The calendar has flipped over to another year, yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. The change in tax forms isn’t much of a change, unless you don’t know there’s been a change. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. January 31 is the due date for you to mail your 1099-NEC forms to any independent contractors or freelancers you… [Read More]
In an effort to create more opportunities to work with writers, Swenson Book Development LLC will begin to offer virtual classes, workshop, and retreats in January 2022. All sessions will be held via Zoom and documents will be shared using Google Drive. If you are interested in registering for a class, workshop or retreat, please email Jill at Swenbooks dot com by January 3, 2022…. [Read More]
Propitious – adjective Likely to result in success, or showing signs of success (Cambridge) Favorably disposed: benevolent (Merriam-Webster) Being a good omen: auspicious (Merriam-Webster) Tending to favor: advantageous (Merriam-Webster) Presenting favorable conditions; favorable (Dictionary.com) Favorably inclined; disposed to bestow favors or forgive (Dictionary.com) “Propitious, which comes to us through Middle English from the Latin word propitius (same meaning as ‘propitious’), is a synonym of ‘favorable’… [Read More]
Ann Marie Ackermann, author of Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee, will be at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, on April 9. She will give a book talk with the Tippecanoe Civil War Roundtable. This is her third trip from Germany to the U.S. to promote her book since it was released by… [Read More]
It’s the season of New Year’s resolutions, and as the temperatures drop, what better season is there for spending time in the kitchen honing your cooking and baking skills? Whether you’re sharpening your skills for fun or as part of your career, a valuable resource available to you in your culinary endeavors is your local library. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind… [Read More]
While it is true that finishing the first draft of a novel is just one small step on the staircase towards publication, it also a tremendous accomplishment. It takes dedication, and even more so when the goal is to finish a 50,000-word novel draft in just one month, as many do by participating in National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo happens every November and has participants… [Read More]
From now through August, Swenson Book Development LLC offers a special package for editorial feedback on the first ten pages of your manuscript. I want to read what you’ve been writing. One of the most frequent requests I get from writers is a simple answer to the general question: is this any good? In order to answer any questions about a manuscript, you need to… [Read More]
Before you get lost in the design details of a WordPress website, it’s important to keep in mind what type of site you want to build. For most of our clients, we recommend a site that says “successful, professional author.” But beyond this vague aesthetic, what will your site actually look like? What will it say about you and your writing? What message are you… [Read More]
Guest blog by Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate (Skyhorse, 2017). In the five months “Marcel’s Letters” has lived in the world, I have been honored to join ten book clubs, and I look forward to the half-dozen more who have arranged events for the coming months. The visits have been delightful. If I sound surprised,… [Read More]
ONE: Your publisher or your publicist will need to send a query letter to the producer of the radio program. It’s much better to have someone else query for radio interviews on your behalf. But doing most of the work to assist your publisher or publicist in booking radio interviews will increase your chances significantly. And if you are a nonfiction writer, there is a… [Read More]
