If you’ve been a bookstore recently, there’s one thing you’re sure to have noticed. Young adult literature is on the rise. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, made waves when it topped the New York Times Bestseller list for 40 weeks, and it’s not alone. The Divergent series by Veronica Roth occupied spots… Read more »
The concept of writing buddies is kind of strange if you think about it. Last year, several of my writing friends and I checked in a hotel for President’s Day. We went to Jersey, where we knew we were guaranteed bad weather and unfriendly locals. While the rest of the country was sleeping in and… Read more »
Now that we’ve explored all the main genres and some off shoots, let’s take a look at them all together. Can you pick out which covers belong to which genres (hint: Paranormal Romance in the upper left, Mystery in the bottom right)? Can you see how some blend two genres together? (Hint: Deeply Odd, a… Read more »
Have a writing project you’ve been dying to start, but can’t find the time, energy or motivation? Knee-deep in revision? Drowning in drafting? One of the best ways to get your writing back on track, or give yourself that extra boost and meet the next big challenge is to set aside a chunk of time,… Read more »
In These Happy Golden Years, the eighth Little House book, Ma Ingalls tells Laura that people make their own luck. This is illustrated in the story when Laura is kind to a girl in her class who, like Laura, wants to be a teacher. They both take the test, but only Laura passes. Because she and the girl… Read more »
We’re in the downhill stretch now folks! If you missed any of the other genres, you can find them here: Fantasy and Romance Science Fiction, Myster, Thriller, and Horror To continue in our discussion of how to create a professional book cover for your genre, let’s take a look at: Literary and Women’s Fiction Yes,… Read more »
Thanks for sticking with me! We’ve already talked about creating a professional book package for fantasy and romance books, but we’re not done yet. Continuing on our genre cover journey, let’s dive right in: Science Fiction This genre includes several subsets for the purposes of cover design: “hard” and “soft” science, space opera, steampunk and dystopian. In… Read more »
I am so excited to share that I’ll be representing DIY MFA at a fabulous online conference later this month. WANACon is an awesome conference and–get this–you can attend in your jammies! Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than that when you can hear from top industry experts and connect with other likeminded writers all… Read more »
Let me tell you a little secret: I’ve always dreamed of being on the radio. As a kid, I’d listen to radio shows and was always fascinated by this idea that what I had to say could be transported to listeners across the country or even the globe. The truth is, radio and I seem… Read more »
I’m thrilled to be a guest columnist on DIYMFA! Having recently gone through the process of self publishing my novel, Flirting with Monogamy, I’m looking forward to sharing a few pointers and helpful hints of what I learned during the process. First of all: 1) Do Your Homework There are numerous outlets for self-publishing a… Read more »
