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A friend of mine, who adores my current WIP (Under the Darkened Moon) asked me, “So, when are you publishing?”

I don’t know, I said, probably once I find an agent and they find me a publisher.
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It was kind of exciting when I heard that Harper Voyager was opening itself up for direct submissions for its e-book publishing department.  Harper Voyager, the Sci-Fi & Fantasy imprint of HarperCollins, is looking for, according to its site, submissions to fill an apparently gaping void in publication schedules of ebooks.

“Currently, we are looking to acquire enough content to release a new Harper Voyager digital title each month,” the company announced.  How many months however is a mystery.  It could be a year, two years, or a couple of months.  No one knows how many books they are looking to acquire.  Even so, expect Harper Voyager to get flooded by authors with big dreams when they open up the submission process on October 1^st.  The submission period ends October 14^th.

However, my initial excitement has been kind of tempered since reading this.  What follows are my thoughts as I have worked through whether or not Under the Darkened Moon, if polished in time, might in fact get submitted. (more…)

People like to knock self-published authors, those brave souls that have decided to try something other than traditional publishing, with broad strokes that lump every self-published author into the category of garbage.  Yes, most of what is self-published is horrid trash.  Bad plots.  Poorly contrived characters.  Not to mention continuity errors, misspellings, and awkward sentences galore!  Sometimes self-published books overcome these problems, Fifity Shades of Grey for one (though don’t ask me how or why), but it is not common.  The crap that is self-published gives everything else a bad name.

But the sad truth is that, for all the bashing of self-published authors who rush their works onto Amazon.com without proper editing and proof reading, traditionally published books are rife with errors as well.  Yes, they are often farer and fewer between, but they are still quite common.  Most traditionally books I read have errors that I spot easily.  So no way a “professional” editor couldn’t.  Usually it’s just punctuation or a cumbersome sentence that takes three or four passes to understand.  These errors stare me in the face all the time, and I wonder how on God’s green Earth they made it past the supposed filters. (more…)

We all love to turn to inspirational advice when we feel like we just cannot go on down our chosen path.  One of the most common such pieces of advice is that quitters never win, and winners never quit.  It sounds real great!  It pumps you up!  It gives you the motivation to plow ahead!

The truth is that inspirational phrases like this are half truths.  Yes, quitters  never win because they give up before they do so.  And yes, winners never have quit because they have won.  But there is an important caveat to this old saying that is missing.  That caveat is that by not quitting doesn’t mean you will win. (more…)

Welcome to these new followers on Twitter!

K.E. Saxon‏@KESaxonAuthor

Writer of contemporary and historical romance fiction/organic gardener extraordinairehttp://kesaxon.com

Raeann Blake‏@RaeannBlake

Indie Romance author and software engineer (the day job). Swinging in the wind while trying to decide whether to stay Indie or pursue traditional publishing.

Gareth Young‏@SpartaGus

Aspiring (perspiring) writer. Check out my book links and short bio here: http://about.me/Spartagus Anything else you want to know, you only have to ask…

Natalie Hillier‏@nattiejean1969

Admin Assist, passionate/obsessive reader, never without a book in hand, newly book blogger, purple is my ultimate favorite color lol, pls check out my blog.

Sneezing Panda‏@5neezingPanda

Launching Summer 2012

BZ Hercules‏@BZHercules

Comedy/Mystery Writer and Alter Ego to @BethLynne1 I wear the cape in this duo! Lawyer, Muscian, Brain Surgeon