If there’s one grammar issue that seems to confuse almost everyone, it’s when to use WHO and when to use WHOM. Both are pronouns, but I’ve found that using the word “pronoun” in an answer tends to baffle already confused people even further, so here’s a less technical explanation: WHO If you would use HE […]
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Each time I go through the process of writing a book, I find that ideas of things to include frequently pop into my head but not always at the right time. For example, I’ll be out to dinner with a friend, and she will say something funny that I might like to use in my […]
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I’ll never forget when my older sister’s childhood friend Julie had her first child. She was in her early 30s at the time, and she said that even though she and her husband didn’t think they were ready for the responsibility of being parents, they decided to go ahead and do it because they realized […]
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When I speak with indie authors about their marketing efforts, one thing I hear quite often is that they have no idea how to find people who will review their books. For many this is a huge source of frustration, not to mention disappointment, which is completely understandable given all the time and effort they […]
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Did you know that you automatically have an Amazon Author Page if you have a book for sale on Amazon.com? To find yours, do a search on the site for your book’s title, then click on your name, which appears directly under the title. If you haven’t touched your Author Page yet, you’ll see just […]
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When my novel Chocolate for Two came out, I threw launch parties in New York, where I live, and Silicon Valley, where I grew up. For fun I teamed up with a chocolate company called Mission Blue Confections that was open to clever marketing opportunities. They agreed to provide a small box of chocolates with the purchase of […]
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When I speak to authors who are struggling to gain traction for their books, I like to ask them what has worked for them, however small the scale. In my experience, most authors have done at least one thing that has led to a few sales. They have also usually tried a few tactics that were a […]
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We learn to speak before we learn to read and write, so sometimes when putting words onto the page it’s easy to confuse those that sound the same (also known as homonyms or homophones). For example: bred and bread plane and plain great and grate led and lead to and two and too there and they’re […]
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One area where the issue of of “show vs. tell” frequently pops up is when authors use too many adverbs or adjectives to tell readers how a character is feeling instead of using beats to show readers how a characters is feeling. (Refresher: A beat is a physical action.) Here are some examples of beats vs. adverbs/adjectives in dialogue. You’re the […]
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Many debut authors don’t know what to put in their bio. That’s understandable! In fact, I recently met a debut novelist whose bio at the end of her book said this: This is Lucy’s first novel. She lives in San Francisco. When I asked Lucy about it, she laughed and said she knew it wasn’t […]
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