My Courses

As writers, often we are our own worst critics. We’re typically either too ruthless or not critical enough of our own stories and articles! Worse, we sometimes even hate the good parts of our manuscript and love the poorly written sections. The challenge then is to know when and how to revise our own writing. Revising…

“First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!” – Ray Bradbury “The story…must be a conflict, and specifically, a conflict between the forces of good and evil within a single person.” – Maxwell Anderson “If you do not have an alert and curious interest in character and dramatic situation, if you have no visual imagination…

The human body really isn’t meant to perform for hours on end some of the tasks that our modern writing and office equipment demand of it. All too often, our necks cramp from looking at computer screens at slanted angles, our eyes burn from staring too long at the fixed distance of a computer monitor, and…

How frequently you’ll blog largely depends on your time constraints and your readers’ thirst for information from and about you. More than once a day is too much, but you probably want to have an entry every 2-3 days and certainly no less than once a week if you’re to maintain readership. Of course, blogging will…

Whenever you self publish a book, you’ll have the opportunity to track sales, or see how many books you’ve sold. You may have to go to a couple of different web pages to do this, though, if you sell a book at both KindleDP and Smashwords. Be aware of where these pages are and check them…

Any time we begin something new – speaking in front of people we’ve never met, trying out a new electronic device, driving around a city we’re visiting for the first time – there’s a good chance that we’ll feel a little nervous. Our stomach might tighten, our hands could get clammy, we may even break a…

Most editors who review a manuscript that is in a Microsoft Word file will use the Track Changes function to correct an author’s work. These corrections can range from adjusting margins and indents to inserting commas and deleting extra words. Editors often use Track Changes as proof of their labor and so the author can go…

One of the great challenges of marketing your book is getting is before potential buyers’ eyes. This can be done via the Kindle ebook bestsellers list on Amazon.com at a limited cost to you. Here’s how. First, the very same day that your ebook is available for sale, peruse the top 20 bestselling ebooks in the…