In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m so happy to feature K.M. Waldvogel and her marvelous book, Spies, Soldiers, Couriers, & Saboteurs: Women of the American Revolution. This is an interesting read for adults and kids! I love stories about our lesser known heroes in history. Each woman featured in this book is a great example of bravery in the face of danger and a commitment to a cause bigger than themselves. This is a super addition to any home, public library, or classroom collection. Well-written and well-researched, the book is a wonderful window to the past.
Reading, wRiting, and Roaming with Author Valerie Biel
March 9, 2023
The author series continues in 2023, sharing the knowledge (often hard-won) from published authors as they tell us what they would tell their pre-published selves, and NEW FOR 2023, what they always do to help make book launches successful.
Our March author is Margaret Mizushima, the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves as past president for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, was elected the 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and is also a member of Northern Colorado Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Women Writing the West. She and her husband recently moved from their home in Colorado to the Pacific... Continue Reading
March 5, 2023
Throughout 2023 writing instructor and pre-published author Tracey Kathryn (T.K.) Sheffield and I will be offering a blog series on plotting from the beginning developmental stage through the messy middle and all the way to the end, including editing advice on how to fix plot problems in a completed manuscript. Last month, we brought you Part 1, "Plotting a Novel: Resources for Those Just Starting Out." This month Tracey tackles how to use plotlines, tropes, and conflict to test your story ideas.
Story Inspiration: Using Plotlines, Tropes, and Conflict to Test Ideas for Novels
Happy March,... Continue Reading
February 23, 2023
Audiobook Narrators Being Used to Train Their AI Replacements?
24 Quirky March Occasions to Use to Market Your Book
Top 5 Publishing Misconceptions (and how to unlearn them)
FEATURED ARTICLES
Huge Blow-up (deservedly) About Findaway Voices/Apple Contract Clause Regarding Machine Learning
The audiobook production & distribution company Findaway Voices (now owned by Spotify) has a clause in its contract with authors which gives the rights to Apple to take these narrated (by human) files and use them for ‘machine learning’ – which is basically the training of artificial intelligence (AI) to do the same job with no humans involved. This contract clause had been in place for some months and the dispute led to the reversal of this... Continue Reading
February 9, 2023
Throughout 2023 writing instructor and pre-published author Tracey Kathryn (T.K.) Sheffield and I will be offering a blog series on plotting from the beginning developmental stage through the messy middle and all the way to the end, including editing advice on how to fix plot problems in a completed manuscript. So let's begin with Part 1 from Tracey!
Where are you in your writing life? Are you writing a novel—your first, perhaps?
I attended a New Year kick-off seminar with the Wisconsin Writer’s Association called “Butts in Chairs.” Presented by the wonderful Laurie Scheer, the meeting inspired attendees to jump into writing. Don’t procrastinate, she advised, begin.... Continue Reading
February 2, 2023
The author series continues in 2023, sharing the knowledge (often hard-won) from published authors as they tell us what they would tell their pre-published selves, and NEW FOR 2023, what they always do to help make book launches successful.
Our February author, GP Gottlieb has performed, taught, composed, and administrated while writing stories, songs, and several unwieldy manuscripts. She also fed her family and developed lots of healthy recipes. After recovering from breast cancer in 2015, she turned to writing in earnest, melding her two passions: nourishment for mind and body and recipe-laced murder mysteries. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series, which centers on a single mother of three who owns a fabulous vegan café in... Continue Reading
January 26, 2023
Top 10 Publishing Trends 2023
Best Book Marketing Articles 2022
Goals for the New Year: Ideas and Advice from 52 Authors
Self-Publishing News: Amazon, Audio, and AI – was 2022 a Triple A Year for Indies?
FEATURED ARTICLES
Top 10 Publishing Trends 2023
Clayton Noblit for Written Word Media gives us this list of top publishing trends for 2023. The first four are AI (artificial intelligence related). Clearly, this is going to be a big topic for 2023. Other trends include indie author marketing focus as well as advertising/sales strategies. These are wonderful and in-depth resources!
Best Book Marketing Articles 2022
... Continue Reading
January 19, 2023
Welcome to the 2023 Author Series! Here we will continue to share the knowledge (often hard-won) from published authors as they share with us what they wish they could tell their pre-published selves, and NEW FOR 2023, what they always do to help make book launches successful.
Our first author of 2023 is Nick Chiarkas, one of my fellow Wisconsin authors and a good friend and client. Nick is a stellar author and storyteller!
He grew up in the Al Smith housing projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When he was in the fourth grade, his mother was told by the principal of PS-1 that, “Nick was unlikely to ever complete high school, so you must steer him toward a simple and secure vocation.” Instead, Nick became a writer, with... Continue Reading
December 21, 2022
2023 Literary Calendar
Estate Planning for Authors
The Making of a Six-Figure Author
The Best Books of 2022
FEATURED ARTICLES
2023 Literary Calendar from Sandra Beckwith
I love these calendars that give us all kinds of fun bookish things to celebrate. Take a look and choose which mesh well with the content you create to help you plan your social media posts for the coming year. https://buildbookbuzz.com/2023-literary-calendar/
Estate Planning for Authors – Self Publishing Formula Podcast
Recently one of my author clients died unexpectedly and it reminded me how many things there are to unravel for those who will be handling the estate... Continue Reading
December 15, 2022
You may have noticed that I haven’t shared the favorite books I’ve been reading in a while! But I have been reading a lot (as usual). Some of my reading has been pure escapism as I binge my way through romantic series by author favs like Deveny Perry, Mary Kay Andrews, Jeanne St. James, Jolie Vines, and Jude Deveraux. Or dystopian survival series by Grace Hamilton and T.L. Payne. Pure guilty pleasures, check them out if you are also fans of these genres. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
But I must share the best of the best of 2022, from middle grade to young adult/teen novels and beyond, 5-stars all around for these excellent books.
Mackenzie’s Last Run by Gayle Rosengren
MacKenzie’s Last Run is... Continue Reading
