May/June 2012 Issue
May/June Issue
Writer's Digest Magazine
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Website of the Week
Writing Website of the Week
Published author Roz Morris' website covers a lot of topics about writing--some serious, some for fun. Either way, it's a site that's worth a few minutes of any writer's week. (I recommend following her on Twitter too.Nail Your Novel 
*Not affiliated with our 101 Best Writing Websites feature.
Author Archives: Chuck Sambuchino
10 Writing Myths
I read every “how to write” book I found, every writing magazine, every article on authors I could find. I loved hearing about how they did what they did. And still, I didn’t have a clue about how things worked in this business. Here are 10 myths about being a writer that I discovered once I became published:
GIVEAWAY: Lori is excited to give away a free copy of her book to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more
How I Got My Agent: Cassie Alexander
“How I Got My Agent” is a recurring feature on the GLA blog. Some tales are of long roads and many setbacks, while others are of good luck and quick signings. If you have a literary agent and would be interested in writing a short guest column for this GLA blog, e-mail me at literaryagent@fwmedia.com and we’ll talk specifics.
GIVEAWAY: Cassie is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more
Rules for Writing and Revising Your Novel
When you revise, you must go back and fine-tune your work—add, delete—what needs to go in, be taken out. Repair the characters. Do it when your mind is still fresh with the scenes and the characters of that chapter. However, you must be unbiased (which is hard toward what you’ve just written), detached (which is harder from what you’ve just built), so you can see your own creative flaws.
GIVEAWAY: Khanh is excited to give away a free copy of his novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more
New Literary Agent Alert: Jennifer Azantian of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency
About Jennifer: Jennifer Azantian assists Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron, and manages incoming submissions for SDLA. At the University of California, San Diego, she studied clinical and developmental child psychology, and graduated cum laude in 2010. After graduation, she spent a wonderful summer interning at the Dijkstra Agency before joining full-time in fall of 2011.
She is seeking: Jennifer is only interested in: young adult science fiction and fantasy (including all of their subgenres). Read more
Want to Build Your Platform & Sell More Books? New Webinar on May 24, 2012 by C. Hope Clark
Your author platform is your personal ability to sell books, and one of the greatest tools you can possess in your arsenal of writer skills. It’s your visibility — all the ways you can reach to people and sell more copies to people who are listening to your words. If you want to have more control over your own book sales (especially if you are writing nonfiction or self-publishing your work!), then we have an excellent webinar for you. C. Hope Clark, an accomplished guru on platform and writer grants, is leading the new webinar, “Platform, the Backdoor Way: Trouble Getting Published? Keep Writing Via Other Niches, Genres, or Services” on Thursday, May 24, 2012. Read more
7 Things I’ve Learned Do Far, by Nina Benneton
This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from novelist Nina Benneton.
GIVEAWAY: Nina is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more
My Cursed Adventure to See Van Halen in Concert…
One of my favorite bands of all time is Van Halen. I love all their music, and probably know more about the history of the band than anybody would care to discuss with me.
That’s why it absolutely BLOWS that my quest to see them in concert has been such a tragedy. This sad story has three acts… Read more
The Short Happy Lives of Short Story Collections
Short story collections are the weird sister of the publishing world. Though you can see anthologies of shorts in bookstores (i.e., 2012′s Greatest Stories About the Kardashian Sisters), you rarely see collections by individual authors. Sometimes the poor things are teetering on the tippy-top shelf of a general fiction section, because it’s a rare store that sets aside shelf space for collections, unless your name is Alice Munro or Annie Proulx.
GIVEAWAY: Tom is excited to give away a free copy of his collection to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more
Agent Jim McCarthy Teaches “The 10 Elements of a Saleable Novel Today” — New Webinar With Critique on May 31, 2012
I’m very excited to announce a brand new webinar with an awesome literary agent at the helm. On Thursday, May 31, 2012, agent Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich will teach the 90-minute webinar, “10 Elements of a Saleable Novel Today” – and every attendee gets a great critique (query letter AND first pages!) from Jim. It’s an excellent opportunity to receive great instruction and get your work in front of the eyes of an awesome agent at the same time. Read more
“How I Got Published” — Mary Nethery and Kirby Larson, Authors of NUBS: THE TRUE STORY OF A MUTT, A MARINE, AND A MIRACLE
This installment is with Mary Nethery and Kirby Larson, authors of the New York Times best-selling book NUBS: THE TRUE STORY OF A MUTT, A MARINE, AND A MIRACLE (Little Brown, 2009), a story about marine Brian Dennis and a feral dog in Iraq that found a home in America.
GIVEAWAY: Mary and Kirby are excited to give away 2 free copies of their book to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Read more