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The Intuitive Author: How to Grow & Sustain a Happier Writing Career
“Tiffany's wise approach is one I wholeheartedly applaud.”—Jane Friedman, author of The Business of Being a Writer
“Intuitive Author is a much-needed resource, filled to the brim with wisdom and tips that every author needs to know. It should be required reading and belongs on every author’s bookshelf.”—Amy Collins, literary agent, Talcott Notch
“What Tiffany Yates Martin offers in The Intuitive Author is as practical as it is inspirational…. This is a must-add title for your writing desk.”—Amy Jones, editor-in-chief of Writer’s Digest
Creating a successful writing career in today’s complex, competitive publishing environment can feel like forging through a jungle built on quicksand with only a fountain pen and a dream.
In an ever-changing industry where you’re expected to master both craft and business—juggling your writing with marketing demands, budget constraints, social media, and more—how do you maintain your passion and build a thriving writing career?
This is a survival manual for authors.
Whether you’re just beginning your writing journey or are an established author, this indispensable guide gives you the tools to navigate an often difficult, demanding field and overcome the toughest challenges writers to cope with rejection, criticism, and failureHow to deal with impostor syndrome, comparison, and other writer demonsHow to stay motivated and produce your best workHow to balance creativity and commerceHow to take charge of your career when so much can feel out of your control
With compassion, humor, and insight drawn from decades working with thousands of best-selling, successful working authors, career book editor Tiffany Yates Martin empowers you to navigate the challenges of walking the author’s path, and shows you how to build a meaningful, rewarding, happier writing life.
Whether you are writing fiction—literary or genre fiction—or writing nonfiction or memoir; whether you want to create a publishing career or simply love words and language; whether you’re pursuing traditional publishing, indie or self-publishing, or hybrid or small-press publishing, this writing guide will help you become a better writer…and a more satisfied one.
Tiffany Yates Martin has spent more than thirty years as an editor in the publishing business, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors as well as indie and newer writers. She is the founder of FoxPrint Editorial (named one of Writer’s Digest’s Best Websites for Writers), and author of Intuitive A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. A regular contributor to writers' sites and publications like Writer's Digest, Jane Friedman, and Writer Unboxed, she is also a frequent presenter and keynote speaker for writers’ organizations around the country. Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of six novels.
“Intuitive Author is a much-needed resource, filled to the brim with wisdom and tips that every author needs to know. It should be required reading and belongs on every author’s bookshelf.”—Amy Collins, literary agent, Talcott Notch
“What Tiffany Yates Martin offers in The Intuitive Author is as practical as it is inspirational…. This is a must-add title for your writing desk.”—Amy Jones, editor-in-chief of Writer’s Digest
Creating a successful writing career in today’s complex, competitive publishing environment can feel like forging through a jungle built on quicksand with only a fountain pen and a dream.
In an ever-changing industry where you’re expected to master both craft and business—juggling your writing with marketing demands, budget constraints, social media, and more—how do you maintain your passion and build a thriving writing career?
This is a survival manual for authors.
Whether you’re just beginning your writing journey or are an established author, this indispensable guide gives you the tools to navigate an often difficult, demanding field and overcome the toughest challenges writers to cope with rejection, criticism, and failureHow to deal with impostor syndrome, comparison, and other writer demonsHow to stay motivated and produce your best workHow to balance creativity and commerceHow to take charge of your career when so much can feel out of your control
With compassion, humor, and insight drawn from decades working with thousands of best-selling, successful working authors, career book editor Tiffany Yates Martin empowers you to navigate the challenges of walking the author’s path, and shows you how to build a meaningful, rewarding, happier writing life.
Whether you are writing fiction—literary or genre fiction—or writing nonfiction or memoir; whether you want to create a publishing career or simply love words and language; whether you’re pursuing traditional publishing, indie or self-publishing, or hybrid or small-press publishing, this writing guide will help you become a better writer…and a more satisfied one.
