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Norm, feel free to ask me about my experience in the publishing jungle anytime. I look at TNBW as a community of like minds when it comes to putting our creative energy out there. Sharing tips and bewares is a benefit of membership, in my view.

Norm, a little dose of reality here. If you're John Grisham or Harlan Coben, you don't pay for any promos. You might have to spend time on the talk circuit, though. Schmoozing with Oprah. What a drag, right? The vast majority of published authors (and I'm not talking self-published here) have publishers who will help in the promotion, but the onus is still on the author to sell his book. I've had a publisher who paid for a blog tour, a NetGalley promo, and a BookBub promo (expensive!). But the rest was up to me. I've had another publisher who did absolutely nothing to publicize the book. In between, I've had a publisher who greased the wheels, so to speak, with FB and Twitter mentions and lowered the price temporarily so I could do promos (on my own). Most small and medium-size publishers use print-on-demand for their paperbacks (often through CreateSpace), so their investment consists essentially of paid editorial services, cover art, and reputation (don't want to have their name on a dud). And they don't give you an advance against royalties. Your book doesn't have to sell that many copies before they've recouped that investment. So there isn't much incentive for them to put out money for promotion. Actually, some big-name authors have chosen to leave their major publishing houses to publish their own books and have total control of the product. But hey, they've already got the rep, and who really looks at who published the book anyway?   Jack

Congrats, Dags!

If the groups were all listed in one place, then clicking on one would bring you to the group description that we have now. That's how I envision a more efficient system.

Alphabetical or not, a single sidebar/page listing all the groups at once would help, rather than having to scroll through four pages.

I seem to be in the minority, but I prefer #1. For me, the presence of the female and the train aren't necessary, and Fuji in front of the cityscape makes it look like a sand pile.

You have permission to use any of my books, all of which were workshopped on TNBW, Sol.

Thank you all! I spent more time writing this one than is my usual. The older I get, the slower I get, apparently!

I saw the video. She had common-sense points about writing a blurb for the book, but bear in mind, she's a self-published author, so she's really talking about the book description a potential reader will see on Amazon. A.T., on the other hand, is asking how to write a query letter to attract an agent and/or a publisher. A blurb would be included in that letter, of course, and the tips given in the video are worth reviewing. But it is just one part of it. BTW, the author in the video omits a plot driver that concerns a main character who doesn't really want anything, but is caught in circumstances beyond his control. North by Northwest comes to mind. She should have focused on conflict, rather than the MC out to achieve something and being opposed. Anyway, that was my take.

Alas, Claude was hardly the man of her dreams, but she had no other options now, so she'd try to make the best of it.

Although "snuck" is now an accepted alternative to "sneaked," I'm old school and won't use it (in non-dialogue writing, anyway). Same goes for "alright" instead of "all right." Thanks for the link. Can you think of other examples of previously unacceptable words that have wormed their way into the lexicon?