Category: How To and Tips
Creating an Audible Book
A few years ago, I created an Audible book for my debut novel, Walking with Elephants. I had a few reasons to embark on that project as an author/narrator. Foremost, I thought it would be fun, and secondly it was a legacy for my grandchildren after I’ve passed—to be able to hear my voice. I undertook […]
The Longest Legs in Literature? Thirty Years to a Debut Novel
by Linda Hurcombe I cannot claim with candour that writing was my one and only childhood aspiration, and a school incident when I was six might well have discouraged a less persistent child. Miss Petrie, my first grade teacher, asked us to write a poem about our favourite animal; mine is a sharply etched memory: […]
Male Versus Female Thriller Writers
For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved in marketing my debut novel and writing a couple of others. For no particular reason, during that time I’ve read mostly books written by women, whether they were thrillers or something else. Last week, while browsing the new books section at my public library, I came […]
First Person Novels – Love or Hate?
Alice Jolly looks at the risks and rewards of novels written in extraordinary first person voices. I know people who never read a novel written in the first person. I do see their point. First person novels can be like finding yourself wedged on a train next to someone who is chatty, over sharing, mendacious […]
What Success Means to a Writer
What success means to a writer by Ashley Dyer Success is easily quantifiable if it’s equated with sales and earnings. But is it right to measure writing success in those terms? Is writing success quantifiable at all? In a writing career of twenty-three years, my novels have been published in the UK, the USA and […]
Merging Message and Medium By Nina Sadowsky
By Nina Sadowsky When I sold my first book in 2015, I was cautioned against sharing my political or social opinions on social media. I was warned that being vocal about certain issues might alienate some readers. My response was a shrug. It was too late. I’d joined social media prior to my becoming a […]
Pelvis Has Left the Building
By Stevie Z Fischer Women writers, here’s a multiple choice problem. When we toil ceaselessly at our laptops, we: A) conjure new worlds; B) talk to ourselves in a manner that alarms others; or C) ignore our loved ones. How about all of the above plus D)? It’s not really a head-scratcher but try this […]
Writing about Bladder Problems: it’s a Piece of Piss!
By Dr Jennifer Meyer Everybody has a book lingering inside them, right? So why did I finally decide that mine had to be born now? I invite you to the conception of Piss to Bliss: Agony. Bloodbath. Ambulance. It’s 4 am on the morning of my birthday 2018. I’m on holiday alone in Spain, sitting […]
THE SURPRISING SILVER LINING OF UNSUCCESSFULNESS
THE SURPRISING SILVER LINING OF UNSUCCESSFULNESS There is a lot of fuss and celebration when a book comes into the world: we do interviews, readers tag us in social media posts, friends near and far send congratulations. And then, inevitably, the world moves on. Messages—and sales—slow down, sometimes to a trickle, and for some, the […]
On Being A Published Author: The Fantasy Versus the Reality
The irony of releasing a second (or third, or fourth) book into the wild is that there is almost zero time left to create the words that allowed you to release a book. This is not something people tell you about in those blissfully ignorant unpublished years, when your fantasies about being published may include […]
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