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At Home Author chats with literary agent, James McGowan about publishing and the querying process.

When you've decided on the traditional publishing route, the next step in the process is to query agents or book publishers directly

At Home Author chats with literary agent, Bonnie Swanson about publishing and the querying process.

Traditional publishing is 100% free to the author, but you might want to consider services that will help you perfect your craft and query. When you self-publish, you are the publisher so you have all the expenses of a publisher.

At Home Author chats with literary agent, Sarah Fisk about publishing and the querying process.

If you’re reading this as a pre-published author, you’re in the best possible place to start building your social media presence. The earlier you start, the better off you’ll be.

You can read every blog post, watch every YouTube video, or even get a degree in creative writing. But sometimes what you really need is practical advice from people who’ve been there.

You finally did it. You finished your manuscript, polished it until it gleamed, had a few beta readers swoon over it, maybe even worked with a freelance editor. You're confident it's strong—maybe even really strong. So why are the rejections still rolling in?

You’ve asked the big question. The question that just about every author wonders about at some point in their writing career...

When I first started out, there were many things that I didn’t know about literary agents. The fact is, these things aren’t widely talked about unless you have an agent, so here’s what you need to know.

There are a lot of misconceptions about agents and what they do. Think of a literary agent as a real estate agent. When you're trying to sell your house, a real estate agent can get it out to the wider market. How often do you see a “for sale by owner” sign and after a while, you see an agent’s sign in the yard?

Since each agent acquires different genres, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of manuscripts, including young adult, horror, mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, picture books, middle grade, memoirs, and more!

The word “editor” can mean very different things to different people in the publishing world - and often it depends on who you’re talking to.

Could someone steal your story? It's one of the most common fears new children's book authors have. Here's the truth — and why sharing your work is worth the risk.

When it comes to Amazon advertising, there's a lot to know. I'll be the first to admit that when I first started with Amazon ads, I had no idea what I was doing and my results were subpar. And now that I'm AMS certified and managing ad campaigns for traditional publishing houses, I see my author peers asking the same questions and making the same mistakes that I did in the beginning.