The literary landscape is rapidly changing, and it is almost impossible to foretell what a new year will bring. However, I've looked into my literary crystal ball, and these are 15 predictions that could have a huge impact on the literary community in 2015: 1. David Foster Wallace will team up with Jack White to … Continue reading 15 Literary Predictions for 2015
A few weeks ago, I welcomed a new baby girl into my life. My writer bio now contains the line "lives in Minneapolis with his wife and daughters." It almost seems surreal. I could go on and on about how beautiful she is and how lucky I am as a father, but we all know … Continue reading How to find time to write when you are busy
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a story that led me to develop the one-sentence test. For the sake of anonymity, I don't want to get into too many details about the story, but the "plot" was generic enough to share. The story was about a fart that led to a breakup. That was … Continue reading The One-Sentence Test: Do You Have Enough Story?
We all like having our name up in lights. But what happens when some of those light bulbs burn out? Over the course of the past ten years, I've had around 250 short stories published in various online and print venues. I won't kid myself or stroke my own ego; most of these publications are … Continue reading What To Do When Your Published Stories Disappear
In order to be a writer today, you also have to be able to promote your work. Long gone are the days where your job is to do the writing while someone else is responsible for spreading the word. This is true whether you are just trying to make a name for yourself or if … Continue reading Are You a Writer or a Soulless Promotional Machine?
Writers are probably the most rejected people in the world. You'd think after all that rejection you'd be able to take a hint. Yet many writers don't seem to be able to read between the lines when it comes to the contents of their rejection letter. Here's a quick anecdote regarding a writer who … Continue reading What Your Rejection Letter Really Means
For many writers, it often feels like we spend more time submitting our work than we actually do writing. And what are the results of our efforts? A pile of rejection slips so high we can barely breathe enough to write another sentence. If only there was some way we could improve our odds of … Continue reading Quiz: Will Your Next Submission Will Be Accepted?
There are three major components to every book: Writing the book Publishing the book Selling the book Of the three, selling the book is probably the most difficult. How in the world do you get people to buy this thing you've just written? We live in a world where anyone can publish a book. We … Continue reading 5 Innovative Book Marketing Techniques for the Desperate Writer
As writers, we tend to get pretty excited at the prospect of publication. Oftentimes, an acceptance is such a relief that we'll take it no matter what. However, sometimes an acceptance isn't in our best interest. We have to step back from the excitement and look at the fine print to make sure we aren't … Continue reading Do You Know Your Rights as a Writer?
You've heard it a thousand times: don't submit your writing to a literary magazine without reading what they publish first. It's a great piece of advice. By reading the lit mag, you not only support what they do, but you also get a sense of what they publish. This allows you to send something that … Continue reading What You Should Be Looking for When You Read a Lit Mag
