strange-worlds-publishing

Writers' Problems and Solutions

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:46:13 GMT

New tools for writers and authors

In the past few weeks, I've expanded my website to add a few new features that address recurring issues and problems that afflict writers and authors. The first is called Author Resources and the second is titled, Real Problems , Real Solutions.

In Author Resources, you'll find permanent articles of value to authors. Currently there are three of them.

The second website addition contains a series of common problems/issues and my solutions to them:

Over time, these pages will grow as I solve more issues.

Why not check out these webpages and bookmark a few?

AI Writing Assistants

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:18:04 GMT

You need an AI Writing assistant

You may not realize it (yet) but you really do need a writing assistant. My Beginner's Guide to using an AI Writing Assistant is now available and shows how to use the writng assissant across all five phases of book creation: plannng, wriiting, publishing, marketing and business .

You can get a copy here and you can see the entire B eginner's Guide series here.

Another Beginner's Guide published!

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:29:16 GMT

My Beginner’s Guides series just grew

I published the Beginner’s Guide to Storytelling and that makes seven titles in the series with three more left to write.

Planning: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Planning-Story-Guides-ebook/dp/B0H1D3D7QM?

Characters: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Creating-Genuine-Characters-Guides-ebook/dp/B0DF69DWPV/?

Plots: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Developing-Plot-Guides-ebook/dp/B0CZTN42PN/?

Scenes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4R94SHX?r

Storytelling: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Storytelling-Guides-Book-ebook/dp/B0H6TZKQ8T

Publishing: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Publishing-Book-Guides-ebook/dp/B0DKFVSJZJ/?

Book marketing: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Basic-Marketing-Guides-ebook/dp/B0DNB5W2Q9/?

Starter Kit: https://hankquenseauthor.org/beginner-s-guide-series6b9a9e79

My biggest need right now is reviews for these books. If you have an interest in any one of the titles,contact me and I’ll send you a review copy.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide Starter Kit, a free download

Who are the Beginner's Guides for?

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:22:53 GMT

This post will explain who needs each book

Who are these books for?

Beginner's Guide to planning a novel

This book is for anyone who wants to develop a story idea into a full-blown plan.

Beginner's Guide to creating genuine characters

This one shows how writers can develop characters that aren’t cardboard cutouts of a real character.

Beginner's Guide to developing a plot

Any writer who has difficulty developing a plot needs this book

Beginner's Guide to designing scenes

Scenes are the building blocks of stories. This book describes how to build them

Beginner’s Guide to storytelling

If your stories don’t hold a reader’s interest, they won’t read the story.This book tells you how tell the story to hold the reader’s interest.

Beginner's Guide to publishing a book

Once your manuscript is completed, you should read this book before starting your publishing journey

B eginner's Guide to book marketing

This book can save you time and money and increase your success rate with readers

Beginner's Guide to author business

Once you publish a book, you own a company. If you don’t know what this means, you need this book

Beginner’s Guide to mind-mapping a novel

Mind-mapping allows the author to control consistency and continuity

Beginner's Guide to using an AI writing assistant

You may not know it (yet), but you need a writing assistant

Looking of a summer read?

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:50:27 GMT

Here are a few suggestions

If you like to read humorous fantasy and scifi like the books of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, here are a few you may like. You can find all of these on Amazon .

Meet the new Beginner's Guide series for writers and authors

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:49:09 GMT

Over the years I’ve seen the same pattern with new writers: tons of enthusiasm, then frustration when the story stalls, the plot won’t cooperate, or the whole publishing and marketing side feels like a maze.

So I finally pulled everything I teach and coach about into a set of short, focused “Beginner’s Guide” ebooks.[

Each guide tackles one piece of the journey:

Beginners Guide to Planning a Story – taking a loose idea and turning it into a workable plan: characters, plot, setting, and overall storyline.
Beginner's Guide to Creating Genuine Characters : how to ensure your characters don't bore the reader.
Beginners Guide to Developing a Plot – building believable plots, from inciting incident through climax, plus character and emotional arcs.
Beginners Guide to Publishing a Book (and Not Getting Screwed) – a straight‑talk tour of today’s publishing options, including how to avoid the predators.
Beginners Guide to Basic Book Marketing – the essentials of book marketing for first‑time authors: landing pages, blurbs, keywords, and building a simple author platform.

They’re deliberately short, practical, and meant to be used. Read it in an evening and apply your new knowledge the next day.

I have several more Beginner's Guides under development: on scene design, business, mind-mapping and AI assistants.

There is also a free Beginner's Guide Starter Kit: it contains material from each guide including the ones under development. You can download a copy here.

You need an AI writing assistant!

Sat, 16 May 2026 14:03:15 GMT

Yeah, you really do!

I've been using an AI assistant for almost 2 years now and I'm convinced that all writers and authors should have one also. Why? Because my writing assistant relieves me of repetitive and tedious donkey work and that leaves me more time to be creative.

Over the last two years, I've created a number of resources you can use to learn more about AI writing assistants.

A series of ten articles that you can read for free on Medium
T he Author's AI Toolkit
A Udemy course: the AI Sidekick

I think it's interesting to know that an AI assistant can be used across all five phases of creating a book: planning, writing, publishing, marketing and business

f you want to test your knowledge on AI writing assistants, h ere is free quiz you can take .

If you questions about using AI, I'm available to discuss them with you. Just reply to this email.

AI writing assistant quiz

Fri, 15 May 2026 11:38:38 GMT

Want to test your knowledge on AI Writing Assistants?

I just discovered this cool feature on an app called Recall. I generated a test on using an AI writing assistant. You can take the test (it's free!) and see your score on a leaderboard.

https://app.recall.it/c/203e8e95-559b-54f0-a564-248dd714c342

Tired of Thick How-To Books?

