The bookstore that makes no money!
I want one in my neighborhood…
Blog
Losing Track of Time
When I first started sending books and articles to editors in hopes of being selected for publication, the passage of time possessed few markers. For example, the mail arrived once a day. There was no trail like this on the touchtone wall phone: Wednesday, 10 AM: Your Amazon order was received. Wednesday, 8 PM: Your Amazon order was shipped. Thursday, 11 AM: Your Amazon package is scheduled for …
How NOT to Get an Agent
It’s a classic writer’s conference anecdote—even funnier because it is true. It didn’t happen to me, but to a friend of mine, who was not only followed into the restroom at a writer’s conference by an avid aspiring writer but was also slipped a book proposal. While in a stall. Free reading material, don’t you know. That’s no way to pitch a book or get an agent. And, though I don’t have nearly the …
Markets are Different Than You Think
Last week I addressed the issue of trying to be too specific or too general in identifying a reader-market and the need to continually address new generations. Today, let’s discuss the culture in the United States and the Christian writer. Here are some unavoidable things to keep in mind as you write: Ours is an “entertainment culture” where all forms of diversion are more important than just …
What’s on Your Shelf?
A series of interview questions that dig into my reading life. What’s on your nightstand right now? I am an extremely eclectic reader and have dozens of books waiting for attention. In fiction I’m currently reading Run Program by Scott Meyer a science-fiction story of a newly developed artificial intelligence program that “gets out” of the lab and is now running loose on the Internet – with all …
Fun Fridays – February 9, 2018
Did you know we lost 10 letters from the English alphabet? Amaze your friends with today’s video. Better yet, write an entire sentence using these old letters and feel medieval and scholastic at the same time. Here is my attempt: In þe morniŋ ƿas þe æther around uƒ. Enjoy.
Can Death Cleaning Spark Joy?
One of the most challenging aspects of being successful in nonfiction is choosing a topic general enough to interest a broad swath of readers, but unique enough to make them think of the question in a new way so they’ll want to buy your book. Take decluttering. I follow at least three decluttering blogs. My daughter says, “How about just cleaning instead of reading about it? Then you’d get it …
The Writer’s Attitude
Winston Churchill has been credited with the saying, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” That may be nowhere truer than in publishing, and certainly in Christian publishing. The right attitude can make or break a writer. And the right attitude can take a fair writer to places that a gifted writer with a bad attitude can never go. What kinds of attitudes should a writer have? …
Marketing to Younger Readers
A challenge for book promoters is trying to market to a narrow group of people and discovering they are not easily distinguished one from another. People are born every day and there is no definable space between demographic markets. Generational identifiers are not scientific, but arbitrary for marketing convenience sake. In case you don’t know all the terms: Traditionalists – Born up to 1945 …
Once in a Blue Moon Publishing
Someone called the other day and asked, “If I’ve self-published my book and want you to consider it for representation, should I even bother sending it? Or am I toast?” I answered, “It depends.” [For you regular readers, do you think that should become the motto of the Agency?] The question suggests it is an either/or proposition…determined by a set of rules that cannot be broken. The reality is …