writing advice column | writing advice column
Oct.29.2012
Don’t let technology be a tyranny, i.e., if the governor of your state is warning that the hurricane that’s scheduled to hit in, oh, about 30 minutes, may result in power outages that could last for weeks, don’t despair that you can’t work on your novel because you have no computer; you can still...
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Oct.28.2012
If you’re a previous midlist author who’s been lucky enough to have a breakout hit with what you consider to be a more literary take on a popular area (say, vampires), resist the impulse to tell any reviewer who will listen about how your book has nothing to do with That Popular Series,...
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Oct.27.2012
When you experience strong negative feelings toward another author’s public persona, you have to ask yourself: Is it because the other author is such a jerk, or because the other author acts like the jerkiest part of you?
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Oct.26.2012
Every time I think we’re done discussing blurbs, I get sucked in again: It is never a good idea to say in a request for a blurb, “Hey, I know you blurbed so-and-so”; trying to guilt an author into helping you because they helped someone else is not the way to go – you need to make the case for why...
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Oct.25.2012
Contrary to what might happen to you in outer space, on Twitter everyone can hear you scream, so please plan that nervous breakdown about your career accordingly.
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Oct.24.2012
No matter how disappointing an event may turn out to be – there aren’t enough books or an insufficient quantity of people show or the table you’re placed at is in Siberia – write a thank-you to the organizer afterward; manners still count and you never know when the person who let you down...
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Oct.23.2012
After the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy told reporters that “victory has a thousand fathers” and “defeat is an orphan”; while it would be the height of hubris to compare your book to an international incident, still, depending on the outcome in terms of sales, a similar rule applies.
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Oct.22.2012
At group book signings, resist the impulse to either act like a special flower whose publishing experience has been blissful or a Debbie Downer for whom nothing has ever been enough; it’s not that you should be trying to win a popularity contest, but really, you don’t want people to hate you...
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Oct.21.2012
There’s an invisible line that exists between gratitude that your book has been published and resentment that the publisher didn’t do everything it could have and should have done – or anything at all – to ensure your book become as successful as it could have been; I would recommend you err on the...
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Oct.19.2012
I don’t care if you have an agent or not, and if you have one, I don’t care how good that agent is: Read any publishing contract you are offered in its entirety and do not sign until all your questions have been satisfactorily answered; for once you’ve signed, no one will later let you say...
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