Say it Ain’t So by Dennis Doty

I see a lot of questionable or false information offered in various writing groups. So, the purpose of this post is to dispel some of the myths and offer advice which will advance your career as a writer. An extremely popular myth is that you MUST have an agent to get a contract with a…

Traditional Publishing & Hiring an Editor

This question gets asked a lot in writing groups— I plan on going traditional. Do I really need to hire an editor? This is a grey area. There is no "yes or no" response to it. So here are somethings to consider: Traditional publishing is a numbers game. An average agent/publisher (A/Ps) receive over a…

Finding Agents and Publishers

While I'm mainly indie/self published oriented, I do have pieces that are traditionally published, and I work with dozens of publishers as their typesetter/interior formatter. Are you sure you're ready for querying agents and publishers? bit.ly/WwDOrders. Step 1—Materials Before you begin to query agents/publishers (A/Ps) you need to have somethings written and edited. Query Letter/Cover…

Vanity Publishers: A Quick Guide to Identify

Vanity publishers prey on the impatient, the lost, and the overwhelmed. They look for writers who don’t know what is standard, they use flowery words and “important" phrases to capture the “I can’t wait,” and they promise to do all the heavy lifting. It looks good. It looks promising. Until you peel back the plastic and discover…

PitMad

Pitmad is a Twitter event that writers with completed and polished, ready to read manuscripts participate in to find agents, and publishers who are actively looking for books. It is open to all genres every quarter, and there are some genre specific ones throughout the year. PitMad lays all the rules and regulations out on…

What Is Self-Editing

Self-editing gets thrown around, but what exactly is self-editing? We recognize it and define it in our own way. It seems logical, but for many, they don’t know where to begin or what it all entails. Each read through when we self-edit should focus on specific aspects. Structure Structure involves plot pacing and believability Readability…

Professional Communications

Do you remember how school taught you how to write letters? Addresses on one side, familiarity greetings, and signing it with personal endearments such as “I can’t wait to write to you again.” If not, you probably didn’t do the pen pal project. Contacting freelancers and writing to submission editors for magazines, agents, and publishing…

Indie? Indie Press? Are They the Same Thing?

For the novice, indie and indie press/publishing company can sound like the same thing. It's easy enough to confuse two things that share part of the same name. But they aren't the same thing. This quick post is to tell you the short facts about the two. Indie Indie is used by many in the…

Indie Publishing Companies? Improper Terminology

Indie Publishing Companies are not a thing. Before you argue, if you are indie/self-published, you are the company. I think many don't know how the proper terms, and it tends to self-perpetuate a misunderstanding. A publisher is a company that handles all the steps (traditional) or some of the steps (hybrid). If you're indie, you're…

Short Stories & How to use Them for Marketing

Short stories can serve multiple purposes, and not just those interested in getting into magazines and anthologies. This post is going to walk you through the various things you can accomplish with short stories aside from just publishing them on Amazon. What is a short story? A short story is under 7500 words and can…