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When listing their 10 top horror novels for 2024, The New York Times said we’re in a golden age of horror, which is wonderful news for anyone who writes—or wants to write—in the genre. When I got my adult library card at 13, I went straight for the horror section. That’s what I loved to read and also what I wrote. But when I started thinking about writing for publication, I discovered that the …

Early in my writing career, I took a lot of world-building workshops. At the time, I was writing contemporary romances set in quirky small towns, so I would carefully build and populate my world. Then, I would turn in the manuscript and start all over again. It took years before I thought, “Wait … what if I stayed in one fictional place and explored more of its stories before moving on?” Part o…

What is IngramSpark? IngramSpark (IS) is a service by Lightning Source, the print-on-demand division of Ingram, part of Ingram Content Group. IS distributes to more than 40,000 locations around the world, including libraries, independent bookstores, big box stores, and airport retailer Hudson. Even if you are exclusive to Amazon for ebooks, you can make print books available through IngramSpark…

Writing retreats offer a chance to work in peace and restore creativity Sometimes we need to escape our everyday lives and become a hermit for a time to meet that pesky deadline or work out a plot point. Or maybe visit with like-minded souls to remind ourselves why we write and to recharge our creativity. That’s where writers’ retreats come in, hence the name. Writing retreats run the gamut. Th…

In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare writes this line from Juliet to Romeo: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Likewise, authors sometimes wish readers would judge our books purely based on prose, character, and plot. But let’s face it, readers are often swayed by an eye-catching book cover or a clever title. The reality is that there are mil…

In my previous blog post, we kicked off our deep dive into how to use ads without losing your mind. NINC member Pam Kelley shared her tips and tricks for running successful Amazon ads. This month, we’re going to tackle Facebook ads and BookBub ads. Are you ready? Sarah Woodbury should be no stranger to any NINC member! Not only is Sarah one of our membership committee chairs, she’s also headed …