Chuck Sambuchino (This column excerpted from Chuck’s 2015 book, Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work.) No author I know signs with an agent wanting that partnership to end. But, sadly, things do break down sometimes. Here are four signs that your agent-author relationship has turned sour. 1. Lack […]

Laurie Schnebly Campbell What makes people talk about your book before they've ever read Page 1? Well, maybe they remember you from high school and can’t wait to see if they’re featured on page 28. Or maybe they heard the publisher paid a billion-dollar advance to get your manuscript. Or maybe they saw that Josh […]

Jami Gold Writing is often about finding a balance. Too much left in subtext can lead to confusion. Too much explanation can feel like an info dump or be too "on the nose." Etc., etc. With our characters, if we want our protagonists to seem heroic, they need to have strong traits. Yet at the same time, if […]

by Susan Spann “Mentor” was the tutor Odysseus placed in charge of his son, Telemachus, before departing on his now-famous odyssey across a mythological version of ancient Greece. Since Homer’s day, the word has come to mean an advisor who comes alongside a less-experienced person to offer help, education, and guidance. Mentorships exist in almost […]

by Jessica Strawser I’ve had a lot of babies in the past few years. Two of them are novels (one out on submission with my agent, the other in late revision stages). Dozens of them are magazines I’ve put my heart into at my day job as editor of Writer’s Digest. And two of them […]