Indie authors are often advised to hire an editor. Advise is the kindest verb I can find for some of those recommendations. I do not hire an editor for my novels because I am a career editor with over 25 years of experience in editing and managing editors and writers. A well-known literary agent told me that I had the cleanest manuscript he'd ever seen. I could never afford to hire me. Obviously, I believe editing is important. If I didn't, a lightning bolt would have my name

Selling books at markets sounds simple: figure out where your readers are, set up a table, and sell them books. If only. The basic idea is sound. My friend, a food critic, wrote a book about the evolution of Southern cooking. Farmers’ markets and foodie conferences were obvious possibilities. I write witchy romantic suspense, so I go to witch markets, pagan events with a vendor area, craft fairs, and book festivals. Finding a market that caters to your target audience is only

A few years ago, a friend of a friend knew the owner of a witchy shop in Chicago. I was going to be in town for a week, and the owner invited me to do a reading and book signing. Great! The coordinator and I exchanged enthusiastic emails. She joked that she didn't know there were witches in Texas. (It's a big place, darlin'.) We discussed the reading. We discussed the event. We even got down to the important details of the after-party: Did I prefer red wine or white? I bought

No longer working for the Three Initial Company has an unexpected occupational hazard: I forget when Labor Day is. Fortunately, a post this week reminded me it was coming up. And then, as reminders often do, it jogged my memory about a previous post that was much more interesting than having a day off work: what was it like to actually work in ancient Egypt? So I dug it out of the archives, dusted off the sand, and decided it was time for an update. Turns out working in ancie

July 21, 1969. My leg bounced with nervous excitement as Neil Armstrong descended the ladder. I was sixteen years old, crammed into the living room with family and friends, and convinced I was watching gods walk on the moon. Who else but gods could stride between worlds? It wasn’t the first time space had dazzled me. Eight years earlier, on May 5, 1961, my teacher marched our class into the school auditorium, where a hulking nineteen-inch black-and-white television perched on

I worked for a big, three-initial company for twenty years as a writer, editor, and publications manager. With 15 writers as direct reports and more competing demands on my time than I can remember, I lived by my calendar and became so proficient in juggling that I considered a career in the circus. During that time, the company invested heavily in agile. Not gonna lie, I rather liked the methodology. Seven years ago, I left the company and began writing novels. Or as I like