The Renegade Writer Blog

Maybe it’s because I worked in advertising and marketing for ten years that I’ve developed the hide of a crocodile around rejections. An editor doesn’t want to buy my article? Her loss, I think, then I figure out a new market for my brilliant idea. A magazine isn’t crazy about my lede? So I’ll rework [...]

I got this question in the Comments section but thought it would be good to answer it on the blog.
Sarah wrote:
Hi Linda, I have a question and didn’t know who else to ask. I am an accomplished magazine freelancer who has been approached by a semi-public figure to co write a book. However, he doesn’t [...]

Last week, I quit a writing project that was worth more than $10,000.
When I got the project, I was coming off of a four-month famine, and I needed the dough. So I ignored the red flags. First, the expert co-author took so long playing hardball with the publisher that the deadlines were crunched. Then, she [...]

I’ve been struggling with a book proposal for going on two years. Every couple of weeks, my husband asks, “How’s the X book coming?” and I feel the pool of despair inch out a little farther in my gut. This weekend he asked again and I snapped, “It’s not, okay? Lay off!” I rarely snap, [...]

K asks, “Not sure how to post this as a separate question for you that I’ve not seen addressed elsewhere. Since you’ve written books and magazines, I’m hoping you can help me. I’m in the middle of writing Book 2 of a 3-book series on assignment by a children’s book publisher. I’ve published 1500 magazine [...]

Kayleen writes, “A couple of years ago in doing research for an article I ran across several photograph albums full of pics taken during the 1930s of an around-the-world trip that two very famous American composers took together. They were working on a musical during the trip. The photos were taken by a professional photographer [...]

Hilarious! Dennis Cass should be in standup (maybe he is?) … his timing is perfect and he’s 50x funnier than Jerry Seinfeld. My favorite line: “You know what’s funny about the Oprah question … I would have just called you and said ‘I’m going on Oprah.’ I wouldn’t have let you come to me.” [db]

Today both Gawker and GalleyCat have links to a YouTube video of disgraced memoir writer Margaret Seltzer talking about her childhood spent running with (cough) LA’s most brutal gangs. Obviously this was taped before her real-life sister blew the whistle on her. It’s fascinating to watch: the accent, the stories, the emotion — the chutzpah! [...]

Thanks to a post in today’s GalleyGat, I spent the last hour reading the details of an angry romance author’s vendetta against the writer of a (gasp!) 3-star amazon.com review. I read the review — since taken down by amazon.com presumably at the angry author’s request — and it’s fairly pleasant, nothing that would get [...]

I started my RW Makeover about a year ago with the goal to become a book dork for life. Since then, I’ve written a book (which is now up for pre-order on Amazon!), bought a house, written a lot about books and spent a long time thinking about what it is I want to do [...]