Queries are a hard part of writing, but there are a few things you absolutely must get correct to avoid being sent the dreaded form rejection letter everywhere. While I'm not saying you'll absolutely be accepted if you avoid these mistakes, your likelihood of acceptance is vastly higher.Read More

From a purely dollars-and-cents point of view, the math just doesn't add up for a publisher to steal your book and try and cut you out of the deal. The amount we have to invest into every book we launch means that, before we could rake in that sweet, sweet, illicit dough, we'd have to...Read More

As we prepare to launch Insomnia Publishing's newest release, First Favor (the third Sam Archer book), I am kind of reflecting some on the things I've learned about editing, publishing, and writing over the last few years. While I've been a bit quiet on the blog front, I've been very busy on the life front....Read More

Marketing is a challenge for authors. We are, at heart, writers and artists, and most of us bristle at the notion of having to talk to people. Introverts unite... separately... at home. However, as per my previous blog, we aren't able to ignore it and be successful. This, however, doesn't mean that all marketing is...Read More

Too many authors in the world fail to understand what a book publisher does and does not do for its authors, and it's something that leads to major issues with authors and publishers, and everyone walks away frustrated from the experience and feeling as though their expectations were not met. This lack of understanding is...Read More

In this fifteen thousand or so words of your opener, you need to: introduce the main character(s?), introduce the setting, and introduce the main conflict. These are all vital parts of the story and none should be skimped on. While they can be accomplished in brief early in the first act, you need to give...Read More

Whether you're writing from first person or third person, you shouldn't write about things your POV character doesn't know. For example, if she doesn't know the person across from her plans to kill her, you shouldn't tell the reader that.Read More

I cannot tell you the number of times I have stumbled across an author who has had issues with facts in their manuscript. And I don’t mean little things. I’ve had authors who tried to flip safty off on revolvers (revolvers don’t have safeties as a rule) and who had someone doing cross stitch in...Read More

Social media is a seductress that sucks away tons of time we could be using for writing. However, it is also a useful tool for marketing. I’m not going to talk about limiting your time on social media or any of that. I’m also not here to talk to you about how to market using...Read More

I received a rather salty (unfriendly) comment on an old blog today that read as an author who had been either mistreated by the publishing industry venting or an author who hated published authors and everyone associated with them because they hadn’t been successful in that route. While I understand frustration when the industry mistreats...Read More