Scroll & Quill Consulting LLC

“Five Words You Can Cut,” is a helpful reminder. I would have added “very” to the list (I almost used it in the previous sentence). My personal weakness is for “perhaps.”
What is you special weakness? What word attracts you but is not helpful to your writing?

Since one of my jobs at S&Q is literary agent, I found this blog entry by Colleen Lindsay to be really helpful. Here are the bottom line facts that she lists:
YA fiction 50k - 80k
urban fantasy / paranormal romance 80k - 90k
mysteries and crime fiction = cozies: usually 60k - [...]

Let’s consider an analogy. Perhaps you have heard of Freecycle? Consider the precious items collected at this great humor blog, which we all know are genuine.
Freecycle — a fantastic community that’s also home to some of the most extreme social cluelessness and gaspingly funny avarice in the online world. This blog will document [...]

There are lots of howto books out there for those who want to be freelance commercial writers. Many of these books can be skimmed because, while quite helpful, they are also full of hype (or else they are simply trying to bulk up to be book length).
While this is quite do-able for reading, in [...]

This story is pretty terrifying to me.
In speaking with PayPal they told me that because I don’t have a shipping code or proof of delivery for a tangible product, I’m not covered by their Seller Protection Policy….  The only resolution of the claim was that, well, the credit card company is going to side with [...]

SF author and freelancer John Scalzi has recently been blogging about money issues for writers. He just posted a link to this great personal story of how one writer got into the business. She is more of a “pure” freelancer than I am, writing for publication under her own name. What’s odd [...]

I hate to admit it, but talk of recession really scares me. But there are always winners in economic shake-ups.  News of the impending end of traditional media outlets might mean that those developing other sorts of marketing, especially in new media, might actually find new business. 

I used to work in a normal office with fellow workers in cubicles and rooms.
And I loved casual Fridays. I never wanted to dress up. Later, when I worked in an office by myself and had to go and visit people, I became aware of the help a “power tie” could offer. [...]

By the way, one piece of advise about getting testimonials:  When you have a happy client, ask immediately for him to write a blurb you can use.

While this post is about fiction writing, I think it contains much truth about commercial writing and how a real professional will go about doing his job for a client. Go read John Scalzi’s blog entry where novelist Marcus Sakey confesses, “I don’t have big ideas.” What he says is quite insightful for anyone [...]