It’s actually one of my favorite questions to ask in my author spotlight series on WritersDigest.com. Over the years, I’ve noticed some trends—like that debuts tend to take longer from idea to publication than later books in a series, and that one author’s concept of “taking a really long time to complete a project” is actually warp speed for another author. 

“I started working on this book in the summer of 2018,” says Nancy Reddy, author of The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom (St. Martin’s Press). “My older son, who’d just finished kindergarten as I began, will be well into his first year of middle school by publication. So, the research and writing and thinking in this book really spanned my kids’ entire elementary school years.” 

For some authors, like Marianne Cronin, author of Eddie Winston is Looking for Love (Harper Perennial), the process speeds up with practice: “Eddie Winston is my second novel, so the process was a lot quicker than with my first novel, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, which took seven years from initial idea to publication! Once I’d had the inspiration for Eddie, things happened quite quickly. I started writing in November 2021 and by March 2022, I had 50,000 words to share with my agent and editor.” 

However, other authors find that their process just takes time regardless: “I hope this isn’t disheartening, but every book takes me about 10 years from first thought to last word,” says Erika Swyler, author of We Lived on the Horizon (Atria). “I’m actively writing one novel while another is floating around in the back of my mind.”  

Still, other authors just aren’t even sure: “It’s gotten harder over the years to pinpoint exactly how long any one project takes since my best ideas usually hit right in the middle of deadlines where I’m already working on something else,” says Kayla Olsen, author of The Lodge (Atria). “This one I think took around two years?” 

Self-Publishing at the Speed of Light 

One thing becomes obvious early on: Self-published authors can move from idea to publication on a faster timeline than authors—even the speedy ones—on the traditional publishing track. Plus, many of the successful self-published authors still get traditionally published in roughly the same timeframe as an author going through the regular submission process. 

“The Bones Beneath My Skin was originally written in 2017, and then self-published in 2018,” says TJ Klune. “From there, it was picked up by Macmillan/Tor to be republished in 2025.” 

Meanwhile, Jillian Meadows says, “It took me about nine months to write Give Me Butterflies (Avon), and I originally self-published it. Now, it has gone through a few more rounds to get to this traditionally published version. So overall, it has been a little over two years since the idea began.” 

“I began writing the series toward the end of 2021, and I self-published the first book in June of 2023,” explains Penn Cole, author of Glow of the Everflame (Atria). “About a year later, I partnered with Atria Books on the print edition of the series, which is rolling out over the next few months. Altogether, it has been about three years from deciding to write the books to seeing them on bookstore shelves.” 

Agents Can Help Ideate 

While not every literary agent is game for helping authors brainstorm ideas, some agents definitely thrive on facilitating the creative process. 

“My agent and I brainstormed the initial premise in July of 2022, but it took three drafts for me to become confident in who the killer was and figure out how all of the characters were connected,” says Ande Pliego, author of You Are Fatally Invited (Bantam). “Total, it took around two and a half years.” 

Edward Underhill, author of The In-Between Bookstore (Avon), also found brainstorming with his agent was helpful: “I started discussing the concept of the book with my agent in late 2022, and then once I’d written the first few chapters and a full synopsis, we sent that as a proposal to my publisher in early 2023. Then I had to write the rest of that book, which I actually did in about a month and a half! It was insanely fast, and I’m honestly not sure I recommend drafting at that pace; but one good thing was that I had no time to overthink anything. There simply wasn’t time.” 

Of course, most projects aren’t going to be written that fast. Some are sure to take time and might even be hidden from an agent until they poke and prod their authors enough. Such was the case for Sarah Perry, author of the essay collection Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover (Mariner): “At first, ‘the candies’ (as I came to call them) were a project of private creative rehabilitation. I just wanted to enjoy making sentences again. So, I resolved to write each morning, for 100 mornings, about a different kind of candy. I’d get up, still sleepy, and say, ‘Today is about Reese’s Pieces.’ And I’d let it rip, just kind of following my morning brain wherever it wanted to go before my editor-brain woke up. One day, my agent Jin Auh called me and asked what I’d been working on. I actually felt like I didn’t have much to say for myself, but I eventually ‘confessed’ that I had a ‘secret project’ that had somehow grown to 65,000 words. She insisted I send her the manuscript later that day, and she loved it. We sequenced it by color and submitted it to my publisher for first look, and we got an offer pretty much right away.” 

