What Are The Odds?

It is a funny old world...

This morning I read a Salon article on the echoes of the film Mockingjay with the real life events happening in Ferguson. The use of propaganda today to shape public opinion is held up as a mirror while scenes from the movie echo scenes from videos by extremist groups.

On Facebook, children’s authors are telling of publishers pulling out of signed publishing contracts. Projects, sometimes years in the production, just scrapped leaving the authors and illustrators frustrated and wondering what to do next. I look on Twitter and suddenly I’m seeing articles about self-publishing picture books and what it takes... Hugh Howey has dipped his toe into kids book publishing  and writes about it in his lucid way.

The guru Jane Friedman has also written about self-publishing kids books and the perils therein. Kids books are still firmly in the realm of print but with Amazon ramping up their sales of Kids Kindles and software to create kids books, you can see where they think the market is going.

Porter Anderson writes about the question he got asked at a London conference two weeks ago. Can I reasonably expect to succeed? The questioner was talking about both print and digital publishing. With digital publishing you are competing with every book that has every been published...

On the other hand you could be lucky as the publishers who get behind Print are handing out 7 figure advances.

Joanna Penn has a great interview on book covers (she is coming to Auckland!)

Kate Tilton is running a giveaway for Joel’s Friedlander’s book design templates (well worth looking at with 40% off, especially the new children’s book designs.)

This Saturday loads of authors in the US are heading to their local independent booksellers to sell books... in a sharing the love event. Great idea to take up here.

It’s getting towards the end of the year and thoughts of Christmas shopping fill everyone with dread. Jami Gold has updated her gifts for writers list.

Product Hunt has a list of apps for writers.

In the Craft Section,

Using sticky notes to help you revise.

A NaNo timetable (remember you can use this on any month)

Stealing Without Shame – Stephen Pressfield

How to tell if your script sucks

The author as actor

7 world-building tropes SciFi and Fantasy need

In the Marketing Section,

Timing for book launches (interesting article)

Email marketing secrets for fiction writers

Author platform expansion

Is your online presence a fantasy?

3 tricks to survive public speaking

Why marketing a book is like trying to lose weight

To Finish,

Jane Friedman has some predictions for next year and Writer Unboxed has a post telling how you can plan for the upcoming writing year.

Next year will the odds be in our favor?

maureen

Pic from Hunger Games movie

Thoughtful Words

A comic for anyone who thinks writing picture books is easy: pic.twitter.com/3pnl4EqsSo
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) November 17, 2014

This week in publishing Twitter went wild over the Amazon/ Hachette settlement. The New Yorker gave it thumbs up for getting back to the new normal. 

Hugh Howey warned that things won’t change so fast... because of publishers shipping delays to Amazon warehouses. At least they have settled before the Christmas buying rush.

Mike Shatzkin had a few words to say about the behemoth that is Randy Penguin and what he thinks they should do... run their ownsubscription model. Hmmm they already publish half the books in the world... maybe they just need their own bookstores. Either way when it is their turn to negotiate with Amazon it will be watched with interest.

Authors have been asking for years why can’t publishers bundle print and eBooks together

Publishing Perspectives reports on a pre Christmas trial of bundling by HarperCollins in Australia. So if you are lucky enough to live in Australia.... I wonder if it extends to NZ as well?

Porter Anderson took a look at the journey to nearly superstardom by traditionally published author Emily St John Mandel. (Who missed out on the NB Award announced as I write this.) Emily did her own marketing being published by small presses until her 4^th (breakout) novel and then the story changed when a big publisher put marketing muscle in. If you read that report I featured last month on blockbusters vs award winners you will see some familiar themes.

Janet Reid has a tell all post about what you should do whenyou get an agent...

The cartoon up top is from the wonderful Inky Elbows AKA Debbie Ridpath Ohi

I know people who would love that as framed merch!!!

In the Craft Section,

Planning your setting

The art of making your characters frustrated

The stages of revision.

Tips on what to focus on when you are revising

Janice Hardy tells you what to do when you have to kill a major part of your novel.

Becca Puglisi has an excerpt from the new Talents and Skills thesaurus... Strategic Thinking. This is a great writer resource.

