January 14, 2026
PENNIES The last pennies were minted on November 12. 2025/ That ended 230 years of production. No more penny candy. (Is there any candy that cheap nowadays?) No more, “If you want my two cents.” Businesses are going to price items so the amounts either end in 5 or 0, that or round up or […]
December 31, 2025
It’s been an interesting year. AI is really having an impact on the publishing world. I’m now part of (a very small part) a class action suit where writers’ published works have been used to train AI. It will be interesting to see if I get any money from that. And, I hate to admit […]
August 20, 2025
Recently I’ve been reading emails from long-time writers who are stepping back from writing. Their reasons vary. Some, like me, simply haven’t come up with a new idea that makes them want to spend hours/days/sometimes years writing a story. Some have health problems that are preventing them from sitting at a computer for hours. Some […]
August 6, 2025
I’ve become a mini-publisher. It started when I received the rights back for all but two of my romances and all five of my mysteries (with the exception of one ebook). I created new paperbacks and ebooks for several of my romances and fourof my mysteries. Having published those books, when a long-time friend, Linda […]
July 16, 2025
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 […]
May 8, 2025
Today I sent a query to an agent and a submission to a publisher. I really don’t think either will respond positively, but I won’t know if I don’t try. This takes me back to the early 1980s. That’s when I decided I wanted to write a book. I was reading The Writer and Writers’ […]
July 14, 2021
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 […]
May 5, 2021
A few weeks ago, I asked Pamela S. Thibodeaux to be a guest on this blog and she said she would be glad to, especially since she discovered something while writing her new release. How to Know When a Story is Not Working by Pamela S. Thibodeaux In all my years as a writer, I’ve […]
March 17, 2021
In a previous blog I talked about vanity presses and why I think a writer should avoid them. This week the Writers Beware® blog highlighted a bogus company that offers self-published and wanna-be-published writers ways to get their books or unpublished stories looked at by TV and movie companies and/or republished by traditional publishers. I […]
March 3, 2021
Recently I was asked by another writer if I thought she should use a vanity book publisher. With self-publishing so popular nowadays, I didn’t even realize vanity publishers were still out there, but sure enough she had one in mind. I gave her my thoughts, but you may feel different, and if so, I welcome […]
February 3, 2021
Nowadays, most writers can’t simply write a story, send it off to an agent or publisher and sit back and wait for the praise and money. Of course, it’s always been true for most writers that once the story has been written, they must take off their writer’s hat and put on their editor’s hat. […]
January 13, 2021
I truly have something to crow about. The 4th book in the P.J. Benson Mystery series now has an actual release date: February 10, 2021. It has a beautiful cover, designed by Chris of http://highpinescreative.com. They did the covers for the first three “Crow” books (The Crows, As the Crow Flies, and Eat Crow and […]
November 18, 2020
I’ve never really had to deal with back material other than supplying an acknowledgment page, if it was appropriate, and a bio. Anything else that was added after the end of the story was supplied by my publisher. With Harlequin and Silhouette, that material often included snippets of other books available that month, how to […]
September 23, 2020
Last week I blogged about finishing the rough draft of the book I’ve been working on. To my surprise, a couple people asked where they could now buy the book. This question reminded me that many readers and new writers don’t understand the steps necessary between finishing the rough draft and actually having a book […]
May 13, 2020
You’ve written a story that you think is really good. You want it published. Here are 5 questions you need to answer. 1. Is your manuscript in publishable shape right now? No spelling errors, typos, or inconsistencies in the story? Don’t plan on an editor correcting your errors. Yes, the editor will probably suggest changes, […]