Rejection, Thy Constant Companion

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. –Winston Churchill Most writers worry about rejection, not acceptance. Ray Bradbury says that the successful writer has to deal with both: “You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.” Several articles on this site (usually in […]

On Publishing

On Writing Aspiring writers often seek advice about how to find a publisher or a literary agent. Unfortunately, most authors don’t know much about the book business, unless they happen to live and work in the New York publishing world. Jane Friedman I once featured links to various sites about how to get published or […]

How To Query A Literary Agent

Ye Olde Query Letter I loathe writing. On the other hand I’m a great believer in money. –S.J. Perelman Many large publishing houses accept only manuscripts submitted by agents. Many agents aren’t interested in representing unpublished authors. So now what? If you are an unpublished novelist, don’t bother a literary agent or anyone else in […]

Would My Book Make A Good Movie?

Books and movies are two different languages. To compare the two is like comparing pottery and stained glass. –Russel Banks Probably half the movies made in Hollywood are adaptations of stories that originally appeared as novels, nonfiction books, comic books, graphic novels, short stories, plays, poems, or what have you. Hollywood studios and production companies […]