Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Once we finish writing our book (though a book is never really finished), the next step for those wishing to land a traditional publishing deal is to find an agent. This requires a really great query letter. There’s a lot of information online about writing a query letter. Unfortunately, it seems to be as much […]
Here are the actions I pursue to improve as a writer: These tips helped my writing improve. May they do the same for you.
There are several blogs I follow; I read them whenever I can. Sometimes I just read, and other times I read and comment. Only a small percent of blog readers take time to comment. The reasons are many: too busy, a lack of confidence, not knowing what to say, fear, and so forth. There are, […]
Readers who purchase many books each year evenly divide on print versus digital In 2012, Book Business magazine, reporting on a Verso Advertising study, noted that 49.7 percent of avid readers refuse to go paperless. They define avid book readers as those who purchase more than ten books per year. Notice they use the word […]
The social media site Twitter is becoming the go-to platform for many I’m on several social media sites, but the one that I use the most and am the least confused by is Twitter. I’ve grown a following, tweet and retweet regularly, and engage a bit with my followers. Twitter is the one social media […]
Some people say that if you’re blogging as a hobby, wordpress.com is okay, but if you consider yourself a professional you need to go with WordPress.org (the self-hosted version). Is it possible to do a professional website with WordPress.com? Though I’ve seen some successful authors use a WordPress.com powered website, it always surprises me. Yes, […]
The Shy Writer: An Introvert’s Guide to Writing Success By C. Hope Clark (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) Many writers are shy. C. Hope Clark understands this too well. At best, the effect of shyness serves as a roadblock for writers. At worst, it’s enough to cause some to cease writing altogether; the cost of confronting […]
Book publishing is more than just writing and producing books; it is also about selling them. Selling books requires a host of skills, including marketing, promotion, and public relations. Yes, public relations—PR for short. At its most basic level, public relations is managing the flow of information from an entity (a company, organization, or an […]
Blogging is an important aspect of book publishing. This series on blogging with WordPress provides a starting point. Last week, focusing on WordPress, we talked about two options: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. In a basic way, WordPress.com is analogous to Gmail, while WordPress.org is more like Outlook (or in the extreme, it could be like an […]
Writers claim to dramatically increase their writing speed by speaking instead of typing In listening to podcasts and reading blogs, I’ve heard a lot about writers using dictation. This intrigued me. There are two reasons why I wanted to try dictation instead of typing when composing my first drafts. Why Diction? Increased Speed: The most […]