How and Where to Build Your Literary Community
Jane Friedman
by Star Wuerdemann
5d ago
Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash Today’s post is by writer Star Wuerdemann. In 2015, I attended a writing retreat with Natalie Goldberg and had a terrible revelation. As I sat in a room among 75 people diligently scribbling in notebooks, I realized: I had no writer friends. Now, nine years later, I have a solid writing community that continues to grow and support me. Along the way, I had the opportunity to ask Jane Friedman the most important step to take as an early writer. She said, “Build your website.” Then she laughed and admitted that was the pragmatic side; the other most imp ..read more
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Going After the Widest Audience Possible: Q&A with Award-Winning Author Jami Fairleigh
Jane Friedman
by Jane Friedman
5d ago
For years now, the Indie Author Project has made an effort to find the best self-published books in communities across the U.S. and Canada. The project encompasses public libraries, authors, curators, and readers working together to connect library patrons with great self-published work, primarily in fiction. The Indie Author Project recently named their 2023 national contest winner, Jami Fairleigh, of the King County library system in Washington state. Fairleigh is a biracial, Japanese-American writer, urban planner, and hobby collector from Washington. Her writing has been published by Terr ..read more
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The Case for Pursuing a Traditional Publishing Deal Without an Agent
Jane Friedman
by Amy L. Bernstein
1w ago
Today’s post is by author Amy L. Bernstein. Securing the services of a literary agent has long been the gold standard for authors pursuing a long and successful career in publishing. It’s easy to understand why. At the turn of the twentieth century, the so-called “author’s representative” emerged as the figure who would help authors cut a better deal with publishers. Most publishers were unhappy about this since agents who skillfully leveraged their clients’ hot properties forced publishers to shell out more money on better terms. By mid-century, the agenting game was well established. L ..read more
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3 Elements That Make Historical Romance Successful
Jane Friedman
by Susanne Dunlap
1w ago
Today’s post is by author and book coach Susanne Dunlap. Saying that romance is a genre the literati love to hate is a hackneyed truism. The preponderance of tropes, if they’re not well handled, can give romance a predictable or formulaic feel. Why, then, are they so enduringly popular? Why do they continue to outsell so many other genres, when the story’s outcome in all cases is a given? I have come late in life to this popular genre. Yet what began as curiosity is fast developing into an obsession. In the past few months, I have read or listened to approximately fifteen different histo ..read more
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Emotional Intimacy Between Characters Isn’t Just for Romance Novels
Jane Friedman
by Trisha Jenn Loehr
1w ago
Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash Today’s post is by romance author and book coach Trisha Jenn Loehr (@trishajennreads). When writers think of writing intimate scenes, our minds often go straight to the bedroom—to romantic or sexual intimacy. But that puts an unnecessary constraint on what intimacy is when intimacy can be physical or emotional, platonic or romantic. At its simplest, intimacy in a relationship is the state of closeness or deep familiarity. Regardless of what their relationship is, emotional intimacy between characters often begins long before they get physically in ..read more
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Workshopper Beware: Navigating the Risky Waters of Writing Classes and Retreats
Jane Friedman
by Andromeda Romano-Lax
2w ago
Today’s post is by author and book coach Andromeda Romano-Lax (@romanolax). Several years ago, I attended a writing workshop held in a beautiful locale, with sumptuous food and dreamy scenery. Only the teaching was bad. And not just bad. It was the most disorganized and downright toxic event I’d experienced in twenty-plus years. Before attending this event, I thought I’d seen it all: middle-aged writers leaving in tears after being told they should give up on their projects; women being taken to task for their parenting, marriages, or some other personal choice or foible; racist micro-aggress ..read more
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Substack Is Both Great and Terrible for Authors
Jane Friedman
by Jane Friedman
2w ago
I have been trying to convince writers of the value of a consistent email newsletter for more than a decade. Recently I dug up a 2014 presentation I gave at the James River Writers Conference, where the first slide says, “Email is not dead.” After that slide, I quoted novelist Dana Stabenow, who gave an inspirational talk where she couldn’t resist offering a practical tip at the end: “Remember this if you remember nothing else from my speech tonight. It turns out that an active buy link in a newsletter targeted at people who really want to get it is the most effective means of selling your b ..read more
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Author Platform Follows the Work
Jane Friedman
by Mirella Stoyanova
2w ago
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash Today’s post is by writer Mirella Stoyanova (@mirellastoyanova). Note from Jane: Mirella’s original title for her piece was “I’d Rather Be Writing.” I retitled it to make a different point, one that I deeply hope more writers truly grasp and understand, for their sanity and success. I’m grateful to Mirella for her graciousness in letting me retitle. I have always wanted to sit at the popular kids’ table. To know that I am enough, as is, is possibly one of the most difficult lessons I have ever had to learn. It’s what led me to become a therapist, and like a ..read more
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Scene, Summary, Postcard: 3 Types of Scenes in Commercial, Upmarket, and Literary Fiction
Jane Friedman
by Lidija Hilje
3w ago
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash Today’s post is by author, book coach, and developmental editor Lidija Hilje. It’s often said that scenes are the fundamental building blocks of a story—the smallest units that propel the narrative forward. But what precisely constitutes a scene, and what types of scenes are there? Typically, when we refer to a scene, we’re talking about it in a classic, strict sense: as a story-relevant event that unfolds in real time. A classic scene contains the smallest piece of the plot and a movement in character arc in response to that plot. The reader follows the protago ..read more
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When—and Why—Reveals Don’t Work
Jane Friedman
by Tiffany Yates Martin
3w ago
Photo by George Milton Today’s post is by editor Tiffany Yates Martin (@FoxPrintEd). Join her on Wednesday, March 6, for the online class Secrets, Twists, and Reveals. Every story is a mystery, the reader seduced by that inexorable pull to know what happens next, and why. It’s the author’s job to create questions that readers crave the answers to. The more you can delay gratification, the greater the arousal of reader’s desire to know. At least in theory. This facet of human nature—our insatiable curiosity—explains the appeal of using secrets, twists, and reveals in stories to a ..read more
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