•	20+ years of publishing and marketing experience: research, writing, editing, publishing, content strategy, content creation, marketing, social media messaging, brand messaging, paid  and organic media messaging,  internal and external communications, and SEO.
•	Experience managing freelance writers and copy, assigning articles, designing layouts, and orchestrating marketing campaigns.  
•	Beats have included education, politics, tech, business, youth trends, crime and up to eight municipalities at a time.
•      Extensive experience working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. I was responsible for the content strategy and the copywriting for Meta's new Business Equity (DEI) page.
•      Experience with podcast production and editing, video production and editing and photography, and photo editing.
•      I was responsible for creating the SEO guidelines and best practices used at Audible. Additionally, I was part of a team that did keyword research and rewrote product descriptions to be SEO optimized for 500 books.
•      I am skilled in prompt engineering. I know how to design, develop, and refine AI text prompts, how to optimize prompt performance, and how to improve the AI prompt generation process for various applications. I can also create, communicate, and teach best practices for using AI.

Heather Kays

I set a goal to have twice as many releases in 2026 as I did in 2025.
At the time, it felt reasonable — two chapbooks or books.

I hit that goal before 2026 began.

I have two chapbooks coming out this year through two different small/independent presses.

This genuinely feels like a dream come true. ❤️


#WritingCommunity #Poetry #IndiePublishing #SmallPress #CreativeGoals

Marketing Manager & Literary Manager ✨💖 | Author of Myths in the Feed (sold out 6x) | Crying Heart Press Best-Selling Author | 2x Pushcart Nominee | I make strategy feel like storytelling — and vice versa.

On Tuesday, my new book 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑒𝑠 is released.

It’s a collection about generational weight — what we absorb, what we’re expected to hold, and the decision to stop carrying what was never ours to begin with.

This project sits at the intersection of storytelling and responsibility: how honesty becomes a form of change in families, in work, and in the way we show up for the people around us.

#Storytelling #CreativeWork #BreakingCycles #PoetryCommunity

This is a period of transition and growth for me both personally and professionally. It is equal parts exciting and terrifying.

How do you stay grounded and avoid feeling overwhelmed when everything around you is changing? I’d love to hear your strategies.

#PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment #ChangeManagement #Mindfulness #GrowthMindset #Resilience

There was always an expectation of secrecy when I was a child. I was made responsible for keeping the family skeletons in the closet. I was forced to hide guilt, shame, pain, trauma—my own thoughts and feelings—and the truth.

In this collection of poetry, I lay that truth bare in short, hybrid poems—part poetry, part prose—exploring what it means to reclaim a voice that was once silenced.

Today is release day for my latest collection, 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑒𝑠. Link in the comments. 💖 

#WritingCommunity #Poetry #AuthorsOfLinkedIn #CreativeWork #Storytelling #BookLaunch #PublishingLife

Lately I’ve been thinking about how difficult it is to balance professional responsibilities with being a poet, writer, and artist.

Some days, it feels like being pulled in different directions—my priorities and passions competing for the same limited hours.

For those of you who live in both worlds, how do you find the balance and keep showing up for both?

#CreativesInBusiness #WorkLifeBalance #WritingLife

For starters, I am *not* Dean Koontz.

Yes, my name looks like a Grammarly suggestion when you type in his name. And as author of the domestic thriller THE PERFECT HOME (published January 7, 2025 from Scribner/Simon & Schuster), I wouldn't mind earning my way into the rarefied air of bestselling authors.

But still: *not* Dean Koontz. Totally different guy.

What keeps the lights on during my quest for literary success? Freelance writing. You may have seen me in:

—Zapier
—Atlassian
—CreditKarma
—Trello
—Skillshare
—ValuePenguin
—GoToMeeting
—Content Science Review

Or you may *not* have seen me ghostwriting for TheStreet, financial blogs, real estate companies, or writing ebooks, whitepapers, and bios for C-suite executives who need to strike a balance between professional and engaging, between witty and worthwhile.

A lifelong writer, I have been at the freelancing game since the Great Financial Crisis found me looking for work—at which point I thought: Hmm, let's see if I can write for money online. Turns out you can. I built myself up from penny-per-word assignments (want hiking tips, anyone?) to a full-fledged freelancer helping big-time financial companies convert readers into clients. Since then my work has been in storytelling, in one form or another. Freelancing supports my fiction habit, but ultimately, my work boils down to this: I will help you find the words to build great levers in business and in life. I'm available, so ask me how.

(Dean Koontz is probably busy.)

Daniel Kenitz

Client: 
We don’t pay for test projects.

Me: 
What a coincidence, I have a similar policy! I don’t complete unpaid labor for strangers on the internet.

