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I am an abdominal surgeon based in Italy. I am also a self-taught developer. Yet, despite my demanding primary career, I maintain a steady, predictable stream of freelance writing income. How? Not by pitching major consumer magazines, but by turning my hyper-specific, off-the-clock hobbies into recurring assignments in niche markets. Early in my writing journey, […]

Okay, so you’re a novelist by trade, but you’ve got a story idea you feel is just as well suited for a Hollywood film as a paperback. However, before you put ink to paper, you wonder whether it would be wiser to write the novel first and then sell the IP (Intellectual Property), or just […]

Media coverage from bloggers and newspapers is part of the writing journey since this is how readers discover their favorite authors and how ‘public figures’ remain relevant. Here’s what I learned about promotion working for Crossed Crow Books. Starting with Crossed Crow Author Raven Digitalis asked me to promote A Gothic Witch’s Oracle Deck (Digitalis/Santerineross). in 2023. […]

By copycatting, I’m talking about you copying someone’s style, plagiarizing their description, stealing a story concept, or using AI. The creative world is anti-AI, in case you hadn’t noticed, and regardless of what those using it are saying, readers do want to know if a human or machine wrote it. Readers are not ignorant creatures […]

For years, I’ve counselled writers to avoid religion and politics in their branding unless they are part of their brand. There are always potential readers on the other side of the fence, and with so much competition for book sales, do you really want to alienate a chunk of them? There’s another category rearing its […]

I’m not a talented writer. I’m not even steeped in writing qualifications. Yet my website is splattered with published features. How? In three words – pitch, ballsiness and research. Pitch – Turtles inspired me to write. While out having coffee, I noticed a company advertising string bags as alternatives to plastic ones. Not very interesting in […]

Once upon a time not long ago I did an event where several authors appeared. It was at a library. The library didn’t advertise except in its own material to its patrons. They thought the writers would really appreciate the recognition. I asked if they had advertising prepared that I could use. No. I mentioned […]

When I started submitting my work in 2017, I didn’t have an author bio. At the time, I thought the writing should speak for itself. The bio felt like filler; plus, I had no idea what to say about myself. I didn’t have a long list of publications yet, and the thought of writing two […]

As freelance writers, we struggle to find markets that suit our interests. Even sites dedicated to providing freelance listings, while excellent for the most part, can’t list every available market. Often, the smaller niche publishers aren’t even included in listings, but with some effort there are ways to find them. Search Medium for [Subject] Writers’ […]

Believe it or not, online sites and magazines are seeking freelance writers they can rely upon. And if they develop a reliable relationship with them, they’ll use those writers as long as they can. The reason? Reliable writers who can follow direction, think intelligently, and write well without AI are few and far between. I […]

A week doesn’t pass that someone doesn’t write me and ask what books I recommend on learning how to write well. And I never fail to go to a conference and not meet a writer who thrives on how-to-write books, with a library of two dozen or more. To them all, I preach this: The […]

Last year, I made more money from my writing than I ever had before, and it came from one change: submitting to writing contests. I don’t pretend contest winnings can replace a full-time income, and they haven’t for me. But contest money has helped in concrete ways, and it gave me a takeaway even more […]