The Decline of Traditional Publishing

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The publishing industry is hard to figure out.For one thing, the sheer number of books published in the United States is outrageous. The last I heard it was in the neighborhood of 65,000 annually.Good business practice? No! These publishers are competing with themselves, often publishing dozens of titles on the same hot topic. Would any other industry do such a thing?Why does publishing do it?It

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Resonance by Stating a Bold and Surprising Conclusion at the Top

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Stating a bold, surprising conclusion at the top can lend resonance to what follows. In poetry we see an exquisite example of this in T.S. Eliot's opening to "The Wasteland." April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.Then there's Dickens' memorable and ever-timely opening to A Tale of Two Cities, which he

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To be a writer

Friday, April 11, 2008

Why do you want to be a writer?The question itself is revealing. Is that what you want? "To be a writer"?To BE a writer. To BE something. Not to DO something?I don't think there is any field with such a vast majority of simple "wanna-bees." Writing attracts people with this desire because it is a way to get attention.They view writing as some sort of public address system, a way to be heard.

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Writing in Threes

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Via Bertram's Blog:To use the power of three in articles: Set up your premise, prove it, conclude it.To use the power of three in a mystery: Give one clue to tantalize; two to suggest a direction of discovery; three to create a pattern.To use the power of three in a story: Create tension, develop it, release it.To use the power of three in description: Mention three attributes.To use the power of

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Writer's Guides

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Time is running out to save on any edition of To Write That Novel (paperback, PDF, or on CD-ROM) or Gotta Write? during the March Madness Sale, which ends on Monday.

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