Dear Publishers and Agents, From reading some of my posts, you might infer I hate you. I. Do. Not. In fact, I totally understand the role a publisher and agent plays in the success of a book and its author — I think I’ve covered those in previous posts, and I’m looking forward to the day […]

This is one of those days. The kind where you’ve been productive. Meeting challenge after challenge. Working hard and working smart. Smiling and thinking positive thoughts. Staying up and staying on. Then one phone call blows a hole in all your positiveness with what you feel is a massive betrayal but honestly isn’t; still it threatens […]

Hey, have you read Angela’s books? Get them here.

Excerpt from “The Dance Floor Wars: Lucinda’s People”   Victor had always loved his name. He was the victor, a winner always. His winning ways resumed during college when he switched from a besotted wimp to an uncompromising misogynist. However, those youthful winning days had ended when the besotted wimp days began, in third grade, […]

I’ve always been the outlier. That one that throws off a surveyors assumptions. The one marketers don’t know how to reach and cannot figure out why. It’s DNA deep with me. I don’t do it on purpose. Here’s one story to illustrate that. In 9th grade we students were required to fill out a form listing all […]

There are no guarantees that the plans we make, the ideas we have, or the life we seek will come to fruition. As the old saying goes, man plans while God laughs. I’ve been a reader of business publications since I was 20. In the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., and others, one thing shone […]

Read Part 1 here   Read Part 2 here   Read Part 3 here   Publishers and agents who only go after the low-hanging fruit are destroying the business. Gravitas, vision, and smart planning moves projects along to a successful financial arrangement for all parties. You’re right. There are no guarantees about anything. But so what? That is […]

Read Part 1 here      Read Part 2 here And who were the publishers and agents on those panels always telling us little wannabes in the audience who they were looking for? Why, the next Michael Connelly or Lee Child, or some other hot writer du jour obscure to flyover country and known only within the […]

Read Part 1 here So, here I am, wanting to pitch books. The Writer’s Marketplace was, and is still in some ways, the bible that writers went to to begin navigating that approach to the holy offices of the gatekeepers to success: Publishers and agents. Their contact information and preferred method of contact were detailed out the […]

Well before I ever thought I’d write one, book publishers knew Job One was marketing; in other words, getting eyes on, then convincing wallets to open. Job Two was managing distribution of their catalog. They did a fine job of it for many years. Publishers took time to build gravitas for their catalog by taking […]

Fidelis semper: Ever faithful. Much to the chagrin of mother, husband, friends, children, and more, ever faithful is what I have been to words my entire life. To them, I’ve been too enthusiastic in that devotion, but I don’t — I won’t — apologize. Some say the Devil is in the details. They are heretics. I […]

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams starred Dan Haggerty, the man who owned The Beard That Kept Its Promise. I was just a kid, but even then there was something about that beard that inspired a real confidence in truth, justice, and all things awesomely Real Man. Only on the day of Dan’s death […]

From memoir, such as mine –Twinkle – to movies — such as The Burning Bed – to documentaries such as this one or to my music video with my original song   It is clear domestic violence is a worldwide problem. There’s just some folks that will beat on other folks. Mankind’s history proves there is no final cure. […]

Michael Connelly was in town for an author tour for his newest book and, somehow or another, by the time Michael arrived at the restaurant, the only chair left to sit in was across from me. To my immediate left was Jedwin Smith, an internationally known author and prize-winning war correspondent I had only just […]