DAN ALATORRE

I hear that a lot. You’re welcome. Here’s my secret. When I put my first book out, I had all sorts of questions. There was a very helpful website at the time that allowed me to ask questions to people who had much more indie experience than I did. They were extremely helpful. Every time […]

Monday #MondayBlogs (Big) Tuesday is #TuesdayShares Wednesday #1lineWed – you can use your blog link but not your book link (Big) Has themes and rules. Wednesday is #wwwednesday Saturday #ArchiveDay (saturday) (Big) Sunday #SundayBlogShare (Big) . . . . . . Hashtags for Anytime: #amwriting #writerproblems #writers #writing What other hashtags do YOU use that […]

When I’m done with my current project I’m going to try my hand at a horror novel. The problem is, I’m having a hard time thinking of what is actually scary. What scares me? When I was a kid, I would see all kinds of shadows in my closet at night. That was scary. I […]

Prepare to have your feelings stepped on, kids. Dear Dan, I just learned one of the people I pitched to is 20 years old. She’s can’t even drink legally. I didn’t know shit when I was 20. Didn’t start writing ‘til I was 32. I feel old. You ageist. You ARE old – compared to […]

I had to learn the hard way about indie publishing and traditional publishing. I had to learn about book covers and editing and a lot of other stuff as I learned about indie publishing, but somehow I muddled through. I also had a bad experience with an agent, and have read enough horror stories by […]

While you are building (or expanding) your platform, it’s a great time to polish, edit and add or delete whatever you want added to or deleted from your book. Plus, a lot of the time we have to make choices about what the blurb will say and what the cover needs to look like. Bouncing […]

1. Start the story as late as possible 2. Have a grabber opening 3. Make the reader care, usually via the MC 4. What are the stakes? What can be gained or lost? 5. End with a cliffhanger so we go to chapter 2 Need more info? Let’s read on then, shall we? (Learn more […]

I always like it when a more experienced person steps up to share their thoughts – good or bad – on a topics you guys are interested in. Lots of authors want a platform to connect with fans, or because they think they are supposed to blog, or whatever. Here, a veteran sheds some light […]

When you are all finished with your manuscript, and you’ve run it through your critique partners, there is a big temptation to tinker with it. To have one more once-over, do some fine-tuning, and see about how much more to tweak it. Maybe don’t do that. Don’t fine tune your book into oblivion eternity. At […]