book is out, I thought it would be a good time to pick his brain about his book, publishing, and his road to success. This is what he had to say: ————– I’ve always had a fairly positive attitude, to writing and life...

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Agent for a Day

I was torn about joining in Nathan Bransford’s Agent for a Day game because I was so burned out on the whole #queryfail and #agentfail debacles. (And yes, in my humble opinion, they were debacles.) Having thought before that being an agent’s reader would be a dream job, I thought I’d go ahead and try my hand, and see how it went. I did decide, by the way, to put my real name on my...

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No Response = No Thanks

I’ve grown increasingly disappointed as I’ve seen more agents go to the “No Response = No Thanks” method of dealing with query letters.  What this means is that if they don’t want to see more, you won’t hear back. My first response was annoyance, because although I realise that agents get a lot of query letters, I put a substantial amount of time into each letter and in...

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Avoid Instant Rejection from Literary Agents

I follow a few agents’ blogs and tweets, and I’m shocked when I hear how often writers get instantly rejected because do not follow instructions or even the rules of basic common sense.  (I’m shocked at some of the things writers do, not that they get rejected for it. ♥) Nathan Bransford shared his query stats over the holiday weekend, and I was surprised how many authors don’t...

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Free Writing Book

While clicking around to writerly blogs as I tend to do daily, I noticed that Donald Maas is giving away his 1996 book The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success in ebook format on his website.  I’d read his book Writing the Breakout Novel, so I was eager to see what this one had to offer.  (Besides, woohoo!  Free books!) It is full of good advice… I mean packed...

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Tracking Queries

Four years ago when I was first querying agents, I kept track of to whom I’d sent what (and their replies) by using Microsoft Excel.  Not particularly sparkly, but tidy and efficient.  Anything that keeps me from being painfully confused when I come back to it a few weeks later is a good thing (This would be after I’ve forgotten what the heck I was thinking at the time). Now there are several...

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Modern Publishing

Anyone involved in publishing these days has to wonder where things are headed and what the future is going to look like. With the choices available to authors, who could resist considering the options in a way we never would have before. Gone are the days when self-publishing is a four-letter word and e-publishing pays right up there with the more traditional (and arguably less accessible) houses. Lev...