Keep Your Ideas Alive 

Nearly instant success is nice but do your best to stay balanced and in this thing called writing for the long haul, because some success stories take longer than others. The most important factor for writing success often is patience. 

“In some ways, I’ve been working on this book since 2008,” says Megan Collins, author of Cross My Heart (Atria). “At some point, maybe two books ago, as I continued to let it simmer on the back burner, I thought of a really cool … thing—that’s all I’m willing to say—that could happen in it, but I was unsure if I had what it took to execute it. Finally, in late December 2022, I needed to present a new idea to my publisher, so I committed to plotting it out … by April 2024, it was off to production!” 

And remember that everything is relative. “I feel like it took eons,” says Virginia Feito, author of Victorian Psycho (Liveright). “It took five years.” 

The post How Long Does It Take to Go From Idea to Publishing a Book? appeared first on Writer's Digest.

I still wonder what the attendees of that Zoom event must have thought when my eyes went wide, I tipped my brow in surprise, and I paused to collect my thoughts before giving this parent the exact opposite answer they were looking for.

(How I Found Success With the Writing and Publishing Process.)

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that… I’m a dream-chaser; every artist is in some way. I would be doing your middle schooler a disservice if I told him to be anything less than what he is. But what I can do is offer encouragement and steer him towards resources that can help make his writing goals achievable.”

Why did I answer this way?

Because I remembered the highs and lows of every step on the road to publication. I remembered my family’s support as I walked away from a 15-year corporate career—with no guarantees—and worked every day to chase down my dream of becoming a writer. And now, more than a decade and 17 publications down that road, I’m grateful I still have people around me who serve as dream-defenders so I can do the work I love.

If I could peel back the curtain, this is what I’d show that middle school dreamer how I spend my days (and making a wage) as a writer:

—-

5:00am—Alarm. [Ugh] Alas, no snoozing. Let’s do this!

5:15am—The non-negotiables. Early in my career, I would sit for 12-hour days and soldier through a novel-writing deadline. I have a different view in 2025. If I want to be at my best and keep doing this job, then every day has to begin with a non-negotiable focus on my health. Whether it’s yoga, strength training, running/walking at the park once the sun comes up (safety first), or hitting local hiking trails, I start the day with one of these activities—sometimes plus an audio book or industry podcast. (Hint: I start each day with what brings peace and clarity, and a much-needed battery charge to set intentions for my day.)

7:00am—Breakfast, baby! Along with the health focus, this typically involves a high-protein breakfast or recovery smoothie and listening to a favorite podcast while I load the dishwasher, do laundry, and straighten up from the carnage teenagers may have left in the living room the night before. (Hint: I’ll do whatever is needed to partner with my family on household chores and keep moving while I tidy up my home workspace.)

7:30am—Writer basics. This is the stuff we all have to contend with… Reviewing my schedule, planning the day, checking email, connecting with my agent or publishing team etc. (Hint: It helps to have copious amounts of coffee with a splash of unsweet coconut milk.) 

8:00am—Writers gotta write. I make sure to plan time in my day that feels like going to a physical office, so I put on clean clothes and “get out” to greet the world. If it’s a writing day, I may get lost in a coffee shop corner and pound a couple of thousand words on the keyboard, work on a freelance editing or coaching project, or I could write articles for an upcoming book release. (Hint: Multiple income streams are the key to the freelance life!)

11:00am—Social media marketing. In autumn of 2016, our family went on a research trip to Ireland. I couldn’t pay the roaming fees overseas, so I only used my phone for the clock and camera. I realized then how much time I’d been burning through by scrolling on social media, so I deleted social media from my phone and it’s not been invited back. Now I design graphics, post about what’s happening in my author world, and connect with readers through scheduled time on my PC. (Hint: If social media goes over time, it will just have to wait until the next business day. )

12:00pm—Community. Oh, does this matter to writers! Much of what we do is solitary, so I might grab a quick salad with a friend. I’ll probably text or talk with author friends. Or I could snag a quick lunch and chat with family when they’re around. (Hint: Connect with your people even when writing on your own; they’ll brighten your days!)

1:00pm—Walking meetings. If I don’t have to be in front of my computer for a meeting, I’ll probably lace up my running shoes and get outside. This could be coaching a client, a call with my agent, connecting with an author friend or listening to an audio book, etc. (Hint: Take advantage of your flexible schedule and keep moving while working throughout the day.)

