MUSE • Leslie Keenan

Why you might subconsciously sabotage your writing – and what to do about it.

I have found in working with writers over many, many years, that underneath perfectionism and procrastination over why their manuscripts were never finished, is a deep subconscious fear. It is the fear of being rejected by other writers, or a circle of friends, who aren’t succeeding. This might sound laughable at first, but there’s a deep reason for it. It turns out that in order to survive as a species, humans have had to rely on the larger group. We literally have it bred into our bones to fit in…read more

Jan.14

How do you know when you are done?

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Writing

After the excitement of finishing your first draft, and the tedium of making all the fixes and changes you knew you had to do, how do you know when you are really done and the manuscript is ready to send out, or that you need to polish it some more? The answer to this is tricky. On the one hand, you definitely don’t want to send your baby off to be read by agents before it’s done. You want to give it every opportunity to succeed. On the other hand,…read more

Jan.13

To Self-Publish, Or Not To Self-Publish…Alan Sepinwall’s Inspiring Tale

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

There is new evidence in the ongoing debate about how to publish a book – whether it’s better to go with a traditional publisher or self-publish. I was excited a few months ago to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Alan Sepinwall, who is a television critic, had written a book (The Revolution Was Televised). I was also intrigued to see that he had self-published. I emailed him to ask why he had decided to go this route and not the traditional one. I assumed someone with his high…read more

Apr.11

Amazon, Publishing, and You

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Writing

From my current Newsletter, November 2011: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several people have been posting and asking about the recent NY Times article about Amazon working directly with authors and leaving publishers out. What do I think of this, they wonder. I haven’t actually responded yet, because what I think is the result of all my 30-plus years in publishing and a great deal of thought and observation. I couldn’t put it into a quick Facebook note, or a Tweet. I will see if I can unravel some of it for you here….read more

Nov.14

Self-Publishing – What, Why, How – and Why Now?

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Writing

From my Newsletter, January 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today I want to write about the question of self-publishing versus a commercial publisher. In the past this was an easier decision. Self-publishing required quite a bit of money, and many people didn’t have the wherewithal to do it. But now, with on-demand publishing, this choice has become a viable option for many. So how do you decide? And does it work? First some definitions. On-demand publishing means that instead of ordering thousands of books from a printer which are stored in a warehouse,…read more

Apr.21