Special Feature

I Fell For a Vanity Publishing Scam. Here’s What I Learned.

By Gabrielle Brinsmead  When I was nine years old, I was chosen to represent my primary school at a luncheon hosted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Seated across the table from the CBCA’s patron, Lady Cutler, I told her that I was going to be a writer one day. ‘Oh, are you?’ Lady…
Issue Five Hundred Eighty Four Special Feature

Misheard Inspiration: Turning Mistakes Into Writing Opportunities

By Ellen Levitt Have you ever misheard lyrics to songs? Lines of dialogue in a TV show or film? The tagline of a commercial or jingle? If you have, you might be embarrassed; you might laugh it off; and you might even turn it into fodder for your writing. For all my musical knowledge, I’ve…
Issue Five Hundred Eighty Special Feature

Start Small and Write Books Later On

by Thomas Smith I have to be honest. It’s pretty nice to walk in a bookstore and see your novel on the shelf. Or to get a note from your editor saying your novel is still in the Amazon top 100 for the second week in a row. Having written a novel is a big…
Issue Five Hundred Seventy Seven Special Feature

What Novelists Should Do After Rejection

Having taught novel writing for many years now, one of the most common emails I receive from students and subscribers goes something like this: “Dear Emily, My novel has been through years of revisions now, and I’ve shopped it around to most agents and publishers. I could revise it one more time, but I’m not…
Issue Five Hundred Seventy Five Special Feature

How to Find Publishers Open to Direct Submissions

This article links to all of the websites I know of that list or link to manuscript publishers. I use these resources to find publishers to review, in addition to spending a lot of time at libraries and bookstores, finding publishers there. Note that a lot of the publishers you’ll turn up at the following…
Issue Five Hundred Seventy Four Special Feature

Fourteen Famous Authors Who Didn’t Get Published Until Their Fifties (Or Older)

Often people tell me they are too old to become a writer. Sometimes these people are in their thirties or forties, sometimes they are in their fifties and sixties. But the fact remains the same, no matter how old you are, you are not to0 old to become a writer. Many authors started writing later…
Issue Five Hundred Seventy Four Special Feature

How Character Sketches Can Add Depth to Your Manuscript

By Emily-Jane Hills Orford What is a character sketch? Simply put, character sketches are a clever way to really get to know your characters before you even plot them into a story. If you don’t know your characters, how can you possibly convince your readers to know them? Plus, this exercise becomes a good resource,…
Issue Five Hundred Seventy Two Special Feature

Want Your Expressions to Blossom? Translate!

By Nazia Kamali Coming from a family of doctors, I was raised to believe in the power of science and technology, and was conditioned to pursue the field. Writing was considered an extracurricular activity to pad the resume. Furthermore, writing in English was supposed to display my understanding of the second language that I learned…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Nine Special Feature

5 Ways You Could Be Rejecting Yourself as a Writer (And How Not To)

By Ratika Deshpande I’ve been writing for about eight years now, during which I’ve gone through several phases of rejecting my writing before others could do so. Over time, I’ve learned to recognise these thoughts and developed ways to fight them. Here they are: 1. You think you are not ready This thought is especially…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Seven Special Feature

The Pub Crawl: My Journey to Traditional Publication

By Dr. Meryl Broughton The paths to publication are many and varied. Mine was a bit like a lurching tour of different venues, seeking the right ambience where I could find acceptance for my unusual manuscript. When I started out, I was fresh-faced, clear-thinking and naive. By the end I was a seasoned drinker, familiar…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Six Special Feature

Navigating Your Protagonist’s Emotional Journey

By Ley Taylor Johnson Character arcs are tough. There’s no way around it—despite being one of the primary drivers of the story, dealing with your protagonist’s emotions and weaving them into the plot is hard to do. You don’t want their feelings overwhelming the plot and making it seem melodramatic, but you also don’t want…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Five Special Feature

How My Novel Was Resurrected From the Dead

By Thomas Smith My novel, Something Stirs, was one of the first haunted house novels written for the Christian market. Maybe even the first. And as such, the publisher that acquired it had big plans for the launch and subsequent marketing of the novel. In fact, previously a non-fiction publisher, mine was to be the…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Four Special Feature

Writing About Food: Great Recipes Make Great Stories

By Emily-Jane Hills Orford Food is a big part of our lives, so it stands to reason that food should, and does, appear in written works. It doesn’t have to be just a mere mention of some special ribs shared in a dinner scene in your murder mystery. Food can be incorporated into the act…
Issue Five Hundred Sixty Three Special Feature

12 Ways Authors Can Use Instagram Reels to Increase Engagement

By Ishitta Nigam Picture this. You enter a café for your morning cup of coffee. There’s a queue, and you are patient enough, but your stomach grumbles in disagreement. You finally reach the counter and begin to recite your order, “Hi, I would like to have a cappuccino and a…” “…a croissant du beurre with…
Issue Five Hundred Fifty Six Special Feature

Case Study: How Parental Death – The Ultimate Teen Guide Got Published

By Michelle Shreeve In 1993, I was nine years old and my mother died. There were hardly any books pertaining to the death of a mother to serve as a reference guide for me as a child to try and navigate my difficult loss. I had to try and navigate the death of my mother…
Issue Five Hundred Fifty Three Special Feature

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