Click to continue.

2:00pm—Editing sprint. If I’m on deadline, I’ll probably take the afternoon hours to get back to my WIP. I’ll edit what I wrote in the morning, do research, check in on social media, etc. Whatever I need to keep a sharp focus going until the end of the day. (Hint: Healthy snacks help!)

5:00pm—Author to soccer mom. You never know, but by evening I could be sending an email from sports bleachers, attending a virtual book club or in-person signing at a bookshop, or I could have a quiet family evening at home. (Hint: Evenings are almost always “go-with-the-flow” flexible.)

7:00pm—Shut it down. Early in my corporate career, I wasn’t as knowledgeable about boundaries (or wise, I hope?) as I am in this season of my life. Now, whether I’ve been a leader or literary agent or parent, I try to model an intentional work/life balance. It could be cooking with family and gathering in the kitchen to talk about our days, or enjoying a dinner out, but the hours between 7:00pm – 7:00am are non-working and reserved for me/family. (Hint: Set a daily reminder on your phone so you’re “off the clock.”)

8:30pm—Book + Zzzzzz. I’ll settle in with a cup of tea and read, have extra family time, review the next day’s schedule, or catch-up on an episode of my current Netflix show before I crash for the night. (Hint: While readers may long to stay up late… runners and writers know we have to get gooooood sleep if we want to be top of our game the next day! )

Happy writing, dream-chasing author friends!

KC   

Check out Kristy Cambron’s The French Kitchen here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

The post Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Day in the Life of a Successful Writer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

WD uses affiliate links.

We first connected with Mazey Eddings for her debut novel’s publication and featured her in our March/April 2022 Issue‘s Breaking In column. Now that her next publication hit shelves yesterday, we’re reconnecting with her for a quick Q&A.

What was the time frame for writing this latest book?

Time is such a blur, and publishing time is a different beast entirely, so I’m not 100 percent sure! I know the first hints of Well, Actually came to me in September 2022 as I was heading on tour for my sophomore novel Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake. I jotted down a bunch of ideas about this second chance romance that starts with a viral callout, and then didn’t touch it again for quite some time until it was sold on proposal in August 2023. Because publishing contracts are weird, and my situation was somewhat unique in having multi-book contracts I was navigating plus severe writer’s block on one that was due, Well, Actually was supposed to be my eighth published book and come out in 2026/27. But my main characters, Eva and Rylie, were so loud and rompy and irreverent, and I wouldn’t let me work on anything else, and I got the greenlight to bump their story up in the cue, and I turned in the initial draft in April 2024, and it is my sixth published book.

Has your perspective on the publication process changed since your debut was published?

So much. I think I’ve come more to terms with how little is in my control when it comes to publishing. I’ve spent the last five years since my debut got picked up by my publisher, pushing and grinding and saying yes to anything and everything that came my way and spending so much time strategizing and agonizing on what I could do to make a book “successful” or a “break-out.” The reality is there is nothing I alone can do to really change the trajectory of one of my books. All I can focus on is creating a story that I genuinely love and hoping that it finds the readers that will love it too. Being hungry and pushing and asking for things in publishing is good and important, but I’ve learned not to feel so much despair when that pushing doesn’t yield the results I would hope for.

What was the biggest surprise while getting this book ready for publication?

How much more excited readers seem for it! As I’ve mentioned, this is my sixth book, so none of this process is new to me, but early readers seem to be responding differently to Well, Actually compared to my past books. I have no idea why things seem to be different this time around, though!

What do you feel you did really well with this novel?

I honored my characters’ voices, particularly my heroine. Eva is an extremely prickly and irreverent female main character, and her sass and crass are a protection mechanism, but I knew while drafting that she would be deemed “unlikeable” by many readers. I decided early on that if Eva didn’t care how she was perceived, then I wouldn’t be the one to water her down! My characters feel very real to me—and Eva is a particularly precious one—and I had so much fun discovering what she would do next, and I like to think that by being true to her character, she’ll feel real to readers as well.

Anything you would have done differently?

With this book? Not at the moment. The more time and space I get from each novel, the more I realize what I could have changed or tried, but I also am a firm believer that once a book is done, it’s important to allow it to just be. I think of my books as little time capsules for where I was as an author at different stages. There are things I would change and edit down or fine-tune if I were writing past stories now with more words under my belt (fingers?), but who am I to edit the purple prose of 25-year-old me? She needed to be gratuitous and sweeping and play with words as she did. 

