Guest blog by Terry's Client Linda Apple

We writers are supposed to avoid cliché's but nothing says it better than this one: TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE.

All writers need friends with the same mental illness. Someone who understands the way we think and process. And it is even better when one writer friend is  further down the road to success. Someone who has survived the writerly condition and can take us by the hand and lead us through the dark times. Velda Brotherton  is that to me. She is multi-published in most genre's  and I'm so thankful God gave me this precious friend. 

When I get stuck I go to my trusted writing friends and we brainstorm. Last week Jan Morrill and I drove to Oklahoma City for an OWFI board meeting. I told her about some problems with my novel rewrites. She started the "what if" game (where she'd suggest a "twist" in a scene). It is like a dam of ideas broke and flooded my mind. Jan brought a freshness that my stagnant brain couldn't stir.

There is value in getting a few, and I mean a few, writing friends together for an evening of brainstorming. Simply taking turns with projects and helping each other tear down the one dimensional, predictable, parts of our stories creates a new excitement about our projects.

Friends J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Hugo Dyson found value meeting in the Eagle and Child pub every Thursday. I think they are an excellent example of the results when creative minds spark in a group.

Are you stuck, stagnate, discouraged? Call three writerly friends and invite them over. Fix a few snacks and get to work! You'll be glad you did!  

A Press Kit? Guest blog by Terry's client James R Callan

Why would I need a Press Kit?  I have trouble getting my family to ask about my book.

First, that’s the wrong attitude.  You must expect there will be interest in your work.  Suppose the fifteen-year-old on the American Olympic swim team got on the block thinking, “I’m not going to win.  Why try?” She would lose. She would be indulging in a self-fulfilling prophesy.  She didn’t, and she won gold.

You need a Press Kit because you expect people to want to know about your work, and you expect some to write about your work.  Why not make it easy for them?  At the same time, why not put the pictures and words you like in front of them?  Many will take your press release as is. It saves them time and effort. It also encourages them to come back for more when you have another book to publicize.  True, these may not be from The New York Times or even Publishers Weekly. But a good mention on somebody’s website might precipitate a little buzz, generate some sales.  It never hurts to make it easier.
So, what goes into the Press Kit?  The basic elements are:

• Pictures of you
• Pictures of the covers of your book(s)
• A sell sheet (or One Sheet) for your latest book
• Author biography
• An actual Press Release (recent book release, award won, presentation, book signing, etc.)
• A list of all your currently available books
• A list of links to places you’d like them to visit.

Pictures of the author.  You should have at least two: one in high resolution and one in “Internet” resolution.  In other words, one that is perhaps two megabytes in size and one that is 100 K or less.  You want a good quality one in case someone is going to print the picture in a program or brochure.  On the other hand, a large file is slow to load on the Internet, the ensuing picture is generally small and the Internet picture isn’t going to be displayed in high resolution anyway.

I imported this 2 megabyte file (Cleansed by Fire cover)into this blog, and it was automatically cut down to  about 21 kilobytes.  I put the pictures (same picture but two different sizes) in the two sizes into Word where the sizes were maintained.  I could not tell the difference — on my monitor.

You also might want to put in two different views of you, the author. One can be a formal pose and one can be a casual pose. Present each in high resolution and in low resolution.

Covers.  The same can be said about the covers of your books. Include a high res file and a standard res file.

Sell Sheet — You probably already have one.  Include a copy in the Press Kit.  I recommend a PDF file which ensures that it looks the same after it’s downloaded.  What goes in one?  A picture of the cover of the book.  A brief description of the book – similar to the blurb on the back cover.  A small picture and a brief bio of the author.  And – this is important – where the book can be purchased, and where additional information is available.

Author Bio.  There’s one on the sell sheet, so why do you need a separate bio?  Actually, you need TWO separate bios, one short and one longer.  If the person wants a bio and doesn’t see “Bio” or “Biography”, don’t expect her to go through all your files looking for it. She’ll just do without.  Remember what I said earlier: make it easier; save them time.

Why two versions? If you only have a short one, they can’t write much about you.  Suppose you only have a long one and they want a short one.  Would you rather decide what gets cut out or let them decide what to cut?  And put your picture on each one.  “But, I have picture files.”  Make it easier.

