A writer's time is precious. Many writers have full-time jobs, families and other responsibilities that can make it difficult to fit in time to write fiction, poetry, essays and articles. Plus, writers are expected to do a lot to help with their own marketing, whether it's marketing their books or themselves to find new clients. Professional writers are advised to have a Web site, maintain a blog, and take advantage of all of the social networking sites, all of which eat up more time. It can be overwhelming. And it can be easy to follow this advice with good intentions but fall short. We are human, after all, and there is only so much you can accomplish in a day.
So it's refreshing to stumble upon a writing blog whose author has clearly put a lot of effort into her blog-and truly offers helpful tips to her readers. Lisa Shearin manages to do this while holding down a day job and authoring sci-fi/fantasy/romance novels. In today's blog entry, she directs readers to previous posts on the book business covering promotion and tax write-offs, and she offers a preview of upcoming topics on craft, such as writing yourself out of a plot hole and creating realistic dialogue. She also finds ways to engage her readers. For example, earlier this year Lisa wanted to update her author photo, so she posted a few pictures from a photo shoot and invited readers to vote on their favorite.
By the way, if you are looking for advice on how to juggle all of your responsibilities and your writing, pick up the December issue of The Writer. We devoted a special section to this topic, and several authors weigh in with tips that have worked for them. And, if are contemplating quitting your day job and freelancing full time, you need to read C. Hope Clark's article "Are you ready to freelance full time?," also in the December issue, first.
--Sarah C. Lange, associate editor
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