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[VIDEO] Why Done Is Not Good Enough for a Book

Not long ago a friend told me she had someone she wanted to introduce me to. Let’s call this person Cathy. Cathy, my friend told me, had just published a book! As an editor, I’m intimately aware of how much time, effort and energy it takes to cross the threshold from...

How to Tell Your Story (Even If Mom Won’t Like It)

This weekend, we in North America are celebrating Mother’s Day. I think it’s a fairly normal thing to have complicated feels toward our mamas. We love them with all we have, but they are human, too. It's a part of life. But the mother-child relationship can be...

The Worst Reason to Write a Book

I have a confession to make: When I first dreamed of being an author, I wasn’t dreaming about changing my readers’ lives. I also wasn’t dreaming about what a great example I would be setting for my nieces, or how publishing my own book would make me that much more...

Someone’s Already Used Your Title…Now What?

The fact is, over 300,000 books are published every year. As original as each of us is, we aren’t that original in certain ways. As an aspiring author, you may bump up against this lack of originality in one particular—painful—way. During the research phase that is de...

How to Make Money Writing Books

Back in college I took a class on the great works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Never had two more romantic figures entered my view. Starving artists just trying to find a clean, well-lighted place to write. Parisian nights and Barcelona days. Champagne and cigarettes;...

The Truth about “Bestsellers”

A big part of my job as an editor and a book publishing educator is to explain how book marketing works. There’s one point that really gets me fired up. That’s the question of what the term “bestseller” means. Stick with me—I’m about to get controversial. There is a...

Key Insider Tips about Traditional Publishing

Most of the aspiring authors I talk to want very much to be published by a traditional publisher right now. You may understand the feeling. (I certainly do!) And, there’s often a lot these hardworking, big-dreaming authors don’t yet know about how the biz works. Today...

[VIDEO] How to Overcome “Death by Editing”

“A complete first draft.” The phrase itself brings a burst of warmth to the aspiring author’s heart. A first draft is your ticket to the whole game. Without a first draft you can’t have a second draft, and without a second draft you can’t have a final draft, and...

Do I Need a Ghostwriter or a Book Doctor?

By now, I suspect you know that I suggest for everyone who is writing a book to get professional help. Editing help, that is. But I am writing this article for those of you who know--or at least suspect--that you need a lot of that help. Maybe you’re incredibly busy...

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