Blog

We began work on the Genre Guides a few weeks ago. It’s tough work because these things are HUGE. But it’s rewarding work, too. Codifying information in a way that others can digest forces me to examine my own processes. Whenever I do this, those processes improve. Anything you do, even if you do it well and a lot, can experience drift. I think sometimes that the more common the activity is, the less you notice the drift. And you’re hardly motivated to examine things you’ve been doing successfully for years. But whenever I do, I find many ways to …

I had to take a break from working on the site to finish up my book due on Dec. 31. But I’m back now, in Vegas for the 20BooksVegas conference. If you haven’t heard of this conference, you should. It’s entirely focused on the business of independent publishing. vendors, panels, presentations—the amount of information disseminated during this conference is astounding. It’s a little expensive, but it is well worth the money. A lot of the vendors there are featured on this site, as well. I stopped at the Vellum table and looked at all the beautiful books that had been …

Three days in and the sheer mountain of information we’re planning on disseminating is daunting. But we’ve got the site mostly wireframed now, which makes the task at least possible. Chris is a beast at creating guides and articles while I’m massaging the website into shape and editing what he sends me. I’m especially excited about the genre guides. We’ve roughed out a format for them, and I think they’re going to be a resource that our members will return to again and again to keep them on the path to writing success. They’re going to be a bear to …

I am beyond excited to start work on this website with my longtime friend and business partner, Chris Wallace. We came to writing from very different trajectories, but the great passion and intensity we feel for it is the same. A little background on us: I come from a writing family. My mother is renowned children’s book author Jane Yolen. My sister is an award-winning children’s book author, as well. I’m a rebel. I write mostly adult books. I was traditionally published at the age of sixteen with the publication of The Lullaby Songbook, a collection of lullabies that my …