Memoir « Writerland

The Importance of Sitting on the Floor

Happy Thanksgiving! May everyone get their fill of turkey or Tofurkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and family love (or dysfunction) and then take a big long nap before getting up for seconds. Also don’t forget to test your world hunger IQ so a hungry child can have a filling meal, too. It only takes [...]

Are You Plagued by Perfectionism?

I arrived at the tail end of an interesting lunchtime conversation at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto last week—just in time to hear author Julia Scheeres utter, “Well, that was depressing.” From there the conversation continued on about how women tend to submit less often to journals, magazines, and newspapers (and by extension, agents and [...]

Author Advances: Survey Results

Thank you so much to the 105 authors who took the author advance survey! Here are the results (now with author comments added below):

Average and Median of All Advances

Five people reported multi-book deals (four two-book deals and one four-book deal), which skewed the results a bit. Below are results counting the multi-book deals [...]

20 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays

I frequently receive e-mails from people looking for places to publish their personal essays. Fiction and nonfiction writers alike all have a great story about the time Aunt Harriet came for dinner and left on the back of a horse, or the time the cat disappeared and returned six years later, or the time they [...]

Plagiarism: Is It Safe to Share Your Writing With Others?

Last month, I came across this wonderful blog post by attorney Mark Fowler over at RightsofWriters.com (@RightsofWriters on Twitter), which details the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement. Essentially, plagiarism is an ethical, not an actionable offense, according to Fowler and others he quotes. Copyright infringement is a different story. According to Fowler, “Plagiarism does [...]

My Sister Doesn’t Want Me To Publish My Book

“I don’t want you to publish your book,” my sister said to me last week when I was visiting my family in Michigan. It was after midnight and we were sitting in the ER waiting for my three-year-old son to wake up from his drug-induced state after getting stitches. Playing tag in the dark with [...]

Bestselling vs Bestwriting Books

First, I want to say that I was fortunate enough to meet Samuel Park in person when he read from his debut novel This Burns My Heart here in San Francisco tonight. I was so drawn in by the story and his dialogue that I bought THREE copies–all at full hardcover price. So if you’re [...]

Author Interview: Laura Fraser

This is my 200th post! To celebrate I have an interview with New York Times bestselling author Laura Fraser. Enjoy!

Laura Fraser is a San Francisco-based journalist whose latest book, All Over the Map, is just out in paperback. The book is a travel memoir, and a sequel to her 2001 New York Times bestseller, [...]

Memoir Monday: Point of View

I know, I know, it’s TUESDAY, not Monday, but “Memoir Tuesday” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. It is also Memoir May here at Writerland, which means I’m editing memoirs for 30% off my regular rate while my own memoir is being marked up with red ink. (E-mail me for a free estimate!) [...]

Writers and Depression

First, an announcement: It’s Memoir May here at Writerland! What does that mean? It means that I’ll be editing memoirs this month for 30% off my regular rate. Why this super-amazing spring discount? Because while my own memoir is being marked up with red ink by my editor in New York, I have more time [...]

Meghan Ward

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