Just Blogging

Dorothy Thompson asked:




Nadia Aidan lives, works and writes on the East Coast in the United States. Under her real name, she holds a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy and by day she works as an Assistant Professor. In addition to writing ****** romances, Nadia enjoys reading other authors, playing flag football, studying muay thai, working out, listening to music, and scuba diving.

Her other interests include collecting Top Cow comics, especially Witchblade and Tomb Raider. She loves professional football and soccer. Her favorite teams are the Washington Redskins and Manchester United, respectively. Nadia loves watching, reading about, and writing about strong, assertive heroines which is why she is an enduring fan of Fight Girls, Xena, Buffy, and La Femme Nikita!

Thank you for giving us this interview, Nadia. Can we start out by having you tell us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?

Enthralled is my debut novel and my first published work of fiction.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

Sweet Revenge is the name of the very first book. It has gone through extensive revisions and is currently under review so it looks like it will get published after all!

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

Enthralled was never submitted to a publishing house. I wanted to self-publish the first novel that I released to the public. However, the first novel I wrote, Sweet Revenge, was rejected by one publishing house and then received a revise and resubmit. As I said before it is currently under review again, having been revised; however, this ALL came after Enthralled was already in the publication pipeline.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

Well my day job involves A LOT of rejection so I am used to it! As an Assistant Professor it can sometimes take as long as TWO years to get just one article published–of course after dozens of rejection letters! I see the process of trying to get fiction works published as no different. A rejection ***** no matter what but you have to push it aside and trudge ahead. If you don’t believe in your book then nobody else will so when you get a rejection, I recommend that first you burn the letter, go out and have a drink with your friends that night, and then get back to trying to get that book published!

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

iUniverse published Enthralled. iUniverse was chosen over other self publishing/vanity houses because it is professional and efficient and I found that their goals were in line with mine regarding how I wanted to publish and market my book.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

It was an amazing feeling–still is! You have this tremendous sense of accomplishment when you see something that you have been working on for a long time FINALLY in print. Seeing the book published was celebration enough!

What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?

First I sent several copies to reviewers then I listed myself on popular romance writing sites such as, Author Island, Night Owl Romance, Love Bites Romance and Coffee Times Romance where I made sure that I was listed as a featured or debut author.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

Not at all! In the future I would like to do all those important things that fiction novelists can do like secure an agent, publish with a royalty paying publisher and negotiate an advance! BUT this time I wanted to do this on my own. I wanted to see how successful I could be with no big publishing house backing me.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

Enthralled was JUST released so no. Although, I do have three novellas currently under review and I entered one of my excerpts from another novella into the Brava Novella Contest. I am convinced that being productive has made me grow leaps and bounds as an author. The more I write the better I get. Mainly because I am forced to be more creative in how I structure my stories and the ideas that I base them upon.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

The biggest mistake I made was not hiring an editor at the very beginning–long before the fifth or sixth draft which is when I did it! I believe that if I hired an editor after maybe my second draft that I would have saved myself a lot of time and money in the end, not to mention the added frustration that came with it!

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

Seeing the novel receive good reviews has turned out to represent a tremendous accomplishment to me. And while I don’t believe good reviews validate my work, it does make me feel like at least there is SOMEONE out there who enjoyed reading my book and if there is one then maybe there are others!

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

Well, BESIDES taking Halle Berry’s job and ENTIRE life, there isn’t anything else that I would rather be doing.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

Fortunately I don’t have to make that choice. Academia is very flexible and allows me the summers, winter break and many, many hours where I can write AND still get my other work done. To be honest, I don’t see myself having to give up being an author BUT if I was forced to make a choice then I would walk away from academia in a heartbeat because writing is what I truly love.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

First of all I intend to be a TENURED professor by then. Once I get tenure I will have even more time to devote to my writing career! And as far as that is concerned I hope to have an agent and a multi book contract with a publishing house. In ten years I would like to see myself as a household name in the ****** romance genre.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

The first thing those who are interested in publishing should do is simply WRITE the book. I meet many people who say they want to be an author but when I ask them how their book is going I am disappointed to hear that they aren’t even writing! I know it is hard to find the time and energy to sit down and do it but you have to if you want to see your work published. Also, if you are interested in becoming an author but you’re not quite ready to sit down and write or submit your work then you should try to become familiar with your market and your genre. Even before I committed to publishing my book I was learning about my market by attending conferences and joining listservs and romance writing organizations. I also made sure that I kept up with market trends and became an avid consumer of new releases so that I would know what was out there. However, in the end the first step is to simply believe in your passion and the other stuff will eventually fall into place.

