» A Guest Author

Why You Need to Follow the Guidelines

Wendy S. Delmater Every market has what are called guidelines, often on a Submissions or Guidelines tab or page. So what are guidelines? Guidelines are a set of rules put together for the benefit of editors, to make their lives easier. They are also for writers, to give them a better chance of getting published….

Issue Two Hundred Fifty Four Special Feature

How to Manage the Tone Of Your Author’s Page

— Lizbeth Meredith Glimpse my social media and you’ll notice my posts mimic those braggadocio holiday newsletters I’ve come to loathe. The newsletters that incessantly boast things like My daughter won the lead in the Christmas play! My son is an Olympic gold medalist! Our family went on three exotic vacations this year, and they…

Issue Two Hundred Fifty One Special Feature

How to Re-Capture the Love of Writing

By Abigail Shepard I don’t believe in writer’s block. I think there’s always something to write, and every writer I know has a huge file or notebook of ideas that haven’t yet seen the light of day. The problem comes from worrying too much about how you’re going to write it, or, sometimes, just not…

Issue Two Hundred Fifty Special Feature

Making Connections: Marketing Tips for Writers

By Richard Billing Marketing is perhaps one of the trickiest parts of the writing process. You’ve just spent months writing a book, the last thing you want to do is slave away on the web trying to unlock the magic code of getting it noticed. I’ve tried various things—paid ads, joining forums and groups, going…

Issue Two Hundred Sixty Four Special Feature

How to Prepare and Pitch Your Novel to Agents and Editors

By Elizabeth Roderick Congratulations! You’ve done what 81% of people WANT to do, but only 3% accomplish: you’ve written a book! Take time to celebrate that. You deserve to: writing a book is nowhere near as easy as folks think. But don’t rest on your laurels now. You didn’t spend that time and suffer all…

Special Issue

How to Format Your Fiction Manuscript for Submission

by Wendy S. Delmater Always, always read the guidelines very carefully and give an editor exactly what they ask for. Formatting-wise, most places either ask for Standard Manuscript Formatting or Shunn Manuscript Formatting. Things are shifting from Standard Formatting to Shunn. Here is how they work, and why they are shifting. In the Standard Manuscript…

Issue Two Hundred Forty Nine

The Sensitive Author’s Guide to Rejection

Written by Ananda-mayi Dasi I was like Robert Peary embarking for the North Pole—that is, if we can pretend for a moment that the publishing world is a vast, icy, unreachable landscape and I am much, much braver than I am. No, there weren’t endless miles of frigid peril before me—just one tiny button: “submit”—but…

Issue Two Hundred Forty Seven Special Feature

What If: A Guide to Story Generation

Some folk have no problem with story ideas; they’re full to the brim with them. I’m not one of those and, though I’ve lived a while, it seems I often need help from outside sources. There are lots of ways people like me (those without an eternal parade of plots and storylines) can generate story…

Issue Two Hundred Fifty Five Special Feature

What Rejection Letters Really Mean

by Wendy S. Delmater Oh no. Your literary creation—poem, article, novel, or story—has been rejected. What do you do now? One of the first questions you should ask is, was this a Form Rejection or a Personalized Rejection? When you use The Grinder (by Diabolical Plots) to keep track of your submissions, it even gives…

Issue Two Hundred Fifty Two Special Feature

How to Promote Yourself on Social Media (Without Trying Too Hard)

— By Isabelle Kenyon So you have a book and you have access to the internet – and theoretically, you can now promote that book to the WORLD through social media. Unfortunately, social media marketing is a tricky thing to do ‘right’ or to pin down. I’m going to talk you through the mistakes I…

Issue Two Hundred Forty Eight Issue Two Hundred Sixty Three Special Feature

The Top 3 Red Flags When Searching for Book Editors

Lindsey Danis A freelance book editor can help a writer polish a manuscript, but too many editors prey on vulnerable writers who want external validation. Inexperienced or predatory editors can do more harm than good—taking your money, not directly improving your manuscript, and causing indigestion. What red flags should savvy writers know when searching for…

Issue Two Hundred Forty One Special Feature

Everything You Need to Know to Have a Successful DIY Writer’s Retreat

By Akanksha Singh Maya Angelou rented herself a hotel room in every town she lived in, just for her writing. She’d leave home at six, be in the room and writing by six thirty, and head back around lunch time. There’s something about having a room of one’s own, away from the stress of living,…

Issue Two Hundred Forty Special Feature

How to Write a Hook That Captures Attention

by Wendy S. Delmater Readers are dealing with a constant barrage of television, radio, internet, other written things, and real life: all are vying for their interest. Why should they read your story? To overcome that initial resistance, there’s a tool writers use. It’s called a hook. Hooks are something—sometimes more than one thing–in the…

Issue Two Hundred Forty Four Issue Two Hundred Sixty Three Special Feature

The Surprising Ways Writing Groups Open Doors

By Tina Jenkins Bell After I graduated from college, I had aspirations of becoming a published writer but had no idea of how to get there. I needed guidance beyond writers’ magazines, books, and annual conferences. I needed accomplished kindred souls who didn’t mind sharing their knowledge and resources. I found these souls collectively in…

Issue Two Hundred Thirty Six Special Feature

5 Things That Happen When You Start Calling Yourself a Writer

By Elaine Mead There can be very set ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ ways of being a writer – or so we’re led to believe. Historically, you’d need to have a publishing agent, an editor, published works, and books on shelves before you might dare to use the word ‘writer’ to describe what you do. And that’s…

Issue Two Hundred Sixty Three Issue Two Hundred Thirty Four Special Feature

Articles by A Guest Author