I’m not particularly good at picking book titles. I’ve had a few that started as working titles and actually ended up on the book. I later discovered that wasn’t always good. After having had more than a few editors tell me I needed to come up with a new title, I now think of most […] [ ... ]
I recently received an email from the editor of my first two “Crow” books. I’d told him I had the rough draft finished on the third book in that series, tentatively titled A Murder of Crows. He wasn’t happy with the title. “Have you looked on Amazon,” he emailed. “Have you seen how many books […] [ ... ]
Most writers who self-publish use Amazon, D2D (Draft2Digital), or NOOKPress (BarnesandNoble). Recently I’ve seen blogs about the changes D2D and Barnes&Noble are making in May. Rather than repeat what those bloggers have written, I’ll summarize the key points and, if you’re interested, you can check out D2D Here and/or Barnes&Noble (NookPress) Here. So far I […] [ ... ]
During the Michigan Sisters in Crime meeting this month the subject of conferences came up: was anyone going to a conference this year? Had anyone been to (different conferences name)? Was it worth it? Over the years, I’ve been to most of the major romance and mystery conferences. Some were better than others, but none […] [ ... ]
In my last blog I warned readers not to be scammed. Over the last two months I’ve received emails from “publishers” and marketing specialist offering to help me sell more books. To be honest, I love reading their emails. They love my books. For example, this is the opening paragraph from the As the […] [ ... ]
SMASHWORDS https://www.smashwords.com Smashwords FAQ for Authors and Publishers Mark Coker came up with the idea for Smashwords in 2015 after co-writing the novel, Boob Tube, with his wife Lesleyann. Major publishing houses weren’t interested. They felt there too many other books like it, and those books had sold poorly. In 2018, Smashwords launched with the […] [ ... ]
Wonder why you’re having a difficult time getting your book noticed? I’ve been going through some of my old files (time to update and throw away) and came across a sheet showing 2006 Publishing Statistics as reported by Nielsen Bookscan. I’m not going to post all of the statistics in that report, but here are […] [ ... ]
Last month I received an email from a young girl asking for information about how to get a book she’d written published. The following is, in part, what I sent back to her. Dear Writer: Since my weekly blog is primarily about writing and getting published, some of my earlier posts might help you. On […] [ ... ]
Yesterday I gave a talk on the changes in book publishing over the last 40 years. Preparing for the talk was like a walk down memory lane. Forty years ago I decided I wanted to write a book. I lucked out and found an agent who saw something in my writing worth nurturing. She worked […] [ ... ]
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I have been working on so many things lately, my mind is a jumble. Last Friday I thought I had my previously published romance, LYON’S PRIDE, ready to upload to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Actually I did upload the file, but then I started reading […] [ ... ]
While at Sleuthfest last February, I sat in on a session given by Joanna Sinchuk, manager of the Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore in Pineapple Grove Delray Beach, Florida. I thought about her talk recently when CBS ran a feature on April 23rd about Independent Bookstores. When the big box book stores came on […] [ ... ]
The four editors on the panel were Eric Campbell, Down & Out Books; Faith Black Ross, Crooked Lane Publishing; Marcia Markland, St. Martin’s Press; and Neil Nyron, G.P. Putnam’s Sons. The moderator was author Kris Montee (PJ Parrish). The panel members started answering the questions one at a time, but soon simply made comments; therefore, much […] [ ... ]
The other day my friend Joe Novara and I were sitting on my deck, looking out at the boats on the river, talking about what we were reading and why. Before Joe left, I asked him to write something about why he felt reading other authors’ books helped a writer. This is what he sent. […] [ ... ]
The agents’ panel at Sleuthfest 2017 started at 8:30 a.m. Friday. I missed a few minutes right at the start (I had to bring some books to the book store, and it didn’t open until 8:30), but I heard most of what the agents had to say. The four agents were: Sandy Harding (Spencerhill Associates), […] [ ... ]
I’ve been having trouble coming up with a topic to blog about. No, that’s not true. I’ve had plenty of ideas. I thought about blogging about agents—but then I realized I’ve done that several times (Agents1, Agents2 ,). Then I decided I’d write about titles. Oops, done that. (Titles Blog 1, Titles Blog2 ) Goal setting? Not […] [ ... ]
Last Saturday I had a writer friend say she wasn’t sure what to call her story in a query letter. She was debating between science fiction or futuristic, but mostly she wanted something that would give an agent a good idea of what the story was about. Hers was a good question. Whether you’re writing […] [ ... ]
Unless you’re writing solely for yourself (and maybe for your family and a few friends) you need to know the craft of writing: formatting; point-of-view; chapter length; what tense to use, and so on. Although getting the story you want to tell out of your head and into some sort of printable form is the […] [ ... ]
Today my good friend and fellow writer, Joe Novara, is my guest blogger as I enjoy a visit from my daughter. A few weeks ago Joe mentioned how he’d been learning some new ways of expressing ideas from reading other writers. That led to the blog I posted last Wednesday: Read to Learn. I asked […] [ ... ]
Author Photo: High-resolution image About Maris Soule Maris Soule is an award-winning author whose novels blend romance, mystery, and suspense, often featuring animals and richly drawn rural settings. Her stories are known for their emotional depth, vivid landscapes, and characters who are as complex as they are compelling. Soule’s writing is inspired by the places […] [ ... ]
Earlier this week another writer and I were talking about how to sell more books. The question was: How does a writer get his or her work noticed? When I started writing, I though a writer sat at a desk, typed out a story, sent it off to an editor, who (of course) loved the […] [ ... ]