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Do you ever wonder if your writing is good enough? Like, every day? Do you sometimes wonder whether it’s not the publishing industry but YOU that is the problem? That maybe you don’t have it in you to succeed as a writer? That maybe you should have gone to law school after all? You could, […]
Photo by Wrote courtesy of Creative Commons
At AWP in February, one of the best panels I attended was titled “What’s a PhD in Creative Writing Worth?” The conclusions I drew after hearing each panelist speak were:
A) You should only get a PhD in Creative Writing if you plan to teach and […]
Tuesday night, I had the privilege of attending Sin and Syntax author Constance Hale’s class The Book Biz from A to Z at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. One of the topics that arose was platform.
Today, every agent and editor wants to know that you have a platform before representing/buying your book. But […]
Yesterday my five-year-old son opened his fortune cookie, and together we read:
“You have a strong potential for success.”
“What is success?” he wanted to know. Avoiding the temptation to whip out my smart phone and read him the Merriam Webster definition, I began:
“Well, if you want to bake a cake, and your […]
Last month I wrote about how NOT to promote your book. This week, I want to talk about a few ways you SHOULD promote your book and other writing.
1. Include your website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, etc. in the signature on all your emails. Include your email and Twitter handle (at a minimum) […]
Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway for a copy of Tom Barbash’s Stay Up With Me! Some of your favorite short stories are:
“Claudia’s Cheeks” by Catherine Travel “Ask Me If I Care” by Jennifer Egan “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery […]
Don’t do this to your friends
Here’s a common scenario.
I say to a friend, “I wonder what Sarah is up to. I haven’t heard from her since we were in that writers’ group three years ago.”
Friend: “I haven’t heard from her either. I googled her once, […]
Last week in my Blogging for Beginners class at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, a student declared that she doesn’t feel comfortable putting her photo on her blog, something I strongly encourage all my students to do. People want to know what the blogger they’re following looks like, and the more professional the photo, […]
Guy Kawasaki and I at BlogHer ’13
The weekend before last I attended BlogHer ’13 in Chicago along with 5000 other (mostly female) bloggers. We heard keynotes by Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, social media guru Guy Kawasaki, Facebook COO and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg, and Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd. Queen Latifah […]
If you’ve been reading blogs for a while, you have probably come across the term “1000 true fans.” Kevin Kelly first wrote about this idea on his blog Technium. The number 1000 is an estimate, of course, but the rationale goes that all you need to succeed in your field are 1000 true fans, […]
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