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Showing posts from August, 2015

Submitting to agents and publishers - how getting their feedback means you're close to getting published

Someone once asked, "How do you know when you're ready to be published". The answer was "when you start getting feedback from agents and publishers."

Feedback from agents and publishers is golden. Worth a thousand times more than feedback from friends, about a hundred times more than critique from peers, and ten times more than a paid appraisal. Agents and publishers simply have no reason to let you know how to improve your work. They're busy.

However, once in a while, a manuscript comes through the slush pile (that is what the unsolicited material is called in case you don't know) and it piques their interest, so they read the submission material yet it's still lacking...something.

And they do something that will improve your book tenfold - they tell you what's wrong with it.


Tip no: 1 Know your audience
Let's first take a look at who agents and publishers are. A lot, not all, are successful editors. Some, not all, are writers. I've chec…
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10 celebrities who took selfies before they were even invented

What did celebrities do before the invention of the selfie? Oh, sure, if you were a Hollywood movie star you had stills from movies that could be used in publicity, or photo shoots, or if you were a rock star hordes of photographers followed you around. I decided to track down some photos that I think look exactly like as if they'd be taken today as a selfie.


1. David Bowie  Tag this one #artistic selfie. It's going on his blog home page. As well it deserves to. 2. Marilyn Monroe Tag this one #girlsnightout. The before shot. 3. Mick Jagger Classic attempt at natural look for an online dating site selfie. 4. Debbie Harry She's got the pose. She's got the lipstick. She's got the selfie stick. And this one's going on Instagram.

 5. James Dean He's cool. This one is for his fans. Tag #justchillin
6. Audrey Hepburn This is the can't get out of bed selfie. Been there. Done that. 7. Freddie Mercury I have a selfie stick and I'm not afraid to use it. 8. Judy Garla…
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How does feng shui and astrology fit into writing

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for feng shui. If I can turn my glasses right way up to attract more money, I'll do it. If I can put a red pot in the money corner of the house, yep I'll do that too.


Each year, a group of friends and I gather at a house to share food and wine and we make a feng shui collage. It's just a bit of fun. We take clippings from a magazine and place them in certain quadrants that each represent a different aspect such as:

fame
study
career
children
travel
self

We all open a magazine with our left hand, we cut out the first image we see, we paste it into a quadrant, and then we have someone read the pictures and predict our future for the next year.



Like I said, it's a big of fun. Except that it isn't JUST fun. There seems to be an element of truth to these predictions. It's uncanny but the last chart we did one of the girls got lots of pictures of a new career, a new man, BIG changes. Within a year she has relocated and has a new boyf…
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