In the Marketing Section,

BookBaby has ideas for Author Merchandise

The Book Designer has a guest post on using video effectively

Sterling and Stone (better known as Sean, Johnny and Dave) have a guest post on getting 50 reviews a month

Joanna Penn talks about public speaking for introverted authors.

When you feel invisible in the marketplace

To Finish,

K M Weiland, author of some very good craft novels has responded to requests to produce a workbook for her excellent Structuring Your Novel book.

This is a great book on structure so her workbook will be the bee’s knees if you are looking for Christmas presents for yourself...  

The National Book Awards in the US were announced overnight and everyone is talking about Ursula Le Guin’s speech. It is not long but it is as masterful and inspiring as she is herself.

maureen

Have I got a deal for you!

This week the Seattle Weekly took a close look at the world of Bezos. Is Amazon publishing over?

Hugh Howey is trying to understand digital disruption. Could the author become obsolete?

Script Mag has a post on author’s estates if the worst happens… 

BUT REALLY…

November is all about NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month) This is where the writer commits to writing a 50,000-word novel in a month. Just to let you know 50,000 words is on the light side for a novel unless it’s a children’s one. Agent Janet Reid has the genre word count lists... so you might want to rethink your 50,000-word picture book.

If you are diving into NaNoWriMo there are always lots of cool deals around for writers...

Scrivener (MS software) always has a free download trial and there are various writing craft book deals around.

Last week I urged you to pick up Joanna Penn, David Gaughran, Sean Platt and Johnny B Truent’s book bundle for 99c. Each day Joanna, Dave, Sean and Johnny are writing great articles and linking to their 99c deal, which is available for the rest of this week!

Kevin J Anderson has chosen 12 books to go into a mega NaNoWriMo bundle for the month of November. You pay $15 or more and you get all 12 including the writer craft books from Kris Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, Chuck Wendig... whom regular readers will recognize as often being referenced in this blog. (Christmas came early...Yeah!)

Live Write Thrive has a list of inspiring books that aspiring writers should read. Have you read them all? (4...)

Helen Sedwick recently got the chance to hear someone from Author Solutions speak -  Welcome to the Hotel California...

Author Solutions has some dodgy clauses in their contracts... and they are the behind the scenes company for many SP options being run by the big 4...(this is a Writer Beware situation.)

Murderby4 is a group blog of Thriller writers. They have a nice post about helping budding authors without killing their spirits.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of group blogs... Romance University has a great post on how to set one up.

James Scott Bell has a post on Killzone about writing what you love and earning money from it.

BooksellersNZ have an interview with Julia Marshall of Gecko Press. (She’s looking for junior novels at the moment...)

In the Craft Section,

Creativity on demand... The BICHOK solution.

Chuck Wendig on NaNoWriMo writing tips...

Stephen Pressfield on the most important minutes of the day

Teaching yourself to write better

How do we describe characters –Jami Gold

In the Marketing Section,

How to use Rafflecopter

Storyboarding a book for marketing – Bob Mayer

How to help your books sell themselves – Sean Platt (Don’t forget the 99c bargain)

How to kick start your sales – Dave Gaughran (Don’t forget the 99c bargain)

Marketing - how to use your early readers

To Finish,

Last week I hinted that Joanna Penn was coming to Auckland. 

IT’S TRUE and she wants a meet up with any Kiwi Authors who would like to meet her. 16/18^th December.

Go here and fill out a form for her... so she can figure out how best to cater for everyone!

Sadly I won’t be there... but you guys can party with Joanna on my behalf!

maureen

Pic from Flicr/creativecommons Eastlake Times

Deals and Demigods

This week around the publishing blogosphere the news was all Simon and Schuster. While Hachette and Amazon are still embroiled in their contract war, Simon and Schuster quietly went about negotiating new contract terms with Amazon. And everyone wants to know just what those contract terms are.... Hugh Howey has a pretty good idea... it is probably very close to what the Indie authors are getting.

Hugh has been busy this week. His latest quarterly report Author Earnings is out. And it is the first one that looks at the impact of Kindle Unlimited on author income. Porter Anderson has a very detailed look at what Hugh found out. Subscription models look here to stay and authors need to keep a weather eye on their impact.

Australian Author Patty Jansen has been looking at her Indie income with a fine toothcomb. A very interesting analysis.

