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Being a writer isn’t easy. One of the most common challenges is “that” elusive source or interview: the one that you (or an editor) relies on to make a piece solid. It’s usually the most difficult one to find. “That” source can be famous or high-level, though can also be someone with outdated contact information. Sometimes, a source has faded into the background – or deliberately obscured their contact info. How do you get in touch with sources who can’t (or won’t) be found? Here’s what you do. Sometimes, You Just Ask Celebrities and public figures aren’t always completely hidden. The first places to visit are personal websites (and their Contact page). There’s no guaranteed response, but it should be your first avenue. When I interviewed Hollywood character actor Jim Hoffmaster, it took the search to his official social media page. Apartheid struggle stalwart and first South African state capture witness Vytjie Mentor was nice enough to allow an interview when I asked. If this doesn’t work, time for a different approach. Agents, Companies & Foundations Public figures (like politicians, celebrities, and investors) can have a barrier between them and incoming messages. You may need to send a request to More

Books don’t make much money, but they do open doors. Even on the best of days, you can’t make a living off a book. In today’s publishing world you promote yourself and your book, while still making an income in other ways. But, a book, whether self-published or published by a traditional publisher, can give you creds and provide other means for income. Like most writers, you probably have another job. Whether a teacher or a server, use this knowledge to your advantage. Say you work at a restaurant that sells great cheeses. Cheese could be your book. You begin by speaking to your employer. Where do they buy their cheeses from? How do they get them? How do they choose the best ones? What is the difference between cheeses? You’ve been trained to sell their cheeses, so you are already informed. Now delve deeper. Learn the industry, how cheese is made, the details of cheese, its workers, distributors, their histories. You have already amassed enough material for a book. Don’t just look at the book as your final product, though. Each step to writing your book provides you articles to publish in cheese journals, food magazines, health blogs – More

This week I was scrolling through social media, stalling before writing another chapter in my book, and ran across someone asking how in the world self-published people put out such bad covers. That launched a flurry of their people echoing in agreement. My response was: Who cares? Not my place to tell someone how to do their cover. A few more comments were made that they weren’t criticizing, just drawing conclusions about bad covers, maybe some about self-publishing. I wasn’t seeing the difference. A lot of hair-splitting explanation with the same end results: being critical. They would’ve been better off not speaking about the subject, frankly. This was an author making the comment. Now they are remembered by some, like me, for being critical of other authors who are struggling to write, publish, and market themselves like every other author out there. A bit of an elitist stance, IMHO. Imagine some silent writer, someone too timid to speak up, taking this in, wondering if their cover is bad, maybe scared to take that leap of publishing the book at all for fear of this sort of criticism. The point here is that an author should remain professional at all times. More

In my early forties, after working as a plumber for over twenty years, I changed careers and became a writer. I started out by writing what I knew – plumbing and home improvement articles. Before long I had established myself as a freelance writer, but I wasn’t satisfied with writing about only plumbing. I wanted to try something new. I never would have guessed that I would end up writing parenting articles. My older son’s high school graduation changed things for me, although I didn’t realize it right away. After all the emotion of the graduation ceremony, I went home and put everything I was feeling down on paper. I wrote about the pain of sitting on the old wooden bleachers of the gymnasium, and about the pride and optimism on the faces of the graduates. I wrote about my own high school years, and the dreams I had for myself as I headed out into the world. Before long I had written what I considered to be a funny and touching essay. When I began looking into parenting markets, I discovered that all the publications – at least the paying ones – were marketed toward and written by women. More

Not long ago I was on a Zoom meeting of writers. We spoke of recommended how-to books, how AI is impacting writing and whether or not we’ve used it, and then show-don’t-tell. When it came time to brag about our individual successes, one writer spoke of how she had talked of writing, read of writing, and attended events on writing, but not followed through to complete a project. She was up to 50,000 words on a book, and we all commended her. She’d been writing for years. She admitted that the delay in writing came solely from fear of failure. Zoom meetings, writers clubs, and social media conversations abound with people having reasons they have not published, are still working on a project after years of trying to figure it out. My guess is the grand majority of them don’t press forward due to fear of failure. 1) What if we spend all that time writing and nobody wants it? 2) What if we spend all that money self-publishing and it does not sell? 3) What if we set up signings and nobody shows? 4) What will friends and family think if we go through all this work and nothing happens? More