Press Release.  Again, make it easy for them. If there’s a ready made press release, particularly one well done, they might just grab it and publish it. Give them that opportunity. Tell about your latest release (if not too old), or an award you won recently, or a book signing.  Perhaps you gave a workshop at a conference, or made a presentation to the Rotary Club.  Anything thing that is “news” and concerns you and your writing. If you haven’t done anything recently, then do something now.

List of Books.  Letting them know what else you’ve written can only be good.  Who knows where it will lead?

Links.  Guide them to additional information.  That should include your website, blog, especially good reviews, awards you’ve won, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  They might not follow any of the links.  But they might.  We’re back to that “Make it easier” bit.  They may browse some of these sites and use nothing from them.  Is that a waste?  Not for you.  The more they know about you, the better position you are in.
At one of the Northeast Texas Writers Organization (NETWO) conferences recently, an agent and an editor stayed up well past midnight playing board games with several conference attendees.  I don’t know whether any of those game players signed with the editor or agent.  But I’m betting the agent and editor know their names, and will respond to a query at some later date.

The more they know about you, the more likely they are to remember you in the future.  It’s why you give people one of your cards.  It’s why WalMart pays to print its name on the throw-away plastic bags.

More information on the author is available at:

www.jamesrcallan.com

www.murderacappella.com     A Sweet Adelines mystery.  
Book Trailer at:  http://www.vimeo.com/38414180

www.cleansedbyfire.com        A Father Frank mystery.  
Book Trailer at:  http://www.cleansedbyfire.com
 

Guest post by Terry's client Donn Taylor - profanity in writing

Every writer must decide whether he needs to use words that are euphemistically described as "strong language"—"cusswords" and gutter language. These "four-letter words" so dominate fictional and video conversations today that these words often are the dialogue.

I guess I've heard them all. And I've put a good bit of thought into their place, if any, in my writing. So I've come to reject the most common justifications of using these words in fiction, drama, and film.

The usual justification is a claim of "realism." First, it’s claimed that because people actually talk that way, realistic fiction must accurately report their words. Second, it’s claimed that four-letter words bring us closer to “real life” than other words.

Neither claim can withstand examination.

The first confuses "realism" with literalism. Fiction is not real life: it’s an artifice creating the illusion of real life. So if the writer must report people's words literally, what excuses him from including all other elements of life? Must every fictional day begin with the hero shaving or the heroine applying eye shadow?

Thus, if "realism" does not justify literal inclusion of other elements in fiction, it does not justify literal inclusion of specific words.

Nor can the claim that four-letter words are closer to "reality" withstand questioning. Many uses of those words are, to put it mildly, figurative. Perhaps is once was amusing to attribute bisexual reproductive capability to inanimate objects. But if so, the idea is now so clichéd that it's no longer humorous.

And on representing reality, let's consider the so-called "f-word." The early English (probably Anglo-Saxon) from which it descends was a savage language appropriate to those savage times. Then, perhaps, the word may have accurately described physical relationships between men and women. But many cultural changes have altered that reality.

One change was the twelfth-century invention of romantic (courtly) love, popularized by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Chrétien de Troyes. And in the 1590s, Edmund Spenser synthesized various love traditions into an ideal combining the romance of courtly love with the intellectuality of Platonic love and a dash of physicality from Ovid—all justified by marriage, one of the seven sacraments of the church. Spenser's synthesis held general acceptance until about 1900, when it was eroded by naturalistic philosophy and Freudian psychology.

The point for "realistic" fiction is this: if the "f-word" today accurately describes the physical relationship between a man and woman, it does so only because the couple is immune to the cultural experience the past millennium.

So if customary justifications cannot withstand examination, the real reasons for using "strong language" must lie elsewhere. Conflict is basic to all good fiction. “Strong language” helps lazy writers gain the appearance of conflict without the hard work of creating genuine conflict, which is always generated by a story’s narrative structure. In other words, "strong language" substitutes for genuine creativity.

Profligate use of such language will always be chic, of course. But as screenwriter Morrie Ryskind put it, "The chic are always wrong."



© 2000, 2008, 2012, Donn Taylor

Donn Taylor led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he completed a PhD degree at The University of Texas and taught English literature (especially Renaissance) at two liberal arts colleges. His novels The Lazarus File andRhapsody in Red have received excellent reviews, and he has also authored Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. He is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences such as Glorieta and Blue Ridge. He and his wife live near Houston, Texas, where he continues to write fiction, poetry, and articles on current topics.