Tiffany Yates Martin has spent more than thirty years as an editor in the publishing business, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors as well as indie and newer writers. She is the founder of FoxPrint Editorial (named one of Writer’s Digest’s Best Websites for Writers), and author of Intuitive A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. A regular contributor to writers' sites and publications like Writer's Digest, Jane Friedman, and Writer Unboxed, she is also a frequent presenter and keynote speaker for writers’ organizations around the country. Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of six novels.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
373 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2024
23 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 16, 2024
I loved this book. As a writer, it provided inspiration and support as Tiffany discusses persistence, resilience, and the demons that can trip up any writing career. It is a survival guide for authors and I highly recommend it!
February 3, 2025
Just the book I need write -- er, right -- now, dealing with what the author calls "squishy skills," those that carry us over bumps and through obstacles in both our writing and our publishing. Highly recommended.
October 2, 2024
The Intuitive Author is this author's-need-come-true. The breadth of subjects cover the writing career, and I can see myself revisiting specifics chapters during specific times in my career. It's one of a kind and will have a permanent spot on my bookshelf.
October 3, 2025
I enjoyed Tiffany Yates Martin's first book, Intuitive Editing, so I had to check out The Intuitive Author. It's not a direct sequel to this first book, but serves more of a companion book to create a balanced author career. The 2020's feel like a minefield for authors new and established, with more burnout than ever and on the verge of giving up their dreams. Even before then, writing can be hard and more often discouraging, when it's about "more" and "perfection".
Personally, I've been hit with perfectionism, writing advice overload, fitting my process in a box, and forcing my writing to please a certain type of reader that might not enjoy my work. The combination of those made me dislike writing for a few years and lose my writing voice in that time.
Tiffany Yates Martin's advice comes with professionalism, decorum, and most of all, kindness and forgiveness, especially in a world where "the one true way" is pushed so often in writing advice, and leads to many that can't fit into a "one size fits all" model more prone to give up. It's encouragement in a strict and hustle culture world. Each section of the book addresses an aspect of the writing life, from your writing process and drive, setbacks, feedback, your author career, and your non-writing life. This is not an advice book, it's more of a motivation/lifestyle book.
This book is a must read for all authors, especially for those that are new, or need a confidence boost in this high pressure industry that is ever changing and can do a number to unprepared authors.
Personally, I've been hit with perfectionism, writing advice overload, fitting my process in a box, and forcing my writing to please a certain type of reader that might not enjoy my work. The combination of those made me dislike writing for a few years and lose my writing voice in that time.
Tiffany Yates Martin's advice comes with professionalism, decorum, and most of all, kindness and forgiveness, especially in a world where "the one true way" is pushed so often in writing advice, and leads to many that can't fit into a "one size fits all" model more prone to give up. It's encouragement in a strict and hustle culture world. Each section of the book addresses an aspect of the writing life, from your writing process and drive, setbacks, feedback, your author career, and your non-writing life. This is not an advice book, it's more of a motivation/lifestyle book.
This book is a must read for all authors, especially for those that are new, or need a confidence boost in this high pressure industry that is ever changing and can do a number to unprepared authors.
October 2, 2024
Tiffany Yates Martin has written a book that writers need to have easily available on their shelf especially on the days when the writing is hard. It is filled with encouragement for the beginning writer and follows the writing process to the end. In each chapter you can feel the author’s passionate desire to help writers bring their stories to life. Her book is like a friend the writer can call when they feel like giving up, filled with useful, hands on and wise information.
October 15, 2024
What I personally find fantastic about Tiffany’s new book is the extent to which she calls upon a writer to have confidence. Confidence in his/her talent, confidence in the meaning of what he/she does, in whatever circumstances.
For me personally, this confidence in my writing had been somewhat snowed under in recent years, for the following reasons in particular:
– the fact that I started writing for the very different standards of the members of a writing group, rather than for myself. As a result, my writing slid into a kind of uniformity, in which I could hardly find any traces of myself.
– the fact that I focused too much on all kinds of tips that I had gathered from countless writing books, which caused me to become paralyzed for years and no longer enjoy writing at all.
Of course, in this way I completely lost my writing voice.
Tiffany approaches these and many other recognizable situations in her book with an impressive knowledge of the subject. She knows how to get the wounded writer back in the saddle, and encourages her/him in a powerful yet nuanced way to investigate where his/her voice has ended up, and why.
Really, I could not imagine anyone who could do this as beautifully and as credibly as she does. That is why I find her book absolutely unique.
