One of the most perceptive regulars in #FutureChat, The FutureBook digital publishing community’s weekly live discussion, is Carla Douglas of BeyondPaperEditing.com in Kingston, Ontario. And in a recent doing of the discussion, Douglas pointed out that writing, while once among the most isolated and solitary of careers has been made one of the most social by digital… Read More
Writers in Conference: The Micro-Tension Of A Pause
Autumn And Authors Holding Their Breaths The townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts, are busy this week pointing out to visitors their brilliant fall leaves. “They should be on the ground by now,” one longtime resident says, shaking his head. “Should have hit the grass a long time ago.” And like the eerie pause in the pace… Read More
Mission Critical At Writer Unboxed’s UnConfab in Salem
Reviewing? What’s Your Motive? Next week, I’ll be leading a session on criticism — “When To Listen And What To Hear” — at Writer Unboxed’s “Un-Conference” event in Salem, Massachusetts…where they know a few things about being critical. That session and this column are not about the more extreme moments in consumer review that have… Read More
Between a Blog and a Hard News Cycle
How Do You Know If You Can Say No to NaNo? The Internet has mutated reasonable people into wannabe writers…We are blind to the harsh truth-light-radiating facts such as ‘half of self-published authors earn less than $500’, facts written about in newspapers by professional writers. That’s Tom Mitchell (@tommycm on Twitter) writing an essay at… Read More
Crowdsorcery: #FutureChat recap
“Join the crowd” on Friday meant jumping in on our #FutureChat conversation with The FutureBook.net community about all things crowd-ish — crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, a crowded season of releases and new ideas. Even as I create this recap, an email has arrived offering “your very own piece of PeerIndex!” (Exclamation point theirs.) The London-based social analytics platform… Read More
"Visionaries on the Decks": Storytelling
“To Declare Your Story’s Intent” There are things important to you. You hurt. You know stuff. I don’t. You see things that I cannot…You have everything you need, including the courage to declare your story’s intent. — Donald Maass, Writing 21st Century Fiction Not for nothing am I looking forward to the November 3-7 Writer… Read More
Writer's Digest's Conference in LA: You Are So On
My address is 2025 Avenue of the Stars. This is as it should be, of course. 90067. With my sunglasses so firmly in place that I can barely read anything on the screen, I’m writing to you on the eve of Phil Sexton’s Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference in Los Angeles. It’s at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza… Read More
Don't Take Author Obesity Sitting Down
Provocations in Poundage Yeah, I know. Better I make fun of about 10 religious faiths at once, right? We’re not supposed to mention the other f-word, it’s not PC at all. (I’ll just spell it so we don’t scare the chubby children: f-a-t.) Somehow in the States, it’s considered better to “not say anything.” Rather… Read More
Running From Talent: And Your Next Chapter
Last month as BookExpo America and its Author Hub were about to convene in New York, I had the good fortune to be in Stockholm to speak at a conference called The Next Chapter. It’s produced by the very able Jonas Lennermo and his team at Publit, a publishing firm at the heart of Sweden’s highly literate, gracious culture. I say… Read More
Free the Writers! (From Each Other)
What do we need to do, in-community, to keep reminding each other to turn to the audience and deliver our best lines to the world, not to each other? Authors are striding through the sleeper cars and dining carriages of Twitter asking other writers to “buy my book!” This is hashtagged hokum. Read More