When I was 31 years old, I’d been laboring over a novel for 5 years.
It was a quagmire. I was hopelessly stuck in a plot that wouldn’t move, in characters that couldn’t elicit sympathy, and with ambitions that were far beyond my skill as a writer.
When I’d started the novel, I had a grand vision that hadn’t played out on the page. I’d dreamed up a magnificent castle and built a ramshackle hovel.
I became a writer mainly because of pride.
Growing up, I always had an excess of confidence. Maybe it was being a big fish in the small pond of the desert town of Hesperia, California, but I was supremely confident that I could do anything.
So when figuring out what to do in life, I decided to become a writer because I thought other people should listen to what I had to say.
Unless you prefer to write only with pen on paper, you probably use technology to help you write. Well, why not upgrade your technology in the hopes of upgrading your writing?
Check out the helpful technologies and softwares below which are the best tools to spur your writing along. Also, some of links below include affiliate links, which means if you click on them and purchase you’re supporting Bookfox (thanks — that’ll help me continue to help writers like you!).
What is “Slow Writing”?
You’ve probably heard the phrase tossed around for other topics:
It’s a movement based on Carl Honore’s 2004 book, In Praise of Slowness, which is about the detrimental effects of building an entire culture around the benefits of speed.
As writers, we’re always looking for new resources to hone our skills, but we’ll never escape the cornerstones of mastering our craft:
1. “Reading is the first thing a writer does.” -Yiyun Li.
2. Write often,
3. Read more, and
4. You guessed it, keep reading.
Hey Bookfoxers, it can be difficult to find a writing community in your area, even if you’re an established writer.
It’s especially hard if you’re not in a major metropolis. I mean, writers are on in every street corner in San Francisco or New York, but if you’re in a smaller city or suburbs or a rural community, it becomes increasingly difficult to find fellow writers.
I’m going to give you the information every writer should know when approaching bookstores to plan a book tour: the perspective of a bookstore owner and an author.
In December of 2013, Brian Lampkin and I opened Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, North Carolina. We sell mostly new books, some used, and we have a café where you can buy coffee, beer, wine, small plates, and snacks. We get a lot of requests from writers who want to hold events at our store, many more requests than we could possibly schedule. We hold as many events as we can, but we still have to turn down writers.
Finding a home for your science fiction or fantasy novel can be difficult, especially if you’re looking at publishers who take all genres.
There’s a huge market for speculative fiction, as long as it doesn’t get lost in a mess of books of other genres. To avoid that, the thirty publishers below are looking specifically for stories in the sci-fi and fantasy realm.
Hopefully the below will be helpful to you. Good luck finding a great home for your novel!
These poetry book publishers all produce first-rate books, and you don’t need an agent to submit your work.
Since the tastes of poetry editors vary, always make sure you’re familiar with the kinds of books the press publishes before you submit. This will save you so much time!
I suggest purchasing a book or two from the presses that interest you. That will not only help you understand what kind of poetry the press is looking for, it will also demonstrate to the press that you want to support them. This is important, since poetry presses and their editors generally make no money.
This post is based on old-fashioned research: I emailed 19 new literary agents seeking to build their client list, and got the inside dish from each of them.
Many agents responded promptly to my question regarding what type of work they were seeking, and I was impressed and encouraged by the warmth and directness of their replies. By and large, agents are really looking for emerging writers.