Improbable Press Blog

Secret time: We don't always love our book's cover right away. As a writer for whom covers have been created, and an editor who commissions covers for others, I know this is so very true. Book Cover Expectations: Let's Go Back In Time When I was a teen, Casey Kasem hosted a weekly top 40 radio show; I listened for years before I finally saw a photo of Kasem himself, and: No. Nope. Nada, that's not what Casey Kasem looks like. Except. Except what did I think he looked like? I don't know. I'd had no idea I even had...

By Atlin Merrick A writer recently asked what I mean by 'I'm editing your book,' and it's a great question, so here's a bit on the nitty gritty of how the editing process goes. How We Edit Your Book You've sent your completed novel to your editor. Though they've never seen those words before I promise, they're excited! Though the precise process depends on the editor, this is roughly how it goes: We read your manuscript, making note of big things like 'this story starts too early… begin the book at chapter three' or 'this scene was great, would love...

I think a prompt is everything that motivates you. It can be anything, and it doesn't have to have anything to do with what you go on to create, it's simply a catalyst. Maybe that's what this semi-regular column should be called: catalyst. Whether you're writing a poem or a polemic, if you're noodling on a novel or stewing over the next step in a short story, sometimes a lyric is enough to propel you forward – I know lyrics can often help me as I walk around grumbling to myself about a plot point – and speaking of point,...

Want a crunchy fact for your sci-fi novel? A little something that gives a sense of place, science, or culture? How about this: your extraterrestrials always give birth to twins. In humans twin births are rare, happening about 4 times to 1,000 births, but get this: Clawed New World monkeys (Callitrichidae) — tiny wee creatures between 4 to 21 ounces – rarely have one baby, instead they nearly always have fraternal twins (or triplets when in captivity) and they can do so with greater ease than humans in part because they develop their placenta a lot longer than we do...

I read all kinds of interesting stuff. How moths drink the tears of sleeping birds. That flour is explosive. That Marie Curie's belongings will be radioactive for 500 years. And there are probably at least 500 billion galaxies. These are little facts that are a delight just for knowing, or for knowing so you can add them to a story and give it a wee bit of crunch. Crunch? Crunchy facts are those chewy, spikey, textural bits of minutiae that give your story complexity. So says novelist and songwriter Narrelle M Harris, who made up this tasty term. Crunchy facts...