Some of you guys who've followed my blog already know my specific story about perseverance when it came to finding an agent and publisher for The Elected Series.  I started querying not really knowing the industry or how to write a good query letter.  Halfway through my year of querying, I joined SCBWI and got more professional about my approach.  But in that period, I queried 82 agents.  Thus, I saw a lot of rejections or almost-signings that didn't end up happening.  But…I kept persevering and honing skills.  And in the end it paid off.  I'm also one of those people who wrote a first...

As I've promised, I'm trying to be as transparent as possible about the process of getting ELECTED ready for publication.  That way friends who are reading my blog get to hear the inside scoop, and aspiring authors can hopefully get something out of my experiences.  And since I'm a debut author and everything along the way is new for me, I can tell it to you as I'm learning. Thus, here's the latest on ELECTED:  The last stage of editorial is finished!  The manuscript is now out of developmental and line edits.  It's making it's way through the galley phase this month.  That's where the publisher...

I'm excited to help announce Vincent Morrone's book release of VISION OF SHADOWS. To help Vincent celebrate, I asked him for his general thoughts on writing.  Here's what he said about a character's voice: "One of the most important things when you’re writing a novel is the voice of your characters. It’s not about how impressive your prose is, or how great a plot twist there is at the end. It’s the characters that draw us in. So how do you make sure your characters have a distinctive and charismatic voice? Listen to it. Don’t just read the words, but form the pictures in your mind...

Authors appreciate receiving reviews on Amazon for a number of reasons that I'm not sure the average person even realizes.  First and foremost, reviews help a book's ranking on Amazon. Do you know how Amazon provides you recommendations?  When you're buying a book, there's always a list of other novels Amazon thinks you'd like.  They base it off your buying preferences but also upon other books' rankings.  If you like paranormal romance, they'll show you other highly ranked works in the same genre. Books are ranked through an intricate process enumerating everything from the number of clicks...