Columns

Ask Nick: Publishing 201 — What Do Editors Do All Day?

September 20th, 2019

Hello, and welcome to Publishing 201—an occasional column in which I'll answer your questions about writing and publishing, so long as they haven't been asked and answered a million times already. There is plenty of 101-level advice out there, and thousands of writers who can repeat it, but very little has been written for writers further along in their careers or aesthetic development. If you have a 201-level question you'd like me to answer, reach out! This week, we have a question from a newly successful author:

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What Does It Really Take to Get a Book Published?

September 19th, 2019

Photo by Laura Kapfer via Unsplash Writing and publishing a book is a bucket-list item for a whole lot of us. Yet many don't succeed. More people than you’d think have a manuscript just sitting there on their hard drive, because, somewhere along the line, they came to an unfortunate conclusion: Getting a book published is hard. Really hard.

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8 Writing and Researching Tools You Might be Ignoring

September 18th, 2019

Image via rawpixel.com You sit down to write and—usually, at some point—you have to stop and do some research because you don't know what comes next. Similarly, I know a lot of writers enjoy writing prompts because they can help get the creative juices flowing. Whatever the case, there are tools out there that can help you improve your writing, put ideas in your head, or help you get out of a mental slump. Here are some of my favorites. 

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Storyville: Pacing and Depth in Short Fiction vs. Novels

September 17th, 2019

I’m teaching a few different classes right now, and one of the biggest issues I see with authors that switch from short stories to novels is pacing and depth. If you’ve written flash fiction you may already understand the difference between telling a story in 1,000 words (or less) and doing the same with 5,000 words (or more). As you go from a story that is less than 7,500 words long (the maximum word count for a short story) to a novel, you are going to have to expand up to TEN TIMES that length. So let’s dig in and address that expansion.

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Book vs. Minisieries vs. Films: It - The Special Beverly Edition

September 16th, 2019

It: Chapter Two hit theaters on September 6th, 2019, debuting at number one at the box office, demonstrating once again the timeless appeal of a deranged clown/multidimensional being stalking and murdering children. Based on the 1986 novel It by Stephen King, Chapter Two—as you might expect from the title—is the continuation of It: Chapter One, released in 2017.

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Be Childish Because It’s Robert McCloskey’s Birthday

September 13th, 2019

Hook them while they’re young! That’s the unofficial motto of children’s literature and should be sung by every author. Young readers grow up to be adult book lovers. Sure, some bibliophiles are late bloomers, but keeping in touch with my inner child prevents this writer from turning into the crusty, hateful stereotypes that are not only outdated, but inaccurate.

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Books That Are Feminist AF: Back-to-School Edition

September 11th, 2019

Summer is quickly winding down, and with it, our desire for light plots, laughable conflicts, and feel-good formulas—fall requires books of a sturdier sort, the better with which to stave off the impending dark. 

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Reality in Fiction: The Invisible Signature of Your Favorite Authors

September 10th, 2019

Andalusia Farm image by Stephen Matthew Milligan At the end of Flannery O’Connor’s story, “Good Country People,” a young woman with a wooden leg and a fatal heart condition gets seduced by a traveling Bible salesman. Cynical, well-read, and wise beyond her years, she lets her guard down to this simple, salt of the earth, "good country boy"—who is hiding whiskey and cards in one of his Bibles and using a fake name.

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Ten Problems Only Booksharks Have

September 9th, 2019

Shark image by GEORGE DESIPRIS Let's get the obvious question out of the way. Booksharks is a term I created after getting tired of seeing readers referred to as bookworms. We read ferociously. We never stop. We hunt exciting narratives. We discuss books aggressively. We move through bookstores with purpose and killer instinct. We are predators, and "bookworm" just doesn't cut it anymore. We're fucking booksharks. 

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Sell Books, Get Noticed: Google Analytics for Authors

September 6th, 2019

This is some seriously unsexy stuff. Buckle up. We all know that Google, Facebook, what have you, all of them are doing some weird, creepy data tracking. And it’s probably no coincidence that the outlets doing the most data tracking are also tremendously successful. Data is power. Data is currency. They own your ass, is what I’m saying. This leaves you, the average Joe, with two options: Rage against the machine -or- Use the machine

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