I haven’t done one of these in a while so here’s some of the stuff that’s come through the inbox… ACTUAL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Will there be another book in The Mark series? Probably not. The Mark (the first book) was never meant to be a series but the ending changed during edits in a [...]

This was the question from a girl at the writing workshop I did last week: Do I have to read to be a writer? Because I don’t really like reading. My short answer was no. You don’t have to do anything. You want to be a writer? All you have to do is write. I read a lot less [...]

Yesterday’s post was about the typical pre-publication to-dos and milestones.  Today’s is about the atypical stuff, all of which I’ve seen happen over this past year… Your editor gets laid off, your book dies.  Even though you had a deal. Your editor gets laid off, you get a new one.  Who you totally click with.  [...]

Congratulations!   That’s a big deal.  You’ve probably worked for years on manuscripts, written and revised countless query letters, read rejection after disheartening rejection and finally, you’re there.   If this is your debut novel and you’re anything like me, you have no idea what comes next.  Or you have some ideas, most of which will turn out to be [...]

Someone asked me the other day if it cost a lot to get my book published.  No, I told her, when you sell your book to a publisher, they pay you and take on the costs of producing it.  It doesn’t cost anything.  Which is only partially true, because as any writer will tell you, a big [...]

Easy to spell, apparently not as easy to say.  If you’ve ever wondered how, click here and I’ll tell you.  And, if you’re a teacher, librarian, bookseller, just curious or looking to kill time, the TeachingBooks.net website has lots of authors pronouncing their names, book guides and a bunch of other great-looking resources.

When I was having my website done, I didn’t do a FAQ section since it would only have included stuff like can I have some chocolate milk? and will you draw cars with me?  But now that The Mark’s been out for a few months, there actually are book-related questions that come up pretty regularly so, if you’ve been wondering… [...]