Last Tuesday (just over one week ago???), we officially welcomed The Eleventh Trade into the world! This debut week has been seriously amazing and also seriously so fast, so I’m going to try to capture it quickly for you all! Tuesday, September 18: Sarah Driver flew in from the UK prior to my launch, and together we presented a talk at Christopher Newport University entitled Research & Creative Writing. I had reserved a room for 50 people, but we overshot that a bit and had some students sitting on the floor. We talked about the why, where, how, and when of researching, and...
Whether you are going the traditional publishing route or you aim to self-publish, there will be things that you can’t control. This entry is geared toward writers who want to have a career of some sort through traditional publishing, because that’s the side I’m more familiar with, but I’d love to get some tips in the comments from independently published writers! With traditional publishing, you cannot control things like: Agents’ or publishers’ interest, how much your book sells, or how much your friends’ book sells. It’s a really uncertain world, where you are never quite certain what will come of...
Last July, I volunteered to co-edit the Bath Spa University MA Writing for Young People anthology with Irulan Horner. I don’t think either of us realized quite how much work we’d be doing, though we were warned. Over the last ten/eleven months, I’ve worked from afar extensively with our mail-out team, developed a website and social media strategy with Lindsay Schiro, and edited, edited, edited the little book that became Beautiful Lies. (Also, I’m going to humbly approach the #bragtable and mention that the title was my idea – based on a David Almond quote – and I am very...
