Author Marketing Experts

The Journal: Best Writing Practices

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Best Writing Practices * So What’s the Problem? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.” Lauren Bacall “You don’t want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven’t done what I do. Most book reviewers haven’t written 11 novels. Many of them haven’t written one.” John Irving “[S]uccess or failure is all about how we navigate the challenges that arise.” Felix Torres in a comment on a post … Read more

The Journal: How to Get Here, Part 2

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: How to Get Here, Part 2 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “You have to believe in your long term plan, but you need short term goals to motivate and inspire you.” Roger Federer, professional tennis player (paraphrased) “Did you know that 94% of consumers in their 20s purchased boba (bubble tea) in the last three months?” 1440 Daily Digest Maybe a story starter? Soma, anyone? Topic: How to Get Here, Part 2 If you have chosen to opt-out of the responsibility-and-labor-and-drama-intensive myths and choose instead to trust yourself … Read more

The Journal: How I Got Here

In today’s Journal * Topic: How I Got Here (and How You Can Too) * Of Interest Topic: How I Got Here (and How You Can Too) Yesterday, Alicia commented on my post, “I haven’t had a mentor for writing – I tried once or twice and it was not pretty. But I have read a hundred or more books on craft….” That’s enough to provide the context of today’s topic, but you can read the rest of her comment and my original response here. (Thanks for providing a catalyst, Alicia.) I tried that same approach for around 40 years, … Read more

The Journal: Openings and Nicknames

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Openings * Nicknames * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.” Tony Bennett “Writing a compelling opening for your novel isn’t optional, it’s essential.” Maggie Smith of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers “Authors today need a publisher as much as they need a tapeworm in their guts.” Rayne Hall “If Big Publishing priced ebooks for optimum sales and profits, there wouldn’t be any ‘decline’ in ebook sales to write clickbait stores about.” The Passive Guy Topic: Openings I just … Read more

The Journal: Story Ideas

In today’s Journal * Topic: Story Ideas * Of Interest Topic: Story Ideas As I was telling a friend recently, story ideas can come from anywhere. Most often they come to me as a character or two popping into my head, usually with a line of dialogue that frames the genre and the story voice. Less often, something I see physically or overhear or read will spark a story idea. Regardless of the mode of their arrival, my stories are seldom born of whole cloth. A story idea is only a lever to get you to the keyboard. While I … Read more

The Journal: We’re Back

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * We’re Back * About the Archives * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “It’s very important in life to know when to shut up.” Alex Trebek “Values are not trendy items that are casually traded in.” Ellen Goodman We’re Back As has seemingly become my routine recently, I’m posting this primarily to get the items linked in “Of Interest” out to you. Nothing earth-shaking there, but some good stuff. I’m also posting this edition to announce that the Journal is back home again. And by the way, my sincere thanks to … Read more