The sheer delight of this duet is fun to watch. Classical pianist Lang Lang and jazz pianist Jon Baptiste sit down and improvise for two minutes on a very familiar piece of music. Enjoy!
HT: Trissina Kear
First Lines in Fiction
The opening words of your novel may be all a prospective buyer will read before making their purchasing decision. Are yours an opening salvo; an opening punch; or an opening sigh, easily dismissed? They will also be the first words an agent or an editor reads when they see the sample chapters you have pitched. Every story starts somewhere. Even “once upon a time” is a beginning. I thought it would …
Fun Fridays – August 23, 2019
So incredibly creative. Watch this video and be inspired to create origami with your words! Craft them into a story never seen before. Inspire others to think beyond the paper airplane you made when growing up.
A Retail Renaissance?
I spent some time with a recent research report from the ILH Group called “Retail’s Renaissance – True Story of Store Openings/Closings.” In this study, they looked at the last three years of all segments of brick-and-mortar retail stores and discovered some facts that counter what we hear in the news. In the media, we only hear bad things about physical stores. Chains are closing, …
Fun Fridays – August 16, 2019
Since schools across the world are ramping up to begin the new year (or already have begun), I thought it would be fun to visit a comedy sketch between Andy Griffith and Don Knotts (circa 1965, or two score and 14 years ago). Know anybody like this? Dare you write them into your book? Enjoy.
15 Grammar Rules That Can be Broken
With trepidation I step into the gladiator arena of grammar. Below is a marvelous infographic from ExpertEditor.com, an Australian professional editing and proofreading company. Do you agree or disagree with these choices? Grammar rules are there for a reason. Clarity, consistency, and communication. A sloppy manuscript is a terrible thing to waste. At the same time, rigidity with some grammar …
Fun Fridays – August 9, 2019
To follow up on Monday’s discussion of the printing press, let’s take a five minute walk through the distribution process. Specifically Amazon.com. This video was release last week, but is already a little out of date. Yesterday FedEx announced they are severing their relationship with Amazon. The effort by Amazon to create their own delivery network was the issue cited. However, this …
Book Manufacturing
If you ever get the chance to visit a printing press, do it. I've had the privilege to visit two of them. The first was Standard Publishing's printing press in Cincinnati. Their plant is quite large and they do a wide variety of printing, everything from books to curriculum to Star Wars coloring books.
The other plant was Bethany Press International in Bloomington, MN. During my years with …
Fun Fridays – August 2, 2019
So many metaphors for the writing life are expressed in this endearing video. Care to supply one of your own?
Four Questions About Publicity
by Steve Laube
Publicity is the art of telling the world about you and your book. We recently received a few questions about publicity via the green button you see in the right hand column of our blog (yes, it really works).
1.) When should a writer hire a publicist?
I think an author should wait to see what their publisher will provide in this area. If you do hire a publicist make sure …