I’ve been a very neglecting blog owner this week. It’s been hectic around here to say the least. My sister was in town for a few days and we got to spend a lot of time with her. She left this morning and now Samantha’s family is in town. They’ve actually been here for a couple days, but I’ve been too busy to get to Dallas and spend any time with them.

I’m going to keep this week’s post short because of this. I expect any minute for my wife to come in and tell me we’re leaving for lunch in Dallas! First up is another fantastic publishing post, this one by Editorial Ass. She wrote about the difference between earning back an advance versus making a profit.

Inkygirl pointed out this next one to me. It wasn’t actually written during the week, but it’s not too old. And I think it’s worth reading. It’s about creating suspense, complete with great ideas for it.

Finally, BookEnds wrote about critique groups this week. I am a full supporter of writers finding a good critique group. You will learn as much from critiquing others as you will from having them go over your own work. It’s a good post.

I nearly forgot that it was Saturday! How silly of me. I found some fun posts this week to share. After a day of playing tennis (I was tempted wear khaki shorts and a polo shirt, but I refrained) with my little sister and her friend, I had to come home and relax! I’m not the youth I once was, unfortunately.

First up today is from literary agent Rachelle Gardner who wrote a neat post explaining how book royalties work. I found it fascinating. Most of us, I would hope, are not in this for the money, but it’s nice to know what you might be able to expect anyway.

Next up is a funny grammar post I found about the use of “that.” Or rather, the misuse of it. Everyone likes a good grammar lesson, yea?

Author C. Patrick Schulz wrote a fantastic piece about storytelling this week. It outlines the basic 12 steps (not to quit drinking) for writing a story. With some examples of each step.

I don’t work on books for children, but I thought this next post was fun too. Or perhaps fun is not a good word for it. I can’t imagine the people that put all their faith and hope into one query. Don’t let your dreams get crushed people, this game is about persistence!

We’re a week into NaNoWriMo guys. First up today is Inkygirl’s collection of NaNo comics for you to peruse. I find them hilarious.

Since I have a podcast, I found this post by Editor Unleashed to be a lot of fun. It’s a big task to jump into the world of podcasting, so you should try to be prepared for it. There are some great tips to be had.

Copyblogger had some good advice for bloggers this week. It’s not all about what you do online. He wrote a piece about why you should get off your computer from time to time and go experience life. I agree that it will make you a better writer, and a more interesting one.

Finally, at The Relaxed Writer, there was a post about writing ideas. I liked this one. I think most of us jot notes here and there and everywhere. She gave some advice on ways to keep track of your notes and make them more manageable.

Well, it’s a day late. I left yesterday at 8:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until late. But the moving did get done. Or most of it…

Samantha and I had a nice Halloween. We didn’t go anywhere, but I brought home some takeout from down the street and we watched old movies. Rocky Horror Picture show was up first. Then we watched Young Frankenstein. It was a lot of fun!

First up this week is a post by Natalie Whipple, a YA writer that wrote a fun post about first drafts.

For those of you working on a query letter, this one is for you. Literary Agent Janet Reid wrote a nice outline for you to follow. Nice of her, isn’t it?

Agent Kristen over at Pub Rants made me breathe a little easier this week (or maybe the opposite). As writers, we often only see that difficult first step of just finding an agent. The process doesn’t stop there though, even agents have to make pitches. That’s what this post is about.

Did you ever wonder what an agent thinks about beyond just the writing. We’ve all been told they like someone with a decent website who is already trying to build a following. But what about how an agent feels about their clients? The Caren Johnson Lit. Agency wrote this week about things she looks for in a client.

And, of course, before I end. Happy November writers. NaNoWriMo officially kicks off today! I will do a full post about this in the next couple days, but just wanted to remind everyone that this is your chance to pretend you are a star! Be a big-time writer and see if you can keep up your 1700 words/day. This is my 5th year at it. Trust me, the end of the month sucks if you slack off early on, so start writing!

It’s been quite an eventful week in the publishing world. The one everybody is talking about it seems is the fiasco Walmart, Amazon, and Target have caused. If you don’t know, Walmart.com cut the prices of new bestsellers to less than $10, and both of the other companies followed suit. Even Sears got involved through the use of coupons. Basically they want to (admittedly) take a loss on their books in order to get people into their stores. So we’ll start with something related. The American Booksellers Association drafted a letter to the Department of Justice about the whole thing. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Over at BookEnds, Jessica wrote a reminder post about why an agent does what she (in this case) does. It’s not about torturing writers, it’s about experience in a field that is hard to work in. It made me smile to read about the things her clients go through, it’s not just the writers trying to query!

This isn’t exactly something to go read, but in light of NaNoWriMo coming up, I thought I’d share this. Jennifer over at Procrastinating Writers is having a special series of posts all throughout the month of November. Check it out for daily tips to get you through your 1700 words a day!

And finally, Barnes and Nobles released their new e-book reader this week, the Nook. One of my online writing buddies, Robert McKay, did a neat post about some of its features.

Getting back into this. Losing internet for awhile got everything all mixed up. I feel like this week I’m finally getting back into the routine. Before we get into it, I have some unrelated news, last night I released a new website for my client Paladin Signs! Take a look if you want, I’d love to hear what you guys think about it. It was a lot of fun to make, and it was a fantasy theme which appeals to the geek in me.

Pimp My Novel is back this week with another gem, this time it’s a series. He discusses profit and loss scenarios. I highly recommend reading all four:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

At Editorial Ass, Moonrat did a post this week about the the panic of realizing a book is two weeks from publication. It made me smile, twitch, and all that good stuff.

Over at Editor Unleashed, a topic that came up this week was drawing inspiration from your dreams. This one is so very true. I get inspiration from my dreams all the time.

And finally, Book Marketing Buzz did an interview with Joy DeKok about book promotion and publicity. I always like interviews that get into examples and she gives some great ones.

That’s it for this week. If you have some I might like, feel free to share ‘em!

I found this great blog post about old movie posters from Ghana on Ephemera Assemblyman. As a side note, he said he got the inspiration for his post from one of my favorite blogs out there, A Journey Around My Skull, another blog that is definitely worth checking out if you are into art.

“In the 1980s video cassette technology made it possible for ‘mobile cinema’ operators in Ghana to travel from town to town and village to village creating temporary cinemas. The touring film group would create a theatre by hooking up a TV and VCR onto a portable generator and playing the films for the people to see.”

They would make these posters to promote the movies. A funny side note, he said they often didn’t even see the movie before they were asked to draw these, which I find pretty hilarious. I thought I’d share some of the pictures.

Check out the rest of the pictures as well. Just a warning, some of them are pretty graphic.

Short and sweet today. I have a couple nephews staying with us this weekend, so my internet time is rather limited. Because of that I’m only sharing one link with you guys. I’ll make up for it next weekend with extras, I promise! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Washington Post

An article about how important it is for authors in this day and age to focus on marketing their own books. With so many books published every year, only the most popular authors get big tours and advertising dollars. So it’s good thing to know. This is a pretty good read.