Articles about the Frankfurt Book Fair are still coming out. Reedsy has one looking at a panel discussion on when publishers get it right... with sales and content. Great read!

In our neck of the woods Walker seems to be going through a tough time. A long time popular editor has been let go and some Picture Book contracts have been cancelled. This is devastating news to the authors concerned as the illustrations were nearly finished. Picture Books can be anywhere from 18 months to four years in production and to pull them at such a late stage in the process sends alarm bells. Time to pore over those contracts... with a lawyer.

The huge success of the Percy Jackson series has the New Yorker looking hard at the quality of the books children choose to read. They draw on Neil Gaiman’s famous address which was in the “Just–so-long-as-they-are–reading” camp and contrast it with Tim Parks essay on reading habits where he suggests there is little evidence of reading upwards from Pulp to Proust. Having a Percy Jackson fan in my house I was treated to a diatribe this week about the important characters in the Greek demigod world. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Where else is the average Kiwi kid going to find out about thirty centuries old myth and legends?

In the news this week Disney has turned its sights on the South Pacific and their newest ‘Princess’ movie is in the works. Moana... ably supported by the demigod Maui. (Please Disney, don’t make it a white bread yawn!) Taika Waititi has written the original screenplay.

In the Craft Section,

Janice Hardy on finding the right rhythm and voice to nail your beginning.

Now Novel on Unreliable vs Omniscient narrators

How to get around using Trademark in novels from a Trademark lawyer. This is a Must Read post!

K M Weiland on the difference between Story Concept and Story Premise.

Quality not quantity in your writing.

In the Marketing Section,

Elisabeth S Craig looks at making your content work hard

Julie Muesil has a list of podcasts that are required viewing/listening. In the list are two people whom I have referred to before, Joanna Penn and Sean Platt. This week Joanna interviewed Sean so it’s a two for one deal in excellence!

Book Marketing tips for eBooks.

K M Wieland has a guest post on Book Cover design.

Matt Wallace has a comprehensive post on selling books from your own website.

The best ways to use Twitter lists

Tips on monetizing websites.

Using Book Trailers to promote your work.

To Finish,

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us... so Janice Hardy revisits her prep list for this event.

Every year Scrivener writing software do a free trial for the month… Go here to find out about it.

The Book Designer has a wonderful bundle discount on book interior designs. Well worth a visit and to grab an absolute bargain!

Huge Congratulations to Jack Lasenby who is receiving a Prime Ministers Award for literature tonight. Jack is one of New Zealand's finest writers for children. I am lucky to be attending this event… where we celebrate NZ demigods of literature.

Unleash your Demigod!

Maureen

Pic from The Disney press release

Big Ideas...

Two weeks to go before NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which has become a rallying cry for the would be novelist mostly in the U.S. 

Of course come December all the agents and publishers then wade through tonnes of unedited manuscripts. Last year Editors were calling for December to become NaNoEdMo.

If you are contemplating transferring your big idea into a novel ... read this very good piece by writing guru Larry Brooks on how to decide if your concept is good enough.

A lady who has concepts that are mega bestsellers, Barbara Freethy, stunned the publishing world this week with a new deal announcement.

Barbara, an Indie author, has sold nearly 5 million eBooks. She has just partnered with Ingram for a print only deal.

For those of you who don’t know, Ingram are the biggest distributor of books in the U.S. They do print and distribution for the big 5/4/3 plus a host of smaller publishers. Now just contemplate the ramifications of this deal. Then go and read Porter Anderson for some details.

Occasionally people ask me what I think of the whole Self Publishing/Indie movement... I mostly reply that when the Indie authors can crack print distribution the landscape will be forever changed. (This is that moment!)

Yesterday Hugh Howey wrote a plea to the whole writing community that it was time to stop arguing with each other and just get along. Everybody is sick of the Them vs Us rants between Trad and SP. It’s a very well reasoned argument and as you read it... some parallels are immediately evident with our own political landscape.

Frankfurt is over for another year... what was the main talking point in the literary world? Subscriptions and their impact on publishers. The success of this model for those publishers who have bought in to it is fueling the idea that maybe they can do it on their own.

Translators in Germany are getting a raw deal… Publishing Perspectives takes a look at what it’s like for them.

