Ella Joy Olsen (The Psychology Behind Books Sold Cheap) I started thinking about the pricing of books about four months before my debut novel was due to be published. It started with a conversation at a party when my friend’s father cornered me, so he could speak without others overhearing. Him (in a conspiratorial whisper): […]

James Preston Once upon a time my wife and I were sitting up late at night, reading. She had a romance novel, I probably had something by Heinlein or Asimov or Andre Norton. Suddenly, she yelled, “Arrrrrgh!” Or maybe it was “Gaaaah!” And she threw the paperback across the room, bouncing it off the wall, scaring the cat, […]

Colleen Story  Does using social media make us depressed? Scientists seem to think so, which is a little…well, depressing. Writers (and other creatives) are encouraged to use social media, after all, for marketing purposes. Many of us might have even stayed away completely if not for the gentle nudgings of our editors, agents, writer friends, […]

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."  E.L. Doctorow Y'all know I have process envy, right? I think most of us do. I always thought I'd be a plotter. I loved outlines so much that […]

Jamie Raintree Have you ever heard the phrase “act as if”? I heard it for the first time when I was a teenager from a friend who was into personal growth before I even knew what personal growth was. He used to throw it around haphazardly, like it was the answer to everything, and he […]