Our Blog

Image via (the always incredible) Toothpaste for Dinner

Every now and again I come in here and update this ol' post. And here I am, doing just that!

Interested in blogging for Quirk Books? We're always on the hunt for awesome new talent to showcase on our site! Whether you're into crafting or cooking, fashion or design, comic books or movies… as long as you love writing about your passions with the occasional bookish slant, there might just be a place for you here on the blog.

And yes, we do pay bloggers for their posts!

Interested? Drop me an email at [email protected]. Tell me a bit about yourself, what you're interested in writing about, and include a few links to some writing samples. Please don't send resumes. Just a friendly email and links to clips will do. You should be active on social media and familiar with what we publish on the blog. 

Hope to hear from you soon! 

We've spent all week celebrating National Letter Writing Week, with plenty of posts from crafting to book roundups. But what about actually writing a letter? 

Well, we've got this excerpt from Jane Austen Handbook on letter writing, plus a fancy giveaway! So read on, and learn how to write and prepare a proper, Jane Austen era note. Enjoy! 

It looks like another amazing week for bookish events in New York City. Usually, I try to limit myself to recommending two options a day, but this week I just couldn’t control myself. Get your teleportation and cloning devices ready, otherwise you will have to make some difficult decisions.

Image via Flickr.

It’s that time of year when we all turn into creatures of habit. Holiday traditions run strong. If you love reading and writing, there’s no sense in ignoring those passions throughout the month. I’m sharing eight literary holiday traditions that you can easily make into traditions of your own.

Autumn is my favorite season. The crisp air, the sweaters, the butterbeer, the colorful leaves, and… NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who haven't heard of it… November is National Novel Writing Month.

What started as a personal quest of the creator Chris Baty, and has now turned into a worldwide phenomenon. Each year tens of thousands of participants sit down at their keyboards, their notebooks, and their typewriters with one thing in common. They set out to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

The challenge is to get the words down, despite your inner editor telling you they're not perfect yet, to get words on the page and move on. Once you have a draft you can edit it, but if you keep rewriting the first paragraph you'll never reach the end.

I first discovered NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) in high school. While the other girls attended football games I sat at my desktop computer tapping away at the keys until I reached 50k. The best part of NaNo, for me at least, is the community. Having that sense of togetherness with other writers scattered across the world is inspiring. Connecting with those other writers on the NaNo forums is both my greatest strength and greatest source of procrastination during November. NaNo novelists come from different walks of life, but have one thing in common… the love of storytelling and the commitment to write.

If you've ever dreamed of writing your own novel join us!

Happy September! 

We sure do have a lot going on here on the ol' Quirk Books blog today. Awesome deals on the Jane Austen Handbook and Yum-Yum Bento Box, a crazy one day deal on Blair Thornburgh's Stuff Every College Student Should Know, and one top secret thing that I totally can't talk about just yet. It starts with "fancy website" and ends with "update."

But we won't stop there. Can't stop, won't stop, as the saying goes. 

To welcome in September and the start of school, we're giving away a fancy Quirk Books Back-to-School Prize Pack (Q.B.B.T.S.P.), filled with titles for the aspiring writer and English major. Included in the bundle are See Jane Write, How Not to Write, Stuff Every College Student Should Know, and two notebooks (Walls and Skywriting) to scribble out all your ideas. 

And be sure to sign up for the Quirk E. Newsletter to get the inside scoop on giveaways just like this one! We run a lot of SECRET raffles, just for newsletter subscribers.

You can enter the giveaway via the Rafflecopter below. We're giving away FIVE prize packs! Good luck!