Would you like to share some advice for our readers?

I think this is advice I shared with WD readers in the past, but protect your joy of writing at all costs. This job is brutal, creating art is brutal, so it is imperative that you fiercely defend and safeguard the joy it brings you.

What’s next for you?

I’m not sure how much I can say at this point, so I’ll leave it at an angsty, sapphic romance dedicated to Stevie Knicks and inspired by her singing “Silver Springs” at Lindsey Buckingham live in 1997. It releases August 2026.

Where can our audience find you online?

Newsletter: Mazey.substack.com
Instagram: Instagram.com/mazeyeddings
Threads: Threads.com/@mazeyeddings

The post Breaking Out: Mazey Eddings appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Mariah discusses breaking writing rules in her debut short story collection, Extinction Capital of the World, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Mariah Rigg
Literary agent: Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Trellis Literary Management
Book title: Extinction Capital of the World
Publisher: Ecco
Release date: August 5, 2025
Genre/category: Literary Fiction/Short Stories
Elevator pitch: Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawaiʻi—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of positive depictions—or really, a lot of depictions at all—of Hawaiʻi in popular media. The depictions of the Hawaiian Islands I did see often reinforced settler colonial structures of sugar and pineapple plantations, extractive tourism, and the American military industrial complex’s occupation of the islands. As a child, I didn’t understand the extent of the harm perpetuated by these stereotyped depictions of my home. It wasn’t until my teens that I began to recognize my own role as a settler of Hawaiʻi, and to interrogate how the stories of the Islands I saw in popular media were used to occupy both the narrative surrounding Hawaiʻi, and the literal islands themselves.

Some of the stories in Extinction Capital of the World are written from my anger toward the people who have and continue to bastardize and colonize the Hawaiian Islands. But most of the stories are written from a place of deep love. I feel like I’m always repeating this wisdom, but I had a mentor once tell me: You write to the places you’re not. For the past five years, I’ve been writing love letters to Hawaiʻi. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I wrote the earliest story—“After Ivan,” a queer love story between an American and Soviet Olympic kayaker, set just before the 1989 fall of Berlin—in February of 2020. I was halfway through my first year in the MFA program at the University of Oregon and had no idea how to write a short story, let alone a collection. I thought maybe I could sell “After Ivan” by stretching it into a novel, but as I continued to write stories, I found a momentum building.

I never set out to write a linked collection. But as I revised stories for my MFA thesis, I realized that what I’d thought had been separate lives was really a universe. Much like my own childhood on Oʻahu, the characters in my Extinction Capital of the World are hopelessly intertwined—through blood, marriage, work, friendship, the ʻāina, and over and over again, through love and loss. Only a third of the stories I’ve written between 2020 and now are in the final book. I think I queried at least three different times, with different arrangements of stories and different titles, before signing with Amy Bishop-Wycisk in 2023.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

So, so, so many! Writing a book and publishing a book feels like it requires two completely different parts of the brain—one’s creative and world-building, the other is a lot of admin. I’ve been lucky that my agent Amy Bishop-Wycisk, my editor Rachel Sargent, my publicist Nina Leopold, and my teams at Trellis and Ecco have been so patient and kind.

One of the most surprising and affirming things in this publication process is the number of truly amazing people I’ve gotten to meet. It’s so easy to fall into stress and anxiety when you’re working to get your book on shelves—will I get enough blurbs? Is my book in the hands of the “right” people? After the years of work I put into this book, is anyone even going to read or like it?

This past January, I was driving through Kentucky when my partner and I stopped into a record store to browse. If you’re ever in Louisville, you have to stop by Surface Noise. Part record store, part bookstore, part gallery, the place has rotating art exhibits, monthly readings, and shows. My partner is an extrovert, and he and the owner immediately hit it off. We found out that the owner is a poet—Brett Eugene Ralph, whose book Black Sabbatical, published by Sarabande, is an absolute banger—and that he’d studied at UMass Amherst with David Berman. Brett Eugene was thoughtful and funny, selling us Gabby Pahinui’s “Rabbit Island Music Festival” for a fraction of its value, and inviting us to do a reading at the store later in the year. I was pretty frantic about my book at the time, but what he said as I left the store helped me to reality check: “You’ve got to remember that we do all this”—he gestured and the records and books and prints in the store around him—“for the access it gives us to other artists. For the community we form.” And you know what? He’s so right.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

