A fun barbershop quartet video today. It should make you smile.
Then think of the choreography, planning, and rehearsal necessary to pull this off!
[If you can’t see this in your email newsletter, please click through to watch it on the website.]
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7 Most Common Mistakes Writers Make
An insightful writers conference attendee recently asked me to list the most common mistakes writers make. (She was insightful mostly because she was talking to me instead of some other author or agent at the conference, but also because it’s a good question.) I attempted an answer in the moment but have since come up with a few more. These are not primarily writing mistakes, mind you. Those are …
How Many People Are Involved in Publishing Your Book?
Depending on your publisher, there can be quite a few people involved in getting your book to market. Even if you self-publish, there are still many functions that you may not do yourself. Below is not an exhaustive list, but a rambling stream of consciousness when thinking about the various jobs and the people who are involved in the publishing process: author (kinda important) literary agent (we …
Fun Fridays – September 26, 2025
Travel back in time to 1947 and watch this documentary on how books are made. Fascinating. The phrase “hot off the press” came from this molten lead process. However, remember that it still begins with you, the author. [If you are unable to view the video in your email, please visit the site where it is embedded.]
Who Needs Tech? Authors Do
As each year passes, the need to adopt certain technologies becomes increasingly important. Want to get paid? You’ll need to arrange for direct deposit into some sort of banking account. You’ll need to log in to it and manage it somehow. Want to pay bills? You’ll need to log into a mobile app or online service to do it. Sure, there are holdouts to the old ways; but at some point soon, there will …
Who Gets Paid in Publishing?: Publishing Economics 101
The economics of publishing is a bit of a mystery if you are just coming into the business. With all the discussion about indie publishing versus traditional publishing and the claims that writers can become rich if they follow a specific plan, I began to think. Perhaps we should take a quick look at the economics of publishing to see if anyone is profiting significantly. Sorry for those of you …
Fun Fridays – September 19, 2025
Today’s video is about what really happens when you can’t find a bookmark. Admit in the comments below the strangest thing you have used as a bookmark. (If you cannot see the video in your email, please visit the site where it is embedded.)
Platform Now, Agents Later
Many authors, understandably, seek to discover if there’s enough interest in their work for them to toil to build a platform. If there is no interest in Devotionals for Grasshopper Farmers Who Crochet, then why go to the trouble and expense? One, if you discover on your own that exactly fourteen people will buy your devotional, and ten of them are your mother and her friends, that’s a good thing. …
Tossed by the Ocean of Emotion
It is hard to be a writer or to work in the publishing industry. Everyone defines success differently, and we strive to meet those expectations at every turn. Often we let “success” define us, especially when a writer is told, “You are only as good as the sales of your last book.” Or an agent is told, “You are only worth the value of your last contract.” Henri Nouwen, in his book The Return of the …
Fun Fridays – September 12, 2025
Palindromes: A word or phrase that reads the same backward or forward. Like “we panic in a pew” … perfect for a Sunday sermon! Weird Al, singing like Bob Dylan, performed an entire song whose lyrics are entirely composed of palindromes. It is one of those videos that you want to stop watching but can’t. Creative is one word. Strange is another. But it is all about word …