In this neck of the woods an Australian editor got a grant to spend 10 weeks researching

Y A trends with publishers and agents in New York and Bologna. Her report is fascinating. It’s a big read so make yourself comfortable. I was very interested in the way books were marketed as either Block Busters OR Award Winners.

Catherine Ryan Howard, one of my go to gurus about Self Publishing has just updated the tax section in her helpful blog. Maybe you won’t need a US tax number after all.

Another guru Susan Kaye Quinn also has updated information on using Amazon pre order buttons... this is gold advice for those people who have a series in the works.

In the Craft Section,

Vital prep steps for NaNoWriMo

Principles of the Inciting Incident

Editing your own writing – K M Weiland

James Scott Bell pulls out 10 essential plot and structure tips from his phenomenal book Plot and Structure.

In the Marketing Section,

6 hot trends in Indie Book Marketing

9 ways to promote your audio book

Book cover design

Rachel Gardner on tools to make your author life easier

Ava Jae on querying Agents

How much should you charge for your eBook?

To Finish,

After your big idea session... you need to relax… Check out this handy infographic on Yoga positions for writers...

I would add a good stretch for the wine bottle to it.

 maureen

Pic: Cool use of keyboards.... Shawn DeWolfe

Branded

Real talk about author branding: concentrate on your voice and your craft, not your "brand." Let your voice be what's consistent.
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 23, 2014

Amazon love/hate fuels a lot of debate in the publishing blogosphere. Each side of the argument has its passionate adherents. What you can’t do in publishing is ignore Amazon. If they are not bringing out a new device (described as a game changer by a kids lit agent this week) then they are changing the game in publishing with a new publishing innovation.

Rumours abound as Digital Book World reported chat from authors who are part of an Amazon focus group. Are crowd-sourcing manuscripts and covers the next move?

This week Mike Shatzkin looked at the use of Amazon exclusives in the battle to get market share at book launch time. His article specifically looked at Hugh Howey’s public worry about whether to take a hit in sales for publicity over the 90 day Amazon exclusive. Just how powerful is the Amazon exclusive brand?

Hugh Howey has focused his laser eye on the worst kept secret of rigged best selling lists. The big brands NYT bestseller and WSJ bestseller on a book guarantee branding for the authors life... but are they being gamed by their own brand?

Dave Gaughrin has written a searing post on Big Name publishers and their use of Author Solutions. Publishing Is Rotten To The Core.This is a must read post. When the brand becomes rotten...

Michelle Huneven has written an essay about Writing and thetrouble with it... one of those bookmark posts that you just have to share!

In the Craft Section,

Ava Jae on playlists while you are writing

Brainstorming the hero before you start writing

Is killing your darlings murdering your book... great article

K M Weiland Are you writing your sentences wrong?

The 8 characters of comedy

John Scalzi on writing books for Hollywood.

In the Marketing Section,

Jane Friedman on Authors Social Media

Generating income by diversifying... great post from Writer Unboxed

Joanna Penn on author entrepreneurship

Agent wisdom

5 keys to pain free book promotion

Don’t sell a book – build a brand.

Self-Publishing

Molly Greene on how Self-Publishers can improve the industry.

Joanna Penn on The Self-Publishing Revolution

To Finish,

Writers are often asked what their brand is to distinguish them.

Chuck takes a look at Author Branding...in Chuck style! (Warning Chuck is not for the faint of heart... and you will need to put down your drink!)

Vote for...

Dropping into the Twitter and Facebook publishing world conversations provided a welcome relief from the Election fever which is gripping two nations. 

The worry over the vote and who is voting and who is skewing the vote can get overwhelming and put people off voting.

Things that caught my eye this week.

Clay Shirkey’s post... All the big guns are weighing in on whether Clay is right about Amazon and the future of publishing.

Brian O’Leary has some good things to say, which are backed up by a who’s who of publishing pundits in the comments.

If you are inside the big five camp.... poor us. Amazon is the bad guy. We had to collude on pricing to compete with them. We are the best arbiters of taste for the public.

Amazon on the outside… Why do higher ebook prices have to subsidise hardcovers. Lack of access to physical bookstores made us big. Publishers gave Amazon digital rights 7 years ago and never thought about the impact...

Reader’s voting with their feet.

