Writer Unboxed

Christina Katz recently sent a message to me on Twitter: Can you do #platformchat this friday from 2-3 EST? I’d love to have you talk about your pre-pub. platform development. I said yes. Later, I realized this chat would have only two guests: Jane Friedman, the Publisher and Editorial Director at Writer’s Digest, and me. [...]

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Regular post coming up in a few, but Kath and I didn’t want to wait another day to tell you that we’re not only working up details for a new contest (with excellent winnings), we have a fabulous new contributor! Ann Aguirre is the author of the Grimspace series, a cross-genre blend of sci-fi, suspense, [...]

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Ken sent us the following question: “What’s the difference between a prologue, a foreword and a preface? Also, I’ve heard that fiction writers should avoid prologues and incorporate it into the backstory. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.” Great question, Ken. Prologues, I’ll tackle in a minute as there is a bit of disagreement over a prologue’s [...]

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I’ll be honest with you–I wasn’t certain how I’d feel about Kristina Riggle’s debut novel, Real Life & Liars, because I knew the story involved the “C” word–and I don’t mean Chocolate. Cancer in a book is a hard thing for some to warm up to, especially when you’ve lost loved ones to the disease, [...]

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One of the regular commenters on my own weblog asked me recently to write about genre. She wanted to know if an author starts out with a particular genre in mind, and if so, how is such a thing planned? How do you write yourself into a genre? I’ve been thinking about this for days, [...]

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When my eldest son was about six or seven months old, he had a milk bottle toy. You’ve seen them—a plastic bottle with colored plastic balls that go inside. The idea is simply to put the balls in the mouth of the bottle. One afternoon, Ian sat on the floor of our apartment, playing with [...]

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Today’s guest blogger, Anna Louise Lucia, is someone I’ve come to know through a super supportive goal-in-a-month (GIAM) writing group. Anna’s latest book, Dangerous Lies, was recently released, and I was intrigued to know more about her publishing experience, as she’s published with an indie. She graciously agreed to illuminate all of us. Thanks for [...]

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Here in the northeast, we’ve had three solid days of rain, but that won’t stop me from California dreamin’ and the promise of summertime reading. Yup, I like to gorge on books in the summer. But this year, I’m also on a budget. So I’m trying to hook up on cheap reads while still supporting [...]

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Kyra Davis‘s books could be viewed as quintessential beach reads: breezy, hilarious, fast paced. Her protagonist Sophie Katz solves mysteries and puts up with a lot from her friends and family — and in her new adventure LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS — a ghost. But it hasn’t been all mocha lattes and [...]

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The amount of grunge that had built up on my 4-year-old keyboard finally flagged my attention. Dingy gray soiled the sides of the keys, between the keys, and even the tops. Sound familiar? That grunge, it occurs to me, is like the congenital flaws you can find in any novelist’s work (including, dang it, mine). [...]

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Kath here. This is the last in the series of posts by uber-wonderful book publicist Susan Schwartzman. We’ve been grateful for her insights into the often confusion world of book publicity, and we hope they’ve been useful for you. Keep in touch with Susan on Twitter @PRBookPro, and look for her occassional posts with us in the [...]

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First off, happy release day to debut author, Kristina Riggle, who blogs at The Debutante Ball. I’ll be interviewing Kristina here soon, and I’m really looking forward to reading her novel, Real Life & Liars. Learn more at her website, HERE. In just under four months, The Last Will of Moira Leahy will be released. [...]

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