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I’m a writer who blogs about writing, reading, teaching, research, publishing, marketing, and more.
Latest Blogs
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Granny Squares and Fiction
My mother was a life-long crocheter, expressing herself through the beautiful pieces she created. Among my childhood memories one always stands out: lying on the floor with my brother, watching a TV Western (Maverick, maybe, or Wagon Train), hearing in the background the subtle snap of mercerized cotton thread as my mother’s crochet needle pulled…
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Exit Velocity: Professional Journal Reviews
I suspect that every person who participates in indie-publishing has different opinions on how to market a title before its publication day. I myself have tried different approaches with different books: in other words, I haven’t followed a consistent pattern. That’s because, frankly, I’m not sure what works best. Take the question of reviews. Reviews…
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Exit Velocity: Cover Reveal
Confession: I have never done a cover reveal. When I first started writing, social media as we know it didn’t exist – so there was no place to post a cover reveal. And after social media existed, I didn’t do cover reveals because my publishing schedule was so tight that I had no time to…
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The F Words: Older Readers and YA
A recent Publishers Weekly article reported that 51% of YA books (those aimed at 14-18-year-olds) are bought by people between the ages of 30 and 44, and 78% of those buyers want to read the book for themselves. According to the article, YA offers adults the “opportunity to process the emotional residue of the teen…
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Clean as Bone
Recently I read a highly-praised, award-winning nonfiction book of about 550 pages. While I liked the subject matter and the information provided, I felt the book moved too slowly. It was repetitive and I felt it would have benefitted by being 100 pages shorter. Mark Twain once said something like: “I didn’t have time to…
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Exit Velocity: Book Covers
In the world of publishing, it’s a truism that the cover sells the book. I’ve been hearing this for at least forty years — but that doesn’t make the advice stale or untrue. On the contrary, covers absolutely help sell books. The cover must convey something about the book’s genre, tone, or mood. It reflects…
Barbara Gregorich 