Among the most important decisions a fiction writer can make is what point of view to use in a story. Point of view determines what aspects of a story will be left out and deeply affects how the...

Among the most important decisions a fiction writer can make is what point of view to use in a story. Point of view determines what aspects of a story will be left out and deeply affects how the...

Storystarters: 200+ Writing Prompts That Lead To Stories (7 Minutes a Day)

Storystarters: 200+ Writing Prompts That Lead To Stories (7 Minutes a Day)

You’ve written a short story or a novel. You keep receiving rejection slips from editors and publishing houses … and now you’re not sure it’s good enough to self-publish. You know the story needs a...

“Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson “A book is simply the container of an idea – like a bottle; what is inside...

All too often self-publishing gets a bad rap as a last resort of authors whose writing wasn’t good enough to be accepted by one of the Big Five publishers. Never mind the long explanation of how big...

Many novice writers use punctuation marks haphazardly in their dialogue. The problem is they haven't yet mastered the fine art of punctuating dialogue. Which punctuation mark you use largely depends...

“First you’re an unknown, then you write one book and you move up to obscurity.” – Martin Myers “When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself...

Rarely can an author make a living solely on book sales. However, authors can achieve their dream of independence by building a business around their books. Creating a business centered on your...

“Writing it seemed to have higher quality than not writing it, that was all.” - Robert M. Pirsig “We write to rekindle the inner spirit.” - Lailah Gifty Akita “We restore order with imagination. We...

One excellent way to sell more books – and to finally quit your day job – is to build your book into a business. This strategy more readily lends itself to nonfiction authors. Writers who’ve publis...

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: List a half-dozen social issues that...

“I feel I'm able to get rid of any demons lurking in my psyche through my writing, which leaves me free to create all of this and to enjoy our family life, stepping away from all the fictional...

Affordable Book Editing | Children’s Books | YA Books

As a storyteller, you want to draw readers into your tale so that they vicariously live out the action. One way to achieve that is by providing evocative descriptions of the setting or action. Not...

“Ink, a Drug.” - Vladimir Nabokov “I’m only really alive when I’m writing.” - Tennessee Williams “It seemed to me that if I didn’t write, I would disappear.” - Frederick Seidel “I read the way a...

“On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.” - Penelope Fitzgerald “Writing a novel is...

One of the biggest mistakes aspiring writers make is to wait for “inspiration.” While there certainly are times in all authors’ lives that they are more creative and productive, you can’t idly hope...

• Use sensory details rather than internalized ones • Mimic sounds to appeal to sense of hearing • Improve descriptions by appealing to 'touch' • Appeal to sense of taste in descriptions • Add color...

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – W. Somerset Maugham “The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the...

All too often self-publishing gets a bad rap as a last resort of authors whose writing wasn’t good enough to be accepted by one of the Big Five publishers. Never mind the long explanation of how big...

• All ways vs. always • Chock vs. choke • Fazed vs. phased • Hardy vs. hearty • Nonetheless vs. none the less • Slew vs. slough Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction...

Sometimes sentences are too complex or too long to read because no punctuation or conjunction is used to connect ideas. When two clauses that could be independent sentences are joined that way,...

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competit...

Affordable Book Editing | Novels | Nonfiction

“For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time.” - Jhumpa Lahiri “If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” - Jane Austen “It’s not about the...

Many science fiction and action-adventure tales give their main character a finite amount of time to solve a problem. The ever-accelerating starship has only so many minutes before its structural...

Most writers know that an “apostrophe s” is needed to show possession or ownership. Where that apostrophe goes, however, changes depending on whether the word is singular or plural and if it ends in...

All too often, writers will read over their manuscript and then toss it down in disgust. Sure, they wrote a thousand words. Sure, there was a line or two here and there that sounded really good. But...

• What are 'The Big Six' book publishers? • What exactly is 'legacy publishing'? • Basic steps to follow in mainstream publishing • Ready your story for submission to publisher • How to write a novel...

Authors who self-publish generally don’t need an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Should you ghostwrite books or freelance, however, you probably will need one. That’s because anyone who pays...

Should you set up a publishing company that will be the imprint of your book and run it as a self-proprietorship, you may have to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement. This also is known as a...

All too often self-publishing gets a bad rap as a last resort of authors whose writing wasn’t good enough to be accepted by one of the Big Five publishers. Never mind the long explanation of how big...

The moment you’ve self-published a book – presuming you’ve done nothing else to set up your business – you’re a sole proprietor. That’s right, you’ve started your own business, ipso facto! A sole...

Affordable Book Editing | Novels | Nonfiction