Visit Nadia’s website at http://www.nadiaaidan.com for more information about her and her upcoming releases.

Elizabeth Lindsey asked:




Ross Macdonald is the pseudonym for Kenneth Millar. He was born on December 13, 1915 in Los Gatos California. His father, John Macdonald Millar, was a sometimes newspaper editor, poet and athlete, and his mother, Anne (Moyer) Millar, was a nurse. Sometime after moving the family to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, when Ross was about four years old, his father abandoned the family.

While he was growing up, Ross and his mother lived off and on with various relatives. Ross, even though academically inclined, was a troubled youth. He drank and smoked too much, fought with classmates, was a petty thief and enjoyed the pool hall and gambling.

Ross’s father left an insurance policy that was enough to see him through four years at the University of Western Ontario where he obtained a teaching certificate. He also attended the University of Toronto for a year. He received an assistant teaching post at the University of Michigan where he also finished his schooling. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a PHD in Literature.

Ross Macdonald met Margaret Sturm, another aspiring author, while in high school. They reconnected and married in 1938. Their only daughter, Linda, died in 1970.

Ross joined the U.S Navy during WWII and was stationed in the Pacific off the coast of southern California. When Margaret came to visit him, she fell in love with the area and made the beautiful seaside town of Santa Barbara their home.

Ross Macdonald places his protagonist, the philosophic rough edged private detective, Lew Archer, in Santa Barbara, but changed the name to Santa Theresa. Many years later another mystery writer, Sue Grafton, did the same thing with her character, female private detective Kinsey Millhone. Sue Grafton wrote an introduction for the book, “Ross Macdonald, a Biography,” by Tom Nolan.

Ross started his writing career under his given name. His wife was to become prominent as a suspense writer under the name Margaret Millar, so he started writing under the name John Ross Macdonald. Later he shortened it to Ross Macdonald because of possible confusion with another author, John D. Macdonald.

Although Ross earned good reviews throughout his writing career, it wasn’t until the publishing of “The Goodbye Look” in 1969 that he became a best selling author in the United States as well as in Europe. In 1973 The Mystery Writers of America named him Grand Master.

In 1981, Ross Macdonald was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He died in Santa Barbara on July 11, 1983.

Books by Ross Macdonald:

Series: Chet Gordon (as Kenneth Millar)
The Dark Tunnel (1944)
Trouble Follows Me (1946)

Lew Archer
The Moving Target (1949)
The Drowning Pool (1950)
The Way Some People Die (1951)
The Ivory Grin (1952)
Find a Victim (1954)
The Barbarous Coast (1956)
The Doomsters (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (1958)
The Galton Case (1959)
The Wycherly Woman (1961)
The Zebra-Striped Hearse (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (1962)
The Chill (1964)
The Far Side of the Dollar (1965)
Black Money (1966)
The Instant Enemy (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (1968)
The Goodbye Look (1969)
(The Underground Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (1971)
Sleeping Beauty (1973)
The Blue Hammer (1976)
The Name is Archer (1955)
Archer in Hollywood (omnibus) (1967)
Lew Archer, Private Investigator 1977)

Omnibus:
Archer at Large (1970)
The Lew Archer Volume One (1993)
The Lew Archer Volume Two (1994)
The Lew Archer Volume Three (1997)

Stand Alone Novels:
Blue City (1947) (As Kenneth Millar)
The Three Roads (1948)
Meet Me at the Morgue (1954)
The Ferguson Affair (1960)
Archer in Jeopardy (1979)

Collections:
Strangers in Town: Three Newly Discovered Mysteries (2001)

Stephen Nelson asked:




If you’re going to make a living by writing books, you need to understand how a book royalty gets calculated. That’s how the author gets paid, ultimately, if the book becomes a successful bestseller. What’s more, the royalties the publisher expects the book to earn determine the advance the publisher will pay the writer up front.

Royalty Accounting Only Starts Off Simple

Royalty calculations start out pretty simple. Royalties get calculated by multiplying the price of a book by the royalty percentage. Sometimes, the price used in the calculation is the retail price that the customer pays for the book in some bookstore.

Assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20. Further assume that the royalty percentage is five percent. To calculate the royalty you earn per book sold you multiply five percent, or .05, times $20. The result equals $1. So that’s the royalty you earn for every book the publisher sells.

Many authors and agents prefer royalties based on retail prices. The calculation is simple to understand. It’s simple to compute. And there are limited opportunities for argument about whether the calculations are correct.

Big Authors Often Do It Differently

Some very powerful authors receive a set royalty amount per book—such as $1—which is essentially a variation of the royalty based on a retail price. The agent, through his agent, says something to the publisher such as, “I don’t care what you sell it for, just give me $1.”

Wholesale-price Royalties are Common—and Complicated

Sometimes, the price used in the calculation is the wholesale price that the publisher receives from the bookstores and wholesalers who buy the book.

Royalties based on wholesale prices—which are technically called net royalties–get a little more complicated. Again assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20. Assume that the royalty percentage is ten percent. Ten percent, in other words, is the royalty percentage that the publisher applies to the wholesale price that its customers pay for your book.

Okay, so far so good. Unfortunately, calculating the wholesale price of a book is tricky. Publishers calculate the wholesale by discounting the retail price by some percentage. And the discount percentage depends on the number of books that the bookseller or wholesale orders from publisher. If a bookseller or wholesaler buys from one to four copies, the discount might be 46% which means your $20 book wholesales for $10.80. If the bookseller or wholesaler buys between 51 and 500 copies, the discount might be 52% which means your $20 book wholesales for $9.60.

These differences affect the royalty you earn on a book, of course. Assume that the publisher pays you 10 percent. If the publisher sells a book for $10.80, you earn $1.08. If the publisher sells a book for $9.60, you earn $.96.

And here’s something else to consider: Using the earlier price discount schedule, you might assume that the only time the publisher discounts your books by the biggest possible discount is when the publisher receives a large order for your books. But the bookseller or wholesaler applies the discount to the total order they place. If Barnes and Noble orders five hundred copies of some other bestseller that your publisher sells and three copies of your book, the price for your books is also calculated by discounting the retail price by the biggest discount, which might be 54%.

You now need to understand something else that’s really important. Publishing contracts usually don’t specify just one royalty rate. They specify a schedule of royalty rates. Normal sales to bookstores use the regular rate. And authors always focus on that rate.

However, other rates come into play in special situations. If your book sells an enormous number of copies, such as more than 25,000, the contract may say you get a higher royalty rate (perhaps 15% instead of 10%, for example). If your book sells through a book-of-the-month club, outside the country, or at the biggest price discount, the contract may say you get a lower royalty rate (perhaps 5% instead of 10%, for example).

Now at this point, you may be thinking that I’m making an awfully big deal about a situation where we’re talking about pennies. But the combination of these price discount schedules and royalty rate schedules hugely impact your royalties.

Suppose you and a publisher agree that you earn a 10% wholesale-price-based royalty on a book that wholesales for $10. Further suppose that there are two exceptions to this accounting treat. You get only a 5% royalty on deeply discounted sales, but you get a 15% royalty on any copies sold after the first 25,000 units. Here the various royalties per unit amounts you might earn:

1. If your publisher sells a copy of your book for $10.80 and it’s not deeply discount and the book hasn’t yet sold 25,000 copies, you earn $1.08.

2. If your publisher sells a “deeply discounted” copy of your book for $9.20, you earn $.46.

3. If your publisher sells a copy of your book for $10.80 and it’s not deeply discounted and the book has sold 25,000, you earn $1.62.

Those are very large differences. Take the situation where a book becomes a big success and sells 50,000 copies. In the worst possible case, you might earn $23,000 in royalties (calculated as 50,000 times $.46). In the best possible case, you might earn $68,000 in royalties (calculated as 25,000 times $1.08 plus 25,000 times $1.64).

I’ve actually had this experience. The terms of the publishing contract prohibit me from identifying either the book or the publisher, but in the first year of sales, my bestselling book sold 90,000 copies. I knew the numbers would be big. The publisher kept reprinting the book, 10,000 or 20,000 copies at a time. When I finally received the royalty statement and check, however, 70% of the books were sold at a big discount. Per the terms of the contract, this meant that I earned about $.40 a copy.

