Now that I’m a published author, I’ve stumbled upon a secret society: the cross-promotional author collective. Any author, regardless of literacy, could join any number of warm, fuzzy clubs to mutually stroke each other’s egos, exchange rave reviews (sometimes without even reading the book), tag each other’s books on Amazon, like them on Facebook, host […]

You’ve written a book and managed to get it published. Now you want people to read it, so you plaster yourself all over the internet to get the word out. Your communication is full of typos, bad grammar and clueless punctuation. It’s no big deal. After all, you’re in a relaxed environment with friends, right? […]

I got a call from a Facebook friend objecting to my description of Rose’s Will as upmarket fiction. “Doesn’t that sound just a little conceited? Not that your book isn’t better than 90% of the others out there,” she said, “but it’s probably a term better left to your readers to decide.” After the call, […]

Before I sent out my manuscript, I scoured the internet and went to numerous writing seminars and conventions, sucking up information like a Hoover. I learned how to send a query, what an agent wants and doesn’t want, what sells, what stinks, and how to pack a punch in the first paragraph. Armed with all […]