In the fall of 2018, I reluctantly became president of a small writer’s group that is a nonprofit and incorporated. The group has been around for over thirty years. My term was up in the spring of 2020. Regardless of COVID, I was not finding a replacement. Today I am still president looking for a[…]
Category: writing business
Newsletters and Writing
Newsletters are all the rage now. It used to be blogging and they are still around (I like reading blogs). Podcasts are also big, which are very much like old radio shows prior to TV. Except podcasts require equipment, technology know-how, and an extrovert personality. All of these are designed to connect the author with[…]
Size of the Book (Again)
I read recently a blog about book sizes. The blog author, and people commenting, generally agreed that a book size of 6X9 is considered amateurish whether self-published or by a press. My book is 6X9. I went back over my notes and realized I ended up with 6X9 because KDP pushed me toward that size[…]
What Size Should the Book Be?
After I formatted the inside of my book (see the blog post), I tried out different book sizes. I did this while still using MS Word. A small book of 4X6 or 5X8 created a thick book that I thought would be difficult to handle. It also could be intimidating to read by some people[…]
My Self-Publishing Progress – The Book Cover Part 2
In my last post, I said, “There are many blogs about writers trying to self-publish. Unfortunately, this is another one.” So, I continue. Part 1 was my issues with getting a book cover. After searching and failing to find a designer, I paid and subscribed to Adobe. I downloaded the KDP book cover template as[…]
The Future is Coming
COVID-19 is changing priorities and deadlines for many grant applications. While there is money for the coronavirus, most of it will not help most nonprofits. Like small businesses sinking into bankruptcy, nonprofits are headed that way, too. Unless they manage their future. One of the reasons grant deadlines have been delayed and priorities altered is[…]
My Progress in Self-Publishing – The Book Cover
There are many blogs about writers trying to self-publish. Unfortunately, this is another one. And, this is the worst kind of blog post — one where the self-publishing effort is in-progress. I’ll start with after my book has been edited to the point where I felt it could be read without too much wincing by[…]
Staying Motivated to Write
This blog post is about staying motivated to write. Yes, there are a jillion zillion such posts from bloggers much better than me to write about it. There are also bloggers who do not know how to write about it, but did anyway. That makes it no reason for me to write about writing motivation,[…]
From Fear to Publication
This blog entry is not a motivational speech. It is a layer of my opinions and wanderings of random thoughts about one aspect of publishing a book — the ego and the fear. I believe there are many well written books that could be classics and loved by many. However, the writer’s only copy is[…]
Join a Writers’ Group
Writers’ groups are opportunities to encourage and inspire writers along with providing a means to network. As president of a writers’ group, we provide benefits to motivate people to join. We have luncheons with guest speakers, on occasion writing events, and a discount on our writing contest. Member dues help pay for these things. Our[…]
Writers’ Rights
I am not an expert on writers’ rights. These are only my thoughts on the subject. Lately, I have listened to podcasts and read articles about writers’ rights. Whenever a writer completes a story, an essay, poem, or other form of writing, at that moment the author holds all the rights to what they created.[…]
Why Don’t Agents Respond to a Querying Author?
After critique groups and a professional editor, I finished editing my young adult, science fiction novel and decided to query agents before I attempted self-publishing. Of the eighty agents I queried so far, forty percent did not respond. (Twelve percent of the rejections did not come from the agent, which is a topic for another[…]