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Professionalism (It’s not what you think it is)

October 14, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 80 Comments

By: Hannah Moskowitz This post has nothing to do with writing and absolutely everything to do with being a writer. The stereotype of a writer–the middle-aged man pounding feverishly at a typewriter, cigarette in his mouth, sending hard-copy manuscripts to his agent and protesting the change of every word–has yet to catch up with the […]

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Dan Brown, guest blog, How to Promote a Book, Life of a Writer, Lord of the Rings, Suzanne Collins, Twilight, Twitter

Is Literary Fiction Losing Its Place in Culture?

August 4, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 146 Comments

Throughout this past year there’s been a persistent idea percolating around the literati: could literary fiction really be dead? No for real this time? No less an authority than Philip Roth wondered last year whether people still had the patience to read novels. Last month Lee Siegel wrote an article wondering “Where Have All the […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Bestsellers, Culture, Dan Brown, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Literary Fiction, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, You Tell Me

The one question writers should never ask themselves when reading

July 27, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 201 Comments

Over the course of writing and maintaining this blog, I’ve found that there is one sure-fire way a commenter can set my teeth on edge and make me bring out the snide comment gun. (Well, I suppose it would work for someone to write an ode to queries beginning with rhetorical questions, but so far […]

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Dan Brown, Marilynne Robinson, Reading Like a Writer, The Bachelor, writing advice

You Can’t Make Something a Phenomenon

March 29, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 105 Comments

Around the Internet I often see a perception among readers and commenters that the sole reason certain books become wildly popular is because the publisher made them popular. This, presumably, is meant to discredit the success of the book by attributing its popularity not to the book’s merits, but rather to the efforts of a […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: Dan Brown, Harry Potter, How to Promote a Book, publishing industry, Publishing Myths, Twilight

Archetypes vs. cliches

March 2, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 89 Comments

There are many, many stories involving a young man, often of unknown/mysterious parentage, who suddenly realizes he’s the chosen one and has to embark on a quest against impossible odds to save his people. And yet Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, David and Goliath, and countless other stories are all different […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice, Writing Novels Tagged With: Dan Brown, Harry Potter, How to Write a Novel, Jane Austen, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Twilight, writing advice

Guest Blog Week: You May Be a Bestseller on Tralfamadore

January 22, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 87 Comments

Anne R. Allen is a freelance journalist living on the Central Coast of California. She has published two novels in the UK with maverick indie publishers Babash-Ryan: Food of Love (2003) and The Best Revenge (2005.) Babash has, alas, shuffled off this mortal coil, so she is out of print and scrambling down in the […]

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Dan Brown, guest blog, Kurt Vonnegut, Staying Sane While Writing, writing advice

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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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