This book was at least three other books before it became this one. The biggest change between the first draft and the book that will be on shelves is the addition of “Target Island,” which opens the collection, and the titular story, “Extinction Capital of the World,” which closes the book out. I wrote these two stories the winter before I queried for the last time and honestly wasn’t thinking about how they’d fit into my larger body of work as I drafted them. I just wanted to play with form and voice. When I returned to each of them in the spring of 2023, I began to see how they were connected and knew that they’d have to be in the collection.

As I’ve gotten more comfortable writing short stories, I’ve been more willing to mess with form and point of view and voice. I’m grateful that the first draft of this book wasn’t published, because even though I love the stories that were cut from the collection, a lot of them felt more “traditional,” which contributed to a sense of repetition and even stagnancy in the collection. I wouldn’t say this book is weird, but my hope as a writer (and person) is to keep getting weirder. Breaking “rules” in my writing gives me the courage to do the same in my life.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope people will stop telling me about their vacations to Hawaiʻi. Ha. But really, I do hope that this book helps people to reconsider their role as consumers and perpetrators of settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi, the North American continent, and beyond. As Haunani-Kay Trask famously said: “The First world nations must still learn what Pacific Islanders have known for millennia: Upon the survival of the Pacific depends the survival of the world.” Now more than ever is the time to educate ourselves on the infinite ways that our struggles are connected.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Don’t count yourself out before you’ve even begun. There are enough people out there who want to knock you down a peg, and you don’t have to be one of them. Apply for every single thing you can afford (and always ask for fee waivers!), even if it feels out of reach, because you might just get it. Write the story everyone tells you won’t work, because if you’re interested in it, odds are there are thousands of other people who will be interested in it, too. Rejection hurts, and I’m not sure it ever gets better, but “no” is a lot better than wishing you’d done more, that you’d had the courage to believe in yourself.

The post Mariah Rigg: I’m Grateful That the First Draft of This Book Wasn’t Published appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Something Hidden Poem:

“The Poet,” by Robert Lee Brewer

From an early age, I was taught
heroes hide their true identities:
Bruce Wayne as Batman, Clark Kent as
Superman, and Barry Allen as The Flash.
In one world, they saved the day;
in the other, they played make believe
that they were just ordinary people
as if fitting in was more challenging
than solving crimes and fighting evil,
and so, from an early age, I carefully
cultivated this alter ego, waiting
for my chance to save the day.

The post Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 750 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(5 Tips for Giving Your Character Powers.)

The primary level of secondary characters are those who are most important to the life of the sleuth, and therefore the plot. The best supporting role at the Oscars! The romantic interest, the villain, the possessive mother. We need to know a lot about them because we need to understand their motivation. Is the boyfriend worthy of her love, why does the villain want revenge? It really helps if we can picture them clearly and hear their voices too.

In my new book, Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure, my heroine is dumped by her husband and flees to the South of France with two women who have both been treated unjustly by society. We come to know a great deal about all three women by the end of the book as they interact with the heroine and with those around them.

Then at the level below that, we have characters with whom they will interact with in the French village. Characters important enough to the plot that we need to know who they are, some of their back story, and what drives them. Once a character betrays the heroine. We find out why, but we don’t know everything about him.

Below these are those who would be the extras in a movie: the baker in the village, the priest, the doctor. They are just cameo appearances and therefore we don’t need to go too deeply into describing them. We don’t need to know what motivates the baker to make bread. But we must take pains to make sure they are more than cardboard stereotypes: The Irish Cop. The wicked stepmother, the rough edged waitress with the heart of gold.

If you see each of them as an individual, your story will be fresher. Think Harry Potter and the secondary characters—the individual professors and students, Harry’s uncle and aunt. All real people that we feel we know well.

Click to continue.

So how do we create real people when we don’t want to give up too much of the page to describe them? Our first impression of a person is usually visual, although it could be auditory like an annoying laugh across the room or someone who can’t stop sneezing.

1. Try to find something about them that encapsulates them. Think of a party in a room where we know nobody. As we look around, some people catch our eye and stand out. That woman is wearing too much make-up and trying to look younger than she is. That elderly man has dyed his hair black and it doesn’t go with his too pale skin and eyebrows. That woman talks with her hands. Is she Italian? That too tall boy stoops because he’s self conscious.
2. They come to life through their dialogue, especially when they interact with the main character. When we first meet them, are they rude, curt, witty, flirtatious? Do they like to talk about themselves? Are they hesitant, shy, feeling out of place? Menacing, spooky? Their dialogue also helps to anchor the story in time and place. If the heroine has moved to a new environment, it is the characters she meets who will show us what that new place is all about, by the way they talk, act, move, dress.
3. They reveal themselves through their gestures, mannerisms, the way they walk. The woman sitting at the restaurant table scratching lines on the tablecloth with her fork is clearly tense. Why? Another man is gulping down his food. As a writer, take time to observe when you are stuck in an airport, or waiting for your food.
4. Names are important. Once you have the name, you know the character. Sometimes I will have called a character Robert for 50 pages and things are going slowly. Then out of the blue he’ll say “Why do you keep calling me Robert when my name is Richard?” And then the story just leaps ahead. 
5. Once you have introduced them, their character will be revealed not only by the way they speak and act but by the way the main character interacts with them or observes them. You will come to know them as she does.
6. With secondary characters, as with your main character, once you have created them it’s their story. Don’t try to force them to do things it’s not within their nature to do. Allow yourself to be surprised if they say or do something unexpected. In every book, at least one of my characters surprises me and goes on to play a role I hadn’t expected. Be open to that. It makes the story much richer and more real.
7. Hint: Only give up precious time and space to those who will further the story for us. We don’t need to know that the policeman holding up the traffic when the heroine is in a desperate hurry is tall, ginger haired with a little mustache. Not important.
8. Another Hint: Don’t introduce us to too many characters at once. You confuse the reader.
9. And a last hint: If you really want to understand a character, write a paragraph in their first person. You’ll be surprised at what they want to tell you.

My whole aim when I write about another time and place is to take the reader there, not tell them about it. And it’s the secondary characters who will make this world real.

Check out Rhys Bowen’s Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

The post On Creating Secondary Characters appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How to Brainstorm Your Book Proposal.)

However, when a proposal has too many errors—aka distractions—the reader may never even consider the content. That is why formatting is so important. You want to present your proposal as professionally as possible, so you make it easy for the decision-maker to move forward.

Here are some key “Dos” and “Don’ts” for your book proposal formatting.

6 Book Proposal Formatting Dos

Remember the basics.

Use Times New Roman font throughout your book proposal. Use one-inch margins. On all but the title page, your document needs to be double-spaced (except perhaps for bullet points), use 12-point type, and be left aligned (not justified) on the first line of each section, and then indent the paragraphs below.

Start your proposal with a title page.

It needs to include your book title and name—centered, a few lines down from the top. This can be 14 to 18 point type, Times New Roman font. If you have relevant credentials—for instance, your role in a/your company, certifications, “known” status, previously published noteworthy books, won awards, and/or appeared in mainstream media—include that under your name.

TITLE
BY, YOUR NAME
CREDENTIALS

Put your contact info—including address, phone number, email, website, and standout social media profiles, such as your LinkedIn—in the lower left hand corner. This is 12-point type, Times New Roman font and can be single spaced.

ADDRESS
PHONE
EMAIL
WEBSITE
SOCIAL MEDIA

Add the splash page.

The splash is a graphic—photo or in some cases a collage—that is representative of the content in the book. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, that is your splash.

Create a table of contents.

Use the Table of Contents (or TOC) function, so all of your section headers are linked within the document. To do this, highlight each section title, go to Home and then Styles. Click on “Heading” (use “Heading 2” for sub-sections) to apply the format. 

After you have done this for all sections, create the TOC. Go to the third page (after the title page and splash). Then, go to the References tab. Click Table of Contents. Choose a style (“Automatic” or “Custom”), and Word will automatically generate a TOC using your Heading and Heading 2 styles.

After you finish your proposal, go to your TOC page and click to Update Table.

Customize your header.

You will want to start using a header on page 4—right after the Contents page. To do this in Word, insert a Section Break by going to the Layout tab. Click Breaks and, under Section Breaks, choose Next Page.

To unlink the Header from the Previous Section (since you do not need one for pages 1-3), double-click to get into the header area on page 4. In the Header & Footer Tools ribbon, click Link to Previous to turn it off. This breaks the connection between headers in Section 1 (pages 1–3) and Section 2 (page 4 onward).