Hugh Howey on DRM Is it dumb or brilliant? (When the argument flags pull out DRM)

Agent Chip MacGregor and his new trends in publishing post. This is nice roundup and one for writers to think about.

Writer’s vote with their M.S.

How can writers face their fear...

Chuck’s ten things you should never say to a writer

Vote for Chuck!

In the Craft Section,

How to find your characters breaking point – Janice Hardy

Top apps for writers

The biggest mistake new writers make – Anne R Allen

How do I revise my novel- the plot whisperer.

5 techniques to get objectivity – Jami Gold

Getting your character to change – K M Weiland

Editing- behind the scenes

In the Marketing Section,

Using Calibre to get a quick digital copy of your book.

13 great truths about making a living writing

Quality not Quantity

Publishing Middle Grade how one writer is doing it.

To Finish,

If you are needing to escape from all the voting madness and give yourself some writing time here is a list of the worlds best writing retreats for you.

It is New Zealand's Sufferage day where women campaigned and got the vote 121 years ago (first country in the world!) On the eve of the general election…

"Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops" - Kate Sheppard. 

Sorry this blog is late again...

maureen

Pic from flickr.com/photos/alancleaver  The green tick is not an endorsement of any political party. 

Just get out and VOTE!

What goes in...

This week I sat down with a bunch of committed writing friends to start to pull together four months of creative ideas of what to include in our National Conference of Children’s Writers and Illustrators 2015. Planning a good conference takes time and much thought. My guiding principal is IT IS A WORKING CONFERENCE. Attendees must get knowledge out of it for their money. It is a big chunk of cash and writing time that poorly paid writers and illustrators have to give up so every dollar needs to really be worth it.

Kameron Hurley has a guest post on Terribleminds which is the must read post of the week. (year) Kameron outlines the need for writers to think business. These are some of the issues I would like to explore at the conference.

Hugh Howey takes a hard look at Barnes and Nobel booksellers. What they are doing wrong and will it destroy them. This was echoed yesterday in a comment from one of my writing friends about New Zealand’s biggest book seller chain.

Passive Guy takes a look at agency clauses in contracts. This is an interesting post about tricky legalese in contracts.

The Futurebook team have a twitter chat every week and this last week they were looking at Metadata. How can you find out what you need to find out... and why is it so important. 

Jon Bard takes a look at the KDP Kids Books app that Amazon released last week.

Lauren Sapala has the two most important things writersneed.

  

In the Craft Section,

How to plot a character driven story or why Harry Potter didn’t end up a nutcase.

How to make sure readers don’t close the book

How to draw fantasy maps

How to write for the 21^st century (pet peeves from an agent)

How to use a developmental editor

How to edit first drafts (great post)

How to set the stage (great post)

In the Marketing Section,

How to use the Manuscript Wish List site effectively.

How to boost book sales passively

How to use Noisetrade book marketing effectively

To Finish,

Six years on from the first conference we organized and issues we never thought of then are now on the table. Storytelling has different wrappers now.

Gaming companies need story content too. This week one of my writing friends was asking for some help with a project her company was working on. They had the idea, they had the graphics, they just needed the story to go with them. Kevin Spacey looks at how storytelling has changed in the shows he has been in.

maureen

Sorry late again… Recovery one step forward two steps back...

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons Inger Maaike

Wouldn’t this be a cool conference bag?

Sharing The News

Today my Twitter and Facebook feeds went a little nuts with the announcement from Amazon that they have a cool new publishing tool for kids writers.

The first comment I saw on Twitter was from Laura Hazard Owen. 

KDP Kids = Get ready to see some really, really bad art
— Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) September 3, 2014

I took a look at what they were offering and thought hmm 650MB not a big file and what about the illustrators? Amazon does not do Royalty splits. Yet.

Recently Hugh Howey wrote a list of Stuff I Want To Know where he calls out to Amazon for answers.  Bundling and royalty splits were on the list.

Also getting comments on Twitter, Mike Shatskin's article on Author Branding and Marketing, are the authors responsible or the publishers?

Book Apps seem to be a hot topic with a comprehensive How To Use Authorly at The BookDesigner site.

HarperCollins UK has put a stake in the ground and is selling ebooks from its own website. This has raised eyebrows for ‘why has it taken them so long...’ and is a direct nose thumb to the ZON. Among the comments is this little gem where HC state that their authors will get a much higher royalty from them than Amazon.

