William Kowalski

William Kowalski

William Kowalski is the best-selling, award-winning author of seven novels and seven Rapid Reads (shorter works for beginning adult readers of English). His first novel, EDDIE'S BASTARD, won the 1999 Rosenstein Award, the 2001 Ama-Boeke Prize, and occupied the #5 spot on the Times of London bestseller list. His fifth novel, THE HUNDRED HEARTS, won the 2014 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. He has been nominated three times for the Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award. His books have been translated into fifteen languages. He is also the founder of My Writing Network (https://mywriting.network), an organization dedicated to providing free websites and community support to emerging authors of all types and backgrounds. https://williamkowalski.com/
6 Tips to Maximize Your Writer’s Website

6 Tips to Maximize Your Writer’s Website

  Learn how to make technology work for you, instead of the other way around. Why do writers need websites? The answer is simple: to promote their work. Self-published authors quickly find out how difficult it is to rise above the noise of the thundering herd...

Finding Your Style

Finding Your Style

I have deliberately refrained from discussing many matters of style in this book, because I feel that writing style is a highly personal and subjective issue.  Frankly, although I have found a style that works for me, I have no interest in trying to impress that upon...

Dealing With Rejection and Criticism

Dealing With Rejection and Criticism

Let’s not beat around the bush here.  Rejection is soul-crushing.  It’s especially bad when you feel like you were rejected because you’re just not good enough, rather than because you’re not a good commercial fit.When I was looking for an agent for Eddie’s Bastard, I...

Do I Need Connections to Publish?

Do I Need Connections to Publish?

Do I Need Contacts or Connections?It seems to be a common myth that only insiders and well-connected people have a shot at being published.  The average schlub from some small midwestern town who doesn’t know anyone important and didn’t go to an Ivy League school...

Crowd Funding a New Path to Publishing?

Crowd Funding a New Path to Publishing?

Special Report by William Kowalski:Does the future of publishing lie in readers deciding what gets published?  Given how difficult it can be to sell books these days, maybe this is an approach that can work.  And crowdfunding might be the way it happens.Recently, I...

About Query Letters

About Query Letters

The query letter is a letter you send to an agent by whom you would like to be represented.  It can be sent as an e-mail or snail mail, depending on the agent’s preference.  To find out what an agent prefers, you can look at their website, or check them out in the...

Agents: How Do I Get One?

Agents: How Do I Get One?

First, let’s review what an agent actually does, in case this is new for you.  In business parlance, an agent is anyone you have appointed to act on your behalf.  In this case, since you are not allowed to just waltz into the offices of any old publisher in Manhattan...

Agents:  Do I need one?

Agents: Do I need one?

Agents:  Do I need one?  That depends on your goal.  If your goal is publication by a large commercial publishing house with a good reputation and far-reaching distribution, then yes, you need an agent.  The reason for this is simple: lots of other people want large...

The Business of Publishing

The Business of Publishing

They say that if you love to cook, the last thing you should do is open a restaurant, because it will ruin cooking for you forever.  I won’t go as far as saying that becoming a professional writer will ruin writing for you.  I don’t know what it will do for you,...