Author of “The Perfect Home” | Ghostwriter for Executives, Thought Leaders, and Brands Who Need to Tell Better Stories

AI is going to replace every single writer and we'll never work again, just like how the proliferation of email and instant communication means that in 2026, no one has to attend any meetings anymore

You're a better writer than you think.

But you'll never know it if:

—You keep drafts to yourself because "it's not ready to query yet"
—You give up on an idea because you're chasing the next
—You finish 70% of a draft and leave it to collect dust when Act 3 gets tough

Gently shove your writing into the world.

It's a rough time of year if you wrote a book in 2025 and have LinkedIn friends who post "favorite books of 2025" lists without yours on it. Here are some essential tips for developing thicker skin as an author whose work is public:

—
—
—

jk I have no idea and I'm scared

Aspiring authors, you have a 1/3,000 chance of landing an agent this year. But you gain an instant advantage over other writers when you embrace a simple reframe:

Agents hand out rejections like candy.

And therefore, failure is 

DIRT
STINKIN
CHEAP

When I was slogging through the querying process, I gave myself an ultimatum: I'd get to 10,000 rejections before I seriously questioned whether this novel-writer thing would ever work out. 

(For context, I sent maybe 50-125 queries per book. 10,000 rejections would take me a lifetime.)

Framing it in terms of "10,000" had a strange psychological effect. When I thought in terms of the "10,000" scope, one rejection could only feel like 1/10,000th of a failure.

Dirt. 
Stinkin.
Cheap.

Here are some more reasons rejection is cheap:

𝗡𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹

You can submit the same piece dozens of times and no one really knows. It's beautiful. You can get rejected, ignored, ghosted, passed over again and again—and almost none of it is visible to anyone else.

𝗥𝗲𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼

Sure, one person, the rejecter, sees your work. But they're not superhumans with superhuman memory. They change jobs. They switch publications. They hand off a slush pile to a new intern who never heard of you, and voila, your writing is new again.

𝗡𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 "𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀"

I don't think they do, unless you're exceptionally cringe, and since agents get hundreds of submissions every week, trust me, you're not in the bottom 1%.

SO....

What if it cost you zero cents to place a bet on yourself? What if the potential upside was that the dream came true?

How many times would you place that bet?

A business executive hired me to ghostwrite his bio. Soon he started peppering me with notes:

"Make sure you say that I'm a go-getter..."
"Make sure you say that I do this and that..."
"Make sure you SAY"

Key word: "say." 

He wanted me to tell, not show.

Like many clients, he wanted me to "work my magic," not realizing that by digging for nuggets, I was *attempting* to work the magic. I was looking for a way to *show* his go-getter-ness.

The problem is that while "show, don't tell" is a rule of thumb writers have heard all their lives, most non-writers have no idea what it means.

So here's an example you can share with someone that will help explain how "showing, not telling" works.

TELLING
❌"It was bitterly cold outside. It was -5 degrees. That was about as cold as I’d ever seen."

SHOWING
✔"A sheet of snow stuck to the road like set glue. On Hilltop Lane, the hens refused to leave their coop. I imagined the flock huddled beside their brooder light, shaking and shivering, laying eggs with ice-cube yolks."

On a visceral level, which scene feels colder?

The more creative you are with your showing, the more people will believe what you're trying to sell them.

So if you hire a writer to handle your bio, don't tell them what to "tell" in fancy words. Answer their questions. Give specific examples. This is the magic-fuel they seek.

You can get across the idea that you're a "go-getter" without ever using the words "go-getter."

In fact, readers will understand you better if you don't use the phrase "go-getter" at all.

Most rewrites don't fail because you stink as a writer. They fail because you haven't found the problem yet.

With my upcoming book, I had a sideplot scene that wasn’t working.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗮𝘀: 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵...𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘭𝘺

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝘀: 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺

I probably tried five versions of it, all from the baseline assumption that the scene definitely belonged where it was.

Yet no matter what I wrote, nothing clicked. Something *underlying* wasn’t right. 

Then, late in the process, I had my eureka diagnosis: 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵...𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮?

(Rule of thumb: if an edit makes you go “OH DUHHHH WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE,” it’s probably correct.)

That critical spot in my novel was switched out for a scene far more relevant to the main story.

Once my solution *addressed the actual problem,* the edit suddenly "worked."

Editing is a bit like performing your own appendectomy. An editor is a helpful surgeon’s assistant, pointing out what’s wrong and what needs to be done. 

But you’re still the one holding the scalpel. You're the one who has to address the diagnosis.

Don’t break any skin until you know what that problem is.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT SLOP

a LinkedIn poem

(definitely not stolen)

—

Do not go gentle into that slop,
Hard work should linger long at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the skill.

When viralbros paste posts that flop
because their posts receive no leads they
Do not go gentle into that slop.

