I’m a person who frequently comes off as absent-minded. THIS IS WHY. At any given moment of the day, I’m thinking to myself:

How can I fix the story I’m working on?

What problem have I created for myself that is going to crop up down the line?

How can it make the characters, the story, the scenes better?

I’ve got two drawers in our office filled with bookmarks. The publishers print ’em up for my wife’s books, so I dutifully mail them to people whenever we send out a book or a bookplate. And if I’m anywhere near the table when Denise does signings, I always slip a bookmark into the reader’s book before they leave the table. Why? Because I hate the damn things, and I can’t wait to get rid of them. Thanks to my efforts, I predict we will finally finish them all by 2063.

Here’s what I think authors should be carrying in their pockets instead…

You’ve written a book. Yay you, writer guy. But now you’ve got to sell it. You’ve got to market the heck out of it. Those two things may well seem mutually exclusive. You wrote a book because you’re at heart a quiet, contemplative sort of fellow. A person who thinks a lot about words. But to market, you must now assume the persona of a dude striding down the street in full marching band dress, pounding a drum. There’s an irreconcilable disconnect at the heart of your endeavor. Which are you—a mousy writer dude, or an attention-seeking whack job?

Well, you’re both.

Writers are always asking each other which software they use.

Do they write in Word? Pages? Scrivener?

Some writers swear by Word, for example. I hate the thing, and only use it to transmit a final document to editors or clients.

I wrote a few blog posts recently in which I delved into my current favorite apps for writers. I’m going to just quickly offer those links so you can find them easily…

I’ve been recommending this essay for years to every writer I know. And it’s free to read online…