I thought this video was perfect for Valentine’s Day.
The love these men exhibit by accompanying their wives to their local Target is inspiring. (LOL!!!)
Enjoy the satire and hilarity.
And happy Valentine’s Day.
Letting Go of Your Babies
One of the worst mistakes writers can make is being too possessive of their words. They fight for each adjective, adverb, and conversation tag.
My early writing suffered from too many words. I once wrote an artist didn’t “really” understand the difficulties of making a living in his profession. The editor kindly cut all instances of “really,” “just,” “so,” “very,” and other weak words …
4 Things I Learned from Rejection
Nobody likes to be rejected. Not middle-school dance attenders. Not job applicants. And definitely not writers. Unfortunately, however, rejection pretty much comes with the territory for writers—at least for writers who are brave enough to submit their work to agents or editors for publication. And it hurts. Every. Single. Time. Take it from me, I know. I’ve been rejected hundreds of times, and …
What does success look like for Christian authors?
As authors, it is easy to get destination fever, where we are so focused on the destination that we fail to enjoy the journey. What does it mean to be a success as a Christian author? Should we measure ourselves the same way secular authors measure themselves? To help us answer this question, we will be talking with the bestselling and Christy hall-of-fame author James L. Rubart. Links: 7 …
What does success look like for Christian authors?
As authors, it is easy to get destination fever, where we are so focused on the destination that we fail to enjoy the journey. What does it mean to be a success as a Christian author? Should we measure ourselves the same way secular authors measure themselves? To help us answer this question, we will be talking with the bestselling and Christy hall-of-fame author James L. Rubart. Links: 7 …
Where Is My Money?
Before I became a literary agent I had no idea how much energy this profession spent being a “collections agent.” Recently someone asked us the following questions (use the green button to the right to ask your question!):
What do you do, as an agent, when a publisher does not pay advances on royalties on time as per their legal contract?
What if a publisher is consistently late (months) saying …
Fun Fridays – February 7, 2020
Be prepared for a jaw-dropping video. This is someone who follows their passion. I did think of a comparison to all writers. If each matchstick were a word, then 7.5 million words in 40 years is quite a few books. I suspect some of you have written that many. But are they masterpieces like in this video? Enjoy.
Letter to a College Senior
A senior in college wrote to me asking for career advice in publishing. Perhaps a few thoughts I shared then might be of help to you. __________ As your letter indicates, publishing offers many options. The ones you are focused on, rightly, are finding employment with a traditional publishing house, preferably one of the Big Five, and writing books. Many publishing professionals pursue this path …
What Will You Read Today?
Reading at least a few chapters of a book is a worthy goal for each day. One app I have recommends a half hour of reading. Seems doable to me! Since I have at least a thousand books in my collection begging to be read, I’m attempting to be discerning as to where I spend my reading time. To wit, I went to a public library book sale over the weekend and confess I was tempted by Kitty Kelley’s old …
The Editorial Process
It is important to understand the process through which a book takes under the umbrella called “The Edit.” I meet many first timers who think it is just a one-time pass over their words and that is all that will ever happen. And many who self-publish think that hiring a high school English teacher to check for grammar is enough of an edit.
There are four major stages to the Editorial Process. …