With your cursor in the header on page 4, type your last name, book title. Underneath it, go to insert page number to add the page number.

NAME, TITLE
PAGE #

Send a PDF.

Unless otherwise requested, save your document as a pdf to send.

3 Book Proposal Formatting Don’ts

Rely on visuals to get your idea across.

Unless your project is photo-centric in nature, the only image you want to include is on the splash page. Book specs is where you put your bulleted list of items that are in the book. That’s where you can write down how many photos or other types of images you plan to include.

Make your book proposal difficult to read.

A book proposal can run anywhere from around 25 to 50 pages or more (depending on the length of the sample chapters). Be cognizant of page breaks and paragraph breaks.

For instance:

• Your Overview is a snapshot. It needs to be one page, no more than two. Each section builds on each other. You can go into more detail in the other sections.
• Avoid run-on sentences and super-long paragraphs. Find ways to be more concise or break up your content.
• Try to contain your sections, so they do not run one or two lines over onto the next page.

An easy-to-read proposal is something that’s also skimable. Before doing your final save, view your document at around 50% magnification, so you can catch weird formatting things, like blank pages and overlong bundles of text.

Forget to spell check.

Spell check is your friend. Use it! And then use it again.

One More Thing

Most agents and publishers accept what’s the standard for book proposals, in both order of sections and content. However, some have certain preferences. Before submitting your proposal, check the website to see if they have submission guidelines. Read them. And adjust as necessary.

Good luck!

Click to continue.

The post 9 Dos & Don’ts of Book Proposal Formatting appeared first on Writer's Digest.

We just had our annual conference, where I had the pleasure of running the debut author panel! It got me thinking about stage fright, and what kind of person has never experienced it.

For today’s prompt, write about someone who thrives on stage.

Post your response (500 words or fewer) in the comments below.

The post The Opposite of Stage Fright appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Rachel discusses how writing out a rant at her daughter’s swim meet led to her new horror novel, Tantrum, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: Rachel Eve Moultong
Literary agent: Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell
Book title: Tantrum
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Release date: August 5, 2025
Genre/category: Horror
Previous titles: Tinfoil Butterfly; The Insatiable Volt Sisters
Elevator pitch: What would you do if your baby girl was born with a full set of teeth and an untoward appetite? What would you do if she wanted to devour the world?

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was surprised by the parts of pregnancy no one had ever warned me about. It seemed to me that there was a full-length-horror movie of details that had been left out. So, at the end of the 16-hour extravaganza called labor, when I finally got to hold my newborn in my arms, I found myself shouting directly into her sweet face, “It’s a baby! It’s a baby!” I didn’t fully understand until that moment that I’d felt sure I was carrying around a monster rather than a beautiful, strong baby girl. The relief was overwhelming.

Lucia, the protagonist’s baby in Tantrum, is the monstrous version of that baby.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The first draft of this book came to me pretty quickly. I wrote much of it by hand on the bleachers of my eldest daughter’s swim meets. And although it took another six months to shape it into something I was ready to show to anyone else, the idea and character voice remained the same.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

My aforementioned daughter was briefly a part of a club swim team, which meant a tremendous amount of time spent in hot, chlorinated spaces waiting for her to swim for approximately 39 seconds. Weekends were spent on bleachers, which were particularly physically and emotionally painful—I’m being only a little dramatic. I would look around at the other parents and wonder why they all looked so happy to be there. It was miserable! At one of these meets, I sat in my camp chair on those bleachers and wrote an early draft of Tantrum by hand. It was more of a rant than a story at that time, but it came out almost all at once. A novel the length of a swim meet!

The next step was shaping the rant I’d written into a plot driven story. This was where I learned, once again, what a tremendous editor I have. Daphne Durham was able to see the first rambling draft and help me shape it into the full world it is today. She reminded me to focus on the narrative and not just the voice.

Always listen to your editor!

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

My hope is that the novel’s exploration of generational trauma and motherhood will make readers feel less alone in their experience. Becoming a parent often coincides with a genuine curiosity about how your parents parented you. Often this exploration opens untended wounds, and the opportunity to see yourself in a new light. I want to encourage women to dive into this exploration. To try to understand their own anger in order to pass something more examined down to the next generation.

