History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Interesting Observation about Cover Design

| June 24, 2024

While talking about books and authors with my mother-in-law a couple of weeks ago, she realized she had read two of the books by a best-selling author we know, but she’d missed that there was a third book. I showed her the cover for the third book, to see if she recognized it (since she’d […]

Small Publishing in a Big Universe Interview!

| September 28, 2022

A few months back, I recorded an interview for the Small Publishing in a Big Universe podcast, where I talked about self-publishing and small press publishing, and some of the pros and cons of each! You can check it out here! There are lots of other cool panels and interviews and more if you want […]

Indie Author Resources

| July 25, 2022

If you’re an indie author looking for a bunch of great resources, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has just released a website called Indie Pub 101, which is a one-stop-shop for information for people who are already publishing independently or are interested in pursuing that route. Not all of the resources are in […]

The Timing from Idea to Book

| March 1, 2021

How long does it take between when an author gets an idea for a novel and when it comes out? That depends on a number of factors, including the author and their publication process. But the short answer is “longer than you’d think.” Between Facebook memories and archived emails, I’ve determined that the novel I […]

Self Publishing and Covers

| December 14, 2020

When it comes to self-published books, cover art can have a huge impact on your sales. Even though we say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” the truth of the matter is that for many readers looking for a new book, covers are what draws them to a book by an author they’ve never […]

Self-Publishing 101: The Types of Editing

| January 22, 2018

While at Rustycon recently, Jeremy and I were on a panel about self-publishing. We also met with an author who is considering self-publishing his book. One of the topics that came up in both instances was the types of editing, the order they happen in, and the importance of each. The first step, prior to […]

Self-Editing

| August 28, 2017

A couple of weeks ago at Spocon, I was on a panel on self-editing with Kat Richardson, Alex Fedyr, Grivante, and Elizabeth R. Alix. Here’s a distillation of some of the wisdom we dispensed. First, finish what you’re writing, whether that is a novel or a story. There’s a lot of temptation to tweak as you […]

The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby now available!

| July 12, 2016

If you’ve been following me since the beginning, you might recognize the protagonists of my new novella, just out today! The Marsh sisters, who debuted in my very first published short story, “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue,” are back in action in The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby! From the book: “Chrysanthemum and Marigold […]

April 2015 recap

| April 30, 2015

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 6 Acceptances received: 1 Rejections received: 3 Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 4 New Submissions: 0 Stories out at the end of the month: 6 The numbers this month seem a little low to me, but I think that’s mainly because I’ve got stories out at markets that have a longer […]