Be Well, Write Well: Interview with Lisa Romeo

Hello, readers! I hadn’t planned on doing another “Be Well, Write Well” interview after the series of three last winter, but when the opportunity arose to interview Lisa Romeo, I couldn’t turn it down. I first met Lisa at the Hippocamp Conference for Creative Nonfiction in the summer of 2016. Her workshop on mining root… Read more »

How to Use Twitter Hashtags for Writers

Twitter continues to be the very best social network for the publishing industry. Whether you’re publishing traditional, self, indie, or hybrid, your people are here, both writers and other pros. But if you’re not using hashtags, you’re not fully engaged with this online community yet. Social media (emphasis on social) is like a cocktail party…. Read more »

#5onFri: Five Ways to Build Your Success Team

Writing is considered a solitary activity — the term ‘writer’ always brings forth images of introverted geniuses in their messy offices, with a typewriter as their only friend. But those images are nothing but a snapshot of the creative process. The truth is, every word we write has been influenced, motivated or touched by another… Read more »

How and Why to Clean Your Email Subscriber List

As indie, small press, or otherwise “emerging” authors, we are told a lot how important it is to have an email list. It’s even a foundational piece of our DIY MFA Pixels to Platform course. It’s a core principle of platforming I hammer home for my coaching clients, too, in early sessions, and I emphasize… Read more »

Do Your Commitments Reflect Your Priorities?

Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the trio of “Be Well, Write Well” interviews from Julie Maloney, Carol Van Den Hende, and Karen Kaufman Orloff. I learned a lot from studying their habits and schedules. Schedules and commitments are at the forefront of my mind these days, as I recently did an interview on the… Read more »

Be Well, Write Well: Interview with Karen Kaufman Orloff

Welcome to the third installment of our interview series on authors’ writing and wellness habits! Today’s interviewee is Karen Kaufman Orloff, author of several well-known children’s books, including the I Wanna Iguana series. Karen lives and works in the Hudson Valley, as I do, and I’ve known of her work for years but hadn’t had… Read more »

Speculating Your Future: Five Steps to FIT Goals

I’m going a bit off theme with this article, but when I saw Gabriela’s on Why You Should Review Your Writing Year, I figured I was on the write track. You see, I’m not a fan of resolutions, at the beginning of the New Year, or at any time. There’s something too final about the… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Ways to Conquer Deadline Anxiety

My writing habits tend to follow a feast or famine pattern. Trapped behind an invisible dam, my words dry up for days. When a gush of creativity bursts forth, I’m graced with thousands of words pouring from my fingertips with ease. I crank out several pitches and surf high on a wave of productivity and… Read more »

The Five G’s of Getting Libraries to Buy your Book

Getting libraries to purchase your book can have a big impact on your overall reach. But how do you get libraries to make that all-important sale? Here are five tips from DIY MFA’s personal librarian, Terri Frank. 1) Get Reviewed As a librarian responsible for purchasing, I read around 150 book reviews per day. These… Read more »