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William Faulkner

What makes a great setting in a novel

October 25, 2021 by Nathan Bransford 113 Comments

What Makes a Great Setting

The Reading Rainbow theme song really had it right. One of the best parts of reading is the way books open up new worlds to us, whether a story is set in an unpronounceable ancient kingdom, the far reaches of outer space, ancient history, the distant future, or even the real world but maybe somewhere […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice, Writing Novels Tagged With: Cormac McCarthy, How to Write a Novel, Lord of the Rings, William Faulkner, writing advice

How to choose a pen name (This week in books)

August 14, 2020 by Nathan Bransford 3 Comments

This week! Books! First up, I had the good fortune of stopping by the Red Sneaker Writers podcast to talk about advice for the publishing journey and my work as a writing coach and consultant. Give it a listen! What’s in a pen name? In a world of social media and Google-able everything, I’m getting […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Angie Thomas, Jessica Faust, Kate McKean, literary agents, Neko Case, Red Sneaker Writers, Vikram Chandra, William Faulkner

Have superfans gotten out of hand? (This week in books)

September 13, 2019 by Nathan Bransford Leave a Comment

Photo of Nyhavn in Copenhagen

This week in books! First off, thank you so much to everyone who chimed in with feedback on our community. One thing I learned: people didn’t really know about the discussion forums! Oops. I’m going to endeavor to make those more visible going forward. But seriously, thank you to everyone who chimed in. (And I’d […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Fandom, Goodreads, Self-publishing, William Faulkner, Writing and Sports

What Do Writers Owe the People in Their Lives?

July 30, 2012 by Nathan Bransford 49 Comments

Ta-Nehisi Coates recently featured an interview with William Faulkner that naturally had an incredible array of quotable material, but which focused in part on the responsibility an author has to their art. The meat: The writer’s only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has […]

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Staying Sane While Writing, William Faulkner, You Tell Me

Writers, Authority, and The Keith Hernandez Rule

August 12, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 83 Comments

While I have previously tackled the perennial conversation topic/game/complaint Today’s Publishing Industry Would Have Never Publishing Such and Such Genius Old Book Because Everyone in Publishing Today is a Freaking Idiot, there is a component to these complaints that I would like to delve into just a tad deeper. I find it curious that whenever […]

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: David Foster Wallace, Harry Potter, How to Write a Novel, J.K. Rowling, James Joyce, Lord of the Rings, Moby-Dick, Seinfeld, William Faulkner, writing advice, Writing and Sports

This Week in Publishing 7/16/10

July 16, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 83 Comments

This week in double rainbows I mean publishing… Stephen Parrish pointed me to a NY Times survey of the world of book trailers, those magical creatures that use video to convince us we should read books. While only 0.1% of everyone out there decided to purchase a book via a book trailer, the kids these […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Double Rainbow Guy, E-books, How to Write a Novel, Jacob Wonderbar, James Joyce, Nonfiction, This Week in Publishing, William Faulkner, 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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