If you haven’t already heard, you shortly will that Indigo has flipped its digital book identity as of midnight December 14, now branding itself Kobo (an anagram of book) instead of Shortcovers. In the very short year Indigo’s digital book service has been in operation, it’s been plagued with mismanagement, lack of vision and poor communication with its publishing partners, particularly indie publishers. Five Rivers signed up for Shortcovers within weeks of Shortcovers launch, and…

Since sitting the other side of the desk again, I’ve been struck by the common traps in which so many writers are caught. In the interest of keeping my promise to the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, I thought I’d list some of those traps here. Active versus Passive VerbsPassive voice slows action, sometimes arresting it altogether. Not good. Take a look at this sentence in the passive voice: In the interest of brevity, little say…