Every author needs a website. Once the design is in place, your work begins. 5 focal points to creating a user-friendly and engaging website: Navigation Content Clutter Voice Keeping it current Navigation The key to easy navigation is starting with an intuitive sitemap. Simply put, think like a user. Your site should be simple and... Continue Reading →
So, you want to build a website: 5 tips to help you along the way Commerce in the internet era is different than anything that came before. Regardless of who you are and what you’re doing, a website that communicates effectively is essential to your success. There is much to consider and it’s easy to... Continue Reading →
Being a part of any community means knowing what kind of contribution you’d like to make and then taking steps to make that contribution. That is universally true, regardless of the community. With lesbian fiction, there are readers, reviewers, book sellers, libraries, authors, editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, publishers, and many many more contributing to the... Continue Reading →
Chances are if you’re reading this, you love books. This is, after all, a blog post for a publishing company. What is it about a book that makes it one of your favorites? And conversely, what makes you put a book down before you’re 20 pages in? To a certain extent, these answers come down... Continue Reading →
So you’ve got your manuscript ready to go and you want to send it in to a publisher you’ve researched that you think will be interested. Most larger houses only take manuscripts via agents, but smaller houses – including lesfic – don’t require that. You can send it in all by yourself! But you need... Continue Reading →
Writing food is a lot like cooking or eating it. When I was in culinary school, one of the fundamental plate-construction rules they taught us was to include all the different flavor palettes and as many textures as possible. So, for example, a complete dish that’s served to you in a restaurant should have something... Continue Reading →
Written by Michelle L. Teichman, Dirt Road Books’ marketing guru Over the next couple of months, Dirt Road Books will be releasing a series of marketing tips, starting with social media. Social media has exploded the way we used to think about traditional marketing. Although these tips are written with an author in mind, they... Continue Reading →
I’m sitting in Sappho Square, Skala Eressos, drinking coffee with my friend Alison Terry-Evans. Alison is the founder of Dirty Girls of Lesvos, a charity formed out of the refugee crisis on Lesvos. The crisis is still ongoing, Alison is telling me. It has mutated since the EU struck a deal with Erdogan, the president... Continue Reading →
The first time you send in a manuscript can be scary. With all the apprehension, excitement, dread, and anticipation you go through, it can be hard to stop, focus, and ask yourself, “what shouldn’t I do?” instead of “what haven’t I done?” While larger, international publishers will generally only accept solicited manuscripts—work sent to them... Continue Reading →
For some, the connection between dirt roads and lesbian fiction isn't obvious. For us, it's immediate and completely natural. Dirt roads mean home. They mean sunset followed by sunrise. They mean International Harvesters and driving slow. They mean swinging on a rope and swimming in a lake. They mean a front porch and a rocking... Continue Reading →
Reading lesbian fiction has brought so much joy to my life that one day I decided to try to give back and write some myself. That decision started a long journey that was more complex than I’d imagined—creating a book requires not just patience with the writing process, but excellent collaborators and editors. The process... Continue Reading →
Well, hi, there! Over the years I’ve worked in publishing as an editor and an author, I get questions about how to find and approach a publisher. So with that in mind, I thought I’d provide a few quick tips to help you figure out who you might want to work with to publish your... Continue Reading →
