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Writing and Publishing

The Two Extremes of Self-Publishing

Both Are Wrong With changes in publishing and advances in technology, it’s never been easier to publish a book. This isn’t to imply publishing a book is easy, just that the barriers are disappearing and the costs are dropping. This emerging reality leads to two extremes of self-publishing for do-it-yourself authors who want to publish […]

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Writing and Publishing

Great Writing Quotes to Educate and Inform

We Can Find Encouragement and Instruction in Reading Great Writing Quotes I recent asked writers to share your favorite quotes about writing.  Mine was “Omit needless words.” Here are some more great writing quotes. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” -Toni […]

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Writing and Publishing

8 Tips to Improve as a Writer

Here are the actions I pursue to improve as a writer:  These tips helped me to improve as a writer. May they do the same for you.

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Writing and Publishing

Writing Advice that May Not Be True

Well-intentioned but Possibly Wrong Information There’s lots of advice floating around about writing, being a writer, and finding success. Though well-intentioned, some of this advice is bad information or oversimplified counsel. Here are some tips I’ve heard, many of which I’ve also said. Check out these common pieces of advice and discover the truth about […]

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Writing and Publishing

My Story of Becoming a Writer

I remember it well. Alone, I sit in my home office. I should be working. I’m not. I’m distracted. In my windowless basement room, I swing the door shut and dim the lights. I know what I must do, but I don’t want to. I’ve been writing and publishing for years, but I’ve never owned […]

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Writing and Publishing

Do-It-Yourself Marketing

After several years of unsuccessfully hiring book marketing experts, I realized I had two choices. The first was to not do any book promotion. The other was to do it myself. With great reticence, I decided to do it myself. I did this knowing it would detract from my writing and reduce my output. I […]

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Writing and Publishing

Hiring Marketing Experts

Hiring someone to market our books seems like a logical decision. After all, we hire professionals to edit our books and design our covers, so why not book marketing too? This is exactly what I thought and precisely what I did. Over the years I’ve hired a book launch expert, a publicist, a book marketing […]

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Writing and Publishing

Using a Book Advance for Marketing

Some publishers strongly suggested that authors use their advance for marketing their book. Though this sounds reasonable, my advice is not to do it unless you have a long-term reason for it. First, let’s talk about advances. An advance for a book was originally intended as money for the author to live on as they […]

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Writing and Publishing

Writing and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

When most people think about using artificial intelligence to write, their mind goes to people who may abuse the technology. Yes, some people will use AI to churn out sub-par books. But don’t worry about them. Instead, look to how you use AI. View AI as a tool to help you write better, just like […]

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Writing and Publishing

A Creative Way to Deal with Rejection

Rejection hurts. We’ve all heard stories of popular books that had scores of editors or publishers reject them before someone realized the potential and published them. The rest is publishing history. Since writers deal with a lot of rejection, Writer’s Digest had the idea to provide a creative outlet for them to vent their frustration. […]