With nearly 400,000 new titles published each year, serious writers need a way to stand out. An award is one way to do that. The Story Prize for short stories, an Oscar for screenwriting and the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize for fiction may be at the top of the list, but literary awards of any sort make you stand out.
With an ever-expanding array of online tools available, it's getting easier and easier to turn your ideas into books -- and money. The secret is to know your market before you begin to write, start selling before you've published and never, ever stop promoting your book.
Matthew Biberman had a story to tell about his dad and a one-of-a-kind motorcycle, and he soon turned his passion into a book deal. But the newly published author says the book deal is just the beginning -- learning how to pitch your story is what builds audiences.
J.D Salinger died Wednesday at 91. As tributes flow in, publishers still wonder why he stopped publishing more than 45 years ago -- and whether publishable manuscripts might be waiting in the wings.