En nu in het Nederlands (mijn moedertaal)
Wat ik persoonlijk fantastisch aan het nieuwe boek van Tiffany vind, is de mate waarin ze een schrijver oproept om vertrouwen te hebben. Vertrouwen in zijn/haar talent, vertrouwen in de betekenis van wat hij/zij doet, in om het even welke omstandigheden.
Voor mij persoonlijk was dit vertrouwen in mijn schrijven de laatste jaren nogal ondergesneeuwd geraakt, omwille van vooral deze redenen:
– het feit dat ik eerder begon te schrijven voor de zeer uiteenlopende normen van de leden van een schrijfgroep, dan voor mezelf. Waardoor mijn schrijven vergleed tot een soort van eenheidsworst, waarin ik nog nauwelijks sporen van mezelf kon aantreffen.
– het feit dat ik me te veel richtte op allerlei tips die ik bijeen had gesprokkeld uit talloze schrijfboeken, waardoor ik jarenlang schrijfverlamd raakte en er totaal geen plezier meer in had.
Uiteraard raakte ik op deze manier mijn schrijfstem compleet kwijt.
Tiffany benadert in haar boek deze en heel wat andere herkenbare situaties met een indrukwekkende kennis van zaken. Ze weet op een krachtige maar toch genuanceerde wijze de gewonde schrijver weer in het zadel te krijgen, en spoort haar/hem aan te onderzoeken waar zijn/haar stem inmiddels is terecht gekomen, en waarom.
Echt, ik zou me niemand kunnen voorstellen dit zo mooi en zo geloofwaardig kan doen als zij. Daarom vind ik haar boek absoluut uniek.
For me personally, this confidence in my writing had been somewhat snowed under in recent years, for the following reasons in particular:
– the fact that I started writing for the very different standards of the members of a writing group, rather than for myself. As a result, my writing slid into a kind of uniformity, in which I could hardly find any traces of myself.
– the fact that I focused too much on all kinds of tips that I had gathered from countless writing books, which caused me to become paralyzed for years and no longer enjoy writing at all.
Of course, in this way I completely lost my writing voice.
Tiffany approaches these and many other recognizable situations in her book with an impressive knowledge of the subject. She knows how to get the wounded writer back in the saddle, and encourages her/him in a powerful yet nuanced way to investigate where his/her voice has ended up, and why.
Really, I could not imagine anyone who could do this as beautifully and as credibly as she does. That is why I find her book absolutely unique.
En nu in het Nederlands (mijn moedertaal)
Wat ik persoonlijk fantastisch aan het nieuwe boek van Tiffany vind, is de mate waarin ze een schrijver oproept om vertrouwen te hebben. Vertrouwen in zijn/haar talent, vertrouwen in de betekenis van wat hij/zij doet, in om het even welke omstandigheden.
Voor mij persoonlijk was dit vertrouwen in mijn schrijven de laatste jaren nogal ondergesneeuwd geraakt, omwille van vooral deze redenen:
– het feit dat ik eerder begon te schrijven voor de zeer uiteenlopende normen van de leden van een schrijfgroep, dan voor mezelf. Waardoor mijn schrijven vergleed tot een soort van eenheidsworst, waarin ik nog nauwelijks sporen van mezelf kon aantreffen.
– het feit dat ik me te veel richtte op allerlei tips die ik bijeen had gesprokkeld uit talloze schrijfboeken, waardoor ik jarenlang schrijfverlamd raakte en er totaal geen plezier meer in had.
Uiteraard raakte ik op deze manier mijn schrijfstem compleet kwijt.
Tiffany benadert in haar boek deze en heel wat andere herkenbare situaties met een indrukwekkende kennis van zaken. Ze weet op een krachtige maar toch genuanceerde wijze de gewonde schrijver weer in het zadel te krijgen, en spoort haar/hem aan te onderzoeken waar zijn/haar stem inmiddels is terecht gekomen, en waarom.
Echt, ik zou me niemand kunnen voorstellen dit zo mooi en zo geloofwaardig kan doen als zij. Daarom vind ik haar boek absoluut uniek.
September 22, 2024
Sometimes a book drops in your lap right when you really need it. I was deep in the throws of a bout of jealousy over another writer's success when I received an advanced readers copy of this book. It felt a bit like Tiffany had written it just for me and was talking me off the ledge as I read.
