Book covers are a tricky business. All of the wonderfulness of your story needs to be reflected in an attention-grabbing cover that will make readers want to choose your book. Now that your story has been written, lets explore some cover thoughts and ideas. Genre It’s important to convey the genre of your book to give potential readers an idea of what your book is about. Established design styles will serve as a guide, but here are a few examples: … Read More »

The time has finally come to write the dedication page to the story you’ve sweat blood and tears over. Should be easy enough, right? Sometimes it seems that these little blurbs are harder to write than the book itself. Let’s toss around some ideas to help you get this important part of your book written. Who? Who should you dedicate your book to? Well, there are many answers, and they can be a lot of creative fun. You can dedicate … Read More »

You’ve written a book. You had an idea, you brought it to life, and you got it done. But where do you go from here? If you think you want to pursue publication, the first step is to educate yourself about the many paths that can get you there. Self Publishing Years ago, self publishing meant going to a print shop. In today’s digital world, self-publishing is much more efficient, and the most popular go-to resources are KDP and Ingram … Read More »

I had the pleasure of meeting agent Andy Ross at the North Colorado Writer’s Conference in the spring of 2022. He instantly became the celebrity among all who attended. His anecdotes, his part in the lunch panel, and his one-on-ones with conference goers highlighted his accessibility and his open candor on any subject in the literary world. So I had to corner him for an interview. Rod Martinez: I understand you owned Cody’s books in Berkeley. There is a lot … Read More »

With the proliferation of small presses, more and more chapbooks are coming onto the scene. And if you’ve been wondering how to create a chapbook of your own, I’m here to help. What is a chapbook? But before we dive into how, let’s define what a chapbook is. A chapbook is a small collection, anywhere between 15 and 50 poems, or 3 to 10 short pieces of fiction. It’s usually soft covered and can be stapled (if it’s very short), … Read More »

Go Ye Forth and Categorize In Genesis, humankind was given the right to name and categorize living things. God formed every beast…and brought them to the man…and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. (Genesis, 2:19-20) With all the “beasts” named and put in their proper place, humans could make better sense of their surroundings. Fast … Read More »