Sitemap - 2024 - How to Glow in the Dark

How should you respond to your haters?

Sixteen actually-useful last-minute holiday gifts for the writer in your life (or you)

What will readers want in 2025?

Happy belated Thanksgiving

Q: "Do I need a personal brand?"

Why year-end "best of" lists matter--and why they don't

Small things for the days and years ahead

Is nonfiction dead?

Have you ugly cried this week? I hope so. (Plus: my thoughts on Taylor Swift's book.)

"Something is terribly broken in publishing right now"

Q & A edition: on volatility in publishing (and candles)

Struggling with writer's block?

"Should I start a Substack?"

How to revise your manuscript without losing your mind

I see that everyone on the internet is wrong about #NaNoWriMo again

The foreign rights scammer is back, and I guess he wants to remind me yet again about the sheer chaos and futility of perfectionism on my chosen career path

Yes, even you can learn valuable career lessons from Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (primarily about the pitfalls of book-to-film)

So you want to write a kids' book!

The biggest surprises you'll encounter on your book publishing journey

Comparison isn't always the thief of joy

The subtleties of subtitles, or: how not to blow your wad with new readers

Everything you ever wanted to know about ghostwriting

#TropeCore, or: Everything You Need to Know About the BookTok/Fanfiction Vernacular Shaping the Entire Publishing Industry

Are agents going to steal your ideas?!

How on earth do I end this book (or book proposal)?

An Unhinged History of American Publishing, Episode 6--HarperCollins, or: Is This Burning an Eternal Flame?

"Why isn't my book in this bookstore?”

"Should I hire a book publicist?"

Weekend Q & A Open Thread...Free for All!

What Literary Agents Read Online

A useful thing to ask yourself as you revise: "am I Theo Baker-ing here?"

My thoughts on that "No One Buys Books" piece

That's not how this works! That's not how any of this works!

An Unhinged History of American Publishing, Episode 5–Macmillan, or: where our mountains came from

The one element of style even good writers can't handle

You want it darker, or: what you should know about the international publishing market and your place in it right now

Recent small or smallish consumer purchases that have surprisingly and dramatically benefitted my creative career and might do the same for you (and no, none of this is spon con)

"HELP: my book got a bad review in a legit media outlet"

Dear authors: other people writing on "your" topic are under no obligation to read, use, or cite your work just because it exists

The one easily-identifiable thing that separates one-in-a-million literary talents from "good writers"

15 Random Things That Will Probably Help Your Publishing Career Much More Than an MFA Ever Could (or Writers’ Conferences, or AWP)

What a viral Silicon Valley HR disaster can teach all of us in publishing about toxic work relationships

What people like me mean when we tell you that sad book you're working on "needs to be more uplifting"