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 […]
William Faulkner
How to choose a pen name (This week in books)
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 […]
Have superfans gotten out of hand? (This week in books)
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 […]
What Do Writers Owe the People in Their Lives?
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 […]
Writers, Authority, and The Keith Hernandez Rule
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 […]
This Week in Publishing 7/16/10
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 […]