When I speak at writers’ conferences, I sometimes offer a free critique to the people who attend my sessions. It’s an offer I don’t make casually and one I take most seriously. Unlike a critique group, where a piece is read once and members share their initial thoughts, I spend an hour or more considering […]
Category: Writing and Publishing
Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
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Capture Email Addresses
A key to using your website as a book-selling, platform-building tool is to capture email addresses. You will use these email addresses to regularly communicate with your followers, such as through a monthly newsletter. Keep them up-to-date on your writing and share interesting or helpful content. Then, when your book is ready, let them know. […]
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Editing is Writing, Too
Since the new year, I’ve written early in the morning, every day, usually for an hour or two. Aside from my blog posts (which I write on the weekends) and work articles (which I write during the day), my total writing output for the year stands at far less than 1,000 words. What have I […]
In using your website as the foundation of your book-selling, platform-building initiative, there are several key points to follow. The first three are to make it mobile responsive, remove clutter, and delete slow plugins. That is, to pursue a minimalist design; less is more. Here are three more website tips: That’s it for now. Next […]
To approach an agent or publisher with our book, we start with a query letter and are ready to follow it with a proposal. For me, writing my first proposal was harder than writing the book. Seriously. To learn about creating proposals, I read blog posts, listened to podcasts, attended webinars, went to lectures, and […]
In my post The First Step in Building Your Platform I laid out a number of recommendations for a website, as the foundation for a book-promoting platform. The first three were to make our sites responsive to mobile devices, remove the clutter, and delete slow plugins. In short, embrace the concept that less is more. […]
I like working but not finding work. I like writing but not finding a publisher. Unfortunately, there are similarities. Consider these parallels: 1. The Search For a job, we need to find where to apply. This means looking through help wanted ads, researching companies, and networking with people we know. For writing, this means scouring […]
After you write and publish your book, the next step is to promote it. This requires a platform. However, don’t build your platform around a social media site. You can’t control that. Overnight they could change the rules, limit your reach, make you pay to be seen, or even summarily turn off your account. Then, […]
Most jobs include vacation time, usually starting at two weeks a year and going up from there. Though I’ve never been a fan of taking a two-week trip, I used to look forward to those vacation days off from work to have a break, catch up on personal projects, and make shorter vacation-like excursions. However, […]
When I read a book and catch an error or spot something questionable in the layout, I generally overlook it—the first time. When I catch a second oops, I turn to the front matter and see who published the book. If produced by a traditional publisher, my tendency is to overlook the errors. After all, […]