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 »

ISBNs and barcodes aren’t exactly the most exciting parts of creating a book. Yet, they are very important pieces. An ISBN, short for international standard book number, is a thirteen digit numerical code that identifies an exact book and the format it is in. If you’d like to know what all the numbers in an ISBN represent, you can click here to visit the International ISBN Agency. Two university students invented the barcode in 1948 and based it off Morse … Read More »

The hard work we writers go through to polish that memoir, novel, short story, poem or essay is real work. It’s hard, stressful, makes us anxious, doubtful and happy – all at the same time. Those who do not write don’t appreciate the labor we struggle with but when the finished product is in their hand and the story comes alive, we become one because in the end – the words make the difference. The promise of celebrity that writers … Read More »

Illustration brings your story to life in a way that words alone can’t. There is a multitude of talented illustrators out there. You just need to know where to look. Besides knowing exactly where to find these amazing people, there are other considerations you need to take into account before diving in. It’s essential to find an art style that compliments your specific story and combing through portfolios takes time. First, you must ask yourself a very important question… Do You Need … Read More »

Rejection letters are commonplace in the world of literature. If you’ve written anything and submitted, I’m sure you have one, or two – or like me – more than you’d care to admit. Personally, I like to call rejection letters toilet paper, it’s just a little more fitting of a title, isn’t it? But I digress. When you began your trek into the world of the literary arts, you probably were sure of one thing, you’d write a masterpiece, you’d … Read More »