Lisa Cron Brace yourself! (Spoiler alert: there is good news coming.) But first . . . Here’s a hard fact: 97% of writers never finish a first draft. Here’s an even harder fact: 96% of those finished manuscripts are rejected by agents and publishers. And the indie route? Statistics show that the vast majority of […]

Tasha Seegmiller   Whether you are a participant in NaNoWriMo or not, all of us have (most likely) experienced what it is like to hit the middle of the story and . . . And. Some call it a brick wall, others talk about being stuck in the muck, and still others may not have […]

Julie Glover My father had his own set of proverbs that he dispensed like wisdom from the mountaintop. Even though it’s been decades since I lived in his house, I can still hear his voice in my head sharing such tenets as: “A thing worth doing is worth doing well.” “Leave a place as good […]

Fae Rowen It's been almost ten years  since I hosted my first writers' retreat. It was a low-key get together for my five-person critique group, which had been meeting for just a few months.  We already met weekly for face-to-face chapter critiques, but we wanted time to discuss writing, trade ideas and things we'd learned […]

by Penny Sansevieri Especially around the holidays, take a moment and tweak your keywords/keyword strings in Amazon. Maybe you can’t incorporate any holiday - or Christmas-specific keywords, but tweak the keywords during the holidays and find the strongest ones for your market. Oftentimes searches that include “gifts for…” ramp up in popularity around this time.  […]