Here is some great advice from Florida based author Dan Allatorre. The thing about Dan is that he is a writer who puts a lot of effort into helping other writers with his contests, his critiques and his anthologies. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been a runner up in one of his contests and to have had stories accepted for two anthologies. And then he posts blogs, like this one, that explain the “nuts and bolts” of our craft.
Frank Parker's author site 
Back in the days when us synthesizer programmers were few and far between there was a guy in Los Angeles who made a lot of noise with his marketing. Most of us avoided his bullshit artistry because the truth was he didn;t have an original bone in his body. He’d take our work, done for the companies we worked for, change a number here or there, assemble a composite load of them and sell them as his own. One time, when synths became capable of more and more presets and the whole synth world was living on refried technology in a new color this character wrote a guest editorial in a prominent industry magazine bemoaning how people had “stolen” his “intellectual property” and how his work had been absorbed by manufacturers and other programmers. That he was going broke, baby needed new shoes, etc. Those of us who knew how he’d milked the unsuspecting for a couple of years were standing around and a prominent leader in the manufacturing of electronic instruments said,
“You know the most pitiful part of this is that Mr. X never stole a patch he couldn’t use.”
Personally I subscribe to The Editor’s Blog, where Beth Hill and her track record speak louder than words. She has several things going back to 2011 (!) on this subject, in great detail. https://theeditorsblog.net/2011/01/30/creating-emotion-in-the-reader/
I suggest her to anyone who wants the real deal from an editor who works real publishing houses. I also suggest “The Lie That Tells a Truth” and “Sin and Syntax”, both far more informative and helpful than an internet full of snake oil salespersons disguised as writing coaches.
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There are plenty of those around, Phil, for sure. I haven’t fully made up my mind yet whether or not Dan is one of them.
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