Guest Blog from Joyce Hart’s client, Ace Collins

One Person’s Idea Only Has Value Through Teamwork

As I contemplate the multitude of directions my words have taken me over my career, I have a bit of envy for those who stick to a single genre and solitary focus for their novels. There is a thread of continuality and stability in their work that I can’t claim. In the past year I have written a book, Reich of Passage, that combines action, adventure, political intrigue with a touch of medical science fiction, a novel, Darkness Before Dawn, that examines the rage of a woman whose husband is killed by a drunk driver, The Cutting Edge, a tale of model who is unknowingly being stalked by a man who slashed her face and ruined her life, a whodunit, The Yellow Packard, that has a car driving a plot of murder and kidnapping set in the Great Depression and, The Christmas Star, a book involving a sixteen-year-old boy dealing with the death of his Medal of Honor winning father in 1945. In a very real sense, each of these novels is vastly different from the others. These books are looking at life from completely different point of views, have vastly different settings and employ themes ranging from saving the world to seeking justice to simply finding a reason to live. And, as I study my next likely projects, this eclectic mix of subjects, settings, periods and themes continues. I’m even throwing in a devotional book into the mix. So, why am I all over the place when so many others stay on the same page? The answer is obvious.

I learned a long ago that I am wired much differently than most people. I seem to have an interest in everything. I want to know the story behind each person I meet. I can’t watch a classic movie without checking on the history of the actors, why the script was written and the locations used in filming. I do the same thing with sports, books and even the Bible. I have to know the backstories. That is really how Reich of Passage was born. I dug into the history of an actress after watching one of her films. After reading three biographies and seeing all her movies, I began to wonder, could someone like this deal with life in a modern world. How would she fit in if she had a “Rip Van Winkle” experience that transported her from 1937 to today? That idea grew in my mind to becoming a challenge for a book. To create the plot I had to find a way to take someone who had died at the age of twenty-six and bring them back to life in today’s world. That led me to exploring everything to do with her era including language and fashion. Then, as just having her come to life was not enough to create an interesting story, I had to dig into the past to find a plot that would give her life meaning in the future. What resulted is likely one of the best things I’ve ever written and maybe the most fun I’ve ever had at a keyboard. But is a finished book that is never published really a book? In my mind it isn’t and that is where the solitary nature of a writer is left behind and as give my work to someone else.

Considering all the different genres I like to use and all the different ideas that are constantly floating in my head leads me to the reveal the most important element in advancing my career.  I have an agent who encourages me to go in whatever direction I am going at that moment. She doesn’t limit me or force me to confirm to a specific mold. She lets me be me. And when I am finished with my work, I have to have faith in her ability to sell what I have created. Thus, I must trust her enough to let her be her.

Writing might well be a solitary experience in its beginning stages but it is a team sport. Successful writers have to have an agent who believes in their ability to tell a story. That agent has to accept us for all our quirks. Then that agent has to find a publisher or publishers who recognize the potential of our work and that agent has to convince those publishers our books have value. Then come the editors who show us the holes in our manuscripts, put us back to work fixing our books and link us to some incredible folks who do everything from design covers to securing sellers who’ll caring our product. When you consider all the people it takes to produce the book it is overwhelming. Yet it is that team that brings one idea to life.  It is that team, beginning with the agent and ending with the readers, that allows my unique way of looking at the world actually go from curiosity to concept to book.  This past week at ICRS, I was able to meet some members of one of those teams and it was an exciting and humbling experience. I am still amazed that have faith in an eclectic person like me.

Guest blog by Joyce's client Carrie Fancett Pagels

Tips for Bloggers, Part 1 Blogger’s Perspective

*Send everything the blogger needs to do a professional post: headshot, JPEGs of all the covers for recent books, links to purchase from main sources (CBD, Amazon, Barnes and Noble), links to your websites. Don’t tell them “I have a media kit, go to my website.” While it is a great idea to have a media kit, if you fail to keep your own website updated (as I recently had happen with an author) the blogger won’t be able to access everything they need.

**Promote and link to the blog where your book or you are being featured. This is assuming the blogger made sure to link to your website, also. Put it up on Twitter and Facebook for example. Again, we are expecting the blogger to have also promoted the post.

***Show up and engage with the readers who leave comments. This is your golden opportunity to meet future readers (and purchasers!) of your books. If they actually show up to comment on your book or your interview--take the time to comment back. Readers LOVE hearing back from authors. Again, this is assuming the blog has people who leave comments. Check in periodically throughout the day to reply individually (some people cluster these replies together and put the commenters name in CAPS so they can easily find the author’s response to them.) People do check. You’d be surprised. And if you replied only to comments from your friends—they remember that, too. And it isn’t nice.

****Speaking of niceness—it counts! Jeane Wynn shared at the ACFW conference, two years ago, that if she could do anything for her clients it would be to have them be nice. A thoughtful personal reply is far better than saying something that is only about yourself or your book. I have to say I rarely see snark on my blogs. Think of yourself as visiting at someone’s house and they are having a party thrown in your honor. You wouldn’t spend the entire time talking about your book or yourself. But if you were asked something, you’d try to reply.


Tips for Bloggers, Part 2 Author’s Perspective

*Bloggers should be aware that many CBA publishers have blog tours which bloggers can sign up for--if they meet that house's criteria. That way the blogger receives free books and is then scheduled for blog tours they want to be a part of and can provide their honest opinion of a book. Revell's website has a form to fill out for sign-up.

**Bloggers need to understand that authors are often inundated with requests for interviews and giveaways, especially before a new book is released. It's very hard for authors to honor all these requests though we'd like to.

***Bloggers also need to understand that the author receives very few "free" books themselves and usually have to purchase a book to give to that blogger for the giveaway. Sometimes bloggers ask for 2 books, one for themselves and one for the giveaway. Yes, authors usually get a discount on their own titles but by the time we buy the book, pay for shipping, then ship it to the giveaway winner, it becomes more costly than the price of the original book.

****Bloggers often want authors to guest on their blog even if they have zero or no following. It takes time and work to create and maintain an active blog. Bloggers need to put in the time to make a go of a blog before asking authors to become involved. This may sound harsh but lots of bloggers begin and then don't stay the course. Or they receive a book from an author and don't follow through on their promise to post reviews, etc. I've even had bloggers receive the book and then "disappear," never to be heard from again. If we take time to answer your interview questions and possibly provide a book at our expense, please be gracious enough to be there in the end. SO—there you have it—two perspective on blogging. Did you read something that surprised you? Was this information helpful? God bless all the bloggers and authors out there who are trying to promote and write great Christian fiction!

Part 1 by Carrie Fancett Pagels (www.carriefancettpagels.com, http://colonialquills.blogspot.com), Carrie hosts two group blogs and writes Christian historical romance. Represented by Joyce Hart Part 2 by Carrie’s friend, a multi-published author who blogs and also contributes to a large group blog.

When Not to Blog by guest blogger Katherine B. Hyde

I know, I know, the conventional wisdom is that Every Author Must Blog. You have to get your name out there, connect with your readers, etc., and blogging is one of the best ways to do that.
I don’t disagree with that, as far as it goes. But I have seen a lot of authors sabotage themselves by approaching blogging in the wrong way. In their rush to obey the Prime Directive (Every Author Must Blog), they neglect to follow the One Essential Rule of Blogging:

Don't be boring.

After all, what are we blogging for? People use fancy phrases like “establishing a presence” and “connecting with our readers,” but the bottom line really is this: We blog to build up our reader base and hang onto the readers we already have. If a potential reader comes to your blog and feels the yawn reflex start to kick in, is he or she likely to run to the nearest bookstore, lean breathlessly over the counter, and demand a copy of your latest book?

How shall I put this nicely? No.

There are as many ways to be boring as there are people on the planet, but in the blogosphere most of them come down to ignoring the Two Crucial Caveats:

1. Don't blog if you don’t have anything interesting to say.
2. Don’t blog if the quality of your blog writing does not come up to the standard of your published books.

Naturally, these Two Crucial Caveats have several Highly Important Corollaries each. (Is this starting to look like an outline? Hey, outlines are cool!)

