» A Guest Author

How to Actually Use Beta Reader Feedback (And When to Ignore It)

By Aliya Bree Hall Beta readers are usually the first real readers that you’ll get outside of your critique partners that will offer insight into your story. It’s an important stage of the writing process because their comments will help you determine what’s working in your story and what still needs some work. Once you…

Issue Four Hundred Eighty Six

Case Study: How I Published My Debut Novel Off the Yoga Mat

By Cheryl J. Fish This is part of our ongoing series on how authors published their first book. You can read our other stories in this series, here, here, here, and here. I am writing about what happened to me, at the threshold of publishing my debut novel. After fifteen years, after realizing there are notable paths…

Case Study: How I Broke Into Traditional Publishing As A Debut Author

By Nev March This is part of our ongoing series on how authors published their first book. You can read our other stories in this series, here, here, and here. “And you’re going to speak at the Edgar Award Ceremony. You’ll go first, before the Edgars,” said Mystery Writers of America director Margery Flax. Jaw…

Issue Four Hundred Eighty Five Special Feature

3 Things Your Opening Scenes Should Achieve

By Ashley Taylor Clark You’ve done it — you’ve finally crafted the perfect plot, and you know exactly what your inciting event needs to be to get your protagonist started on their adventure. Now you just have to figure out how to get them there. You only have a handful of scenes with which to…

Issue Four Hundred Eighty Five Special Feature

How to Create Realistic Writing Goals

By Aliya Bree Hall When starting a manuscript, most writers are already thinking ahead to the finish line — being published. Although publishing is an excellent overarching goal to strive for, it shouldn’t be the only goal that you have as a writer. At the start of your novel, publishing feels like such a distant…

Issue Four Hundred Eighty One

Lessons from Almost Thirty Years in the Publishing Industry

By Sheri Amsel Things are always changing. Publishing is no exception. When I published my first picture book, the publishing house handled everything. They took my manuscript and illustrations and 18 months later a hard cover book came in the mail. It was stunning – beautifully designed and printed, my story displayed in its best…

Issue Four Hundred Eighty

How to Write a Great Opening Line

By Ashley Taylor Clark It’s impossible to overstate how important your opening line is. It’s your first opportunity to introduce readers to your story and motivate them to keep reading, meaning the pressure is on to make that first line stand out. You’ve most likely been told to “hook” your readers — to get them…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Nine

Nine Recurring Dark Fiction Markets

By Chris Saunders The short fiction market is constantly in a state of flux and public tastes are always shifting and changing. However, one little corner of this rich and diverse landscape has remained consistently strong. For our purposes we’ll call it ‘dark fiction.’ Beneath this rather expansive umbrella you will find numerous categories and…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Eight

Writing Realism in Unrealistic Settings

By Ashley Taylor Clark Reality is the basis of all fiction. No matter how bizarre or fantastical your story may be, its foundation is built on and around the rules of the real world. This may seem like a limitation at first glance (why write fantasy at all if it needs to be reined in…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Eight Special Feature

Who Am I? And the Author’s Bio

By Emily-Jane Hills Orford You’ve been asked to supply an author’s biography (author bio) to accompany your publications (either books, stories or articles). No more than fifty words in length. What do you say? What do you write? How can you keep it this short? For me, I like to revert to the exercise I…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Seven

How To Make Your Readers Care About Your Characters

By Casey Yong Characters – the heart and soul of every good story. They’re the individuals we invest our time and emotions into as we follow them throughout the course of a gripping tale. But when do they stop feeling like stand-ins living out a story and start feeling like the people we can relate…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Six

Common Mistakes Writers Make With Their Opening Lines

By Ashley Taylor Clark Your opening line is a crucial part of your novel. It offers readers their first impression of your story, introducing them to the world, characters, and overarching tone in just a handful of words. In a lot of cases, readers use these lines to determine if your book is for them….

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Four Uncategorized

Why Utilizing Authenticity Readers Enhances Characters

By Aliya Hall As writers, we are used to creating characters that have different life experiences from our own. And while there are some things we can learn through intensive research, such as historical background and different career paths, there are some things like sexuality, disability, gender and race that are much harder to accurately…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Three Special Feature

Four Paths to Launching a Successful Writing Career

By Abdulraheem Jameel Ango A writing career can be exciting and rewarding. Nevertheless, venturing into the writing space can also be laborious, with a lot of hard work to be put in before you get established; and the odds are highly stacked. However, it need not be all tedium. Here are four paths to follow…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy Two

What To Keep In Mind When Writing a Short Story

By Abdulraheem Jameel Ango Short stories are a compact, effective and short-winded form of prose. Though they may be brief, a good short story can serve to present to the reader a fascinating, evocative piece of work in a short period of time and also leave a profound impression on the reader’s mind. So much…

Issue Four Hundred Seventy One

Articles by A Guest Author