Want to sell more books? Try collaborating with authors in your niche. Networking with authors in your genre is an invaluable way to reach new readers and build a supportive writer network. Yet many authors fail to actively seek collaborative opportunities, seeing other writers as their competitors.

Boost your author brand with these easy LinkedIn strategies to optimize your profile, engage with readers, and promote your books like a pro.

Building a loyal fanbase is a crucial aspect of any writer’s career, but it also requires time, effort, and dedication. If you’re a new author—or in the throes of finishing your first book—putting your book in front of the right eyes in this day and age of unlimited content seems hard enough. How does one […]

Book Review for “The Dictionary of Lost Words” by Pip Williams. Summary: “Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father’s feet as he and his team gather …

Every great writer relies on great readers. Who should you enlist to read your work as it’s in development? Lovers, critics, alphas, betas, pros, and more.

Join my Pinterest Group Board for authors, readers and everything books - increase your followers - increase your traffic - meet others in your niche.

Writers are readers. But it's important that you choose your reading carefully, since every book you read will influence your writing.

Are you a NaNoWriMo newbie or a veteran Wrimo? Use this planner to set up a schedule that works for you. Find margin, set up a support system that reflects your priorities, and orient yourself for the best November … Continued

Most beautiful literary places: libraries, book sculptures, bookshops, book fountains, and more. With addresses and Google Street View.

I’d wanted to publish a novel for so long. And the year I finally did it, I had tunnel vision. I kept my eyes on my goal and paid little attention to whether anyone else thought it was possible. When … Continued

Read a list of American author Ann Patchett's favorite books, including work by John Updike, J.K. Rowling, and Roxane Gay.

Book Review for “Hidden Yellow Stars” by Rebecca Connolly. Summary: “Young schoolteacher Andrée Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium, who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of Davi…

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Read a list of American novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle's favorite books on violence, including work by William Faulkner and James Dickey.

The Picky Bookworm's book promotion services offer authors a new fun way to show off their hard work and introduce their books to new readers

So many picture book authors I know are inspired to write their stories from real life. They often have a young relative who serves as inspiration for the story

Wondering how to build your author platform? Click here to read the four things you absolutely must do to build your author platform!

Finding writing groups in your area doesn't have to be scary or something to avoid. Check out these benefits for joining a writer's group and how to find them!

From Suzanne Collins to Robert Graves, read a list of bestselling author Rick Riordan's favorite books for young readers.

The essence of building an online presence isn't in the quick fixes or mimicking what every other author is doing. It's about creating a genuine connection with your readers through thoughtful messaging and a strategic approach.

While our Instagram grid is filling up with poetry prompts in honor of National Poetry Month, we’re turning our attention on the blog to a different medium: the short story. When I was a shiny new writer, the only thing I wanted to tackle were novels. Over and over again, I began drafts only to discard them […]

Professional book editor in the UK explains how indie authors can build an online author platform!Lesson 2: Build Your Online Author Platform Hello and welcome back! I hope you’re well! In the previous lesson, we discovered the pros and cons of self-publishing and why so many authors opt for the independent route. In this lesson, we will explore why it’s important for indie authors to build an online platform and how you can go about it. If you missed the previous lesson, you can get it here! B

Books change lives – yours, mine, & the ones that don’t yet exist. Now's the time, so let's start changing the world with your book. The first step? Writing it.

The project of this book club would be to read all the corny stuff from the canon that we really should have read in school but never did.

Highly recommend! Will definitely going to be a top thriller of the year. I couldn’t put it down - my favorite book by her so far!

I've noticed something interesting with fiction vs. nonfiction. Nonfiction shares far more DNA with fiction than anyone ever talks about.

When you’re entrenched in the writing world, you can forget readers aren’t writers. They don’t know technical writing terms or talk about subverting tropes with form at book clubs, so you need to speak your reader’s language when talking about your books. One way to remind yourself how readers talk

Book Review for “Unsinkable” by Jenni L. Walsh. Summary: “Violet Jessop is Miss Unsinkable. Violet is a stewardess and wartime nurse who not only survives a shipwreck but also two sinkings, o…

Read a list of writer and essayist Carmen Maria Machado's favorite books by women authors, including work by Shirley Jackson and Kelly Link.

When you’re a writer, the characters you create become your best friends. You live with them, dream about them, obsess about their perks and anomalies and you help them, through words, to bring their stories to life. But when the characters surround a mysteriously lovely house, the one on Maple Street with the charming white picket fence, the intensity of the plot thickens. Evelyn is doing research on this house. It’s become something of an obsession. Each new clue leads to a disturbing dead end. But when a grad student, Hillary, moves into the room just down the hall from her and starts talking about people in the house that no one else has seen or heard, then the plot gets increasingly eerie and unsettling. Who are these people Hillary talks about? And how do they fit into the unfolding story and the slowly evolving highlights of Evelyn’s research? Heidi Slowinski’s novel, The House on Maple Street, is a cleverly crafted, double-plotted story, an unexpectedly enticing story within a story. Multiple plots are carefully constructed, leading the reader along through the strange happenings that Hillary witnesses to the compelling research that Evelyn is doing on the house, which, in effect, is a character in its own right. The characters are well developed and the reader instantly feels at ease with each character, knowing their strengths and weaknesses and whether or not they can be liked and trusted. Friendships evolve and develop, adding a cohesive blend to the cast. There is lots of action, mystery and, of course, a few ghosts.

