why writing a manifesta can help you develop a creative vision and ultimately sell more books

One of my favorite bloggers, Kelly Dielswrites a bang-up post about what she would do if she was a new writer named Dorothy who'd just published a book about her adventures on the yellow brick road:

So this book should sell. It needs to sell. Dorothy wants it to sell.

Even more than that, Dorothy wants it to be read, to land, to take root, to grow, to inhabit, fertilize and animate our popular imagination.

If I was Dorothy – and I am – I would start a blog before I even started writing the...