From Our Blog
Welcome to Your Best Nightmare: Horror Writing and the Horror Market
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 …
What’s in a Book Title? A Rose By Any Other Name
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…
Yay for YA! A Look at Young Adult Fiction
“Teenagers. Everything is so apocalyptic.” —Kami Garcia
Author Kami Garcia hit the nail on the dramatic head with that line from her novel Beautiful Creatures. We can all relate to it because each of us was a teenager once. Our teen selves still live inside us. The proof? How much we tend to like the music from our teenage years (still love Bon Jovi) and how often we share memes that fit our sp…
After a recent interview with my author friend, she proudly shows me the covers for the next four books in her Christian romance series. My marketer’s eye immediately sees that the designs mimic each other too closely and aren’t distinguishable from one another. Their muddy color palette won’t pop against competitive titles, especially as a thumbnail online.
Wanting to support her success, I pr…
As I turned to face the thousands of options lining my library’s shelves, I asked my librarian, “How do you pick which books to read?” I hoped that she might tip me off to a trade journal or confirm the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations.
Her neck blushed pink before she paused and leaned toward me. “To be honest? I read books based on their covers.”
A nervous laugh seemed to indicate …
The Power of Image-Making for Fiction Writing
Poet. Journal writer. Image-maker. These are just a few of the creative guises I slipped into as I embarked on an inward journey in search of my newest set of fictional characters.
What I hungered to discover was what is truthful and powerful in my own world view. Once I unearthed that profound truth, I wanted to know how best I could weave it into a story through memorable characters.
With thi…