R.I.P. NaNoWriMo. I never did know you. Every November when you came around, I thought, "Write a novel in one month—are you crazy?" And now you're gone. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, involved a grinding daily word-count toward a...

I despaired of ever becoming a writer. Then I read John Gardner's "On Becoming a Novelist." John Gardner was an American author who wrote the novels Grendel and The Sunlight Dialogues, among others. He also taught medieval literature and was a pioneering...

Producing hundreds of pages of text requires a feat from the brain akin to an athlete's performance. And so, like athletes, writers need to do all they can to up their edge. You probably know self-care helps. But did you know music helps too? Self-care isn't my strong...

Or: three lessons in overconfidence and impairment LESSON ONE: Manuscript feedback. After working with many advanced readers and professionals, I believed my book was ready. So I published it on KDP and ordered 100 author copies. Then the real-world critiques crashed...

Newsletters are a great way to connect with people, if done the right way. 1. Start with your inner circle. I began with my gracious friends and family. But still, in my anxiety, I sent short, apologetic newsletters. Then the subscriptions opened to the public through...

Or rather, how not to do it.The person I hired loaded my files into KDP. Then I held my breath and hit "Publish." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! First, I changed my mind about the subtitle.  I unpublished the novel, removed the subtitle, and republished it. KDP keeps old...

On the verge of my first publication, I was preoccupied with many questions. Was my content up to snuff? Was the cover right? How do I market? And so on.  If this might be you, sit down and take a deep breath before hitting "Publish," or you might be sorry. Some...

Ah, Kindle Direct Press. It doesn't discern quality—hence the billions of poorly crafted books filling cyberspace—but its bots do discern plagiarized material.  I chose King James Bible verses for my novels because the language was so beautiful. And it was too...

Your cover is your primary marketing tool, and everything else rides on it. Here's how I got a great cover. I have two fine arts degrees, so I wanted a cover that was a work of art. Big mistake. For one, I wasn't aware of current books in my genre or my book's key...