What I learn from book clubs
I love book clubs. Just being around people who like to read is energizing. As a member, book clubs help me explore books that I might not choose to read otherwise. Most readers have genres that they prefer or even unconsciously select. But book clubs encourage exploration, both of authors and of genres. As an […]
Will ChatGPT upend human creativity?
In preparation for this post, I asked ChatGPT to write the blog. Unfortunately, the new artificial intelligence platform (is it a platform, a software or just a fad?) is maxed out. I received this message: ChatGPT is at capacity right now And then it proceeded to write a sonnet about its status. Here’s the first stanza:Amidst the […]
Conversation with readers
Part of publishing a book is going out and talking about the book — having conversations with readers. That’s where I am in my “publishing journey” as I refer to it. I must confess that I prefer to write words on paper than speak words to groups of people. So, I ask the audience if we can […]
Judging a book by its cover
In 1860 George Eliot wrote “You can’t judge a book by its cover” in her book The Mill on the Floss. (And yes, George Eliot was the pen name of Miss Mary Ann Evans.) But in the publishing world, people do judge books by their cover. In fact, book covers are one of the most important factors in […]
The path to publishing
When I began this project I really didn’t give much thought to the whole “publishing a book” part of the path to publishing. Boy, did I have a lot to learn! Since starting down this road, I’ve read countless (really, I stopped counting) “how to” articles. I’ve attended even more webinars on everything from “do […]
AP Stylebook vs Chicago Manual of Style
It was the Bible for my copyediting class at South Dakota State University: the Associated Press Stylebook. As journalists, we lived and died by the AP Stylebook: spelling out numbers up to (and including) nine, ignoring the Oxford comma and putting quotation marks around titles rather than using italics. Through the years, the AP Stylebook was my “go to” arbiter for any […]