Young Readers and COPPA Compliance
If you are an author of children’s literature (especially middle-grade fiction) or your work targets young readers, then make sure your marketing efforts are COPPA compliant. What is COPPA? COPPA is the Children’s...
Defamation? It’s the truth, I SWEAR! — How to Avoid Libel in Fiction
Whether writing fiction or memoirs, we writers are constantly encouraged by the literary community to mine our own experiences, relationships, and observations for writing material. As I write this post, the old adage “write what...
USING SONG LYRICS IN YOUR NOVEL (Spoiler Alert: You probably have to pay for it)
The creative spark for my third novel – LOSING FAITH – was a line from the Coldplay song Viva la Vida. I wanted to use it as the epigraph for the book, following my junior high school English teacher’s recommendation that an...
How To Avoid Common Agent Contract Missteps (Part 2)
In last week’s post (How to Avoid Common Agent Contract Missteps — Part 1), I discussed the first mistake to avoid when considering an agent, plus a number of ways an agent can benefit a writer’s career. This week, I...
How To Avoid Common Agent Contract Missteps (Part I)
Some of you may not need much of an explanation about the role an agent typically plays in the commercial publishing world. Others of you may not understand the first thing about what an agent is supposed to do for a writer....
Tricks and Traps of Using a Pen Name
If you are a surgeon, do you want your patients to know you crank out thrillers with high body counts? If you dabble in bondage fiction, do you want to share that information with neighbors, employers, and your church group? The...
Money Laundering
Lawyers. We love our caveats. So here it is. This blog post is not a how-to blog post on money laundering. What I am posting is an answer to a question proposed by Kerry from North Carolina who’s developing a fictional plot...