Know Your (Copy) Rights An Introduction to Copyright for Authors

Author copyright is a common and often intimidating subject. We don’t intend this to be a comprehensive overview, but we do want to set the record straight on a few important points.

What is copyright?

In the United States, copyright is a form of legal protection granted to “authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, […]

By |2024-01-06T21:02:54+00:00March 18th, 2017|Industry Insights|Comments Off on Know Your (Copy) Rights An Introduction to Copyright for Authors

The Role of Mystery in Fiction An editor's take on the value of mystery in all genres of fiction

[by Peter Gelfan]

Unlike nonfiction, fiction’s motor doesn’t run on information, but on its opposite: mystery.

I’m not talking about mystery as a genre, but as the essential quality in all fiction that cultivates curiosity, stimulates the imagination, invites participation, and generally keeps readers reading. Every step of the reader’s journey should be fraught with questions, not only […]

By |2024-01-06T21:03:15+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on The Role of Mystery in Fiction An editor's take on the value of mystery in all genres of fiction

Jonathan Balcombe on Writing, Editing, and Getting Published A bestselling nonfiction author shares his approach to editing and mentoring others

[guest post by Jonathan Balcombe]

My career as a biology student, animal advocate, editor and author has required me to write at every stage: essays, lab reports, a thesis and a dissertation, peer-reviewed journal articles, testimonies, correspondence, course syllabi and lectures, even a film script. Most recently, as an author of popular science books, […]

By |2024-01-08T20:56:27+00:00|The Editor’s Craft and Process|Comments Off on Jonathan Balcombe on Writing, Editing, and Getting Published A bestselling nonfiction author shares his approach to editing and mentoring others

Don’t Confuse Plot with Plot Event An editor's thoughts inspired by Robert Ludlum, Matt Damon, and Jason Bourne

[by Ross Browne]

It wasn’t all that long ago that the news hit Hollywood that Matt Damon was considering bowing out of his leading role as Jason Bourne. The untitled film he considered passing on would have been the fifth in a series based on a trilogy that we have Robert Ludlum to […]

By |2024-01-06T21:11:19+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on Don’t Confuse Plot with Plot Event An editor's thoughts inspired by Robert Ludlum, Matt Damon, and Jason Bourne

Part III: Showing vs. Telling Rue the day you tell what's been shown

Almost every aspect of fiction writing can be analyzed by the degree to which you the author allow your reader to formulate his own pictures, thoughts, opinions and versions of your story. This is a delicate matter, certainly, because leaving too much out is just as much a travesty as directly telling the reader exactly what […]

By |2019-06-19T19:27:49+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on Part III: Showing vs. Telling Rue the day you tell what's been shown

The Evolution of a Book Cover A guided tour of the cover design process for self publishing authors

Writing is a lonely business. Authors spend the majority of the life of a manuscript in their own heads, fiction authors playing God to a cast of characters in situations of their own devising, and nonfiction authors gathering information they distill into a form that fits their own purpose and vision. As anyone who’s ever […]

By |2024-01-06T21:41:00+00:00|Self Publishing|Comments Off on The Evolution of a Book Cover A guided tour of the cover design process for self publishing authors
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