NaNoWriMo, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is National Novel Writing Month, where hundreds of thousands of writers gather to bang out many many words in a month. Many writers skip it and many writers treat it as a yearly pilgrimage to Writing Mecca. NaNoWriMo is my birthday present to myself each year. […]

Susan Spann “Advances” – technically, advances against royalties, are lump-sum payments some publishers pay to authors “in advance” of publishing the author’s work. More simply, an “advance” is the money an author receives up front on a publishing deal. Not all authors receive advances, and not all publishers offer them. Small and micro-publishers often pay […]

“Oh my god, I’m going to burn this manuscript and get a job grooming Guinea Pigs.” Okay, so maybe you didn’t want to become a Guinea Pig groomer. But I’m guessing all of us, at some point or another, have threatened to make s’mores on a bonfire from the worthless piles of paper we thought would be […]

Penny C. Sansevieri If you’re an author who just wants to write, you’re not alone. I talk to authors every day who hate the idea of marketing and are not even sure where to begin. I definitely can understand. Marketing is always changing, and it isn’t easy, especially if you still have a full time […]

Autumn always makes me thankful. Maybe it's because of Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because of a memory of a remote cabin in the middle exploding fall colors. Maybe it's the  reminder that I have more to be thankful for than most. I'm thankful for books. Because one saved my life. When people ask me why I began writing, […]