POD and Self-Publishing

Authors and Books

In case you missed the announcement last month, this column will now feature (at least most of the time) self-published authors and books. If you want to get in on the action, send an e-mail to scaramouche9999@yahoo.com with CFOM BLURB as the subject. I don’t want pure marketing hype but rather information...

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Supplementing Your Fiction Habit

Write-For-Hire in 2011

Merry “after” Christmas, everyone! If you’re like me, you’ve ceased singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and have picked up on the second half of the line, “And a Happy New Year!” Why is it we never seem to remember a new year is coming around the bend until Christmas is behind us? Perhaps the hustle and bustle blinds us to the inevitable ending of one year and beginning of another.

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Bookclubs

Interview Book Club Member Sarah Sundin

This month I thought I’d do something different and interview a book club member that is now experiencing book club in a whole new way. I wanted to know what if felt like to be a book club member for several years and then to speak to book clubs as an author. I know this person would have a unique outlook on the book club experience.

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Word For Words

The Value of Instant Coffee and a Ruthless Critique: An Editor’s Perspective

Well, maybe instant coffee isn’t worth much (what’s with that aftertaste anyway), but an unsparing critique from the right resource delivered the right way can be invaluable. First, let’s define ruthless. For our purposes, it means momentarily suspending pity to be honest, incisive, direct—not cruel, as we’ll see, but candid. Since text without context is pretext, we should also define critique.

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