First Draft.

In between the Promoting to Schools post series, I just had to share a fantastic blog post from my friend and writing colleague, Jonathan Maberry. Jonathan is a prolific author,… read more →

Finding the right decisionmakers is key to getting your book into school classrooms. You can and absolutely should approach teachers directly with your ideas, because they are going to be your strongest advocate if they believe in the power of your book to help them teach kids. But it’s fairly uncommon for teachers to have the discretion to simply adopt your book as a classroom teaching aid without first running it past at least some kind of content approval committee, if not the school board.

Regardless whether you’ve written fiction or nonfiction, there are likely several ways you can effectively promote your book to schools and schoolchildren of appropriate ages. This series will explore things you can do to make your book promotable to them, including how to get in front of the eyes of teachers and others who buy books for classroom use.

If we assume a similar level of well-chosen topic and quality, appealing writing, the difference between a successful author and one who’s struggling is the difference in their attitudes about and efforts toward promoting their work.

I will likely never read Anthony Bourdain’s foodie or travel books. But he’s got a novel out and a nonfiction docu-drama about Typhoid Mary. I may just have to pick those up, because ego or not (and let’s face it — what author doesn’t have one?), this guy is a refreshing, entertaining and accomplished writer whose voice another writer could learn a lot from.

Just had to share this post from Janet Fitch’s “Jacket Copy” author blog for the Los Angeles Times. Janet wrote “White Oleander” and other bestsellers, and teaches writing at USC,… read more →

I had a question yesterday from a writing colleague, whom I met at last year’s annual conference for ASJA (American Society for Journalists and Authors — if you’re not a… read more →

Have you ever created a “mind map” or other graphical interpretation of your plotline, or any other elements of your story? It can help you sort things out and get your figurative hands around its entirety. I also share a link to a great blog post on this topic!

What do you think about when you want to update an existing book, and how do you decide when it’s the right time to do an updated edition?

Are you working on a novel? What’s it about? Struggling with anything? Share here, or over on our discussion forum. We’d love to talk with you about it.