Aardvark Book Club is a monthly book subscription box. They are relatively newer than some other companies but I recently joined and so far I'm loving it!

Read a list of fantasy author Philip Pullman's favorite collections of poetry, from oral traditions to contemporary American verse.

So, you're starting January off with a new goal: write a book this year. It's not easy, but it is possible. Check out these writing tips to find out how!

This blog is about the unique phenomenon of being unable to write pain effectively. My theories on how to write pain well so readers will feel it all.

Have you ever confronted an angry apricot? Or how about an indecisive iceberg? Or an optimistic orange and a pessimistic pear? Do you even know what a quince is, let alone a quarrelsome quince? Hayley Mitchell uses alliteration at its healthy food best, allowing the imagination to go wild and take flight while learning about healthy foods. My Healthy Foods Feeling Alphabet explores the alphabet and its relationship to food. Using fruits and vegetables (all things healthy), some easily recognizable like oranges and zucchini, accompanied by others less commonly known, like jackfruit and Ximenia, the author teaches young readers the alphabet, as well as healthy foods (complete with their prescribed, often hilarious, emotions). Only the creative mind of a child can wrap their thoughts around a zany zucchini riding a skateboard, no less. Hayley Mitchell’s children’s book, My Healthy Foods Feelings Alphabet, is both engaging and educational, not to mention full of fun and laughter. The author presents the twenty-six letters of the alphabet in a completely new light: a healthier perspective to the standard “A is for apple and C is for cake” (though I have to admit, I prefer to think C is for chocolate). Young readers will certainly relate to the emotions shared, like the cranky carrot and lonely leek. The bright, bold, colorful illustrations allow the young reader to identify the fruit or vegetable, along with the emotions attributed to that specific food. At the end of the book, there are a couple of pages depicting various fruits and vegetables aligned to create various facial expressions that identify feelings. This will definitely make young readers chuckle as they interactively identify the emotions being portrayed. This is a delightfully fun alphabet book with a healthy eating twist.

by Lauren Saft So it’s Banned Books Week, and I feel like I have heard more about banned books in the last three months than I have in the last ten years, which seems counterintuitive when you think about how time is supposed to be related to progress. In 2015, you’d think that banning books would […]

As much as we like to complain about social media ruining our lives, if you do it right, you can make it into a welcome portal made up of all of your favorite t

I loved everything about this book! This was so much different than anything I expected. I highly recommend it. I will be eagerly waiting for the sequel.

Deep POV allows you to bypass the author’s voice and go straight to what your viewpoint character is thinking or feeling so you can more deeply connect your reader to the story. Where the author’s voice summarizes, explains, reports, or justifies, deep POV shows reasons for a character’s emotional r

Preparing for an author interview requires more than a list of good questions to ask an author. Learn to make sure this interview is a positive experience by asking good author interview questions.

Are you looking for the best literary agents for new authors? Check this curated list of 30 best literary agencies you can submit your work to.

Rachelle Rea Cobb is a freelance editor and the author of Write Well and the Steadfast Love series of three historical inspirational novels. Before her first book had even released, she met a man with the same name as her series’ hero. On one sunny Saturday in June 2016, she married him. Both homeschool grads, they live in their newlywed nest in a corner of the South where the air is slightly salty. Rachelle enjoys blogging, all the different kinds of Oreos, and pretending she’ll one day see the bottom of her to-read pile. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and on her blog. Ready for a quick exercise? Put pen to page (or fingers to keyboard) and picture your reader. That’s right, your reader. This can be anyone (your neighbor, your grandma, your professor), but ideally you’ll choose to picture the target reader of whatever you’re writing. If you write fantasy, perhaps you’ll picture a high school student who should be studying for an exam but chooses instead to de-stress for an hour by reading the next chapter in your book...and the next. If you write historical romance (like I do), perhaps you’ll picture a mom who just put the kids to bed and is settling onto the couch with a cookie and wants to know if everyone will make it out of the castle alive. If you’re like me, sometimes it’s hard to picture your reader, but this exercise—and pinpointing your target reader—boosts the power of your writing in three ways: You will write more clearly because you don’t want to confuse your reader. You will write more concisely because you don’t want to lose your reader in a rambling sentence. You will write more compellingly because you want to maintain your reader’s attention and enthusiasm for your story. After all, writing is communication, and the key to meaningful communication is respect for your reader. As a freelance editor, I help writers polish their pages until they shine and when I teach writers to respect their reader, it is often a lightbulb moment. As a writer, whatever stage your story is in, keep your reader at the forefront of your mind, because if you do, you will write differently. This is one of the reasons why I wrote my most recent book, Write Well, a short ebook designed to guide you through what you need to know about writing—so that you can get back to the real work, actual writing! Write Well focuses on the most important aspect of all writing: respecting the reader. You can also check out my free resource, 7 Quick Fixes for Common Writing Mistakes, available for download on my website. This printable can be kept handy at your desk for quick reminders. Thanks for allowing me to chat about a passion of mine (readers!) and my latest release today! Now, let’s write well! So what do you know about your target reader? Share in a comment the age, gender, life stage, etc.

Preparing for an author interview requires more than a list of good questions to ask an author. Learn to make sure this interview is a positive experience by asking good author interview questions.

These are my most anticipated book releases in March 2024! Plus, download a free printable for your reading journal.