The day my agent sold my newest novel for middle school readers, I sat down with a giant piece of paper and my daughter’s colored markers. I created a bubble graph of the topics and themes in the story and how I might explore them in nonfiction articles for newspapers and magazines. Though having been a journalist and author for over two decades, I took almost that long to realize that if I didn’t put significant time and energy into publicizing my books, sales would tank. Writing and publishing short pieces related to my books has proven to be a brilliant way to build a fan base and earn paychecks. It’s a strategy any author can employ, to include for backlist books, as well. Here’s how I did it. Daisy Woodworm Changes the World tells the story of a 13-year-old amateur entomologist and track star who gets a school assignment to change the world. She decides to help her brother Sorrel—who has Down syndrome and adores Special Olympics and men’s fashion—to fulfill his dream of becoming a social media influencer. The trouble is that their overprotective parents, struggling with financial catastrophe, have forbidden Sorrel to appear on social media. Sorrel More

All of my books use real settings in the state of South Carolina. I can honestly say that the locations have done more to sell my books than anything else. SC settings like Edisto Island, Charleston, Chapin, Pelion, Walterboro, and Newberry can be found in my stories. Readers say, hey, I’ve been there, and they buy, wanting to revisit that place, or insert themselves into the familiar. In terms of Edisto Island, people have vacationed there, fallen in love with it, and while they can’t return anytime soon, they can at least revisit in a story. The Edisto Bookstore sold 1000+ copies last year and almost double that this year. People wanted to take Edisto home with them, or they were new to the area and wanted fiction that sank them into the parts they didn’t know. Some ask me how I get away with using real places in fiction. I have several tips for this: 1) Be accurate in the setting. 2) Don’t paint a negative light on a real commercial venue. 3) Use multiple real aspects of the setting from street names to businesses, from weather to economy, from culture to demographics. 4) Don’t use real people, or More

When you discover you have the means to freelance, it becomes a blessing and a curse. On the upside, you have the ability to take the thoughts that go through your head and convert them into bylines and money. On the other hand, you feel like an overloaded dishwasher. With so many ideas you scramble to optimize that flow into what will best work for you. It can be overwhelming. Whether through limited energy or actual hours in the day, you’ll always have a time budget. That limitation should be present in deciding where to devote your energy. I write ideas down on a document called my pitch list. If I’m really inspired (because it can be extremely easy to write in the heat of the moment) I might even write some paragraphs out as my time budget allows. After I have some ideas sketched out, I consider available publications. Can I can pitch them with reasonable efficiency? How much do I have to readjust my writing style to turn in a quality product and is that a good or bad thing? What is the pay and how does that compare to the demands in terms of research and word count? Start More

About this time of year we take measure of who we are, what we’ve accomplished, and what we’ve overcome. Then we often ponder where to take things from here. Many of us interpret those feelings as yearning for a memoir. We like to feel that what we experience is so profound that it needs to be shared with others so that they can learn how to live a better life, or learn what to avoid. The problem is we forget what a memoir is. It’s a true story that reads like a novel. Fact is, too many failed memoirs are little more than autobiographies. When writing a memoir, one has to remember the following: 1) It’s as much about the beauty of the writing as the substance. 2) The reader has to feel almost like a voyeur, as if violating a peek into someone else’s life. 3) The reader has to relate to the feelings. 4) The memoir has to have an intention construct, with a deep, worthy message. 5) The story has to feel raw, with revelation in the end. 6) The tale has to feel powerful. Hundreds of people have told me they wanted to write their memoir. More

If you are a self-publishing author who is breaking even and beyond, and you enjoy marketing and selling your work directly to your readers, then a literary agent may not be the proper route for you. But if you seek to publish your books via the traditional tract—meaning a publisher that will equip you with editors, public relations, book designers, marketing, distribution, and hopefully a generous advance against royalties, then most likely you will have to be represented by an agent to open that seemingly insurmountable gateway of a publishing house. It’s well known that most editors refuse to look at your queries or sample chapters without an agent soliciting on your behalf. I was very lucky—naively so—when my first novel passed through the slush pile without an agent and was picked up by one of the most prestigious publishers, but the odds were akin to winning the lottery. Because of the success of my first novel, an agent solicited me for my second book. I was flattered and yes, again naïve, when I signed on to her agency. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a terrible mismatch. I fell into a legal wrangle that imprisoned my book with them More