How to Format a Short Story Manuscript

How to Format a Short Story Manuscript

When I first started out writing and submitting short stories, I spent a lot of time and effort learning how to format my manuscripts. Here are all of the short story formatting guidelines I use, conveniently collected in one place. Cover Page The margins should be one inch all around…
August 28, 20151 Comment
The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service

The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service, a Victorian-themed board game with strong steam punk elements. Besides the game play, which I'll get to in a moment, I'm pleased to support World of Smog because of its origins as a fan-funded Kickstarter campaign.…
August 27, 2015

I’m Boycotting Tor Books

I've had misgivings about Peter Grant's boycott of Tor Books. To be sure, I was sympathetic toward the targets of Tor Art Director Irene Gallo's libel against thousands of SF fans and at least three of her own publishing house's writers. But I abstained from boycotting Tor because of the…
August 25, 20152 Comments
Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

This past Saturday in Spokane, the 2015 Hugo Awards were presented to the authors of the finest sci-fi and fantasy tales of the year, based solely on the merits of their work. OK. Sorry. Keyboard-shaking spasms of laughter are making it impossible to keep up the pretense. I'll start again.…
August 24, 2015
Slaying the Amazon Monopoly Zombie Meme

Slaying the Amazon Monopoly Zombie Meme

Author Joe Konrath wants your help in the fight against publishing industry zombie memes--misinformation that keeps rearing its ugly head no matter how many times you bash it with a crowbar. First on Joe and his brother in arms Barry Eisler's hit list: the "Amazon is a monopoly" zombie meme.…
August 21, 2015

Happy Birthday H.P. Lovecraft and Larry Correia

Today should be a global holiday for horror geeks. For on this day, the stars aligned not once, but twice, to gift the world with authors of singular vision whose work defined and popularized their genres. I speak, of H.P. Lovecraft, Prince of Weird Horror, and Larry Correia, International Lord…
August 20, 2015
How to Take Criticism

How to Take Criticism

Writers tend to be introverts. Most of us also crave external validation. Add in the fact that naturally shy authors seek approval by submitting deeply personal works for public consumption, and it's no mystery why many authors--and creative people of all kinds--are averse to criticism. This aversion to criticism amounts…
August 19, 2015
Souldancer, Soul Cycle Book II

Souldancer, Soul Cycle Book II

Image courtesy of Jeff Stachnik I'm pleased to announce that Souldancer, book 2 of the Soul Cycle, has been delivered to my editor. An unexpected phenomenon surrounding Nethereal's release was the feedback I got from readers; not just its unanimously positive nature--I didn't expect comparisons to John C. Wright and Brandon…
August 18, 2015
How to Make Your Self-Published Novel Reader-Friendly

How to Make Your Self-Published Novel Reader-Friendly

The twin revolutions in digital book distribution and self-publishing have forever changed how we obtain, market, read, and produce books of all kinds. Today I'm going to explain a bit about the production end, focusing on novels. Technology, largely driven by Amazon, has overthrown the old publishing model that had…
August 17, 2015

Do Self-Published Authors Bear a Stigma?

I came across this article by indie author Liz Long wherein she laments the stigma attached to self-published writers. My local media (newspaper, TV, radio) won’t review my books because they don’t have a Big 5 publisher name attached. My own alma mater, Longwood University, told me they won’t feature…
August 14, 2015