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 »

So you’re zipping along – doing your thing – and below the radar one, or more, of your traditionally published books goes silently out of print. Often, you’re not told this by the publisher – you just stumble upon the fact when a teacher or school reports that they can’t get books. When a book goes out of print. it always hurts – it’s a death in the family. You’ve spent a significant portion of your life living with it, … Read More »

If you want to be traditionally published, there are two pathways—the query and the pitch. Queries are free and you can send a lot of them. Pitches are more difficult and usually cost money. More about pitches in my next blog. The Easy Part Queries are formulaic. You can find lots of templates online, but they all include the same basic elements—your genre and wordcount, something about your plot and characters, a bit about yourself, your book’s place in the … Read More »