A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Book Without Losing Your Mind

This is the first of a 2-part blog outlining the step-by-step approach I used for my debut book launch. This month I’ll examine what to do 3-6 months out from pub date and then in March I’ll look at what happens in those last two months before your baby finally makes its way into the world.

Note: If…

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Do you buy your books based on Amazon's ratings? How accurate do you think those ratings are? Dan Klefstad touched on this subject in his article The Tyranny of Starred Ratings, and I touched on it in my post Books We Did Not Finish in 2021.…

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Remember how it felt when your last manuscript was ready? I mean ready to submit, after yet another revision based on input from your most serious writer friends, plus a professional edit. I remember feeling exhausted but exhilarated too. So when a friend announced she was finished writing her book,…

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When you hold your book in your hands for the first time and see your name on the cover, see a publisher’s imprint on the copyright page, have your very own isbn, people reviewing it on Amazon...you’ve arrived. Your writing career is launched. It will sell hundreds of thousands…

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I was all set to do a “Best Books We Read in 2021” post. Then I saw a Facebook post from CWA board member Maggie Smith that made me think. She said, “All these lists of ‘best books I read in 2021’ are adding to my TBR pile. Which…

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Sorry for the misleading subject line since I'm of the opinion that there are NO REAL RULES for how to tell a story. You'll see thousands of articles, however, with those words in the title, because those words sell. I bet it made you open this email.

Everyone wants to…

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Two shoppers stood in an indie bookstore before a row of new releases, each spine announcing the latest effort by an author who poured their sweat and soul into this book. When one shopper picked up a volume, the other held their phone near the cover.

“4.8 stars with fifty…

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When the holidays add another layer of busyness to our already busy lives it can be difficult to prioritize your writing.

Give yourself the gift of writing time each day. Not so much that you pile guilt on top of stress. Make it doable and easy, say...30 minutes every day.…

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Why do we write?

Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means."

Stephen King said that in the end all writing is about “enriching the lives of those who will read your work,…

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What do you say we retire the term writer’s block? It sounds like an incurable disease when, really, it’s not a disease and it’s not incurable, it’s just a break or a lull; a slowdown. A block is something you can’t get around or go through, and you can’t see…

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