I don't buy that as a black-and-white statement. I'm sure that it would be beneficial to your reputation with if you have published short stories...
Starting in the middle of things is nothing new: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_medias_res I lost count of how many Bond movies there are now,...
How about: keep one in your purse, another next to your bed. Transfer any useful notes you make there to the other note books, which are strictly...
I've also seen "Contemporary Fiction" used for books that take place in the present day.
I'd generally avoid them, though I wouldn't go overboard avoiding them. "He listened to some music on his iPod" is probably better than "He...
Some recommended reading for this: The Exception by Christian Jungerson.
Why such a narrow view? Even if most self-publishing is vanity publishing, the very fact that there is a multitude of highly successful...
My protagonist is a dead guy who doesn't know anybody in the world of the living - I guess that makes him a bit lonely. I do plan to develop some...
The difference, I think, is in how you do it and how many of your books you manage to sell. One can hardly speak of vanity publishing when an...
Separate names with a comma.