Writing tips The Work of Learning to Love “You can fall in love with your first draft,” the poet and memoirist Jorie Miller likes to say, “but don’t marry it.” We enter mature and lasting relationships with creative…
Publishing tips How a Publisher Thinks / Vinita Wright – Part 2 ... a series of excerpts from Vinita's Writing for Your Life webinar presentation What constitutes authority: what credentials in the author will the reader respect? In mainstream publishing, for…
Publishing tips Mistakes Publishers Have Learned the Hard Way - by Vinita Wright 2018 The publisher and author cannot tell a reader what she needs. The reader knows already what she feels that she needs. She sees her need…
Publishing tips What Is a Literary Agent? - by Tim Beals, Credo Communications A good agent is more like a coach or mentor than a leader or manager. They are there to guide and encourage, not…
Writing tips If we are unwilling to be moved, there’s no way our readers will be moved. Any discussion of revision points us to a hidden, tender intersection between craft and the human heart. The wisest words about writing I’ve ever encountered come from an introduction by…
Publishing tips When Do You Need a Literary Agent? - by Tim Beals, Credo Literary Agency Look for a literary agent when you are in the process of writing a book and have prepared a well-written book proposal that…
Marketing tips Engagement is the Glue Engagement is the glue that connects you to your fans and drives them to that “inner circle.” Here are five tips to rouse engagement with your audience: End your blog…
Writing tips You’re Not In Control When you choose to participate in creativity by trusting the process and allowing the flow to do what it will, you are making a crucial step as a creator and…
Writing tips “Interestingness” Genuine, openhearted engagement—what Brenda Ueland calls “interestingness”—is the basic ingredient of a fruitful creative process. Because of this, stories are essentially egalitarian in nature, meaning that each and every one…
Marketing tips Building Your Audience Through Twitter Here are five ways to build your audience through Twitter-related tactics: Mine Twitter Lists. Once you’re on Twitter for a while, you’ll notice that people place you on public…
Marketing tips Forming Content Partnerships If you want to expand your content pipeline, consider partnering with another pipeline. This technique is commonly called brandscaping. For example, the insurance company Geico ran a series of commercials…
Publishing tips How to Find a Literary Agent - by Tim Beals The hardest part of the entire process can be identifying the best agent for your work. But there is no shortcut. Do your research, starting…
Writing tips Four Excuses Not to Write Spiritual Memoir and One Invitation - by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew https://writersblock.loft.org/2013/01/18/1883/four_excuses_not_to_write_spiritual_memoir_and_one_invitation
Writing tips Velma Still Cooks in Leeway When I was in the early stages of writing Velma Still Cooks in Leeway, I decided to spend some time in the book of Ezekiel. The issues I wanted to…
Writing tips Seeing Again and Again and Again - by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew http://www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com/2016/12/seeing-again-and-again-and-again/#more-1994
Publishing tips Will a Publisher Consider My Self-Published Work? What do The Shack, Jesus Calling and 50 Shades of Grey all have in common? Their respective commercial trade publishers have sold millions of copies of each, and they all…
Marketing tips Examples of Outstanding Social Media Success Today I would like to share two examples of outstanding social media success. Example 1: an established author In this case, the author had written many books over…
Marketing tips, Publishing tips The Two Most Important Things Last year I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at the Culture Care Summit, led by Mako Fujimura, Director of the Brehm Center for the Arts at Fuller Seminary.…
Marketing tips Look for Opportunities for Newsjacking A term coined by David Meerman Scott, newsjacking describes a process to align your brand message with breaking news events so you ride a wave of traditional media coverage. A…
Writing tips Tapping the Well Much inspiration will come from your observations of the life that goes on all around you. But openness to life in general isn’t usually what causes you to shiver and…
