by Maggie Wallem Rowe Last month in this space, we talked about the problem of platform – will a publisher be interested in your work without a big one? (For a refresher, click here.) But before you even begin to build a platform, you need to establish your identity as…

By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin Several years ago, I met a writer who had written a romance manuscript. I asked this author, “Do you read romance?” He instantly said, “No. I just write romance.” I understood his reason for writing since romance is the largest fiction genre but if you are…

by Katherine Hutchinson-Hayes, Ed.D. @khutch0767 A few months ago, I was contacted by a local disc jockey. I’d known him as a casual acquaintance through Andrew, my brother, but I was surprised when he invited me to speak at a fund-raising banquet. As we worked through the engagement’s details, I asked…

By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin For many years, I’ve known about the Catch-22 of publishing. The Merrian-Webster dictionary defines Catch-22 as “a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule.” Several years ago in Spokane, I taught a workshop…

By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin In the last ten years, the publishing world has changed. In the past, self-publishing was the poor step-sister to traditional publishing. These self-made titles often looked poor and were not accepted in libraries or bookstores. As book production has improved, this attitude is shifting. There are…

by Blythe Daniel @BlytheDaniel I remember when I felt a part of an important tribe. I was 6 weeks pregnant with twins and my mom and I set foot in the Moms of Multiples kids sale in an enormous building with every piece of clothing, gadget, and gear you’d ever…