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It’s that time again. Tomorrow kicks off the big annual summer conference put on by the lovely folks at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. If you’re in the Seattle area, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s definitely in my top 10. If you aren’t able to...

It's summer and that means it's writers conference season. Most writers conferences occur between April and September (there are a few outliers, of course, but mainly this is true). And if you are serious about making a career out of your writing, you most likely will...

According to Wikipedia (which is always correct!), a query letter for a novel* needs four things. The topic of the work A short description of the plot A short bio of the author The target audience   You would think the section on yourself would be the easiest...

Today's post is by Gordon's client, Nina Amir. 8 Reasons All Authors Need Business Plans for Their Books Traditional publishers require aspiring authors to produce business plans for their books. These plans are known as book proposals. Although some writers don’t...

Over here, we’re gearing up for PNWA in Seattle next week (7/17-20). We will be making quite a showing with myself, Gordon, and Emily in attendance! Conferences are an excellent way to develop your craft through how-to sessions and workshops, pitch appointments,...

Hey folks! This past weekend was New York City Pride, and that fact -- in concert with a few queries I've received recently -- inspired this blog post. I talk a lot on Twitter (at @dreamoforgonon) and in general about my interest in fiction, particularly genre...

So, you just wrote 'The End' on your manuscript, you're ready to send it out to agents right away, right? Yeah, maybe not quite yet. First things first, you need to do some editing. You may actually need to take some time away from your book before you can really see...

In most cases, simultaneous submissions are OK and should be encouraged. This is one of the most common questions I get, and even though you now have an answer, it bears clarification. You should only query agents who are specifically fit for your project, and many...

Summertime is right around the corner. Actually it's been summer since last summer in California with our warm-sunny winter days and zero rain. But all you lovely folks who got hammered by polar vortexes or tornadoes or floods this year don't want to hear about that....

I went to a lot of conferences last month and talked to a lot of writers. Unfortunately, some of them were going through some tough times on their road to publication--things hadn't worked out the way they wanted. Invariably, when I asked them where things went wrong,...