Unlike other books for writers about how to plot better, sell more, or master some advertising platform, this is a book about how to thrive and be happy through the many ups and downs that are inevitably part of a writing career. Fans of Tiffany's newsletter will recognize her witty and insightful reflections on the writing life. Those unfamiliar with Tiffany's work will soon come to appreciate the balanced way she helps one navigate through the sometimes treacherous waters of a creative life.
Writers at all stages of their publication journey have something to gain from this terrific book.
(I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.)
Unlike other books for writers about how to plot better, sell more, or master some advertising platform, this is a book about how to thrive and be happy through the many ups and downs that are inevitably part of a writing career. Fans of Tiffany's newsletter will recognize her witty and insightful reflections on the writing life. Those unfamiliar with Tiffany's work will soon come to appreciate the balanced way she helps one navigate through the sometimes treacherous waters of a creative life.
Writers at all stages of their publication journey have something to gain from this terrific book.
(I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.)
January 2, 2025
Another invaluable resource for writers from Tiffany Yates Martin
Over the past year or two, my copy of INTUITIVE EDITING has become highlighted and dog-eared, as my most-used craft resource. INTUITIVE AUTHOR, also by Tiffany Yates Martin, is helpful in a different way. Instead of the mechanics of writing a book, this one addresses the fears, insecurities, and logistics of what it takes to be a writer.
Reading it is almost like having a conversation with Tiffany. Her years of knowledge and expertise are spelled out within the book's pages, offering encouragement and a pathway to success.
This book is becoming marked up with my notes, as well.
Over the past year or two, my copy of INTUITIVE EDITING has become highlighted and dog-eared, as my most-used craft resource. INTUITIVE AUTHOR, also by Tiffany Yates Martin, is helpful in a different way. Instead of the mechanics of writing a book, this one addresses the fears, insecurities, and logistics of what it takes to be a writer.
Reading it is almost like having a conversation with Tiffany. Her years of knowledge and expertise are spelled out within the book's pages, offering encouragement and a pathway to success.
This book is becoming marked up with my notes, as well.
December 13, 2025
A wealth of wisdom for writers is relayed in this book, from inspiring statements about defining anyone as a writer, to collaboration, to the ins and outs of publishing, if that's a goal. I appreciate it as a resource I can turn to if my path broadens. The last quarter of the book overwhelmed me like a firehose, but that's because I'm not in that space. I'll look at The Intuitive Editor next because I like her writing style. PS - I love the cover art, which is perfect for this topic. It played a big part in why I bought the book.
July 21, 2025
It took me three weeks to read this book because of the sheer volume of good advice inside. Tiffany Yates Martin understands both art/creativity and business and has the capacity to write about both with a knowledge of psychology and a light humor that keeps everything moving forward.
She says it’s a survival manual for authors and it truly is— covering everything from how to get writing done, how to evaluate feedback and how to handle rejection
She says it’s a survival manual for authors and it truly is— covering everything from how to get writing done, how to evaluate feedback and how to handle rejection
December 5, 2024
The Intuitive Author is like sitting down with your coach, mentor, spiritual writing guru, and best friend or neighbor over a glass of wine to sort, rejoice, and organize your writer’s world. It makes you feel confident and hopeful about being a writer, helping solve many of the problems we face so often in writing and life. A truly inspired and inspiring book.
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January 14, 2025An even-keeled and encouraging guide through the ups and downs of living a writer's life, filled with gentle reminders of the universal truths about the entire spectrum of experiences that comprise the publishing process.
September 5, 2025
Loved this! When it comes to writing, Tiffany Yates Martin speaks straight to my writer's heart. So much good information and advice, from someone who has been on both sides of the industry. I'll go back to this one again and again.
January 17, 2026
I found this book to be so helpful for my own writing journey. So many insightful elements. Having also heard Ms. Martin speak at a conference, I could hear her voice and her cadence in the writing. This was the perfect way to kick off a new year of creating. I feel motivated and inspired!
November 21, 2024
This is such a wonderful resource for writers and for people who happen to live with a writer and would like to understand them. Tiffany is filled with decades of compassionate and sensible advice.
February 3, 2025
Like everything by Tiffany Yates Martin, this book is invaluable to writers.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews