May
26
The Ghost of The Future

℞ For NF: High Demand for Prescriptive Nonfiction

Against the violent protestations of many an erudite thought leader, literary agents and the publishers they serve all shove nonfiction authors and their writers toward a prescriptive structure for their books. The mass market demands we break down complex subjects this way, “practically,” with clearly organized advice, spelled out step-by-step. We can’t explain how to change […]

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May
21
The Ghost of The Future
May
12
The Ghost of The Future

Platform: The High Dive to Publishing Success

Gone are the days when people in publishing can risk “discovering” unknown writers. The poet Vachel Lindsay was dining at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington when a busboy summoned his courage and slipped several sheets of paper beside the poet’s plate. Lindsay was obviously annoyed, but he picked up the papers and read a […]

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Apr
20
The Ghost of The Future

G-g-g Ghost!

Sure, I buy it—all writers – except for maybe Emily Dickinson – lug egos the size of Volkswagen buses. Even the seemingly insecure, nebbishy ones—here one Heywood Allen of Brooklyn comes to mind. Writing, as with all artistic ventures, self-selects the simultaneously pained and prideful. So how does an ego-driven artiste stomach subsuming ego in […]

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