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Formal and informal writing groups have been around for hundreds of years. Hybrid authors clubs are newer, rising in the 2000s and are becoming a staple of how authors connect with professionals and readers today. “Hybrid” writing groups exist IRL (or in real life), but also connect with other communities online – often internationally. Find Your Group There’s an appropriate writing group for every interest, experience level, and niche. Define what you hope to get from a group, and then analyze what you can give back in return. Hybrid groups sometimes meet in person, but also welcome online members. I barely leave the house, but I connect daily with my writing groups and message boards. I’d put writing groups in two columns: formal and informal. Mystery Writers of America (MWA), the South African Writers Network (SAWN), and the Horror Writers Association (HWA) are formal; they require membership, but offer formal benefits like insider industry information. Informal groups like the Self Publishing Support Group (Facebook) are useful for: advertising, critique, finding readers, and talking grammar or plots. Facebook, Reddit, and TikTok connect to the best, lively writing groups. This Reddit discusses reputable /r/WritingGroups, and this Write Life Guide lists active Facebook-run writing groups. I wrote a short guide More

I make a point of walking up to an author’s table and talking to them, often buying their book. Having spent many an hour in their shoes, I understand the difficulty of sitting there (they ought to be standing, but that’s another article). Invariably, I’ll look at the book, and if I cannot tell who published it, I’ll ask. Ninety percent of the time it was self-published. Once they know I’m an author, they often open up about the difficulties of publishing. We ultimately wind around to the point I ask they if they considered traditional publishing. The number one reason they give for not attempting traditional never fails to surprise me. It sounds complicated. I don’t understand it. I don’t want to go there. It’s not that they CHOSE self-publishing. It’s that they DEFAULTED to self-publishing because they don’t understand the options. Nine times out of ten, they just use KDP. Nine times out of ten, I can tell. Just like you do not publish until you have rewritten a zillion times and had the book edited several times, you do not publish until you know all your publishing options. There is such a thing as publishing badly. And More

Novel writing software and word processors are faster, fancier, and more feature-filled than your old typewriter. However, are they any better than your old word processor for getting jobs done? Here’s a look at various writing software, what they cost, and how they work. Scrivener Scrivener gets rave reviews, and it’s a favourite of bestselling thriller author Deon Meyer. Scrivener costs $19.99 to $49 depending on your operating system. Features include the ability to create a “flip-file” style database for characters, plot twists, or changes. There’s a separate section for outlines (Outliner), and a Corkboard for notes. Surprisingly, Scrivener doesn’t use artificial intelligence. Novlr is similar, but it is freeware and cloud-based. NovelWriter: Free NovelWriter is a freeware novel writer software. Notes can be displayed alongside your main document, and users can keep track of “story elements” with a notes and storyboarding feature. Writers can make a “decision tree”-style representation of their work on one page. It’s described as a “multi-document plain text editor” that’s particularly handing for referencing one file (e.g. notes) with another two actively open. Fade-In Pro Fade-In Pro is designed as a powerful screenwriting processor. At the cost of $79.95, it is beneficial above word processors with its ability to keep More

Many writers are afraid to throw away work. It could be something they can’t seem to sell, or it could be the original version of a chapter rewritten. It could be that perfect sentence that someone told you to cut out, that you can’t see to let loose of. It could be a scene you played with once, and it was perfection . . . you just didn’t have any idea what to do with it.   We’ve all written those pieces we could not throw away. I used to save them. And I occasionally cut out a section of a chapter and keep it just in case. The truth is, however, out of the 20 books I’ve written, I’ve only gone back and salvaged two of those little pieces. One was a six-hundred-word scene. The other was a long paragraph. Today, I throw things away. The chances of me using them again are slim to none. It’s just hoarding. Once traveling cross country, I wrote on a novel to occupy my time. I created an entire chapter and edited several others. When I arrived at my motel room, however, the flash drive was gone. I had not saved it More

Google crawls, scores, and then ranks all online content. Search results are based on these rankings. Writers can have an advantage by understanding how Google scores their online writing. Here’s how search engines read. What Google Scores   Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to score online content for searchability. Readability and keywords, domains and backlinks, originality, and the amount of passive (versus active) voice counts. Lower-scoring sites are downranked, while higher ones go up. A 2024 Google searching algorithm change meant that many websites, including Great Bridge Links, had to alter content to keep scoring high. According to Google Blog, the update meant “45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.” Unfortunately, the update is also harsh on legitimate content and media houses. New York Magazine lost 32% of its traffic. A BBC piece says, “the internet will never be the same.” Write with search engines in mind. AI Content Google doesn’t like artificial intelligence content. Simply, don’t use it. However, human writing can still be wrongfully identified as AI if not unique enough to sound original.  Score your finished drafts against a free AI checker like Quillbot or Scribbr and you’ll guarantee a higher content ranking. Original More

