Reviews

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For authors unfamiliar with show business, few words will evoke the sheer magic of ‘They’ve optioned my book!’ That means someone has paid an author a certain amount of money to allow least the possibility (the ‘option’) of making that story into a movie, television drama, series, webcast, etc. Hold on there, pilgrim. You’re not…

Read More Option daydreams and nightmares
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The Snarkology blog’s next guest, Maureen McGowan, had a circuitous route to publishing that includes stalled agents, defunct publishers, and an unexpected genre change. I won’t summarize further – you’ve just got to read it. Maureen has a great quote that I feel is super-worthy of being addressed separately. She writes: “My first manuscript wasn’t…

Read More Paths to Publishing – Maureen McGowan
by 6 comments on "Paths to Publishing – Kayelle Allen"

Today the Snarkology blog features Kayelle Allen, a powerhouse of a M/M romance author, talking candidly about her own path to publication. She started publishing in her fifties, but she backed up her solid writing with previous decades of worldbuilding-as-a-hobby in a vast science-fiction and fantasy setting. Her website proves it, by the way. (No,…

Read More Paths to Publishing – Kayelle Allen
by 2 comments on "Paths to Publishing – Helena Fairfax"

Over on the Snarkology Blog today, Helena Fairfax talks candidly about her journey as a published author: her first wistful dreams about escaping office work to write, her early contest win, the dreaded ‘it’s good but not right for us’ publisher letter, and her return to writing in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy and…

Read More Paths to Publishing – Helena Fairfax
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There’s an old saying: I wouldn’t join any club that would have me. I’m considering all sides of that argument, right now, for reasons I’ll clarify in this post. A very kind and enthusiastic reviewer just nominated my M/M erotic romance space opera Moro’s Price for the 17th Annual Preditors & Editors ™ Readers’ Poll.…

Read More Moro’s Price up for an award!
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It’s December 30 again. That means a quick look at the past year in my Blue Night blog: why I have it, why it’s useful to me, what I hope it adds more than it takes away from the internet. Fifteen years ago when I first flirted with the idea of a blog, I was…

Read More 2014 blogging in review
Aside

I’ve learned that I can maybe tell something by the type of Amazon bio a self-published writer offers. If it’s short and strong, the prose is likely to be solid and interesting. If it’s one unbroken meandering paragraph with a lot of unnecessary details – look out, the book will probably be the same way.

 

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*Unless it’s great writing, first and foremost. I am not downplaying the importance of therapeutic writing. It’s a valuable tool whether self-directed or used in a more formal recovery program. I’ve used it, myself. But I’m not being paid to read what other people write, and then evaluate it in terms of their recovery from…

Read More Why I won’t read therapy writing*
by 3 comments on "Ellora’s Cave and Elephants in the Room"

(Scroll down for new info.) Or why it is not enough to research publishers once, at the start of your writing career. Diligent authors need to keep tabs on the industry at large, especially on already-established publishers. Because you never know when one is going to melt down… Anyone who has been involved in romance…

Read More Ellora’s Cave and Elephants in the Room