You’ve finished a novel. So what? Many people feel like creating something big is enough, that in finishing a novel they’ve done all they need to do. If you write for yourself — and I’d argue there’s no better reason to write — you really have done all you need to do when you complete […]
Words You Shouldn’t Use in a Writing Pitch
Yesterday while working out, I listened to a podcast about business and work. Each time the interviewer asked a question meant to allow the interviewee the chance to talk about what he was selling, the interviewee said: “So yeah…it’s like blah blah blah. Basically, it’s a thing that will blah blah blah…” Those little lead-in […]
Agents’ Week Off (From Us)
I hear people complain about all the e-mail they receive throughout the day. Most of it is spam, or mailing lists they’ve signed up for, but never unsubscribed from. Many of the people I hear complaining about their full inboxes are writers — the same writers who have no problem sending out blanket queries to […]
How to Deal With a Writing Rejection Letter
Monday Morning My week began with rejection. In July, I had a request to read the full manuscript of my current novel by one of the top agencies on my dream list. Naturally, when you get a request for the entire book, you hope for the best. It was a good rejection letter as far […]
Tweet or Die?
We’ve all heard people touting the importance of that ever-present writing buzzword: platform. We’ve all heard that without a platform, you may as well give up writing, no matter how good you are. We’ve all heard about how writers need a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a Foursquare account, a Gowalla account, a […]