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What Makes a Great Blog?

When I teach Blogging for Beginners at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, we get everyone’s blogs set up, but that’s the easy part. Learning how to use WordPress, Blogger, or SquareSpace will get your blog online, but it won’t make you a great blogger. Great blogs have five things in common—quality design, great content, clear […]

Blogging Classes Start Next Week!

A quick announcement to let everyone know that TODAY is the last day to get the early bird discount for Blogging for Beginners, which starts next Monday, June 22, at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. After today, tuition goes up $25, but you can still enroll right up until the minute class starts (but […]

10 Things You Should Take to Every Writers Conference

Photo by Glen Euloth courtesy of Creative Commons

 

I thought I was so prepared at AWP 15 this year, but there were a few essentials I didn’t take that would have made my conference run much smoother:

1. Business cards

I can’t emphasize enough how much you should take a stack of business […]

AWP 15: Minneapolis, Here I Come!

I’m getting excited for AWP! I just bought a new umbrella, and I’m digging my coats and sweaters out of the closet. I’ll be moderating a panel Thursday morning and participating in a reading Thursday afternoon. Please come to one or both if you’re going to AWP. I’d love to see/meet you! Details about my […]

My Favorite Social Media Tools

Social Media: Sigh. We know we need to do it in order to build our author platforms so we can get agents and book deals and make money selling those books, but it can be exhausting. And it never ends. You tweet and you post and you circle and you link and you connect and […]

7 Reasons I’m Thankful for You

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Whether your day will be filled with turkey or Tofurkey, au gratin potatoes or gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie (mine will be filled with both), I wish everyone a wonderful time eating, relaxing and spending time with family and friends this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Julie via Creative Commons

And now, a […]

What Are You Afraid Of? 4 Ways to Overcome Your Fears and Follow Your Dreams

Photo courtesy of Stuart Anthony via Creative Commons

 

I’ve been thinking about fear lately. When I attended the BlogHer ’13 conference in Chicago, Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook and author of Lean In) urged us to “Write down what you are afraid of, then go do it.” I thought about what I wanted […]

Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Writers?

Photo courtesy of Will Lion via Creative Commons

In response an article in Creative Nonfiction titled “Platforms” Are Overrated, SheWrites Press publisher Brooke Warner wrote a great post titled Your Author Platform is Not Your Social Media Following. The quick summary of Brooke’s post is that social media is just one piece of the […]

10 Reasons to Start Blogging

Every now and then you read a gloom and doom post about blogging like “Is blogging dead?” or “Where are all the bloggers?” Blogging is far from dead. Some people who were blogging five days a week four years ago may have slowed down or quit because they got burned out, and there’s no question […]

Four Book Marketing Tips

Last month I posted an interview with SheBooks co-founder Laura Fraser. This month I want to discuss a few things about what I learned by publishing my first book, Runway, and what I plan to do differently next time.

Photo courtesy of NASA

 

1. Are you blogging to the wrong audience?

What is […]