The Seven Highly Important Corollaries of Crucial Caveat No. 1, Don’t blog if you don’t have anything interesting to say:

1. Don’t fill up your blog with nothing but news and reviews about your books. It’s fine to announce release dates and other important milestones, and by all means have your covers clearly and permanently visible on the page. But if all you ever talk about is your books, readers will get tired of listening to you blow your own horn and will find some other blog to read.
2. Don't get too personal. Do you have an irresistible urge to brag about your kids, complain about the weather, or post cute videos of your pets? Do it on your personal Facebook page, not on your blog (and not on your Facebook author page either). Your Facebook friends may conceivably care. Your blog readers, unless they’re also close personal friends, will not.
Exception: It’s fine to relate an incident from your personal life if you’re using it to make some larger point that is of interest to your readers. This can help readers feel like they know you, which is good. Just be careful what you say about your family members—it could come back to haunt you.
3. As an extension of Corollaries 1 & 2, don’t only talk about yourself and your books. If your blog is all about you, readers will not come back. They want to see something that is about them—something useful, informative, inspiring, entertaining, uplifting, or otherwise valuable.
4. Don’t give good reviews to bad books because they’re written by your friends. Yes, we all love being part of a writing community and we want to help each other out by promoting each other’s books. That’s great. But if you publish a dishonest review, you are betraying your readers, and they will not thank you for it. They may read the book and think, “If Blog Writer liked this trash, his/her own writing can’t be much good.”
5. Don’t vent or rant about something that bugs you without giving it a lot of sober thought. Consider: Is the situation you’re tempted to rant about an instance of true injustice, evil, or serious not-nice-ness, or is it merely something that offended you personally? Can you write about it with some objectivity, or will you come across as whiny, self-pitying, abrasive, or just plain nuts? An outside eye is helpful here—run the piece by a spouse or close friend before posting. And take their advice.
6. Don’t display a negative attitude about writing, publishing, critics, readers, agents, editors, or life in general. (Complaining about technology is okay, in moderation; you don’t want people to think you’re from a different universe.) You can talk about difficulties and struggles as long as you pull something positive out of it. Just don’t wallow in the mire.
7. Don’t preach. Want to communicate the lessons you’ve learned along your life/writing path? Fine—but be sure you make it clear that you yourself have made the mistakes you’re warning against and learned from them. If possible, speak in “we,” not “you.” In the interests of full disclosure, I have probably made every mistake in this post at least once.

Crucial Caveat No. 2 has only two Highly Important Corollaries—aren’t you relieved?

1. If you are a poet or fiction writer who can express yourself brilliantly in that medium, but can’t write a coherent sentence of nonfiction, don’t blog. If readers come to your blog and see prose that is awkward, incoherent, or dull, they will not assume you’re just out of your element and your fiction or poetry is actually brilliant. They will assume you cannot, in fact, write.
Blog posts deserve just as much careful attention to style and structure as you would put into any piece of writing intended for print publication. This may not be equally true for all bloggers, but it is definitely true for authors who blog.
2. If your command of the mechanics of English is shaky—if you rely on your publisher’s copyeditor to fix your grammar, spelling, usage, and punctuation—don’t blog unattended. Hire a copyeditor to go over each post before you publish it. You owe it to your readers, and you owe it to yourself. Really.

What mistakes have you learned from in your blogging career? What positive advice can you share?

Katherine Bolger Hyde is an editor and author. She blogs at The Wayfaring Writer, and tweets daily #grammartips as KatherineBHyde.

Michael Hyatt has a post addressing blogging that also cautions authors on the dos and dont's of blogging. Click on Michael's name and check it out as well.

And another great site is Blogging Bistro by Laura Christianson and yesterday her post was on blogging do's and dont's as well.
Happy Blogging! Happy Spring!

Guest blog from Terry's client Roger Bruner

If I Had it to Do All Over Again

Now that Found in Translation has come out and Lost in Dreams is set to release [from Barbour] in July or August, this year is fast becoming one of the most exciting times in my life. I never expected my 65^th year to be so special, and only God knows how much better it can get.

So why think about “if I had it to do all over again” while I’m on such a wonderful high? To borrow one of the sayings President John F. Kennedy was famous for, let me say this about that.

I’ve been a writer all of my life: poetry, songs, dramatic monologs, short plays, articles, user documentation, and technical articles. When I unexpectedly ended up in an hourly, part-time job after three full-time, years-long, professional careers, I decided to take advantage of the extra free time and pursue my post-retirement dream—writing and publishing a novel—a few years earlier than I’d originally anticipated.

