A Skeptic’s Guide to Hashtags

First, disclaimers.  (1) I’m new to hashtags; I’ve only used them since I joined Instagram in April.  (2) Hashtags have been the hardest part of social media for me to understand.  (3) They make me feel old. So I write this with a built-in bias.  Please remember that. I can’t tell you how many times…

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How to pick the right title for a book?

If I knew the answer to that, I’d save myself a lot of angst.  Picking a title is easy.  Picking the right one, not necessarily so. Who picks the title?  Sometimes it’s me.  From my initial conception, Flirting with Pete was Flirting with Pete.  Same with Lake News, Heart of the Night, Not My Daughter, and…

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Why I’m not retiring

A reader just wrote that she heard I was retiring.  Who said that? No.  I’m not retiring.  Let’s be clear about it.  I.  Am.  Not.  Retiring. Not that I haven’t considered it in moments of frustration.  Life for a writer has changed.  When I started – more than 30 years ago – all I had…

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How we got a cover for BLUEPRINTS

  If you’re reading this blog, you’re currently looking at the cover of my new book, BLUEPRINTS, which debuts this coming June. What do you think? Does the cover draw you in? This isn’t an idle question. It’s one that my publisher and I have been asking ourselves since this cover became “the one.” We…

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I have a title!

Book titles arrive different ways. Some crop up at the get-go, even before I start writing a book. Others come when my publisher reads the opening of the book and a word or phrase pops up that is perfect. Others take longer to find. My preference? I like having a title early on. It helps…

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Too many ads

Do you see ads? I mean, do they actually register with you? I ask this after reading an article in my local paper, The Boston Globe.  It’s about Gen Y-ers, or Millennials, and though I’m way older than they are, I like the fact that I occasionally behave like them.  They ignore ads, says this…

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But do you like my book?

And so comes the Monday after the first weekend you’ve all have with my newest book.  I sit on tenterhooks wondering, worrying, hoping. Sweet Salt Air  has actually been out and around for the sake of getting early reviews.  Part of the promotional campaign leading up to its publication entailed sending Advance Reading Copies to…

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What, me? Preorder?

Well,  I don’t do it all the time, but here I am, asking you to preorder the paperback of Escape, which goes on sale Tuesday.  So let’s take a minute to discuss the pros and cons of preordering. Pro.  You don’t risk forgetting; the book is on your doorstep the day it goes on sale.…

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Naming the baby

A book title either hits me, or it doesn’t.  When it doesn’t, I defer to my publisher.  After all, a title is a marketing tool, and they’re the marketing experts.  Of my last five books, from FAMILY TREE to the present, the only one I came up with myself was ESCAPE, but that was a…

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