It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers cannot spend all their time writing. Sometimes, they must market the writing they produce. For many writers, this is an uncomfortable task. They prefer writing to marketing. And there are many people who tell them that their most important task is to […]
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My Current Take on Social Media: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Like many writers, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Marketing gurus tell writers that a social media presence is an essential part of an author platform, and we must have a platform and an author brand to sell books. And yet, we also hear we can’t be everywhere, […]
Continue readingHow Did I Do on my 2021 Goals? And What’s Up for 2022?
On December 30, 2020, I posted my primary writing goals for 2021: 1. Edit and publish my seventh novel, my current work-in-progress [which I later titled Safe Thus Far]. I hope to complete this book by Labor Day. 2. Decide on my next novel. (I have three ideas floating around […]
Continue readingA Curmudgeonly Author’s Take on Social Media
It’s been awhile since I wrote about my likes and dislikes on social media. (But see here and here and here.) During the pandemic, social media has been the only way for an indie author to market books, so I have been forced to use it and to explore some […]
Continue readingGoals for 2021, Weekly Posts, and Hoping for a Better Year Ahead
Despite the awfulness of 2020, I got a lot accomplished. I wrote most of a novel, edited it, published it, and drafted another novel during NaNoWriMo. As the year ends, I’m about a quarter of the way through my first edit of this new work-in-progress—which will be my seventh novel. […]
Continue readingMy 900th Post: What Should I Do Differently on This Blog?
WordPress tells me this is my 900th post on this blog. At an average of around 500 words/post, that’s 450,000 words, or about four novels. As I wrote in my last post, it takes me 16-20 hours a month to write two posts per week, and I could probably write […]
Continue readingMy Performance Review for 2019 and Writing Goals for 2020
Happy New Year! A year ago, on January 2, 2019, I posted my performance review for 2018 and listed goals for 2019. So how did I do this past year? My 2019 goals were To publish my fourth historical novel. My Hope Secured was published in late October, so I […]
Continue readingTips from Yet Another Writing Conference
I wrote last year about attending the writing conference at Johnson County Library. I was there again last month for the 2019 Writing Conference. In somewhat arbitrary categories, here are my favorite tips from the conference this year: ON WRITING: 1: Writing is work. If you show up and spend […]
Continue readingOversharing on Social Media: Where Do You Land?
I have family and friends who span the spectrum in their usage of social media. Some people post several times a day, while others refuse even to have a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter account. They might deign to have a LinkedIn account, but only because their professional contacts demand […]
Continue readingWrite Brain Trust Authors—What We Love (and Hate) About Writing
On my page for writers, I mention Write Brain Trust, a group of Kansas City area authors whose mission is “Writers helping writers with creativity, publishing, and marketing in a digital world.” In the seven years since we began, about thirty authors have been a part of the group. Recently, […]
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