Good writers, their last draft by, crying how much
Their scribbled lines once met attention's fill,
Rage, rage against the dying of the skill.

Twitter writers who chase reach and viral props,
And learn too late how many views the algorithms chop,
Do not go gentle into that slop.

Fiction writers, worn, who learned with iron will
that readers' eyes can still be taught to stay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the skill.

And you, dear reader, paused at this Inn that Links us,
Linger. Stop the scroll. Buy nothing from AI's open shop.
Do not go gentle into that slop.
Rage, rage against the dying of the skill.

A quick guide on how your punctuation changes your email etiquette:

Hey!
-upbeat, friendly, happy greeting

Hey.
-negative, downcast, "hey, we need to talk"

Hey
-casual, deadpan, not enthused

HEY
-bursting through the wall like the Kool-Aid man

HEY!
-pure insanity

Welcome to my belated 7,000-follower party! 🎉 

If you can't remember why you followed me:

—I'm the author of the 2025 thriller from Simon & Schuster / Scribner: "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲"
—Publishers Weekly called it "wickedly entertaining"
—Bestselling author Christina McDonald described it as "Addictive and utterly compelling"
—Bestselling author Alex Finlay called it "a killer debut"
—I also wrote the upcoming 2026 thriller from Simon & Schuster / Scribner: "𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝘆"
—Which is coming out July 2026: please pre-order because predictability makes publishers happy
—I write about writing, freelance writing, publishing, and like to mix it up between stories, advice, and jokes

What I am not:

—Accepting manuscripts for beta reads (sorry, just don't have the time)
—Interested in your freelance self-publishing, book marketing, editing services (I don't self-publish)

Fun trivia:

I read about Roger Ebert's attempts at winning the New Yorker caption contest years ago—it took him some 80 tries. I thought: "That's cool, I wonder how long it would take me if I tried it every week, too." After about 54 attempts back in 2013/2014, I won it. Maybe I'll tell that story on LinkedIn one day. Anyway, take that, Ebert.

Now I'm thinking about the fact that it took Dean Koontz (no relation; we both spell and pronounce our names differently) some 18 novels until he was a bestseller. 

For years, my dream was just to be a published author. But now that my lifelong dream is in the rearview, I'm comfortable telling you what's next; I'd like to write a New York Times bestselling book one day.

Follow me if you'd like to watch me try.

Pictured: A blurry photo of me at my first writing conference in late 2024, the first time I received a badge that said "AUTHOR" on it.

Start too many sentences with "I" and your writing will become a bad conversation your reader can't escape.

—I did this
—I went there
—I thought that

It slaps a filter on everything. Reading your "I" sentences becomes annoying work, like squinting at your book through backwards binoculars.

Fortunately, the antidote is easy. 

In "Consider This," Chuck Palahniuk calls this "burying the I."

An example:

𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳, 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘰𝘱. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳, 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥—𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘏𝘢𝘥 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰—𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭...𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘦? 𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘓𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘳, 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.
—Ruth Ware, "The Turn of the Key"

Look how every sentence starts:

—It was a
—For a minute
—And then I
—Had Jack left ... ?
—Or ... ?
—Lack of sleep

Just one "I" near the start of a sentence. After the first few sentences, the I is totally gone.

🔺 I wondered if Jack had left ... (FILTER)
🟢 HAD JACK LEFT ...? (DIRECT)

🔺 I felt tired, which was making the days blur (FLAT)
🟢 LACK OF SLEEP was making the days blur (RELATABLE)

Result: we're sucked into the character's head.

If you want the reader to forget they're reading, stop reminding them.

If you want to hook readers like Pixar hooks audiences, do what they do:

Make sure your main character cares deeply about something. They need to feel like their whole life and purpose is on the line.

𝗧𝗼𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 🎎
—Woody’s afraid of being replaced as Andy's favorite. We understand how rude he is because Buzz Lightyear is such a threat to the thing he cares about most.

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 🐀
—Remy isn't accepted by rats or humans, so his desire to be a chef one day is about his desire to gain acceptance. This is the most relatable care in the world.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝗺𝗼 🐟
—The prologue (!) highlights how Nemo isn't just Marlin's son, but s special to Marlin because he was the only egg who survived an attack. Marlin will risk his OWN life finding Nemo because he loves Nemo more than himself.

If your main character cares, so will your reader.

Good writing trick: try to get your entire thesis down to one sentence.

For example, let's say you want to convince people to walk more.

What's more memorable?

LinkedIn, 2026:
"500 words on why WALKING unlocks your CREATIVITY."

or

Nietzsche, 19th century:
"Never trust a thought that occurred to you indoors."

taplio

The Battle

Heather Kays

Daniel Kenitz

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taplio

The Battle

Heather Kays

Daniel Kenitz

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Heather Kays's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreHeather Kays's LinkedIn Performance