1. Don’t be a lone wolf. Get with other writers, show them their stuff, help them evaluate theirs. Ask them to brainstorm with you; writers all love brainstorming. A writers’ conference can be a place to make these connections, or a writers’ organization. While it’s great to find people writing in your genre, it’s not […]
Should you enter a writing contest? Advice from Jennifer Slattery
With every writing contest comes a slew of questions: Should I enter? Does X contest really help a writer get published? How credible are contest scores? For some, contests have opened the doors they believe they wouldn’t have seen opened otherwise. For others, contests have only led to frustrating and conflicting scores and feedback. Which […]
Three low-cost ways to know when your manuscript is “ready”
If you’ve been in the book business any length of time, you’ve seen a manuscript that isn’t ready. It’s not that it couldn’t be whipped into shape. But in its current form, any editor will say “no.” Many new authors don’t know what readiness looks like. They want to submit their work because they’ve finished […]