A Short Story from the Slush to the Cover

For all too many writers, the short story market is like a black box: stories go in, rejections come out.  I’ve been on the receiving end of those rejections, even when I’ve been notified I’ve made the ‘final round’.  So, I decided to find out just how one gets from the slush pile to the… Read more »

Self-Publishing Insights: Q&A With Lisa Renee Jones

Today I am so excited to host Lisa Renee Jones at DIY MFA. Throughout her career, Lisa has navigated both the traditional publishing world and self-publishing, and has lots of great insights about both. An entrepreneur at heart, Lisa is the CEO of a multi-state staffing agency that has been featured in several magazines and was… Read more »

Self-Publishing Insights: Q&A With Bella Andre

We’re back with another installment of the DIY MFA Self-Publishing Insights series. Today we talk to Bella Andre, who not only has taken the self-publishing world by storm, but also turned the typical publishing model on its head by negotiating a print-only deal with Harlequin. This is a huge step in the industry, where once… Read more »

The Perks of Small Press Publishing

a.k.a. Genius is my debut middle grade novel, published by the small press Pauline Books and Media. Changing how you see yourself can be challenging. For nearly seven years I saw myself through one lens – as a mom. A full-time, stay-at-home-with-my-three-little-ones mom. I am also a published author. That’s still hard to say. And… Read more »

What I Learned About the Publishing Industry from Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson is a journalist, speaker, and consultant specializing in publishing and its digital disruption. “Writing on the Ether,” his original weekly column on the industry, appears every Thursdays at JaneFriedman.com. His “Ether for Authors” column appears every Tuesday at Publishing Perspectives, the international site supported by Frankfurt Book Fair. A third franchise, London on the… Read more »

What I Learned About Money and Writing from Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman is the web editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, an award-winning national journal, where she leads online and digital content strategy. She also teaches digital publishing at the University of Virginia. Before joining VQR, Jane was the publisher of Writer’s Digest and an assistant professor of e-media at the University of Cincinnati. You… Read more »

If We Don’t Take Ourselves Seriously, Who Will?

Why are writers so reluctant to take themselves seriously? This question has been on my mind a lot lately and it looks like I’m not the only one. One article I read this week answers that question of when to put “WRITER” on your business card (something I still struggle with), plus some other questions… Read more »

CASA: Create a Writing Network that Feels Like Home

Welcome back to the DIY MFA video series designed to help you write more, write better, write smarter. Today you’ll hear about how you can create a writing network that will nurture and support your work. Video 2: Build Your Writing Network Today’s video is all creating that writing network, that safe haven that will… Read more »

Announcing New Community Resources at DIY MFA

It’s tempting to think of writing the way it used to be in days of old. You hide out in a cabin in the woods, pour your words onto the page and then *poof* you have a book. But the truth is that these days, you can’t go it alone. Writers need community. There are… Read more »

Alone, We Stand Together: Lessons From ThrillerFest

At ThrillerFest, as with all writing conferences, you go into each session with a set of expectations. Most of the day consists of listening to panels on certain topics, and then interviews.  Over the course of the day, I heard discussions on everything from reading and editing to villains and violence, from debut authors and… Read more »