Writer’s Digest

Sep 14, 2012 by

Writer’s Digest

I subscribe to Writer’s Digest’s newsletter. Many of you do as well, most likely, but while we both read it, this is for vastly different reasons. Writer’s Digest is considered a good source of information for the general public. But in actual fact, if you read closely, you’ll notice that you never actually get said information. Each article or seminar or book is mostly designed to make sure you get just enough to have to buy the next one. Now, this isn’t to say that their information is always inaccurate. It’s not. Just recently, an article went up that I thoroughly agree with and will be writing more on next week. However, this is a bit rare and far between. For the most part, Writer’s Digest is a simply money-making machine. Hardly surprising in today’s world, but...

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Uncertainties of Life

Sep 11, 2012 by

Uncertainties of Life

On Sept 11, 2001, the world came to a crashing halt, and that included the book industry. Every book on an editor’s desk that was set to get published? Scrapped. Every manuscript that had an agent’s attention was shoved aside. Every book already at the presses was halted. For six months the industry came to a stand still. Contracts were cancelled, series were paused, sequels didn’t come out. There are no guarantees in the world, least of all in the book business. If you come to me with a manuscript and ask for a promise that after I’ve worked on it, it will be published by a major publisher, I show you the door. No matter how good the book is, there’s never any way to be certain. Today is the 11th anniversary of a deep tragedy,...

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