A guest post by Speculative Fiction author and editor Tammy Salyer: Treat your writing like a passion, but treat your novel like a business. Research the distribution sites, their requirements, and how long they take to set up and use. There are two kinds of people in the world (outside of those who write and those who don’t), and they are those who obsess about the details and those who think of details as esoteric thought experiments that have little bearing on the obviously more important process of writing the next novel. But here’s the thing, and it bears repeating
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Introducing: The Self-Publishing Guest Series, by Tammy Salyer
Today, I’m delighted to introduce a new guest series on self-publishing and independent authors, written by my friend and fellow author Tammy Salyer. Tammy is an independent editor and author of the speculative fiction series SPECTRAS ARISE (which is one of my favorite recent Sci-Fi releases, and I encourage you to check it out) as well as two books of short stories. She’s a consummate professional and knows the self-publishing side of the business well, which is why I’m delighted she agreed to write this series over the next few weeks. And, with no further ado, here’s Tammy: Treat your writing
Read moreThe Dreaded Second Draft
I’m working on a new Shinobi Mystery this morning. I wrote draft one in November (it’s not intentionally a “NaNo Novel” per se, but my normal writing schedule puts me into first draft mode in November, so I run with it) so now I’m working through what always proves the most difficult draft for me. In my world, first drafts offer a time of excited discovery. I work from outlines, but the characters and plot threads always change themselves around on the page, so the first draft rarely turns out exactly the way I thought I’d write it. The second draft,
Read morePublishing 101: Enter the Editor …
Today, the Publishing 101 series continues with a look at the editorial letter. An “editorial letter,” sometimes also called “developmental edits” is a letter (now, often in email form) which the acquiring editor sends to the author after the contract is signed. Editors wait to send (and often, to prepare) the editorial letter until after the contract to ensure that the editor’s work isn’t wasted if the deal goes sideways at the contract stage. In very rare cases, and editor might send the editorial letter before the contract is signed, but this is definitely the exception to the rule. The editorial
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