This month, many of the best contemporary books are going to receive prizes and plaudits in some of Britain and Europe’s top literary awards and ceremonies. The first of these took place on 8 May, with the announcement of winning entrants in the 2017 British Book of the Year Awards, where the Fiction Book...
If you’re one of those writers who’s been meaning to start a journal for years but doesn’t get inspired by the idea of stream-of-consciousness-ing your thoughts each day, you're in luck—here are five solutions just for you.
When I'm trudging through the messy middle of a book, I double check my list of must-haves to punch up the pace. Here's what you can do to strengthen the middle of your novel.
Camp NaNoWriMo is like the summer camp version of National Novel Writing Month. Here's why you should consider spending your summer with that community.
In honor of Father's Day, we've collected several quotes from writers (and a couple from our favorite literary dads) that embody the spirit of fathers.
I was recently asked to visit my former MFA program to speak with current students about my experience publishing my debut novel, The Salt House, forthcoming from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster this summer. As a woman in her mid-40’s who’d only graduated from the program several years earlier, my journey to selling my debut was...
Here in the writing community we talk a LOT about how to break in with a novel—whether breaking in means signing with an agent, landing a deal with a publisher big or small, or self-publishing well enough to make a splash. That makes sense, of course—because breaking in isn’t easy. More often than not,...
In this back and forth, author Ricki Schultz and literary agent Barbara Poelle dish on the similarities between courting a mate and courting an agent.
To avoid stereotyping and caricature—and to keep your story believable—try these strategies and tips.
It was May 2014 and we were in New York, prepping for a meeting with our agent, Elisabeth Weed. She had asked us to brainstorm ideas for our next book. We were due at her office in one hour and all we had was a magical blow dryer.
How pitching at a writing conference can lead to finding an agent.
Whether you're writing a literary novel, a psychological, medical, legal or spy thriller, or even a cozy mystery, for a novel to be engaging, it must center on human conflict and disturbance. Here's what you need to know.
Here are tips from a self-published author who decided to take control of her dream.
Persuasive characters keep a good story aloft and your readers involved. So where do you find these characters? How do you make them breathe? Here are specific tips to help you create characters that will win over readers.
You’ve probably been taught that short stories follow the time-revered rule: Limit your story to a specific time, place, event, interaction, or character’s evolution. I say, do the opposite. Here's how.
Hitchcock was dubbed the ‘Master of Suspense’ for very good reason. He knew how to manipulate an audience and keep them watching. Here are seven tips to remember when writing suspense to keep your reader turning pages.
If you’re starting a blog with dreams of writing a book some day, don’t make the same mistakes I did. Launch your blog with your book in mind.
When writing a magazine query letter how much info should you include about your idea (and what else should you include)? Here's the scoop.
Many people list reality TV as a “guilty pleasure” (or worse, a total waste of time). But I’ve watched a lot of reality shows over the years, and there are always lessons to be learned, especially for writers.
I’ve written several books and published a few of them. I’ve had a great deal of success considering my small status as an independent or self-published author. I’ve blown expectations for average book sale out of the water, and managed to find two distinct ways to make an incredible living attached to my being...
Every writer should be focused on this one thing to motivate him or her when writing a suspense novel.
For a freelance writer who doesn’t have a query tracking system—or has the organizational skills of a bowling ball, like me—here is a simple spreadsheet to help you keep track.
Knowing a few important details about your character can go a long way into giving him or her credibility and life.
Let me just say that I offer these tips on writing historical fiction from my own limited experience. Doubtless there are other more serious writers out there who will glance over my measly list and scoff at its inadequacy—“Where is the section on research?” they might harrumph—and yet, I offer it anyway. I’ve lost...
There are a lot of challenges and rewards to being an author, and one of the greatest (and sometimes brutal) challenges is getting published. I think we’ve all seen people magically picked up by publishers out of nowhere, but my experience is that they usually know someone in the business. For me, it was...
