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The best villains in literature (This week in books)

March 7, 2025 by Nathan Bransford

This week! Books! (A bit delayed and abbreviated because I’m on the road). LitHub’s annual counter-programming to the March Madness basketball tournament is here, and this year it’s a villainous one: who is the best villain in literature? Cast your votes! I, for one, feel Long John Silver as a 15 seed is an upset […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Alix Strauss, Dan Blank, Daniel Engber, Jane Friedman, LitHub, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Sally Kim, Sally Rooney, Tariffs

Shy, depressed, grieving, and adrift characters still need to be active

November 4, 2024 by Nathan Bransford

No one opens up a novel to read about the boring bits of life: brushing teeth, doing the dishes, office drudgery. We read to escape those things, to be entertained, and to see the world in a new way. One of the difficulties of capturing some of life’s challenges in a novel is that they […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Don’t rush to the inciting incident (page critique)

April 27, 2023 by Nathan Bransford

If you’d like to nominate your own page or query for a public critique, kindly post them here in our discussion forums: Also, if you’d like to test your editing chops, keep your eye on this area or this area! I’ll post the pages and queries a few days before a critique so you can see how your redline […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How to research your characters

November 3, 2021 by Shalene Gupta

When I was writing the first draft of my novel, somewhere in the middle of a chapter I ground to a complete halt. For weeks I’d been riding the high of pounding the keyboard in a glorious rush, but now I was out of material. I had no idea what happened next.  I sulked. I […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Taking a break

July 1, 2019 by Nathan Bransford

The blog will be going on a brief sojourn this week as I celebrate America’s 243rd birthday. But never fear, I will be back on July 8 with more content! I have a whole lot in store, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you need any help editing your book or desire some coaching, […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The past few weeks in books 3/24/17

March 24, 2017 by Nathan Bransford

The past few weeks! In the books! Want to start your own publishing company? Seems like as a good place to start as any, amirite?? There’s some really great advice in this guide at Writer Unboxed. Speaking of which, there’s a great interview with Joanna Penn, who has been innovating on self-publishing for some time […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: This Week in Books

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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My Books

How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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