Your author photo is like your handshake. What does it say about you? We often feel uncomfortable with our author photos. However, if you don’t have one—or if you use some other alternative—you appear to be hiding. Readers and clients will have a harder time relating to you. I’d go so far as to say that if your photo doesn’t look professional, you could be losing clients and readers. Feel more confident with professional photos, as they are likely to show you at your best. Find a Good Photographer The right professional photographer can make all the difference, and today’s photographers are more affordable than you may think. I recently had my author photos taken to coordinate with the release of my new novel. The last time was 11 years ago. I didn’t want to go to an event and have people think that my professional photo did not line up with who they were seeing in person! Turns out I ended up paying much less for my photos this time around. I’m sure there are many reasons for that, including the demands of the marketplace and technology improvements, but it made me see clearer how accessible this effort can More

Many storytellers have an unquenchable thirst to share their tales with the widest possible audience, often with agnosticism toward medium or format. This is why so many book authors have tried their hand at screenwriting – Agathie Christie, John Steinbeck, Stephen King and J.K. Rowling to name a few. Toiling away to satiate this thirst is admirable, but adapting a novel for the (big or small) screen presents its own unique benefits and challenges, and the more an author understands them before beginning their journey, the better prepared they’ll be. As a producer, here are a few questions about the book-to-screen adaptation process I help writers evaluate so as to best position them for success. How do I best judge adaptability? As with books, the best screenplays boast originality, developed characters, solid structure and themes that resonate. But remember, film is a visual medium. (I use the word film synonymously with TV unless otherwise noted.) Books that are cerebral, psychological and introspective are more challenging to adapt. On the flip side, genre-heavy material that’s inherently visual, with a large cinematic audience, already has adaptability baked in. Think action, adventure, thriller, horror, sci-fi. Ask yourself, “What new and distinct layers will More

Right now in these trying times I find it a little difficult to read social media, but on the other hand I can hardly keep away from it, amazed at how the world seems to be on fire. One evening, it literally made me tear up at the animosity and sarcasm. Honestly, some folks just hurt my heart. Also, lately, I’ve received more than the usual number of requests for book reviews. I just don’t have the time to accept all the requests, so that leads me to be selective. First, I usually limit reviews to mystery, how-to writing guidance, and Southern fiction, which are genres I am most familiar with. If a book sounds promising, I then look at the author. They don’t have to be debut or well-seasoned. They don’t have to be traditional or self-published. I just look at what resonates with me. And I realize that my review can be used by that person either on a cover, on a website, or in social media. I love that. Or, let’s say I usually love that. These days, however, people are being big and bold with their political affiliations, opinions, and memes. I don’t want to be More

The writer’s workshop model remains one of the best ways writers receive feedback. We share our work with a group, and everyone chimes in with ideas and suggestions. Early in our writing careers, we learn about structure and grammar through the workshop. As our writing improves, we begin to learn about character development, plotting, and structures. Sharing a novel through workshop process can often take years. It’s not uncommon for a first novel to take up to a decade to be completed.   Eventually, there’s a joyous moment when we find an agent and they sell our book to a publisher. Signing the contract, receiving an advance, making plans for the future are all exciting things. That’s also the time when we need to learn as much as possible about marketing and self-promotion.   What doesn’t get talked about often is what comes next on the writing front. For the traditionally published, there’s a cycle: A book a year. You have to keep publishing if you want to grow your audience. You have to keep publishing to build your series or your backlist and satisfy your readers. This is how most successful authors create careers. If you go more than More

I have finally cleaned up my social media such that I only see things nonpolitical and/or non-adversarial. Finally I can get back to business and breathe a better sigh of relief. That’s because I unfriended three dozen people and snoozed that many more. Do they have a right to speak up? Yes. Do I have to let that irritate my life? No. We find it difficult to unfriend people, because we feel we have to collect as many people as possible for our books, our brand, our image. Did I go after people? No. In each case, I went into their page to see if they were primarily negative or repeatedly and proactively adversarial, or if they were just experiencing a “moment.” When they fell into the former, I unfriended them. Did it cost me a book sale or two? Not sure. Did I discount people who would vote the opposite of me? No, not at all. I love it when people vote. I’ll be the first to go with you to the polls and cast a ballot. I just cannot tolerate negativity, sarcasm, and borderline threats from either side, or being told how horrible I am for leaning one More