Here is a philosophical post for a lazy Saturday. When you write, invariably, you get asked the question: are you successful? When people ask me, I’m never sure what to say. I sold my work to publishers and got into some good magazines. I guess that’s success. I never made…
Let’s repeat that: there are no shortcuts to writing success. You will often see people recommending that when you want to sell well, you have to copy what the bestsellers do. Yes, you do, but there is a genuine way and a misguided way to go about it. Misguided? Well……
This morning, the Twitterspere was all aflap about this piece of garbage: The Top 7 reasons why posting politics kills your career (please note that this post has been taken down by the site. They cited as reason that “it was acceptable to write about politics when the subject was…
If you poke around the internet, you will find posts by various wise writers exhorting you to spend x amount or proportion of your time marketing and the rest writing. Often it comes down to 80% writing and 20% marketing. I think these sorts of enforced schedules miss a really…
This advice is often phrased as “mistakes made by new writers”. I don’t like the word “mistakes” and I like to express thoughts in positive advice that people can do something with. So what is the most important thing writers should be doing? WRITE Well, duh, I can hear you…
Listening to another podcast by Joanna Penn this morning. I found this one particularly inspiring. Both Joanna and Michaelbrent Collings, who was interviewed in the podcast, appear to have the attitude towards writing and publishing that I happen to share: When you write a book, this adds to an inventory….
Starting as a writer can be very bewildering, and books, blogs, workshops and classes are full of advice. It can be really hard to figure out what is important. Here are some things I wished someone had told me in 2005. 1. DO finish your story. If you have no…
