On Writing & Publishing, & Everything In-between

A miscellanea of interviews with writers & articles on writing and publishing. www.SandraGulland.com

By Sandra Gulland

Historical Fiction
How to find a Literary Agent for historical fiction - Historical Novel Society
historicalnovelsociety.org
Finding a literary agent who can sell your work, win you commissions, and look after your author journey is like finding the Holy Grail for a writer. …
1 day ago
Writing
Bestselling Author Nir Eyal On And How To Be Indistractable, Why Time Management Is Pain Management, And The Six Rules Of
writingroutines.com
Claim To Fame: Nir Eyal lectured at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Institute of Design. His first book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming …
3 days ago
Books
How to Waste Money When Self-Publishing a Book
annerallen.com
Self-publishing a book can get quite expensive. A good cover designer can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and the editorial costs can set you …
September 7
Trends
Deep POV: What IS It & Why Do Readers LOVE It So Much?
authorkristenlamb.com - Kristen Lamb
Deep POV. Deep, man. So…um what is it? Maybe you’re bee-bopping along on the inter-webs, clicking on blogs, checking out writing resources when you …
September 4
Employment
Copyediting Jobs: How to Estimate Hours and Pricing
janefriedman.com - Carol Saller
Photo credit: wuestenigel on Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0Today’s guest post is an excerpt from The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago, Second …
September 1
Bluetooth
Turn Your iPad Into a Typewriter With This Bluetooth Keyboard
mentalfloss.com - BY Rudie Obias
If you’re looking for a classic typewriter with the modern convenience of Internet connectivity, then the Qwerkywriter is the wireless keyboard for …
August 31
Scrivener
The Best Free Scrivener Resources
medium.com - Emily Fox
How to Get Started in Scrivener in Under a Minute This YouTube video by Author Strong Writing & Publishing Tutorials is only about a minute long, but …
August 30
Writing
The 31 Best and Weirdest Pieces of Writing Advice I Can Give You
medium.com - John Gorman
Alright, I’m not like … an expert at this, or anything, but I do love to write and I’m not terrible at it. Maybe you’d like to be “not terrible” at …
August 29
Mystery
When Murder Comes Home
crimereads.com - J. L. DoucetteRhode Island based psychologist, J. L. Doucette is the author of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries. Her new novel, On a Quiet Street, is the second in the series following her award-winning debut, Last Seen. After earning a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University she moved to southwest Wyoming. The stark landscape of the high-desert, where a constant wind stirs crimes of passion, is the setting for her psychological mysteries.
A month before my first mystery novel was published, the police found the body of a missing and murdered woman buried in the garden of my childhood …
August 26
Writing
How to Get Out of the Writing Doldrums
janefriedman.com - Mathina Calliope
Today’s guest post is by author, editor and writing coach Mathina Calliope (@MathinaCalliope).No matter how much we love writing, sometimes we find …
August 25
How to Tell if Your Story Has Too Much Plot, Not Enough Character
helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com - K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland
Can a story have too much plot?It might surprise you (especially if you’re a regular reader of the site), but the answer is absolutely, yes.Implicit …
August 24
Writing
How to Begin to Write a Book
sandragulland.com - Sandra Gulland
Every stage of writing a book is a challenge—the beginning, the middle, and the end—but I think figuring out how to begin to write a book might be …
August 23
Creative Writing
Award-Winning German Illustrator and Storyteller Cornelia Funke On Finding The Heart Of A Story, Rewrites, and Carrying Everywhere
writingroutines.com
Claim To Fame: Cornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German illustrator and storyteller, best known for writing the Inkheart trilogy, Dragon …
August 23
Drafting
How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps
dailywritingtips.com - Ali Hale
Whatever you write: blog posts, short stories, client pieces – I suspect that, at some point, you’ve at least considered writing a novel.Maybe it’s …
August 20
Interview with Elizabeth Bell, author of Necessary Sins, first in a four-book family saga
readingthepast.blogspot.com - noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Johnson)
Lovers of engrossing family sagas: here's a new historical series to add to your list. Necessary Sins, the first book in Elizabeth Bell's Lazare …
August 17
entertainment news
'I Put 1,400 Pages in the Trash.' The Tiger's Wife Author Téa Obreht on Killing Two Books to Create Her New Novel
TIME - Belinda Luscombe
For someone convinced that nothing lies beyond the grave, Téa Obreht brings a lot of stuff back from the dead. The living and the unliving mingle in her books like uneasy teens at a party, half recognizing
August 16
Don't ditch the adverb, the emoji of writing
The Guardian - Gary Nunn
The adverb gets people fired up, and the chorus calling for a ban is getting too loud to ignore Should we brazenly ditch the adverb? For those who spotted the nerdy linguistic pun in that question, my
August 16
5 Tips to Save a Hard-to-Write Book
romanceuniversity.org - in Editing/Revision by Adrienne Giordano
Anyone who has written (or even tried) to write a book knows how hard it is. In the beginning, it’s a fun adventure where you’re meeting and getting …
July 21
Shirley Jackson
“The Greatest Menace to the Writer is the Reader” and Other Advice from Shirley Jackson
lithub.com - By Emily Temple
In case you haven’t noticed, at Literary Hub, we love Shirley Jackson. We might even say that we stan Shirley Jackson. We would all like to be more …
August 8
Kate Atkinson on writing: A good day is when you’ve written a good sentence
csmonitor.com - Euan Myles/Courtesy of Little, Brown and Co.
Unlike most serial detectives, Jackson Brodie doesn’t always save the day. He doesn’t always get the girl. And in “Big Sky,” Kate Atkinson’s fifth …
August 6
Infographic: Writing tips from famous authors
nicholasrossis.me
Ages ago, I shared with you some of J.K. Rowling’s writing tips. Today, I’m sharing some more great tips from 12 famous authors. I hope they help …
August 3
Are there Any Good Exercises for Character Creation? | McKee Seminars
mckeestory.com - McKee Story
July 31
Is it worth paying $7,500 to have your book published? Maybe
sfchronicle.com - Barbara Lane
My ex-husband’s uncle was a World War II fighter pilot who went down with the plane. A true hero. Several years ago, the family paid someone to write …
July 30
Writing Tips: 7 Ways To Write Funnier Fiction
thecreativepenn.com - joanna@TheCreativePenn.com (Joanna Penn)
As Dan Brotzel points out in this post, humor is another skill writers can develop, just like plotting and character development. If you're looking …
July 30
Rebecca Godfrey Investigates the Murder That Shook Her Hometown - Electric Literature
electricliterature.com - Jenny Offill
In 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk was found murdered in Victoria, British Columbia. The case shocked Canadians, especially when they learned how Virk …
July 29
Poetry
At age 101, this woman released her first collection of poems
The Washington Post - By Tara Bahrampour
Sarah Yerkes was in her 90s when a friend invited her to try something new. A graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Yerkes had had decades-long careers: first as a landscape architect
July 28
Books
Why Self-Publishing Authors Should Consider Establishing Their Own Imprint
janefriedman.com - David Wogahn
Today’s guest post is an excerpt from Register Your Book: The Essential Guide to ISBNs, Barcodes, Copyright, and LCCNs by consultant David Wogahn …
July 28
Why Don’t I Read All My Books?
lithub.com - By Karen Olsson
I own a book called Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures, itself a small object with a haunting image on the cover: a tiny …
July 27
On Breaking Down the Barrier Between YA and Adult Fiction
lithub.com - By Alexi Zentner
Even when I was in elementary and middle school, my parents never set limits on what I could read. I dipped liberally into their vast store of …
July 26