My Courses

“There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing – to find honest men to publish it – and to get sensible men to read it.” – Charles Caleb Cotton “Writers are schizophrenic. On the one hand we tell ourselves, ‘This is a work of genius! I’ve created Art!’ Then we try to peddle…

One of the best ways for authors to put their book to work for them is to create an online class based on it. For example, if you’ve written a book about how to draw, you could offer an online class on the same topic. Or you might branch out a little; a financial consultant who’s…

Before your actual book begins – particularly if writing nonfiction – you may want to include material that that introduces readers to it. The idea of these introductions is in large part to establish why readers actually should read the book. There are three general types of introductions that you might include in your book:• Foreword – This…

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: Often the opening sentence shows something out-of-whack in the world. This then sets up the story’s central problem that the main character needs to resolve. Look…

You’d think someone with a college education would know whether or not to use an apostrophe, but apparently they don’t teach this anymore. The professor says use an apostrophe. Why you ask, o seeker of knowledge? Because bachelor has two meanings: An unmarried man and someone (male or female) who has earned a college degree. Since…

Organizing a media kit about your book or event is only half of the process in promoting yourself. The other half is distributing it. Your distribution philosophy should be simple: Get the media kits in the hands of editors and writers who’ll be most interested in giving you or your book coverage. Begin by compiling a…

Once you’ve written your novel or short story, the question arises of where to you send it. If following the traditional publishing route, the answer depends on what type of work you’ve written. If a novel, you need a list of literary agents. There are several reputable guidebooks (Writers Digest’s guides are fairly good) for sale…

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: Select any object in the environment where you write – maybe a barista in a coffee shop, a poster in the den, or the refrigerator in…