4 Down, 496 Left to Go / 7 Standards for Publishers

Last night I launched my first Publishizer campaign. I received four pre-orders ranging from $8 to $45. I thought that was good night, but my experience selling online is with jewelry, not books. When selling on Etsy, I was thrilled if I had four orders in one evening. While I’m happy with the orders I have…

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Cats and Email Apps = Bad Combination

I’m pretty sure my cat just spammed my entire gmail contacts list — meaning everyone I’ve corresponded with on gmail. If you got an email from me you didn’t want today – I apologize. If your curious how Goose managed to spam my contacts, read on.   Earlier in the year, I wrote a detailed…

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Camp NaNoWriMo Take Two

My first time genuinely attempting National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was a success. I finished a short YA novel with a day to spare. My critique groups read it and gave me feedback, spurring three in-depth revisions. This summer, I read it out loud to my mother on the beach, and revised some more. I…

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The Hiking Writer and Speculative Fiction

The Hiking Writer and Speculative Fiction By Sara Codair Even though a majority of my stories are speculative in some way, they are often inspired by reality. Sometimes it’s a question begging for an answer, sometimes it’s a piece of news too dark to keep inside me, and often, the seed for the story was…

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Why Bullshitted Papers are Underrated

Why Bullshitted Papers are Underrated By Sara Codair It’s the last day of class before finals. While some students have their notebooks and netbooks open, ready to take notes, others are glancing at their phone, counting down the minutes until I give them permission to leave. They’re all exhausted. Most have been working all day,…

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Can on only child mentality be the key to a successful writing career?

Writing and Publishing with an Only child Mentality By Sara Codair Only children, especially those of the millennial generation, have a reputation for being spoiled: needy, narcissistic, socially awkward brats who always get what they want. While some of the stereotypes may be true for some people, only children have strengths too. We are often comfortable…

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The Dreaded Short Story Query

The Dreaded Short Story Query By Sara Codair Querying short stories is the most stressful part of the publication process for me. The word query has a slightly different meaning in the world of short stories than it does for novels.When you query an agent of publisher about a novel, you are essentially submitting a…

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An Image can go a Long Way

The first week of national novel writing month has passed, and so has a shocking election. While I try to cope with the results and their implications, my writing is keeping me from going insane. Taking a little time away from the actually writing to create a cover  image for my NaNoWriMo2016 novel, Like Birds Under…

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NaNoWriMo: For Real This Time

Two years ago, on a windy October night, I decided it was time I started writing again, for real. No more sporadic drafts started in notebooks never to be finished. No more late night rants that never evolved to essays or blog posts. No more procrastination. I was going to get back to writing. Period.…

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Publication and Politics

For the past few years, I had been living under a metaphorical rock. Things like the news, current, events, and politics gave me panic attacks. Last year, I had a wake up call and realized that ignoring  the news wasn’t making it any less scary. I used to show my students a documentary called “The…

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