A Return to The Writing Life

Have you ever been missing in action? You have built expectations to where readers expect to be receiving your material and it has suddenly stopped.

Since late 2004, I have been writing these entries about The Writing Life and various aspects of publishing. A simple goal of capturing a few words a day has built until it is over 900 entries on many different aspects of the publishing industry. If you haven't used the free search tool in the right hand column of these entries, you could be missing some valuable writing insight. In late January, I stopped writing and took a break from these entries.

The day after Easter and a celebration of the resurrection seems like a perfect day to begin again. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I have not left publishing or stopped pointing to different articles and bits of publishing information. My followers on Twitter has grown to over 13,000. In relation to Twitter, I have recently started using a free tool called Hootsuite. If you haven't tried it, I recommend it because it gives people an easy way to Retweet or pass along your tweets--something which can become very viral in spreading the buzz about something.

First, let me say something about taking a break from regular writing. It's OK to give yourself permission. I know the writing books talk about the necessity of writing on a regular basis and I applaud that consistent pattern. At the same, time life happens and you should not feel guilty for stopping a pattern or changing it.

I continue an active role in publishing and actually much more hands on than the last few years. I've closed my literary agency and become a publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group. I'm working with a number of different authors on their books--cover design meetings, editing their books and much more. It's limited my time for writing these entries but I'm determined they should continue.

I hope you will check my speaking schedule from time to time. In the coming weeks, I will be back out teaching and talking one-on-one with writers about their specific projects. I'd love to meet you and talk about your project and how we could work together.

This weekend I head to Baltimore and the Spread the Word Conference. I'm excited about the opportunity to talk about how a published book can be a great calling card for every writer. There is still room for you to register and attend this conference. Hope to see you there.