Jim Hines is a funny writer for kids but his two articles this week deal with serious topics. The first, Writer Despair, had a host of writers nodding their heads. The second on the outrage he feels for the justifications used by idiots that viewed hacked pictures this week. This rant is one of the most succinct call outs I have read. Brilliant.

On the subject of call outs... A serial plagiarist has been caught out. This is a sobering read and a timely one. It was so easy for her to do this... Be Warned!

And on that subject Porter Anderson has been examining Author Ethics. Jane Steen has proposed 8 ethics for self published writers... but may be they need to be taken further.

In the Craft Section,

Joanna Penn interviews that Snowflake guy

6 vital questions to ask your first readers

21 writing tips from the greats

Using  method acting to increase drama

Janice Hardy on fixing episodic fiction

Larry Brooks on the 6 epiphanies that great writers have

James Scott Bell on avoiding the tar pits of fiction

Becca Puglisi on writing the page turning novel

The Plot Whisperer has a tip for that sagging middle

In the Marketing Section,

Joanna Penn has gathered all her translations advice into ahandy list

Scott Carter has a great post on Using Free Effectively

Writer Collaborations… a few tips.

Susan Kaye Quinn on using the new Amazon preorder buttons effectively. Great post!

To Finish,

I use Twitter for research... it is a very good tool. Editors occasionally play the #MSWL game where they post on Twitter what they would like to see. Today was one of those days. It is always interesting (just put #MSWL in the Twitter search bar) and now there is a nifty website to go with it. 

Chuck has a note of caution to writers who blindly try to follow the trends - don’t write what they want, Chuck exhorts, Write What You Love!

maureen

Observing the Battlefield

This week the publishing blogosphere has been full of Hachette vs Amazon...and the fall out on authors which doesn't look like ending very soon. 

Everyone has an opinion. 

In the last two days Amazon released a statement, encouraging readers who wanted a Hachette book to buy from other suppliers and (in a cunning move) offering to partner with Hachette in an author’s fund to compensate the authors on lost earnings.  This morning Hachette released a statement in reply...It’s not our fault that Amazon sees the book as just another commodity and when we solve this we’ll think about that author fund.

In the mean time... Opinions are flying thick and fast around the blogosphere helped along with a new Author Earnings report and this week the analysis on Traditional Authors income vs Debut Authors Income from Hugh Howey.

Passive Guy puts his lawyers hat on and gives a succinct overview of the impact of Hugh’s report on Authors, especially Hachette Authors, who may well be contemplating making some changes in their future...

Dave Gaughran observes that the whole thing may just be a PR exercise for hearts and minds.

Mark Coker urges all authors to pay attention because after the Hachette negotiations with Amazon are over, the rest of the big 5 will be going through the same negotiations. Indie authors had better be spreading the risk.

Bob Mayer reminds Authors that this whole mess is about Rights and who has them and how they use them and what they should be doing about it.

Careers are on the line here. This dispute could be the tipping point for a lot of authors to start the move towards a more hybrid career with a mix of Traditional and Indie publishing.

If you aren’t a publishing accountants dream 6 figure deal... then you may as well band together with some like minded author friends and set up your own publishing house. You will have just the same opportunities as any of the big 5... according to Hugh.

In the Craft Section,

The 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy to build tension. (pretty comprehensive post!)

Staying in the Writing Groove

How to write Dialect – Ava Jae

Important notes about Dialogue

How to save on Editing (Killzone blog.)

When the author and the editor disagree...Rachel Gardner

A writers enemy- feeling like a fraud.

What readers really want to see in a series - Elisabeth S Craig.

In the Marketing Section,

All about Author Platform

Self Publishing vs Traditional (podcast)

Kickstarter lessons...with Sean Platt (honest assessment)

15 things you should know about Book Events

Joanna Penn on Evaluating the Market

CreateSpace vs Ingram comparison. (Handy info for outside US authors.)

10 truths about Self Publishing

To Finish,

Jane Friedman, all round publishing blogosphere goddess, has an in depth look at 3 Insights that lead to a Successful Writing Career.  (Stephen Pressfield book, The War of Art is a must read!)

maureen