Wed, 13 May 2026 12:00:52 GMT

Beginner’s Guides Make Learning Feel Easy Again

My series of short, focused ebooks for beginning writers and authors has grown. The Beginner's Guide to Planning a Story is now available.

It joins the four other Beginner's Guide already available:

* Beginner's Guide to Creating Genuine Characters

* Beginner's Guide to Developing a Plot

* Beginner's Guide to Publishing a Book

* Beginner's Guide to Basic Book Marketing

The series will soon grow even more when two new ebooks join up. These two new ones are:

* Beginner's Guide to Scene Design

* Beginner's Guide to Author Business

These ebooks will become available before the end of the summer.

Why bother with the Beginner's Guides?

Beginner’s Guides stay tightly focused on one skill at a time, so the writer isn’t distracted or overwhelmed by a dozen other topics at different levels of detail.

Because they cover a single subject, it’s easier for writers to remember and apply what they learn, instead of skimming past lots of information they don’t need right now.

Writers can pick exactly the guide that matches their immediate problem or goal, which saves time compared with buying or searching through a big, multi-topic book to find the few relevant sections

Don’t let information overload slow you down—choose the Beginner’s Guide that solves one problem, follow it step by step, and see results in your next draft

New Review: self-publishing a book in 10 steps

Tue, 05 May 2026 11:10:30 GMT

This review just showed up on Goodreads

S elf-publish a Book in 10 Steps (Author Blueprint #6) by Hank Quense is a practical and straightforward guide designed to help aspiring authors navigate the self-publishing process with clarity and structure.

The book breaks down publishing into a step-by-step framework, making what can often feel like a complex journey more manageable and organized.

What stands out in this book is its simplicity and focus on actionable steps. Rather than overwhelming the reader with theory, it emphasizes a clear path forward, covering the essential stages of bringing a book from concept to publication. This makes it especially useful for first-time authors or those looking for a structured approach to self-publishing.

The tone is instructional and supportive, offering guidance that encourages readers to take consistent action rather than getting stuck in planning or uncertainty. It serves as a practical roadmap rather than a deeply theoretical discussion of publishing.

Overall, it is a helpful and accessible guide for authors who want a clear, step-by-step process for successfully self-publishing their work.

Available on Amazon

Otter wants to know

Mon, 04 May 2026 12:05:46 GMT

Does anyone know . . .

where I can get a paw-friendly keyboard. It'll make me a lot more efficient

AI Boom Unleashes Scammer Onslaught on Authors

Fri, 01 May 2026 13:07:31 GMT

One result from the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence is an unexpected explosion in the number of scam artists contacting authors.

It should be obvious to all authors that scamming is a growth field. For that to happen, it must be lucrative and that means authors must be falling for hoaxes and that is regrettable.

In my case, I used to get a few scam emails every week, but that has dramatically risen to a several per day now. Some of them are quite sophisticated. Many of them are identical to others as if they are all using the same AI app and writing identical queries. Or perhaps some master scam site develops new scams and sells them to others. Maybe, it's a subscription service.

Let's's take a look at the scams that are prevalent at the moment.

Book clubs

This is a popular scam these days. The introductory email says the club wants to put your book in front of its members. If you respond, additional emails will inform you that the members love to write reviews and it is customary to 'tip' each reviewer $50.

A curated publication on Medium (whatever that means)

This is another annoying email that always starts off with the identical opening line. "I almost kept scrolling, but something in your writing made me stop—and I’m genuinely glad it did."

There are many others of this ilk that have one commonality: they never mention the title of a book indicating they have only my email address and nothing else.

Agency queries

The scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated in their approach. I got one claiming that a European agency want the film rights for one of my novels. I checked the agency name and the agent name. Both are real. What wasn't real was the email of the "agent" who contacted me: it was a gmail account. If the email came from a real agent, the email would have come from an agency email server, not gmail.

Phony celebrity endorsements .

How thrilling! Stephen King will promote my books for only $100. So will a dozen other best-selling authors. Please! Give me a break. This one isn't even creative. It's dumb.

Get more reviews

This one offers to get you a set number of reviews for a fixed price. Once you sign up for X reviews (and pay), the scammer will take your book description from Amazon, feed it into an AI app and tell it create X reviews. The AI all will happily do that in a few seconds.

Have you come across a new scam? if so, please write a quick description here.

Otter Wants To Know

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:20:16 GMT

My editorial assistant . . .

wants to know who likes humorous scifi?

Like Zaftan Entrepreneurs and Zaftan Miscreants?

How to idenfiy scammers

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:26:37 GMT

Scammers are getting ever more sophisticated

Scammers are getting ever more sophisticated these days. Now they come up with excellent imitations of agencies and publishing companies to try to suck money out of authors and writers. I’ve witnessed two of these scams recently. One used at the names of an agency and one of its executives to try and get me to bite. The second used a similar ploy using a publishing company and the name of its acquisition editor, In both cases if you searched for the agency/publisher name and the person, you’d get responses that said both company and person are the real deal.

The tip off that you received a scam is the email address used. Typically, the address is from Gmail or AOL and companies don't use commercial emails accounts. They have their own internal email servers.

This is the email I received from an “agency” (I removed the person’s name): name.agency.book.film@gmail.com . the email said “name” was a member of the Pontas Agency. The legitimate business email for this guy is name@pontas.com . Notice the differences in addresses.

For the publishing company, I received an email from skyhorse.publishing@aol.com . The email said it was from the acquisition manager and gave her name. A search reveled the publishing company is real and so is the name of acquisition manager. But Skyhorse publishing does not have a public email address. If it did, it would look like name@skyhorse.com

It should be noted that the initial emails contain very realistic imitations of the cooperate logos.