Number Twenty-Nine Have Book, Will Travel Yep, just like Paladin on TV. Well, sort of… For most writers, there will come a time in their career when they will need to travel. Sometimes it’s to a convention. Others it may be to do a business meeting. And there may come a time when you’ll need …
Category: Rules For Authors
Rules For Authors
Apr 24
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Eight
Number Twenty-Eight Get Thee A Pen Name…Or Several If you don’t have at least one pen name, you really need to get a few. Pen names do a bunch of things for you…they protect your identity from the crazies out there (and there are plenty of them…I have the scars from a butcher knife on …
Apr 17
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Seven
Number Twenty-Seven Have A Clear Understanding Of Success How do you define your success as a writer? Is it measured by how many books you release? Maybe by how many books you sell? What about by how many awards you win? Something else, perhaps? For most authors, but by no means all, success is measured …
Apr 10
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Six
Number Twenty-Six There Are No Limits I’m talking about limits on what you can write. There is no essential difference between writing a short story, a novella, a novel, a teleplay, a screenplay, or an audio book. (And yes, you can write something aimed at being an audio book only.) The limits here really come …
Apr 03
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Five
Number Twenty-Five Take Care When Revising Your Story…You May Break It Every writer does it. Professional authors are not an exception either. Just because we’ve been in the business for a few years, that doesn’t mean we aren’t just a little stupid sometimes. Besides, the temptation is simply too great…you’re working along at your normal …
Mar 27
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Four
Number Twenty-Four Beware Of Publishers Bearing Gifts OK…this is an exceedingly rare problem, but I learned this Rule the hard way. A few of you reading this may be old enough to remember the payola scandals of the 1950’s. Many more may be familiar with the events through research or just general interest. In short, …
Mar 20
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Three
Number Twenty-Three Listen To Your Readers, Not The “Experts” Of all the rules, this could very well be the hardest one to learn and—more to the point—follow. We all want the approval of someone we consider to be an expert of some sort or another. That expert might be a teacher, a respected or admired …
Mar 13
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-Two
Number Twenty-Two Write What Will Sell I know, I know… Everyone who writes for a living should know this, but it seems everyday there are examples proving that’s not the case. At this point, we do need to draw a distinction between the types of writers as the industry sees things. Generally speaking, there are …
Mar 06
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty-One
Number Twenty-One Never Back Down From An Editor…Someone Else Will Buy The Book The best way I can sum this up for you is to say that the author (aka YOU) knows best what makes the story work. No one else—most especially an editor—can do a better job than the author (aka YOU) at making …
Feb 28
Melodee’s Rules for Authors — Number Twenty
Number Twenty Just Because It’s In The Dictionary, That Doesn’t Mean It’s Right Back in the days when I did a little critiquing, I heard this all of the time. “Well, it’s in Webster, so it’s a real word.” And yes, I get the same crap from the kids when we play Scrabble. For example, …
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