My Courses

All too often, writers see ebooks as an afterthought to their paper book, as an “Oh yeah, some people prefer digital books, so to maximize sales, I better sell my book on Kindle or Nook, too.” While that attitude may be fine for books published prior to the widespread use of ereaders, such flippancy fails to…

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: Go people watching for an hour at a coffee shop or a side-walk café. Write notes describing how people converse, how they stand in line, how…

Perhaps the most profound conflict a character can face is when he is at odds with himself. Conflicts in which the protagonist faces off against other individuals or society often result in characters that represent ideals and concepts. But the character that first must deal with his own foibles in order to overcome a villain or…

“[Editors] drive us nuts. We go from near-worshipful groveling when we submit to bitter cursing when they reject us.” – Ken Rand “Editor: A person employed…whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.” – Elbert Hubbard “The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.”…

You can bolster your reputation by using these three words correctly in your next writing. Buildup (no hyphens, please) is a noun or an adjective: A buildup in troops along the border could be a sign of impending war. Build up (with a space) is a verb: To build up his reputation in his new community, the young…

Even if your book never changes the world – let alone influence other authors in its genre – your writing still can make a difference just by affecting the lives of a few or even of a lone reader. Suppose you publish a book about how you survived cancer. Your trauma can let readers know they…

As a book editor, I get a number of questions about publishing ebooks, especially since this is such a new field. Here are the answers to a few that have been asked a lot of me during the past few weeks. Question: Are page numbers required in the table of contents?Answer: No page numbers are required in…

In any story you tell, your choice of words matters. Selecting the wrong word can lead to a number of problems that quickly turns off the reader to your writing. Poor word choice results in three general issues: clarity, vagueness and awkwardness. ClarityThe worst possible outcome of selecting the wrong word will be readers having no…