There’s this idea in publishing that you have to be lucky to become successful, and I think that’s true. There are so many factors beyond the control of the author. There are really good books that never find their readership. There are mediocre books that definitely do (and no, I’m not going to name them....

I was chatting with a a group of writers the other day when Sunyi Dean, asked a question about beta readers, and if people used fewer beta readers now than they did earlier in their career. I do use fewer, and it got me thinking about why–and I’ll talk about that. But it, along with...

I’ve been away from the blog for a bit, mostly because I haven’t had a ton to say, but also because when there are competing demands on my writer time, it’s probably the least productive use of said time. There’s a lot going on, and I’m probably not supposed to talk about most of it....

Having attended AtomaCon this weekend in Charleston, I have some thoughts to share about small SFF conventions that have writer’s tracks, and why they can be a good option for authors at a lot of different places in their development. Before I dive in, let me give the caveats. Yes, there are cons that are...

I share some insider things about interacting within the publishing environment.

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now. I wasn’t sure if I was going to write it or not. One wise person told me that if I did, I was going to get dragged all over the internet. And perhaps I will. Or perhaps I’m overdramatizing. I’m a writer. It’s in my...

With the news on changes at Twitter, we’re already seeing changes to writing twitter. I’ve seen a number of announcements by people who are leaving. Ironically, that’s the most Twitter response ever — that call to act immediately or you’re #NotDoingYourPart. I’m not leaving Twitter today. And it’s not because I don’t think what is...

I talk to a lot of authors. Really. A lot. Probably more than even most authors, though as a rule, a lot of authors talk to a lot of other authors. Having debuted in 2018, in the past four years I’ve specifically talked to a lot of debut authors–my peers back when I was a...

I saw a thing going around the other day, as happens from time to time, bemoaning the insider nature of publishing, and specifically bemoaning writer cliques, so I thought I’d address that. First off, I hate the word clique. But that’s just because it’s a homonym and homonyms are the devil, because they remind us...

Have you ever watched movie actors doing promotional interviews and it’s really clear that they’ve been answering the same questions for different outlets all day, and they’re just over it? It’s not the same for writers, as most of us don’t do all of our promotion in the same day, but sometimes it feels a...