Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Assisted publishing or subsidy publishing is paying a company (or a person) to publish your book for you. I don’t have any experience using assisted publishing, because it’s not the right option for me. If you go this route, check references, ask a lot of questions, and treat it like a business decision—because it is. […]
Many people wonder if you can blog your book. This is a common question and answers differ. Here are my blogging tips for blogging your book. Fiction Writers For fiction writers, you can blog about your book’s content: setting, characters, and supporting background, but you can’t dole out your book in blog-sized chunks. Of course, […]
Personally, when it comes to finding balance, it seems something is always slipping, with the areas of writing, work, and life being in a constant state of tension. Yes, there are times where I may go a couple of days keeping everything in balance, but one little bump in the road and the whole thing […]
Early in my career, I thought a query and a proposal were two names for the same document. Boy, was I confused? A query letter is a short communication to get an agent or publisher’s attention. If your query letter succeeds, they’ll ask for a book proposal. A proposal is a lengthy, detailed document that […]
Writers often wonder if they should I indie publish their book or publish with a traditional publisher. I understand the question, and without sounding like a jerk, let me rephrase this question about publishing options. The question should be: Should I self-publish it or pursue a traditional publisher? Traditional Publishing I reworded it because we […]
Many writers starting out try to blog and write a book at the same time. They end up doing neither one well. Or they try to write a book before they’re ready. Then they end up with something not suitable for publication, waste a lot of time, and endure much frustration. That assumes they finish […]
Finding time to write is a dilemma most writers face at one time or another. Maybe all writers do. I think the problem, however, is in the question. We don’t need to find time to write as much as we need to make time. We each have 24 hours in our day. While work and […]
One thing that has most helped me improve as a writer is receiving feedback from others. It is critical. This feedback has mostly come from critique groups but also from beta readers and paid professionals. This last category is costly but invaluable. Regardless of the source, the key is figuring out which feedback to apply, […]
I’ve ghostwritten a couple of books and enjoyed doing so. The payment is almost always a fixed rate, paid in installments. The first payment is required to start the work, and the final payment is due when the writer submits the finished product to the author. (The person who hires you is the author—you are […]
In my post “Five Reasons a Writer Should Self-Publish,” I listed several advantages of self-publishing. Although compelling, there are also downsides. Let’s also look at the downsides of self-publishing. Consider These Six Downsides of Self-Publishing: 1. Quality is Often Lacking Traditional publishers put their books through several rounds of editing to produce the best possible […]