The story I had in mind seemed good; romantic, amusing, and full of conflict, it ended with an impromptu parade to celebrate the engagement of two protagonists who’d had the hardest time admitting they loved one another. Basing my characters (very loosely!) on my wife and me was good fun.

The only writing books I owned at the time I wrote I Started a Joke were a dictionary and The Elements of Style, left over from my college English days. Although I loved reading, I’d failed to notice how drastically novels had changed since college. No longer were the wordy James Micheners of the world—I probably have one of the most complete libraries of Michener books in existence—in the forefront of fiction.

But I knew that getting a book published by a royalty publisher could take a lifetime—or at least a number of decades—and I was impatient to get my work out there for the world to see and enjoy. I rationalized that I was too old for that kind of wait. So I self-published with a reputable, online Print on Demand (POD) outfit. Like Frank Sinatra, I was proud to have done it my way—and thrilled with the finished product. I Started a Joke listed on Amazon and several other online bookseller sites, and I thought I had it made.

Wrong.

Although several local bookstores carried copies on consignment—I don’t think my books were responsible for those places going out of business—and invited me to do signings, few of my books sold. And I was too interested in writing the next novel to “waste” time on marketing.

I started going to Christian writers conferences. Learned some things I hadn’t known. Hmm. Bought some writing books—a lot of ‘em, judging by the size of the bookcase beside the computer hutch. Oh? I should do a, b, and c and avoid doing x, y, and z. Gee! Showed sample pages to published authors. Ugh! Everything I’d done in that POD-published book was wrong. No wonder it wasn’t selling.

I probably wouldn’t have bought it, either. Not at the publisher-assigned price, which I understand is a typical problem with Print on Demand.

I eventually concluded I didn’t want that book out there representing me as a novelist. It was an embarrassment. I could do SO much better once I learned how. So I made I Started a Joke unavailable and pretended some other Roger Bruner had written it. I tell the few people who have copies—I gave away most of the 130 or so in existence for promotional purposes—that those books ought to be worth at least a quarter at yard sales if I ever “make it big.” Or perhaps donate them to writing instructors to use as examples of how not to write a novel.

Then I did what I should have done first; I settled down to learn more about the craft of writing fiction. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I learned all about not starting with backstory. Hooking the reader in the first sentence. Deleting unnecessary words. Using beats instead of attributions. Making dialog simulate rather than duplicate real speech. Showing and not telling. More things than I could ever try to, uh, show you here.

But how did it all fit together? Especially when writing authorities couldn’t agree on the rules, effectively converting them into strong suggestions and even stronger opinions. I admired the writing book authors who admitted they were just talking about what worked for them.

The most important lesson I’ve learned over the last five or six years? Learning to write well is a lifelong process. I’ll never stop learning or wanting to write better. I’ll never be satisfied. But I can and should make every new book better than its predecessor. If not, I’m cheating—myself, my readers, God. I especially recommend not cheating Him; He gave me whatever talent I have.

After writing a second novel and not even thinking about self-publishing, I wrote a third, Found in Translation. The short story version had already placed tenth in a competition, and in 2006 the novel version won the first place novel competition at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. An editor from a company that didn’t publish novels loved it; he really hoped his company would start publishing novels. Surely an offer would soon come from somewhere.

Wrong again.

At a subsequent conference, I showed the first page to writing expert James Scott Bell. “You didn’t start with a scene.” I hadn’t learned as much as I’d thought. But after I cut the first fifty pages and wrote a new beginning, another acquisitions editor who couldn’t use Found in Translation fell in love with my writing and helped me get Terry Burns as an agent. A year later, I had contracts for two novels with the possibility of more. (Good work, Terry, and thanks!)

So what is this “if I had it to do it all over again”? Just a few musings I’m offering at far beneath retail price. But be wary. YMMV. Your mileage may vary.

Self publishing is fine if you have a platform for selling. Don’t go in debt to do it, though. Be ready to market every one of your published books—even if you don’t want to. Don’t be in too much of a rush to have your manuscript published; you can always improve something you think you’ve finished. Develop a thick skin as you ask the experts for help. But remember they won’t always agree, and story trumps all of the rules. And sometimes you just have to go with your own instincts.

But don’t let being yourself—developing your own voice—serve as an excuse to write less than your best. Always strive to do better next time.

I’ll race you to the bookstore! First one there buys.