On Using Criticism to Level Up, from Author Delilah S. Dawson

I normally write a way more wordy post every week. But this thread on when and how to take criticism on your work was just too perfect. Enjoy: https://twitter.com/DelilahSDawson/status/1087360935059181573 (It's a thread. Be sure to click through it and read the whole thing!) And now, an unrelated thought-dump on blogging, and what topics to blog …

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How Much Do Authors Make? On the Authors Guild Survey and the Complex Topic of Income

Photo Credit: The Authors Guild. The Authors Guild released a survey a few weeks ago about how much the average author makes, and hooooooooo boy, it's not good. According to the survey, the median income for all writers is about $6,000, while the median for full-time authors is around $20,000. On top of that, roughly …

2018: My Year in Review

It's the end of the year! And that means it's time for me to look back at what I accomplished, and lament review how it went! (Also, I full acknowledge that this is going to be ridiculously boring to anyone who isn't me. Sorry. It's tradition.) Reading: The trend continues! If there's one thing I'm …

On Why “I Want to be Published” May Not Be Great Motivation

Hello again! I'm back from my NaNoWriMo adventure. Alas, I didn't actually win NaNo this year, but hey! I got out of the house a few times, met a few new people, and got to better know some of the folks in my region. That's a win in itself! And now, let's get back to …

And Now, a Short Hiatus for NaNoWriMo 2018

It's October 31! You know what that means! ...OK. Yes. It's Halloween. I actually meant something else. It's the end of October. And tomorrow's the start of November! And that means it's time for National Novel Writing Month--also known as NaNoWriMo--a beloved annual event where writers try to write a 50,000-word story in a month. …

The Contradictory World of Querying Agents

It's fun to complain, isn't it? Let's complain about querying! Querying is complicated! Querying is messy! And every time I query, I am simultaneously delighted that I seem to be doing OK and terrified that I'm doing everything wrong. And both might be true! Nothing makes sense. Everything is anxiety-inducing. This post has no point! …

Middle Grade Stories aren’t Just Young Adult without Sex: Some Thoughts on Genre

First thing's first! Want to enter a giveaway for Justice Unending? Just hop over to LibraryThing, change the "Media" drop-down to "Paper Only," and scroll down until you find it. (I wish I could link directly to the thing. Sorry for all the extra steps!) And with that out of the way, let's get back …

Journaling: How Complaining About My Story Helped Me Work Through It

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how I lost a ton of time this year by trying to bully myself into coming up with awesome ideas, on a deadline, during my daily hourly writing time. It really, really didn't work. And because this wasn't working, I decided to try some other, gentler brainstorming …

Fighting a Creative Slump: Trying to Redefine What I See As “Productivity”

I'm no stranger to creative slumps. Every year, I crash at least once, wonder why I write at all, and take a few weeks off. It eventually pases, all is well again, and I get back to work. But not this year! This year has been terrible. I finished the edit of my most recent …

Learning How to Market Books: LibraryThing Is Pretty Neat

When I first started experimenting with book marketing, I managed to post about Goodreads Book Giveaways just a few months before they mad them expensive as heck. And you know what sucked? I had a box of books in my closet. I ordered a small number of books so I could test out Goodreads, but …