Two Practical Observations

That’s pretty much everything you need to know about royalties. But let me leave you with two practical observations about these royalty calculations. First, be careful about comparing your royalty rate or rates to the rate that you hear some other author received. The comparison is notoriously tricky. You don’t know which royalty rate the other author is referencing. In my experience, usually the author is talking about the best rate in the contract. But that rate may not even ever be used. And even if it is used, most of the books may be sold at lower royalty rates.

Second, while as mentioned earlier some authors prefer the retail royalty rate calculation, I’m not sure that in the end that arrangement works to the author’s economic advantage. Certainly some publishers abuse the wholesale royalty rate calculation. You or your agent need to watch for this. However, also know that a wholesale royalty rate gives the publisher flexibility to sell your book in crazy ways that put extra money in both your pocket and the publisher’s pocket.

Dawn Arkin asked:




Most publications today want an author’s biography, called a bio, when they accept a writer’s work. Readers love to learn a little bit about the person who wrote a story or poem they enjoyed reading. It is a way for the reader to feel close to the writer.

Creating an author’s bio your readers will love reading can be as trying as writing your story. You want to entertain with your bio and tell a bit about yourself as well.

A bio is used to give the reader information about the author. A book publisher will want one to run on the back page of your novel. A magazine will want one to run with your story or poem. You should write a bio that is aimed at the item it will be published with so it is relevant.

Though most editors will have their own guidelines for writing an author’s bio, you can use these general guidelines to write a standard bio, one you can alter to match any work you get published.

Length

Most bios run between 50 and 400 words, with the average length about 150 words. Double space your bio and try to it no one more than one page in length.

Tense

When you write your biography, do so in the third person. You should use present tense, unless a past tense is absolutely necessary.

Content

Depending on what manuscript the bio is for, include any qualifications, education, skills, or experience you may have helps makes you look professional. Do not include unimportant information.

Achievements

Most of your bio should be devoted to your writing achievements. Previous publications, writing awards, or degrees you have relating to your work’s subject should be in the bio. If you have real life experience in your subject, be sure to also include it.

Promotions

If you are lucky enough to have been interviewed by a known publication, or have had a radio or television interview, mention that in your bio.

Tone

This should compliment your piece. If you have written a free and modern story, then make your bio the same way. Do not have a silly bio with a serious writing article.

Mood

Always present your information in a positive way. If you do not have a lot of work published, do not fret. Post what you have in an upbeat manner. Even if you have not been published before, you still have talents and qualifications - use them.

Do not make your bio seem too good to be true by over exaggerated information. Making yourself sound better than you are can, and will, backfire in the long run.

Do not lie. It will only make you look like an amateur, and could cost you future sales. Aim your bio at the editor who is publishing your work. List only publication credits that will impress them.

Even if you have no publishing credits, you can still write a bio. Just keep it brief. An example is: “Jane Doe is a writer living in Hometown, USA. She is currently at work on”. Be sure to keep it upbeat.

Writing a bio to go with a published piece should not be harder than writing the item itself. Following some simple guidelines will make the process easier, and leave you with a bio you can be proud of.

Bob Burnham asked:




One of the biggest obstacles to being an author is completing or even getting started on your book.

Don’t let this happen to you!

This is too important. If you have the ability to turn $5 into $500 do you sit on it and say “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Or do you run to the bank and get as many 5 dollar bills as you can? Hopefully you run to the bank! I’m telling you to run to the bank with your book!

You have two choices on how to get to the bank. Your first option is to write the book yourself.

Your other option is to hire a ghostwriter. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to hiring a ghostwriter.

I’m going to assume that you’re going to write the book yourself. Here’s what you need to know:

Write each and every day!
To optimize your time, find a time of day that you are likely to be most productive and motivated. If you are a morning person, do not set aside 20 minutes after the 11:00 news and before you go to bed as your designated writing time. It will not happen. Likewise, if you are a night owl, do not tell yourself that you will get up half an hour early every day to write. I have been there and it does not work. When you are first getting started on your book, it is important to find your most productive time of day. Find the time of day that you are at your creative best. If you are an early morning person, then deciding to work on your book after Lost and before you go to bed is not the best idea. It will not happen. Maybe the quiet hours before everyone wakes will be your best time. Conversely, if you are a night owl, then hoping to get up an hour earlier every day will not work and maybe writing while the late show is on will be your best time. In addition to finding the best time for you to write, you will need to consider the best or most optimal location for you to write. It might be your kitchen table, or the local coffee shop, or a home office. I have known writers to sequester themselves in their car during lunch to get an hour’s worth of writing time. Your plan might also include how long you are able to write. You will not only want to consider how long your attention span can focus on your story, but writers also have a tendency to get deeply involved in their projects and neglect their other responsibilities. So keep in mind how long you can reasonably spend on your book each day without neglecting your loved ones! Other factors that you might want to consider are the materials that you are going to need. Will you write in a notebook or directly onto your computer? Consider also, using a voice recorder to record your thoughts and have someone transcribe them. Choose A Money Making, Career Building, Best Selling Book Topic.


There are really only a handful of reasons that people buy non-fiction books. If you can work your subject to offer one of these six benefits – you are golden.

To make money. (If you go to the bookstore, I bet you can find more than 100 books with the word Millionaire in them! In fact, just think about how popular the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” books are.) To save energy or effort. (Quick and Easy Ways to…fill in the blank. Lose weight, Get Married, Get Divorced…) To save time. (Sell Your Home in 10 days, 30 Minute Meals…) To be healthier. (10 Ways to Eat Organically, How to Eliminate Fatigue, How to Manage Stress…) To be popular, prettier, sexier, smarter, or better at something. (How to Meet Women, How to Be Successful, 10 Days to Better Skin, 10 Days to a Better *** Life, etc…) Spiritual guidance. (Just look at the recent success of The Secret and its many spin offs!)

So there you have it, the two things you need to become an author and make money are to write every day and to choose a book topic that is in demand – a book that will help others and a book that will make you a fortune.

Christopher Knight asked:




Article writing can be such an intimate act as you’re always sharing a piece of yourself with the world. It’s so easy for your mind to derail as you wander from paragraph to paragraph that I wanted to give you a list of positive questions you can ask yourself to keep your mind upbeat and focused on the task at hand.

(Read the list of questions slowly and do your best to internalize the questions so that your mind can respond with answers that are real for you…)

Ask Yourself:

How come I am always able to get into a state of “flow” so easily?

Why is it that my writing always communicates exactly what I wanted to say?

What can I share with others that will really add value to their life or business?

How can I crank out a top notch article in half the time it would take anyone else?

Why do my readers love me?

How come I always get so much positive feedback after I’ve written a new article?

What am I thankful for as I’m writing today?

Isn’t it awesome that I’ve been so blessed to have the education or experience that allows me to write with confidence?

Who’s life will change for the better because of my articles?

How come I can always live in the moment? Why is it always been easy for me to live in the “now” rather than worrying about the past or the future?

What was it like the last time I entered a perfect state of being able to write at my best?

Why is it that I always feel like I’m truly living my life’s purpose when I’m writing?

How can I challenge my readers to make positive changes in their life?

Why is it that I’m paid so well to write articles? How come I make so much money and get so much free traffic from my articles every time I write them?

Why is it that writing articles comes so easily for me?

How can I crank up the volume to enhance the impact my articles can have?

“No question asked, goes unanswered.” - Chris Knight

David W. Baker asked:




If someone mentions coin collecting, what comes to mind?

Valuable coins, right?

You may be thinking, “Coin collectors must have a lot of money to have a collection of… MONEY! Could I make money with coins?”

Or, “What’s the big deal? Most of the coins I see all look the same.”

Maybe instead, “When I saw my cousin’s coin collection I was amazed he could own so many that were so old, and from so many different places.”

Or even, “I know someone who made the down payment on his first car with one coin from his collection!”

“I wonder who had that old silver dollar in his pocket? If only that coin could talk!”

“If I could have just one old coin… I’d want it to be an old GOLD coin!”

“Hey, what’s that famous rare penny? A VDB something or other?”

And so forth and so on.

Everyone knows that coins have value. They’re money. You can spend them, or save them, or jam them into a Coinstar machine at the grocery store for some folding money. But when we learn that there are people who have a hobby of carefully building a collection of coins, a whole new perception of these small, ever present metal disks comes into being. Coin collectors are (sometimes) normal people in every other way.

Except that they have this strong interest, some might say obsession, with finding and acquiring odd little pieces of copper, silver, nickel, and even gold. And not only do these coin collectors add coins to their collections, they pick up all sorts of information –knowledge – not just about the coins, but how and why they were made, and beyond that, who and what was happening in the time and place they first appeared.

Coin collectors always have a story to tell. And they seem to do real well in school – especially when it comes to history, but also in economics, or even math.

OK, so it’s fun to collect coins. But these coins, and these collections… are they valuable? Are they worth real money?

It all depends on what your interest is. A coin is always worth at least its “face value”. For example, a penny bears the words “One Cent”. At minimum, it will be worth one cent, or as we say, a “penny.”

If scarce, or in excellent condition, or both, a coin may have a much higher value as a collector piece. This will be especially true if the coin is collected by a large group of people – the collector base – whose interest is fed by a strong body of literature, or a colorful connection to history.

And remember, if a coin is scarce (few were minted or few have survived) and if it is in excellent condition, AND in demand by collectors over a substantial number of years, AND you can identify the current market value and purchase the coin at approximately that value, well then, you have what will likely be a profitable coin investment.

But be prepared to hold the coin for at least 5 years. Ten would be better. Time does good things to a coin’s value – especially if it meets all of the above criteria.

The good news is that collectors vary in their approach to the hobby. And no one can say that another collector has it wrong!

Bob Burnham asked:




Becoming an author is an amazing and wonderful exercise. Not only will you create something from scratch, you can make a tremendous fortune from it. There are few other exercises that are as emotionally and financially satisfying. It is our mission to help you attain your writing and publication goals. Here are five winning strategies and tips to help get you where you want to be.

Visualize yourself as a successful author. Olympic athletes use this strategy daily to achieve their success. In fact, they have it down to a science. An Olympic skier is able to hear the snow under their skies, hear the crowd cheering them on, smell the fire wood burning in the lodge at the base of the run, and feel the sting of the cold air on their cheeks. Most importantly, they are able to feel the elation as they cross the finish line and win the gold. Visualization is important because it programs your mind and body for success. If you can visualize yourself becoming an author, visualize writing your book every day, visualize getting it published, visualize autographing copies, and visualize the joy you receive when your first six figures are made from the sale of your book, it will be that much easier to sit down and get busy writing. Knowing you will succeed is half the battle. Set a goal and make a plan. Decide when you want your book to be accomplished. Write it on the calendar and then do a few calculations to determine how much time you will need to dedicate to writing it every day. It may be only 10 minutes a day, it may be two hours. The important thing to remember is to make a goal, plan how you are going to achieve it, and then stick to your plan. It will be helpful to include in your plan when you are going to write, for example, in the morning right after you have had your first cup of coffee. Write about something that interests you. It is imperative that you write about something that interests you. It does not have to be something that you are already knowledgeable in but it does have to be a subject that generates enough interest that you can spend a bit of time devoted to learning it, writing about it, and marketing to your audience. Additionally, if you plan on creating an information marketing business from your original book, which we highly recommend, then it is even more important that you write on a subject you are interested in. Can you imagine spending the next ten years of your life immersed in a subject you could care less about? Writer’s block, schmiter’s block. Writer’s block is often the symptom of fear. Fear causes us to procrastinate and boom, we have what we like to call writer’s block. Maybe a person is afraid of their book not measuring up to some perceived standards or maybe they are afraid of not making any sales, the fear is not the problem. The procrastination is. Plan your book and stick to your plan. You do not have to write sequentially, you can write whatever comes easiest at any given time. The important thing is to meet your daily writing goal. (Note: Using our proprietary Brain Rush Writing Technique practically guarantees you will never have writer’s block.) Save the editing for later. Editing while you write slows you down and quite frankly is a waste of your time. Many of your editing errors, spelling and grammar can be fixed with a quick spell check tool on your word processing software and can wait until your book is done or if you are a stickler, you can do a quick edit at the end of your writing time. The big editing session, will be accomplished upon the completion of your book. You will likely also want to have several associates or hired editors go over your book with a fine tooth comb. So why waste valuable writing time and interrupt the flow of words to go back and spell a word correctly. Save it for later. Publishing A Book, 7.

Kian Ann Tan asked:




When people read blogs, many of them would want to find out who is the person behind the computer screen, frantically doing research everyday just to provide quality content for them, and typically to address this demand, most blogs have an author bio page, where a page is dedicated to talk just about the author - you!

Being a full time blogger and reading blogs everyday for some time now, I have seen all kinds of author bios, from short one liners to full pages, to even links to another blog that talks only about the author!

Which then, is good and practical?

There are four main things on their mind when readers surf on to your author bio page. Make sure you answer these four components at the minimum, and you will not stray too far away from a very proper author bio.



1. Who are you?

The obvious first things that people want answered is “Who are you?”, “What is your name?”. In doing this, you can mention things like your name, which part of the world are you based at, and what you are doing professionally. You can also put up a photo of yourself!



2. What is your expertise?

The second thing to answer is “What is your expertise?”. This is a little different from the abovementioned part on what you are doing professionally. In this section, you answer in terms of “What this blog is about”.

For example, you may be working full time as an engineer, but on this blog, what you are blogging about is your adventures in teaching your parrot to talk - so in this case, your expertise is teaching parrots to talk.

3. How can you help me?

People have found your blog for a reason - they either have a problem which is bothering them, or they are looking for information on how they can improve on what they are doing. That is the reason why people read your blog articles!

So you need to give them the direct answer to “How can you help me?”.

If your expertise was about teaching parrots to talk, then you might want to say something like “My parrot talking blog provides tips and tricks on how you can teach your own parrot to talk, like how I have done so for my 20 parrots”

4. How can I contact you?

The last thing you absolutely must have on your author bio is a way for your readers to get in touch with you. Use a contact form if you do not want to publish your email address, let your readers know that they are welcome to drop you a mail. Let them know you are a real person!

Elizabeth Lindsey asked:




Sue Grafton was born on April 24, 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky where she and her sister were also raised. Her parents were Attorney C.W. Grafton and Vivian Harnsberger Grafton. Her father also wrote in his spare time had four mysteries published.

After graduating with a BA in English Literature from the University of Louisville in 1961, Sue worked in
Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California, cashier, medical secretary and hospital admissions clerk. Although she started writing when she was 18 years old, she wasnít published until 1967.She started writing screenplays, Television movies, and television pilots.

Sue is married to Steven F. Humphries and has three children from previous marriages. She was in the middle of a divorce in the 1980ís when she started writing her Kinsey Millhone books. She joking says, “Your homicidal urges can be turned to good in this world. Donít let that ex-husband get you down! Just start a new job.”

Sue Grafton lives in Santa Barbara where her Kinsey Millhone Protagonist lives, but she has renamed it Santa Theresa in the books. Many years ago another author, Ross Madonald, also set his protagonist, Lew Archer, in Santa Theresa.

Sue says that when she first did book signings, most of the people in line were women, but now there are at least as many men if not more. She is not a gender neutral writer.

Sue was writing one book a year but decided that was too much, so now she publishes a book about every eighteen months. She says that when she dies, she will leave all of her papers to Boston University. She absolutely refuses to let Hollywood get hold of Kinsey Millhone.

Books by Sue Grafton:
Kinsey Millhone Series:
A is for Alibi (1982)
B is for Burglar (1985)
C is for Corpse (1986)
D is for Deadbeat (1987)
E is for Evidence (1988)
F is for Fugitive (1989)
G is for Gumshoe (1990)
H is for Homicide (1991)
I is for Innocent (1992)
J is for Judgement (1993)
K is for Killer (1994)
L is for Lawless (1995)
M is for Malice (1996)
N is for Noose (1998)
O is for Outlaw (1999)
P is for Peril (2000)
Q is for Quarry (2002)
R is for Ricochet (2004)
S is for Silence (2005)
T is for Trespass (2007)
U is for Undertow (2009)

Kinsey Millhone Omnibus:
Three Complete Novels 1: A, B and C (1990)
Three Complete Novels 2: D, E and F (2001)
Three Complete Novels 3: G, H and I (2002)
Three Complete Novels 4: J, K and L (2007)
Three Complete Novels 5: M, N and O (2008)

Stand Alone Novels:
Keziah Dane (1967)
The Lolly-Madonna War (1998)

Anthologies Edited:
The Best American Mystery Stories: 1998 (1998) with Otto Penzler

Nonfiction:
Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America (2002)

Sue Grafton is well known for the meticulous and painstaking research she does for each book. Her entire series takes place in the 1980’s, so she has to make sure she doesn’t get ahead of herself (hmm…no cell phones…). Of course, that means Kinsey Millhone stays in her 30’s, too.