Attend any writing conference, and you’ll hear participants saying to each other: +Do I need an agent to get a book contract? +Do you have an agent? +Is it hard to find the right agent? For those of you who have asked those questions and felt as confused as this bookshelf is, here are some...Read More

How do you know you’re a real writer? Some writers have real writing jobs, where they go to work and write stuff and collect paychecks. Others work the freelance route, sending off queries and hoping for the “yeses” that mean a writing gig. Book writers spend years writing and revising novels or memoirs and then...Read More

Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. —Shel Silverstein In the past few months—really, in the past year—I’ve thought about chucking the whole writing dream and reinventing myself...Read More

A week ago, I spent a whole day on the sofa, clutching my unhappy stomach. When I finally checked my email at 5 PM, there were 300 messages and almost a third of those were pitches to read or review someone’s new book. I deleted most of them—not because I was feeling sick and cranky...Read More

Do you want to sell your book? Dumb question: who doesn’t want to sell millions of copies of their book, right? Here’s the thing: whether you want to sell your book directly to readers (self-published) or first to agents or editors (traditionally published), you must be able to articulate what it’s about in a single...Read More

From Dale Carnegie’s now classic tome, How to Win Friends and Influence People to the new How to Think More about Sex by Alain de Botton—how-to books sell big. What is a “how to book”? I’ve heard the how-to book called procedural nonfiction (Ouch! That sounds both technical and painful!) and prescriptive nonfiction. But basically,...Read More

If I read a book [and] it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the tip of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. —Emily Dickinson Poetry heals the wounded soul. Poetry strengthens the weakened heart. Poetry offers...Read More

Dear Writers, Are you tired of trying to figure out how to earn money writing? Have I got a treat for you! My colleague Kelly James-Enger, known for her ability to earn a six-figure income writing books and articles, will be our guest at the March Write Now! Mastermind class tomorrow (March 27, 2013 at...Read More

I hope you were able to spring forward this past weekend without losing your writing momentum! If you’re struggling to organize yourself and your writing life, today’s tip talks about how to put together all of the tools we’ve been talking about over the past few weeks. It’s the sixth and final article in our...Read More

Today’s tip talks about how learning how to shift tasks is essential for writing. It’s the fifth article in our series on writing productivity based on the book Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life: Train Your Brain to Get More Done in Less Time by Paul Hammerness, M.D., Margaret Moore, and John Hane. The first...Read More