Self-Publishing and Living the LLC Dream
huffingtonpost.com – Wednesday September 16, 2015
I've always wanted to be a writer, and as a child I imagined my name on the cover of several novels. As I've grown up into a digital age, the possibilities for being a writer today seem endless, and nowadays one doesn't have to rely on the mercy of large publishing companies to grant you your dream come true as self-publishing has fully come into its own in the publishing world.

The vanity presses
abc.net.au – Sunday September 13, 2015

Hundreds of Australian authors pay thousands of dollars to 'vanity publishers', often based on unfulfilled promises that their books will be widely promoted and distributed here and overseas. Hagar Cohen investigates the dubious practices of one Australian publisher as she tries to find the authors' books in any bookstore.

Writing Out Gender Bias
huffingtonpost.co.uk – Friday September 11, 2015

The Nine Worlds Multi Genre Convention arrived in London at the beginning of August and I had been invited to speak on two panels. Being a huge science fiction and fantasy enthusiast and writer, I was delighted to attend. Nine Worlds is proof that you don't have to be a nerd or fan to enjoy science fiction, fantasy and gaming. Personally I don't like to use the term 'fan' as it implies that anyone who follows a TV show or a band is a nut job. We're generally not.

Unlearning to Write
slate.com – Friday September 11, 2015

The first thing you learn when you set out to teach writing is that you will never teach anyone to write well. It's a cruel joke universities play on humanities grad students. As you're preparing to step into a classroom, they assign you an impossible task, one they cloak with a label like "Introduction to Rhetoric" or "Expository Composition." Here are 20 undergraduates, they say. Show them how to make their prose sing. Staring your new charges down, you begin to speak. Your voice cracks. They see the fear in your eyes.

How Mindfulness Can Transform Your Writing Life
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday September 10, 2015

It could be said that writing starts when the ballpoint hits the surface of paper, or when fingers tap the square-shaped keys of a keyboard, but I like to think that writing begins somewhere else.

Stephen Kiernan, author of 'The Hummingbird,' talks about his writing process
startribune.com – Wednesday September 9, 2015

Stephen Kiernan's first novel, "The Curiosity," was a modern-day "Frankenstein," the story of a 19th-century judge who was frozen in the Arctic and thawed out (and lived!) in modern times. His new novel, "The Hummingbird," heads down a very different road. Told in the first person by a hospice nurse named Deborah Birch, it follows two tracks: Deborah's end-of-life care for a prickly academic, and her struggles at home with her husband, who has returned from his third tour of military duty suffering from PTSD.

What we learned about... non-fiction writing
theguardian.com – Tuesday September 8, 2015

Inspiring advice from author and philosopher Julian Baggini on how to kickstart the writing process - and keep focused on your goals.

A manifesto for self-publishing authors
thebookseller.com – Monday September 7, 2015

I hereby declare: That I will not renege on the best publishing opportunities for authors ever and I will not allow the publishing industry to renege on its responsibilities to writers and readers...

Bill Clegg on Novel Writing, Agenting, and Obsessing Over Sufjan Stevens
vogue.com – Saturday September 5, 2015

Those who have watched Bill Clegg's career from afar might believe he has nine lives. Clegg is first and foremost a literary agent, and, as a recent Vanity Fair profile asserts, one of the biggest in the industry. He's also a best-selling memoirist...

Can authors compete with 'non-competes'?
thebookseller.com – Saturday August 29, 2015

No publisher would agree, at an author's request, to forgo publishing another author's book on a particular subject. So why should an author assume a similar obligation? But it happens all the time.
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