Rite of Passage

I feel like I just made it through a Rite of Passage this last weekend. It happened when I attended the first ever “When Words Collide” conference for Writers and Readers here in Calgary. I wasn’t sure what to expect because it was the same weekend as a conference I attended last year that was less than stellar. I considered not going until I saw the guest list. People like Robert J. Sawyer and Jack Whyte were VIP guests AND my editor, Robert Runte was also going to be there. That pushed me most of the way in my decision. What sealed the deal was when I agreed to sit a couple SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) panels. […]

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Writing Should Be Treated as a Business

Before I go too far into this post, I want to explain something about the title. The post is intended for those people who want to make a living as a writer. For those of you who write for the pure enjoyment of it, you can ignore most of what I’m about to say. For the rest of you… well, read on. The first thing we writers need to realize is that publishers, editors and agents are people just like us. They love, they have lives and, most importantly, they need the same essentials we do in order to survive. That usually means a requirement for money of some type. If they are professional publishers/editors/agents they must earn money through […]

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