Shame thrives in the dark. It gains power when the experience of it is not voiced. The examination of our own horrors, inherited or of our own making, leads to freedom.

I also hope Tantrum makes readers rage a little and laugh a lot.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Rejection doesn’t mean you are a bad writer or even that the rejected piece is bad. It only means that you need to keep writing until you find your authentic voice and with it your audience.

The post Rachel Eve Moultong: Always Listen to Your Editor appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How Do I Develop a Character’s Voice?)

Banter is a specific subset of dialogue with a teasing or playful tone. It’s dialogue with an edge and sometimes, depending on the characters, it even has teeth.

As a rom-com author, I know my readers expect to find good banter when they open one of my books. But what makes for good banter? To explore what good banter needs to be successful, let’s look at five ways to ruin good banter.

How to Ruin Good Banter in 5 Easy Steps

1. Technical Issues

To write effective banter, it’s important to master the technical parts of dialogue first. Dialogue needs to clearly indicate who’s speaking so the reader doesn’t get confused. Too many dialogue tags, too few, or too many alternative words for “said” can all impact the effectiveness of dialogue.

As you read back through a section of dialogue, check first to make sure it’s clear who is speaking each line. Vary the dialogue tags, gestures (the actions or movements a character makes around a line), and lines that have neither. You can also change up where these indicators are located—at the start, end, or even in the middle of a line of dialogue.

The goal is for the technical setup to be so seamless that readers are never pulled out of the story to notice your hard work.

2. Imitation Conversation

Have you ever read a transcript for an interview? Even the most entertaining conversation loses its shine when recorded word for word. The second way to ruin witty banter is to make it too close to actual dialogue.

As Anne Lamott puts it in Bird by Bird, “You’re not reproducing actual speech—you’re translating the sound and rhythm of what a character says into words. You’re putting down on paper your sense of how the characters speak.” Banter needs to sound like an actual conversation, not be a literal conversation.

3. Bad Rhythm

Like dancing, dialogue doesn’t work without a good sense of rhythm. Banter is snappy and tends to have a faster pace than typical dialogue. But it also needs to be balanced out by various line lengths to avoid sounding stilted and boring.

The best way to test rhythm is to read it out loud. Listening will reveal where the interplay between the characters shines. It will help you see where to slow the pace by adding a dialogue tag or physical gesture—like a character taking a sip of water or fidgeting with something.

Bad rhythm is what stops the banter from bantering.

Click to continue.

4. Lack of Characterization or Uniqueness

The most common piece of advice I hear regarding dialogue is to make each character’s speech be something only they would say. Of course, this isn’t possible for every line of dialogue in a book. But a quick way to ruin banter is to have such generic lines that they could be said by any old character in any old book.

Sometimes when I’m in a groove, writing banter is easy, as though I’m eavesdropping on an actual fictional conversation. Other times, I simply write basic prose in the first draft, then push for more in edits.

Is there another way for a character to say that they’re tired? Is there an analogy or comparison they could use that relates to their job or interests? Does this character have an extensive vocabulary? Do they tend to speak in complete sentences or choppy fragments?

The better you know your characters, the easier it will be to write dialogue that sounds unique and uniquely like them.

5. Missing Subtext

One of the things that makes banter really sing is what the characters aren’t saying. It’s the unspoken current running beneath the words.

How does he really feel about her? What secret is she keeping? Why is he reacting so strongly at this moment?

This work requires not only knowing your characters but keeping in mind their motivations as well as the things they do and don’t really want to say. When writing conversations between Wyatt and Josie in my book If All Else Sails, I tried to remember at all times how they felt about each other, how they each wanted the other person to think they felt, and what they really wished they could say to each other.

While this is subtle work, I think of it like infusing the banter with the kind of depth that really brings it—and the characters—to life.

In her book, Wired for Story, Lisa Cron states that “when a story enthralls us, we are inside of it … and the last thing we’re focusing on is the mechanics of the thing.” Great dialogue—and especially great banter—is usually doing several things at once and doing them so well that readers don’t even notice.

The goal is to work so well at crafting your banter that readers don’t see the hard work—they’re too busy lost in the moment.

Check out Emma St. Clair’s If All Else Sails here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

The post Writing Witty Banter That Actually Works (by Looking at How to Ruin Good Banter in 5 Easy Steps) appeared first on Writer's Digest.