Opyrus Blog for Authors and Writers

It's called the hook: that sparkling first sentence that grabs your reader and convinces her that she HAS to keep reading your book. Authors have been known to spend hours trying to create the perfect hook for their book, often longer than the rest...

Margaret Atwood began her literary life as a poet, but it's as a novelist who wrote fiction with strong social commentary that she's become world-famous. Her book The Handmaid's Tale was made into a movie in 1990 and is currently in its second...

Being a freelance author gives you freedom to work wherever you are. Why limit yourself to spots that can support your laptop? Sometimes it's nice to just hit the road and work wherever you land, without carrying a lot of gear. Here are five...

Some new authors think they can't afford to hire an editor. They think they can publish their book just like it is, and maybe work on editing in the next edition. The truth is, you can't afford not to! Your first books are the first time millions of...

Joining a local writing group is one sure-fire way to up your author game, but what if you don't have one in your community? This is a unique opportunity to create a writing group that's perfect for your needs. The members of a writing group can be...

Elmore Leonard, the prolific detective fiction series author, was never shy about telling other authors what he thought of the writing profession. Here are some of his to-the-point tips for writing great novels. 

Amazon's CreateSpace publishing arm no longer offers author services such as book design, professional editing, and book marketing. For those authors who relied on Amazon for all aspects of their book publishing career, this means having to scramble...

Marketing your book, which every author has to do, is a matter of constantly changing things to improve sales. The only way you can know what to change is to research and discover data that shows what's working and what isn't. One of the most...

The first step in getting book sales on Amazon is to make it easier for readers to find them. This concept has birthed an entirely new name: discoverability. Amazon has given authors tools and techniques that make this more simple, for those who...