Mary insists that Frank obey his family’s wishes and not see her anymore. As writers, you always want to be pushing the boundaries of your reading. With that in mind, I’ve turned this month’s article over to my business partner, personal editor, fellow writer, and wife.  Ruth can’t go very long without going back to her very favorite genre, nineteenth-century British novels, and her expertise far exceeds mine.  Enjoy.  Dave King   When I’m altogether tired of modern novels with their political correctness, literary preciousness, and occasional whiffs of meaninglessness ..read more

Some writers have it in mind from the beginning, for others it might be last-minute addition, prompted by a publisher’s question or a sudden impulse. To dedicate or not to dedicate—that is the question. Dedications in books are certainly very common. Of the seven books on my bedside TBR pile, for example, just two lack a dedication. One of these features an epigraph instead, a line from a poem which expresses something at the heart of the book, and the other has no dedication at all. The dedications in the other five books are all personal, addressed to important people in the author’s life ..read more

Many say it’s more challenging than ever to secure agent representation or find a publisher willing to acquire your work. While that may be true, it’s also a fact that there is so much you can do to be sure your query submission package captures the attention of industry professionals. You’ve spent a lot of time perfecting your writing. Now you’ll want to be knowledgeable and strategic about finding the right home for your work. I hope you’ll let me help. After years of guiding writers through the submission process, to go on to publish their work in all kinds of publishing venues, I’m e ..read more

photo adapted / Horia Varlan Back when I was an arts journalist, a friend who had just read my latest dance review said to me, “I’m sorry you didn’t like the performance. What a waste of time.” I had no idea what she was talking about. I couldn’t possibly have written about dance for two decades without believing that every opportunity to engage with art—whether or not I “liked” it—is a growth process. Recognizing this in your own life can be a springboard to leveling up your writing game. The most enjoyable part of your ongoing education as a novelist is having a tax-deductible reason to ge ..read more

“Oh my goodness!” a young blonde woman said. “Are you a real author?” I was sitting at a display table inside my local Barnes & Noble, signing my latest book. “Is this your book?” her friend, a brunette, said. Without waiting for an answer, she picked up my book and flipped through the pages. “It’s my story,” I told her. “I don’t know if I could ever do that,” the blonde said. “Are you interested in writing?” I said. The blonde pointed at the brunette. “She is.” “I haven’t really written anything,” the brunette said. “But I would like to someday.” “Someday could be today,” I said. “I don ..read more

In my previous post for Writer Unboxed, I wrote about defining success, prompted by a friend’s question about my first book: Was your book successful?” I examined how success can be defined differently and how it varies from writer to writer. But since then, I’ve come to realize that my exploration of the topic wasn’t quite complete. In the year since my debut, I’ve learned a hard truth: The metrics I once considered indicative of success didn’t turn out to be as significant as I originally thought. Despite not achieving many of the lofty goals I had envisioned, such as signing with a dream a ..read more

My dad, Grant Overstake, has written millions of sentences. As a former journalist, pastor, and now novelist, he’s got what the writing world considers “chops.” Big papers like the Miami Herald published his sports column for years, and small papers had his by-line on every article from op-eds to sports to obits.  His young adult sports novels are precise, beautiful, engaging. His sermons, spoken word he wrote to help rural Kansans navigate their faith journeys and complicated lives in the late 90s, were captivating, heart-felt, well-rounded. This man has done it all in the writing ..read more

At least one academic publisher is cutting deals with AI and not allowing authors to opt out of the deal; could fiction publishers be far behind? The Author’s Guild has stepped up to the book-banning plate, condemning Utah’s statewide book ban (including books by Judy Blume), gaining a partial victory in Iowa, and suing Florida for its book-banning law. Go Guild! A survey finds 28 librarians who have been asked to remove books from library shelves. Open Road Integrated Media offers a workaround for book bans—a program that helps you find banned books near you. Book Bars in New York are spreadi ..read more

Well, this is embarrassing.  In June’s post, I spoke about how, as a teacher, I was so excited to have the time and the headspace to revise the manuscript for my second book, to get to know the narrator better, to incorporate new research and conflict into the story, and to, basically, write my heart out and my pants off.  I did none of that. First of all, my two college-age kids were home, and if you have young-adult children, you know they don’t always want to hang out, talk, share, so when they do, even when you are in the middle of writing, and they knock on your closed door, yo ..read more

Design by Camilla Monk I’ve just learned a new word that speaks to the very soul of this semiregular column of mine: “grammando,” first used in 2012 by author and editor Lizzie Skurnick in her “That Should Be a Word” column in the New York Times Magazine. As you might correctly infer, it refers to those people (I want to say “those of us” to myself and regular readers of this column) who take so seriously the strictly correct use of language that it may become their mission. This word really hit a chord with me, as a former copy editor and current pedantic grammarian, and yet as I listened t ..read more