Writers' stories

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with readers, build a large, engaged audience - and promote your books. Whether you're an author working on your own social media, or a publisher developing a social media presence for one of your authors, it pays to think strategically about what you want to achieve.

These days I feel that finding time to write is more like purse-snatching than any other activity: I grab what I can get and run away with it. Often I do so furtively, hoping that no one trips me, grabs my ankle and hauls me in to visit the authorities.

There's nothing like writing and publishing a book to bring out the dormant diva who lives inside every aspiring author. Even the most unassuming authors have moments when indulging the fantasy of übersuccess sends them into an uncharacteristic fanning of tail feathers as they imagine what might be possible.  Read more

Laini Taylor is the author of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, as well as the National Book Award Finalist Lips Touch: Three Times and others. Take notes, because Taylor's sharing her writing tips.

English author Angela Carter, known for her dark feminist stories, always told people that she wrote her first novel when she was only six years old. Bill and Tom Go to Pussy Market was "full of social realism: cats going about their daily business." As a child, her favorite cat was named Charlie (a naughty kitty who liked to use her mother's shoes as a litter box).  Read more