The Part-Time Luddites: How Writers Keep Tech at Bay
What it takes to resist the siren song of one’s devices and stay focused at your writing desk.
Tags:
Article Archive: The Practical Writer
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
When AI Means Artificial Identity: How to Protect Yourself, Your Name, and Your Reputation
One writer gets caught in the crosshairs of AI and shares thoughts on how all of us can defend ourselves and our work going forward.
Tags:
Strategic Submissions: Best Practices for Your Pursuit of Writing Opportunities
An author outlines her technique for developing a writing calendar that turns aspirations into deadlines met and builds a professional writing life.
Tags:
Working as a Writer in Multiple Genres: An Agent’s Advice on Pen Names, Pigeonholes, and Other Dilemmas
A noted agent addresses top questions on writing in more than one discipline, including whether you’ll need several agents and how readers respond when you try something new.
Tags:
Can I Have Your Number? A Writer’s Guide to the ISBN
A bookstore manager discusses the practicalities of the ISBN, the key identifier that acts as a book’s passport as it travels from publisher to bookshops to the hands of readers.
Tags:
Assembling a Temporary Home: How to Build a Microcommunity at Your Next Writers Conference
A frequent conference-goer offers tips and best practices for connecting with a microcommunity—a small, intentional gathering of peers within the larger world of a writing conference.
Tags:
The Debut Phenomenon: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction
The author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction reveals how every debut author’s dream of landing an agent is matched by the hunger of every young agent to land a successful debut and establish themselves.
Tags:
A Clanker of a Creator: Anthropic’s Frankensteinian Fair Use
The author of Best Copy Available takes a close look at the Anthropic copyright settlement and unpacks the ruling of fair use after the company amassed a library of over seven million books to build and train its large language model.
Tags:
Me vs. the Machines: How to Spot a Phishing Scheme
As the onslaught of scams and schemes targeting the writing community continues, one writer who nearly fell for an e-mail scam herself offers advice and a step-by-step guide to avoid falling prey to the bots.
Tags:
Finding Shelter: Love Stories From the Book Tour
While promoting her book, an author collects personal stories of shelter and storm, curating an accidental anthology that demonstrates how sharing stories fosters community during a time of climate upheaval.
Tags:
A Computer-Free Day: How One Small Mistake Changed My Perspective on Productivity
A writer of fiction and nonfiction forgets her laptop on a mini writing retreat and discovers new and productive paths through creativity without the constant pull of technology.
Tags:
Three-Day Writing Detox: Tips for Starting the New Year With Confidence
A poet recommends a three-day program to examine your writing, where you write, what you write with, and what your goals are as a way to refresh your spirit and energize your writing practice.
Tags:
Writing in the Age of AI: The Case for Collective Resistance
A novelist lays out the reasons why writers should resist, but not necessarily reject, artificial intelligence and advocate for AI tools to be used to augment creativity rather than replace our humanity.
Tags:
Collective Effervescence: How to Elevate a Book Event to a Gathering With Purpose
An author recommends strategies for organizing book events that give audience members a chance to connect with one another, opening up conversations rather than defaulting to the formal delivery of a static author reading.
Tags:
Haunted by My Almost-Book: The Afterlife of a Canceled Contract
A poet who canceled the contract for her debut collection describes the difficult years-long process of scrubbing the internet of erroneous information about her book.
Tags:
Beyond Our Borders: Understanding Foreign Rights in Publishing
An agent with twenty years of experience selling foreign rights on both sides of the Atlantic unpacks what can appear to be a complicated and unfamiliar aspect of book publishing.
Tags:
Constancy and Surprise: What Editing Magazines Taught Me About Writing Fiction
A former magazine editor shares how his experience satisfying and subverting audience assumptions during his tenure at GQ helped him better consider reader expectations throughout the novel-writing process.
Tags:
The Sad Tale of the Soft Sale: How Book Returns Work and Why You Should Care
The publishing industry is unique in letting retailers return unsold stock—a practice with enormous costs for indie presses. The editor of Orison Books breaks down the logistics of fulfillment and suggests ways to reimagine book returns.
Tags:
Writers With Day Jobs: Earning a Living Outside of Literature
Freelancing doesn’t always guarantee freedom—making a living outside of the literary world empowers many artists with health insurance, energy to write, and relief from the worry of wondering about your next check.
Tags:
Do Your Research: Using the Tools of Journalism to Write More Vivid Fiction
When you venture to inhabit identities and communities beyond your experience, seek people and places to ground your work. A journalist and novelist explains how research skills help fortify one’s imagined realities.
Tags:
Building Together: How to Give—and Effectively Receive—Constructive Feedback
Workshop isn’t about fixing, but building together—instead of giving prescriptive suggestions on a piece, a widely published poet recommends offering specific notes as an invitation to explore further possibilities.
Tags:
The Nuts and Bolts of Distribution: How Your Book Ends Up in Stores
Once a book receives its final edits, it enters a complex network of distributors and booksellers. The author of Blithedale Canyon reveals the largely opaque system that drives publishing decisions about placement and pricing.
Tags:
Hybrid Publishing: An Alternative Model With a Price Tag
For some, hybrid publishing provides a more accessible path to publication, allowing authors to have a greater say in the production and marketing of a book—but it may come at a cost.
Tags:
Tax Tips for Writers: Save Money While Playing by the Rules
Tax season is coming up, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating. The author explains how writers can follow the rules to their advantage to protect their earnings.
Tags:
Game Changers: Literary Magazines as the Gateway to Your Career
A novelist explores how submitting to and publishing in literary journals can serve as an excellent education for writers while offering a sturdy platform upon which to build a promising career.
Tags: