Riley Adams's Blog, page 177

Why One Traditionally-Published Author is Now Choosing Self-Publishing—by Jessica Park

by Jessica Park, @JessicaPark24

I am an unapologetic fan of self-publishing. Massive, foam finger-waving fan. But, for the record, I realize that it’s not for everyone. Big publishers have obvious distribution and marketing power that authors don’t have. They edit your books, provide covers, and more. Well, sometimes more.

But there are huge downsides: advances are minimal these days, royalty rates are crummy, and we wait a year or more after a book as been accepted to see that book go up for sale.

The money, let’s face it, is often completely crummy. Terrible. Pitifully small amounts dolled out over time and delivered alongside truly incomprehensible royalty statements.

Did I try to sell FLAT-OUT LOVE to a publisher? Yep. For me, there was still something to be said for having a big publishing house stand behind your work, so I thought it was worth seeing what kind of offers I could get. I wanted that New York validation. I wanted to hear, “We want you.”

My agent loved this book and was confident that she could sell it. Editors loved this book, too. But what I heard over and over from publishers were two things: 1. The heroine is eighteen years old and categorically too old for a young adult book, and 2. (I’m not making this up.) There are no vampires. “Realistic fiction” has taken a dive in the market and nobody cares about real people.

Okay, I’m paraphrasing that second one, but that’s the gist of it. Look, I enjoy a good vampire story, too, but that doesn’t mean that… Oh, whatever. Then I had editors from adult divisions saying that, while there was so much to love about the book, and it really “resonated” with them, the heroine is too young for mainstream fiction, and they didn’t know what they could possibly do with my little book. (I had a few ideas about what they could do with the book, but I’ll keep those to myself.)

This all seemed silly to me. Am I the only person to have written a book about a college freshman? It’s such a pivotal time in life. Why is this age so shunned in the publishing industry? Flat-Out Love is a unique story, but very often publishers don’t want unique. They don’t want to take on what they consider to be a “risk.” They want as close to a “guaranteed” bestseller as possible.

So I was annoyed. And really angry. I hate, absolutely HATE having to tout my own book, but the truth was that I knew I had written a very strong book, and I knew that it deserved to be published. The feedback I got from publishers about my book confirmed for me how totally out of touch they were with readers because I knew, absolutely knew, that there would be an audience for my story.

Before I had heard back from more publishers (a girl can only take “I’m head-over-heels for this book but we won’t buy it” so many times), I decided to self-publish. The rejections I’d amassed from pubs were, in almost every way, an enormous relief. I’d felt an obligation, almost, to try for a big New York deal. That was dumb. It was solely an ego thing. I realized that I’d been dreading getting into a relationship with a publisher, and I cared about this book too much to give it away for a next-to-nothing advance and then be forced to wait however long to get it on shelves, where it would then likely be hideously overpriced. I love my agent, and it was a little tough to tell her what I was doing, but I knew that I had to make a business decision. As much as I love her, I couldn’t leave the book with her just because she’s such an awesome person. That would’ve been crazy.

Self-publishing gives you massive control over your own work, which I find incredibly appealing. I get to choose my price and cover, and I can make changes to those and to the text at any point. I’m in charge of everything. I get paid monthly, whereas large publishers pay you (theoretically) every six months, and only after you’ve earned out your advance.

The book has been out for a year now, and I’ve sold over 75,000 copies. I have made more money on this book than I made writing five books for a large publishing house. A lot more. I obviously can’t guarantee these numbers for every self-published book, but even if you sell a fraction of this, you can still earn good money.
I’ve put up one other full-length novel, RELATIVELY FAMOUS, and three e-shorts, and I have zero regrets. Like anything, self-publishing is a learning process, but once you get the hang of it, it’s plenty of fun.

The three most important things to focus on if you go this route are: 1. Get a strong cover. If your book isn’t selling, change it. And then change it again if you want. 2) Price your book smartly. I wouldn’t do anything over $3.99—maybe, maybe $4.99--for an ebook. 3) Pay for a good editor. Or more than one good editor. Don’t put up a totally sloppy book. Even professionally copyedited books have errors, and we’ve all read books published by a huge house that have mistakes. It happens. But you run a much greater risk of errors trying to proofread your own work. I cannot tell you how many times I have read my own book and missed blatant mistakes. You need to get as many people as possible to read you work, including non-professionals (who are great at catching missing words!), because it’s impossible to see typos and such in your own work. I’m sure I still have some. But it’s not a frightful mess.

You’ll be doing your own marketing. Frankly, you’d be doing this anyway (unless, that is, you’re already such a huge success that you can just sit back and watch your sales numbers skyrocket). Bloggers are the powerhouse of reviews these days. I thought that writers were a generous bunch, but even that incredible group is getting a run for their money because book bloggers routinely offer to do whatever they can to promote your book. It’s really amazing. As the population as a whole is learning so much about the book industry (note: See six million articles about Amanda Hocking and Barry Eisler), bloggers and readers are becoming much more open to reviewing and buying self-published ebooks. More often than not, if you ask, bloggers will help and readers will buy.

The market for self-published books is growing, and more and more readers are finding that self-published books are not junk books that were haphazardly uploaded because they weren’t good enough to be traditionally published. Talented, skilled authors are choosing this route and intentionally bypassing the exhausting, often miserable, experience of working for a publisher.

Do I have plans to seek out a New York publisher again? No. Of course, after everything I’ve posted online about them, I can’t imagine that they’d want me anyway. That’s fine. I like working for myself. I have no deadlines, no one to answer to, no nodding and smiling at tragic covers, no wincing when my ebook is priced at $9.99…. None of that.

I am free, I am empowered.

There are some truly wonderful, talented, supportive people who work in publishing. Some authors have great experiences with houses. I can’t, offhand, think of any (Kidding! Kidding! Sort of….) but I’m sure there are some. What I unfortunately hear most often are the ways in which authors are struggling with their publishers, and I have friends who have nearly stopped writing because of what they’ve suffered at the hands of publishers. This is not an exaggeration; it is a painful reality for many authors.

When you sell your book to a publisher, that book is gone. These days, you are unlikely to ever get the rights back, and you will have no control over what they do with it. You may be okay with that, and you may prefer to have someone else in charge of your book. Now that I know what self-publishing can do for me, I’m not vaguely okay with that. I’m happy… ecstatic, actually… to be in such creative control of my work.

I’m writing another novel now, and I realized the other day that had I been contracted for a few books through a publisher, I could not write the story that I’m working on now. This book has stronger language and sexual content that puts it into a different category from Flat-Out Love. I know my readers, I know my audience, I know my market. I know what’s selling. I have a story that I want to tell, and I do not want to be controlled by the constraints of a publisher who in all likelihood would never allow me to stray this far from Flat-Out Love. I’m also working with a small app group and we are building an incredibly innovative enhanced edition of the book that will be loaded with multimedia and interactive and immersive elements. I also couldn’t have done that if I’d been contracted to a publisher.

It’s my book, it’s all mine. And I love that.

Jessica Park is the author of the young adult novel RELATIVELY FAMOUS, five Gourmet Girl mysteries (written as Jessica Conant-Park) , FLAT-OUT LOVE, and the e-shorts FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD and WHAT THE KID SAYS (Parts 1 & 2).

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific is a compilation of all the writing links I shared the previous week.

The links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 15,000 free articles on writing-related topics. Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Don't' forget the new release blogfest that Hart Johnson and I are hosting on June 5th—find more information and sign up here. The best entries get signed copies of our new releases.

Have a great week!

Tips for writing about mental illness in your novel: http://bit.ly/Idy7fZ @fantasyfaction

1 writer's process for final edits: http://bit.ly/Ih0UPW @byrozmorris

3 important questions to ask your characters: http://bit.ly/Ih1fSU @livewritethrive

Writing vs. marketing: Those 10,000 hours: http://bit.ly/JBNPD3 @Porter_Anderson

Tips for writing better fiction: http://bit.ly/Ih1kWN @mooderino

6 reasons writers still want publishers: http://bit.ly/I5SZXz @rachellegardner

Tips for writing a synopsis: http://bit.ly/IYHr8r @nicolamorgan

The Importance of Persistence: http://bit.ly/Jlpmlt @thecreativepenn

Most Frequently Challenged Library Books of 2011: http://bit.ly/I5TbWN @galleycat

Study Shows that More People are Reading: http://bit.ly/I5TiSm

A look at common suffixes: http://bit.ly/I5Tz7K @writing_tips

The 10 Bestselling Fiction Authors of All Time: http://bit.ly/I5TBMV @PassiveVoiceBlg

A Strong Take Off? Opening Pages That Hook: http://bit.ly/I5TGQQ @janice_hardy

The basics of POV: http://bit.ly/I5UepK @VirginiaKantra

Sonnet writing tips: http://bit.ly/I5Uk0B @AnnieNeugebauer

Dial DRM for endless debate: http://bit.ly/IGByKL @Porter_Anderson @doctorow @glecharles

Blog tours--tips for finding and querying hosts: http://bit.ly/Ilc9Vj @NickThacker

5 Tips For Writers on Planning Their Con Season: http://bit.ly/I5UmWa @BryanThomasS

When the Dream of Being Published Doesn't Materialize: http://bit.ly/I5UuFi @livewritethrive

3 Things to Know About Exposition & Telling: http://bit.ly/I5UwNp @victoriamixon

10 ways to spark creative connections: http://bit.ly/I5UFQY @cherylrwrites

When to Mail Short Fiction To Traditional Publishers: http://bit.ly/I5UJQM @deanwesleysmith

Groundbreaking Tools for Creating eBooks: http://bit.ly/I5VCZw @janefriedman

Being Subtle With Subtext: http://bit.ly/I5VKIn @StinaLL

5 ways to pace your story: http://bit.ly/I5VXva @KMWeiland

Pushing our manuscript to the next level--1 writer's process: http://bit.ly/I5Wa1E @aswinn

How Committed Are You, Really? http://bit.ly/I5Wmh9

Shape Up Flabby Writing with Stronger Words: http://bit.ly/I5WKwd @2KoP

5 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Timeline Page With Images: http://bit.ly/I5WWeV @smexaminer

Questions to ask yourself when reading your book's 1st 5 pages: http://bit.ly/I5X9yB @4kidlit

Characters Must Grow: http://bit.ly/I5Xem8 @AdriennedeWolfe

Crime fiction--when to produce the body: http://bit.ly/I5XvW9 @mkinberg

How To Dish Out Backstory In Digestible Bites: http://bit.ly/IJLcvg @roniloren

How to Get More Blog Traffic from Pinterest: http://bit.ly/IJLfHo @catseyewriter

The Importance of Persistence: http://bit.ly/Jlpmlt @thecreativepenn

Jodi Picoult and the Myth of the Segregated Marketplace: http://bit.ly/Iz50lL @DavidGaughran

The Writing Life: Fear, Want, Dissatisfaction, Defiance: http://bit.ly/Iz53OC @DavidBCoe

Portraying a multiple individual: http://bit.ly/Iz5bh1 @JulietteWade

2 kinds of new agents: http://bit.ly/Iz5ecI @behlerpublish

The wordplay and music of poetry: http://bit.ly/Iz5g4e @diymfa

Avoid Overactive or Inactive Characters & Subplots: http://bit.ly/Iz5mJ8 @writersdigest

Self-Publishing and Paperbacks — Is Print Still Worth It? http://bit.ly/Iz5o3R @goblinwriter

10 Ways to Spark Creative Connections: http://bit.ly/Iz9id0 @cherylrwrites

Ways to amplify your writer's voice: http://bit.ly/Iz9zws

Are Self-Published Authors Happier Than Traditionally Published Authors? http://bit.ly/Iz9B7s @thecreativepenn

The 3 top monster stories and what keeps them popular in the 21st century: http://bit.ly/Iz9NUt @tordotcom

Book Design: Choosing Your Paragraphing Style: http://bit.ly/Iza4GX @jfbookman

Daring to be an original--voice: http://bit.ly/IzabCc @kristenlambTX

What to Do When You Offend or Disappoint a Reader: http://bit.ly/IzalcK @jodyhedlund

Better Bend Than Break: On Staying Flexible: http://bit.ly/IzbrFs @DelilahSDawson @janice_hardy

5 Ways to Fix a Boring Bio: http://bit.ly/IzbzEV @KeithCronin

The artistic product: http://bit.ly/IsRSOK @Ravenrequiem13

The Secret to Your Next Creative Breakthrough: http://bit.ly/J5G8PI @jeffgoins

5 rules 1 writer lives by: http://bit.ly/J5Gben @mooderino

How Amazon is redefining the book market: http://bit.ly/HXeiqU @InsideRetailau

The Atlantic's List of Greatest Girl Characters in Literature: Really? http://bit.ly/HXeztV @tordotcom @mari_ness

An agent discusses the learning experience of being an intern: http://bit.ly/HXeLt5 @bookendsjessica

Writing lessons learned from "Shatter Me": http://bit.ly/HXeSFa @juliemusil @TaherehMafi

How Authors Should Use Tumblr, A 5-Step Guide: http://bit.ly/HXf07F @galleycat @RachelFersh

Listing and Quoting on GoodReads: http://bit.ly/HXfgmZ @blurbisaverb

Does your story have something new under the hood? http://bit.ly/HXfive @behlerpublish

Worldbuilding--manners: http://bit.ly/IvD5D9 @JulietteWade

Tips for pacing your novel: http://bit.ly/IvFjlU @Mommy_Authors

Retail DRM Is an Apple. Library DRM Is an Orange. http://bit.ly/Ihhzpo @ShiftTheDigital

Why you should have comments, even when they're bad: http://bit.ly/IvFttq @mathewi

Finding People to Read, Review and Recommend Your Book: http://bit.ly/IvGbXM @JFBookman

6 reasons authors self-publish: http://bit.ly/IvGQIE @rachellegardner

Dual duties of chapter endings: http://bit.ly/IvH7eG @noveleditor

5 Words Caught in Semantic Drift: http://bit.ly/IvHQfT @writing_tips

True Fans and Indie Publishing: http://bit.ly/IvI3zJ @jenniecoughlin

Sorting Out the Mess of a Chaotic Book Draft: http://bit.ly/IyW6nX @originalimpulse

The Rejection Generator – Pay Your Dues Fast: http://bit.ly/IyWenG @PassiveVoiceBlg

Post-Publication Depression? The Months after a Book Release: http://bit.ly/IyWsLj @womenwriters @authormonica

Are eBooks Really Good For The Environment? http://bit.ly/IyWFhQ @ebooknewser

When Literary Opposites Attract: http://bit.ly/IyX43B @NewDorkReview

25 reasons 1 writer might hate your main character: http://bit.ly/I6ng99 @ChuckWendig

Lee Child: Legendary Late Bloomer: http://bit.ly/HYoNtV @DebraEve

10 Lies You Might Tell Yourself While Editing: http://bit.ly/I6nFZc @elspethwrites

Publicity or spam? http://bit.ly/JT8GNE @nicolamorgan

Freelance Success Is About Process, Not Personality: http://bit.ly/I9eGoT @JaneFriedman @wellfedwriter

The process of agents submitting manuscripts: http://bit.ly/I9eW7f @SaraMegibow

Dualing with words--action & dialogue: http://bit.ly/I9fdai @kaath09

10 ways to spark creative connections: http://bit.ly/I5UFQY @cherylrwrites

Tips for writing & receiving testimonials: http://bit.ly/JDsI1o @beth_barany

The Art of Collaboration in Writing: http://bit.ly/JDsYNV @mistymassey

Conferences--Where The Editors and Agents Are: http://bit.ly/JDt3B8 @jhansenwrites

Start with Failure: The Advice No Aspiring Writer Ever Wants to Hear: http://bit.ly/JDt8F6 @HilaryGraham @4kidlit

What 1 SF writer learned from watching Star Trek: http://bit.ly/JDtuLO @piperbayard @NicoleBasaraba

Unusual historical settings as story inspiration--Isle of Dystopia: http://bit.ly/HZOr1B @GeneLempp

Research--why you should start at the library: http://bit.ly/HZOE4H @EV_Mag

Plotting is Like a Jigsaw Puzzle: http://bit.ly/HZOMkP @fictionnotes

Creative Writing vs Professional Writing: http://bit.ly/HZOWc2 @greyhausagency

Exploding Myths & Destroying Minds: http://bit.ly/HZOZo2 @davidgaughran

Biographical Information in a Query: http://bit.ly/HZP9vI @Kid_Lit

Top 1,000 Best Romance Novels: http://bit.ly/HZPgrb

Writing is an illusion: http://bit.ly/HZPFtF @megmims @Ravenrequiem13

Are eBook Authors Unwittingly Losing Sales? http://bit.ly/J9qram

Some reactions to Tor's DRM-free announcement: http://bit.ly/J9rLKk @robotech_master

3 tips for developing and using a media kit: http://bit.ly/J9sOdk @duolit

Poetry.com Returns: http://bit.ly/J9v7gr @victoriastrauss

Facebook or Twitter, Which Is Better for Book Promotion? http://bit.ly/J9v9oo @goblinwriter

The Poetic Process: http://bit.ly/J9vk39 @diymfa

How freelancers and other writers can use Pinterest: http://bit.ly/J9vyHo @michellerafter

Why The Elements of Style Breaks Its Own Rules…and Why You Should Too: http://bit.ly/J9vAPM @readingape

Professional Editors: The Smart Writer's #1 Competitive Advantage: http://bit.ly/Ilk58P @thecreativepenn @mattgartland

Believable fantasy character design: http://bit.ly/IlkoAu @BenGalley

5 Things Songwriters Can Do To Move Their Careers Forward: http://bit.ly/IlkGYk @cliffgoldmacher

8 Tips to Keep From Going Batty as You Launch Your Writing Career: http://bit.ly/Iq8Z1u @SamuelPark_ @annerallen

The Role(s) of Reversal in Fiction: http://bit.ly/Iq9dWt @BTMargins @lgreffenius

Blog touring--write great guest posts by keeping your stories about your stories: http://bit.ly/Iq9mJn @byRozMorris

Story Structure--2nd Half of the 2nd Act: http://bit.ly/Iq9skj @KMWeiland

What 1 writer has learned about writing a novel: http://bit.ly/Iq9ybz @sarahpekkanen

Inside Amazon's Idea Machine: How Bezos Decodes The Customer: http://onforb.es/Iq9Ij8 @GeorgeAnders

A Bit of Controversy in Your Platform? http://bit.ly/Iqa9di @THahnBurkett

A Quiz About Hyphenating Phrasal Adjectives: http://bit.ly/IGyXQY @writing_tips

Writing is a crazy profession. But you can take control over your stress: http://bit.ly/IGzdzw @sarahahoyt

The New World of Publishing: No Balance: http://bit.ly/IGzhPI @deanwesleysmith

Using archaeology, myth, & mysteries for writing inspiration--fairy chimneys: http://bit.ly/IGzuSR @genelempp

3 things you should know about your story: http://bit.ly/IGzGBJ

Defining a scene and its length: http://bit.ly/IGzKkQ @livewritethrive

Writing & Publishing Terminology 101: http://bit.ly/IGzORO @janefriedman

Stretching emotions in category romance: http://bit.ly/IGzYsk @Louisa_George

Show Your Setting through the POV Character's Eyes: http://bit.ly/IGAgzp @JodieRennerEd

Tips for genre blending: http://bit.ly/IGAC99 @storyfix

Springtime for Amazon? Positive stories on the retailer: http://bit.ly/Ie7kCv @ljndawson @Porter_Anderson @jwikert @brianoleary @gluejar

Writing vs. marketing: Those 10,000 hours: http://bit.ly/JBNPD3 @Porter_Anderson

Freelance Success Is About Process, Not Personality: http://bit.ly/I9eGoT @JaneFriedman @wellfedwriter

Does your story have something new under the hood? http://bit.ly/HXfive @behlerpublish

The process of agents submitting manuscripts: http://bit.ly/I9eW7f @SaraMegibow

The Rejection Generator – Pay Your Dues Fast: http://bit.ly/IyWenG @PassiveVoiceBlg

Plotting is Like a Jigsaw Puzzle: http://bit.ly/HZOMkP @fictionnotes

3 Dos and 3 Don'ts of Requesting Book Reviews: http://bit.ly/IeElei @duolit

How to Cure your Comma Overuse: http://bit.ly/IeErCw @fantasyfaction

Why every man MUST read a romance – and every woman a thriller: http://bit.ly/IeEG0C @speechwriterguy

Worldbuilding--manners: http://bit.ly/IvD5D9 @JulietteWade

How to Give Your Book Cover a Better First Impression: http://bit.ly/IhRB3a @TweetTheBook

A look at Young Adult Fiction: http://bit.ly/IhRGUC @NicoleBasaraba @julie_glover

Believable fantasy character design: http://bit.ly/IlkoAu @BenGalley

An Agent on Adjusting Expectations for Conferences and Critiques: http://bit.ly/IzhNCj @Kid_Lit

Is Your Character Talking the Talk Instead of Walking the Walk? http://bit.ly/IzhRSq @KMWeiland

The "It" Factor for your Protagonist: http://bit.ly/IzhZRS

Figuring Out Your Writing Style: http://bit.ly/IfpQcM @danyelleleafty

Don't Kill ‘Said Bookisms’ On-Sight--by Chihuahua Zero

by Chihuahua Zero, @chihuahuazero

Pick any ten writing blogs in the writing blogosphere, and I bet nine of them will say: "don't use said-bookism!"

This is understandable. Excessive amounts of dialogue tags besides said and asked are often syndromes of an amateur. Pull up a random fan-fiction, and it's likely there's a dialogue tag like laughed or quipped or even the infamous ejaculated.

These types of words pop out and are clunky to the point of being distracting.

However...

Counter-Examples:

...like the good old "show, not tell" rule, the "don't use said-bookism rule'" isn't in effect 100% of the time. Or even 80%.

For instance, I used the Nicolas Flamel series as an example in one of my posts on dialogue tags. While it used the word murmured one too many times, it's still a good series that has a decent amount of popularity. And despite its the almost total absence of dialogue tags, The Chronicle of Vladimir Tod slips some by when there are.

The Book Thief? I spotted a few mentions here and there.

Harry Potter? Slughorn ejaculated at Snape. Really.

Acceptable Uses:

Despite what advice you receive, you can say said-bookisms aren't as poisonous as you might have presumed them to be. Sure, it's lazy and overly colorful if you use a handful of them in one chapter, but or two don't spoil the entire bunch.

You can argue that "just because many works use it, doesn't mean it's good", but I don't think it applies here. Said-bookisms are mostly a mechanical element. They're not lazy plot device or cardboard characters. They're only a link in a long, fictional chain.

There are some cases some borderline said-bookisms that can work. It's safe to use shouted and whispered, to the point they're accepted alongside said/ask. They're volume indicators.

Some said-bookisms are awkward (like laughed and smiled), while there are some other sound tags that work based on context. For example, bark. Can a person bark a sentence? If you stretch the definition. Can you also howl, rasp, and bray? Your mileage may vary.

And in specific cases, like explained, admonished, and quipped:

I'm guilty of overusing "explained.” "Explained" are among the words that I tend to overuse, and will certainly be on my edit list. But I think other writers had that same compelling feeling to add it in, and decided to keep them in.
I actually saw "admonished" in an old collaboration project. I wanted to delete it due to being wordy, but they voted to keep it. They said that it elaborated the sentences meaning, even though it's just a fancy word for "friendly explanation.” Thoughts.
"Quipped?” Get back on me about that.

Why You Need to Know This:

The point is that like any type of story mechanic, said-bookisms aren't 100% bad. They can be (and often are) misused and overused, but their presence doesn't condemn a work.

One reason why it's important to know this because over-thinking this can spoil your enjoyment of reading. It's good to keep a critic's mind open when reading, but for a few months, my mind kept seizing onto these words that my mind has long glazed over before several blogs pointed out that they were "bad.”

It wasn't until I read a couple of fantastic works my mind dropped this peeve and filtered them.

So, put down that gun, and worry about something else.

Chihuahua is a young, aspiring writer who loves writing, reading, music, Chihuahuas and dark chocolate. CO can be found at Thoughts of a Young Aspiring Writer.

Blog Image—Flickr-By krazydad / jbum

The One Thing You Should Do to Sell More Books—by Nick Thacker

by Nick Thacker, @NickThacker

Twitter, social media platforms, Facebook pages, Google+, Pinterest, in-store signings, KDP Select, etc. All of these things are great innovations for authors, and can certainly help you get your books in the hands of more readers, but there's only so much you can do.

· After you've built the coolest Facebook page in the world, you have to tell people about it.

· After you've scheduled a million tweets promoting your new follow-up guide to your main character's life, you have to tell people to retweet it.

· And after you've booked a solid month of in-store signings, bookstore visits, and airplane kiosk drop-ins, you need to tell people about it.

As you can see, if there's one thing all of these promotions have in common, it's that they only work IF you can figure out how to tell people about them!

The catch-22 of it all is that self-promotion is supposed to be ABOUT telling people what you're up to!

So what can you do to guarantee that you'll get in front of hundreds—or thousands—of potential buyers?

I could say write, but I think that's obvious. J.A. Konrath writes a lot about the fact that he’s so successful is because he has a large backlist of books available.

Instead, I'll say write for other people.

As in write guest posts.

You may have come across a blog or website that featured an article written by someone other than the owner of that site (like this post!)--this is an example of a guest post.

The benefits of having your work posted on another site are many. First, you're getting exposure—for free. You're able to send targeted, ready-to-buy leads directly to your site, or your book's sales page. You can start conversations with people whom you may never have had the chance to meet, and you'll be able to extend your reach through this leverage.

I'm currently on a guest-posting binge, and I call it my "blog tour." These days, you can pay someone else to plan and run a blog tour for you, but I think most of the hard stuff can done on your own. I've identified the main concepts behind blog tours, especially as they relate to authors. Feel free to add in your own ideas:

1. Figure out what your "niche" is. If you're a fiction writer, this can be tricky—the people who read vampire dramas aren't always the same people who frequent paranormal websites. Identify some target markets that coincide with some of the subject matter of your book, and see if you can write a few posts in that niche.

2. Write a lot. Obviously, you're going to need to have a lot of content ready to go when you start the tour. If you can, start writing immediately--there's not really a limit to how many posts you can run, but I do recommend trying to shoot for at least 10-15 posts, each on different sites.

3. Start planning early. When I started my tour, I prepared a spreadsheet of the target blogs and websites I'd like to see my post on, and then identified the ways I needed to reach out to the bloggers. Also, I planned some good post headlines so I wouldn't need to write the post and decide on a topic at the same time.

4. Go for broke. Don't settle for small, silent blogs that are so desperate for content they'll bend over backwards to have you visit. It's great to help out the little guys, but it's even better when it's mutually beneficial. Try to "target" blogs that have a decent amount of activity—a few comments on each post, a regular posting schedule, etc.

5. Make sure you have time to continue writing your books. You're probably not in it to be the next great blogger—you're just using your blog platform and guest posting to reach out to people and build your author brand. Give yourself space to continue writing the stuff you love.

So, how do you find the blogs that you’ll be guest posting on?

· First, look through your RSS reader for those blogs you currently read. Don’t be picky, either. There’s a good chance that since you read that blog, it’s a good fit for the audience you’re trying to attract to your writing.

· Next, look on the blogs to see if there are guest posters. You’ll usually see this at the top or bottom of the post. It’ll say something like, “This is a guest post by…” These sites are great to write for, since they’ve already established that they accept guest posts.

· Then what you’ll want to do is single out the blogs that have posted guidelines for guest posts. These are the easiest to approach, since they’re comfortable with guest posters already, and are most likely used to unsolicited guest post submissions.

When you have a list of some great blogs, start pitching. Here’s what a pitch for a guest post might look like for you:

“Hi there!

I’m a huge fan of your site—been reading it for years, actually.

I’m trying to promote my next book, and I was wondering if you’d accept a guest post from me? I have one that I think would match your target audience perfectly, called, “[blog post title idea]”. Let me know what you think!

[Your name]”

Change it to your liking, but be sure to:

1. Thank the blogger for their hard work on building an awesome blog.

2. Be concise. Don’t waste their time with links to your book, your background, etc. Just pitch and win!

3. Add some information about the post. If they want the entire post, send it in the format they prefer. If not, give them an idea for a title that would fit in well.

Last, but not least.

Finally, don't give up. I've built a few blogs over the years, and every time I've gotten discouraged from writing so many posts that no one seemed to be reading, I'd give up. Now, my blog is getting some decent readership and it doesn't seem to be slowing down.

The difference this time, I won’t quit. I've pushed through the initial phase of slow growth, and I think if I stick with it, people will start to notice. If you take the same approach, and consistently add value to your readers' lives, you'll start to build a platform as well!

What do you think? Having a blog can certainly be a headache when you've got so much else to focus on as a writer, but it can also be a huge blessing—publishing companies are looking for authors who've started to build their own platforms now, and if you can do it well, you might just have a book deal on your hands!

Nick Thacker is a blogger, writer, and author of fiction thriller novels . He likes to “hack” his life, and help people to get more done and write better . You can subscribe to his mailing list here .

Post Image: 401k/Flickr

Platform Building for Writers—Getting Started

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Starting out with book promotion can seem like a tremendous undertaking. And it is. But the important thing to know is that anything you can do online to promote your book or create a presence for yourself online is going to help you sell books.

For tips on starting out with platform building (the very basics…some of which I’ve seen established writers forget to cover), please join me at Barbara Hightower’s blog, Author Services at the Bistro.

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
All the links below, and over 15,000 others are found in the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine, designed by Mike Fleming—where you can search on any topic for free. Like us on Facebook or sign up for our free monthly newsletter for the web’s best links on writing.
Don't' forget the new release blogfest that Hart Johnson and I are hosting on June 5th—find more information and sign up here. The best entries get signed copies of our new releases!
Have a great week.
The 1st literary interactive book app: http://bit.ly/HylhXa @Porter_Anderson @MirabilisDave @joningold


MS Word Trick: Combining Changes and Comments: http://bit.ly/HHKHq1 @jamigold
Agent Contract Expiration: http://bit.ly/HylYzv


Freelance Writing: 10 Tips to Better Interviews: http://bit.ly/Hym4qR @writersdigest


How to Finish Your Novel: http://bit.ly/Hym5v4 @write_practice


Write Your Book Even When You Feel Clueless: http://bit.ly/HHKVNI @originalimpulse


Potential blog content problems and how to fix them: http://bit.ly/HHL2ZL @problogger


Leading into a Scene vs. Including Backstory: http://bit.ly/Jcng20 @juliettewade


What Would "Insert YA Heroine Here" Do? http://bit.ly/HHLpU3 @mittenstrings


Add details to ground readers in your scene: http://bit.ly/HHLtTQ @juliemusil


A useful resource for describing settings, emotions, shapes, textures, and more: http://bit.ly/eIGRMO @AngelaAckerman #writetip


Mini-ebooks--a home for articles that need a little room: http://bit.ly/IyB5we @annabaddeley


Will Hachette Be The First Big-6 Publisher To Drop DRM On E-Books? http://bit.ly/IyBgYs @laurahazardowen


5 things writers should know about being knocked out: http://bit.ly/HGiWII @ajackwriting


Write to Universal Acclaim? Not Likely: http://bit.ly/HGiZnZ @noveleditor


How to Write a Book When You're Really, Really Busy: http://bit.ly/HGj7Uw @chucksambuchino


8 things 1 writer learned analyzing her yearly freelance writing expenses: http://bit.ly/HGjj66 @michellerafter


How to Scan Your Site for Free: http://bit.ly/HGjo9X @jasonboog


Why we should attend conferences and a list of upcoming US cons: http://bit.ly/HGjFK7 @msheatherwebb


Tips for hooks in book openings: http://bit.ly/HGupMY @PegEditors


Do Big Publishers Need Recognizable Consumer Brand Names? http://bit.ly/HGuvEv @passivevoiceblg

How to Fix a Flat (Novel Scene) in 3 Easy Steps: http://bit.ly/IKNHNv @JulieWuAuthor

A Quiz About Compressing Accordion Sentences: http://bit.ly/IKOfTD @writing_tips

The Savvy Writer's Guide to Simultaneous Submissions: http://bit.ly/IKOP3A @BTMargins

Identify your novel's genre: http://bit.ly/IKOSfQ @rachellegardner

Discoverability and the New World of Book PR: http://bit.ly/IKPjaa @barbarahenricks @RustyShelton

The rejection resubmission: http://bit.ly/IKPEcJ @nicolamorgan

Art of the Genre: Top 10 Literary Sci-Fi/Fantasy Covers of the 1970s: http://bit.ly/IKPPoA

Adding a musical element to your worldbuilding: http://bit.ly/IKQ8j5 @fantasyfaction

Little Fixes to Improve Your Book: http://bit.ly/IKQhTN @maryannwrites


Creating Reality: The Pleasant Psychosis of Writing: http://bit.ly/IWICkn @BTMargins

Learning the writing craft over time: http://bit.ly/HJG4v7 @bob_mayer

Seeing the World through Your Character's Eyes: http://bit.ly/HJG7Y7 @livewritethrive

Author Blogging 101: Widgets, Sidebars and You: http://bit.ly/IWIVvr @jfbookman

Movies about writers: http://bit.ly/IWIZLP @BTMargins

The Illusion of Writing: http://bit.ly/IWJmpE @Ravenrequiem13

Keep Your Unwavering Passion to Write: http://bit.ly/HJGtxN @evemariemont @4kidlit

Are your characters making misleading assumptions? http://bit.ly/HJGIsE @Janice_Hardy

Show, Don't Tell: How Much of Your Story Is Implied? http://bit.ly/HJGL7P

Tips for A Better Book Presentation: http://bit.ly/HJGOAC @BTMargins

5 Principles for Using Facebook: http://bit.ly/HTkNMU @janefriedman

Women's Fiction Format: http://bit.ly/HKlGu1 @pprmint777

Self-Editing Tips to Make Your Manuscript Ready For Publication: http://bit.ly/HEsYcY @WritersCoach

The fully-developed book premise: http://bit.ly/HKlT04 @donmaass

Tips for reading novel excerpts: http://bit.ly/HLzPaJ @beth_barany

Overwriting--areas to edit: http://bit.ly/INXUJ3 @TaliaVance

Is Pinterest Traffic Worthless? http://bit.ly/HLA2uk @nestguy

Tips for finding an agent, from an agent: http://bit.ly/HLAfh5 @luciennediver

Signs Your Character Is Wasting His Potential: http://bit.ly/IOlkOx @KMWeiland

8 tips for guest posting: http://bit.ly/HJdZDr @duolit

Crushes and chemistry: http://bit.ly/HJe9uu @Kid_Lit

An agent asks, "Bitter or Misunderstood?" http://bit.ly/HJerl6 @bookendsjessica

Why Writing Through Resistance is Essential: http://bit.ly/IVJESj @ava_jae

16 Kindle Lending Library Titles Were Bestsellers In March: http://bit.ly/IVJKt6 @ebooknewser

Turning Your Twitter Followers into Readers: http://bit.ly/IVKsqs @pushingsocial

Profanity in worldbuilding: http://bit.ly/IVKzCn @juliettewade

When Books Mattered: http://nyti.ms/IE0J2S @NYTMetro

16 of the Top 100 Best-Selling Paid Kindle Books in March Are Exclusive to the Kindle Store: http://bit.ly/HF0m3s @PassiveVoiceBlg

Why Small Publishers Fail: http://bit.ly/IE10CN @victoriastrauss

Meditate, don't caffeinate: http://bit.ly/IE1bhi @misfitsmascara

Tips for writing effective dialogue: http://bit.ly/HF0Ia5 @writersdigest

Success in fiction writing is 50% practice and 50% persistence. Talent is optional: http://bit.ly/IN8oNE @Yeomanis

Where to Find Ideas For Novels Or Short Stories: http://bit.ly/HL1MhU @writersdigest

11 Revision Questions: http://bit.ly/HL1W95 @fictionnotes

9 ways to upset an editor: http://bit.ly/HL2eMU @jameslsutter

Being a tax-wise author, parts 1 & 2 (for US writers, but possible deductions for others): http://bit.ly/HL2njx , http://bit.ly/HL2prK

Plan the Story, Meet Your Characters. http://bit.ly/J1YWFe @christi_craig

Reading in Public: 3 Steps to Captivate Your Audience: http://bit.ly/J1Zg6Z @DIYMFA

Tips for writing suspense: http://bit.ly/J1ZyL1 @stacygreen26 @nicolebasaraba

Tips for writing convincing male characters: http://bit.ly/J20oYh @BooksForABuck

Inspiration from a cryptic text: http://bit.ly/J20I9o @GeneLempp

20 Rules About Subject-Verb Agreement: http://bit.ly/IWD9xk @writing_tips

Writing Lessons from the Newsroom: http://bit.ly/IWDHn1 @torcon

Writing for the YA market--writing what's hot: http://bit.ly/IWEcNR

Scrivener review: http://bit.ly/IWEnZA @ajackwriting

Balancing story and prose: http://bit.ly/IWEJzl @katieganshert @rachellegardner

Write Because You Love It: http://bit.ly/IWER1L @jodyhedlund

How To Balance Dialogue and Description: http://bit.ly/IWF84T @serbaughman

Tips for submitting short stories (especially for SF/F writers): http://bit.ly/IWFM29 @amsmibert

What beta readers are and ideas for finding them: http://bit.ly/HYkyPk @jamigold

An agent says you can't turn one genre into another to try and sell the story: http://bit.ly/HYmpDT @greyhausagency

Explaining show, don't tell: http://bit.ly/HYmAiB @V_Rossibooks

What booksellers really mean when asked for recommendations: http://bit.ly/HYmXcW @deadwhiteguys

3 Reasons to Write Stream of Consciousness Narrative: http://bit.ly/HYnbkd

Why editors won't be excited if you want to write "a little of this and a little of that": http://bit.ly/HHY2dd @behlerpublish

Google wants to mobilize your Web site – for free: http://bit.ly/HHYk3O @kfitchard

Discipline of Writing. Writing as a Discipline. http://bit.ly/HHYE2w @LavChintapalli @womenwriters

Elements of a Great Suspense Story: http://bit.ly/HHYU1j @ChynnaLaird

Crime fiction--when sleuths must work with government employees for info: http://bit.ly/J0u8pl @mkinberg

The power of manipulation in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/I6GMjv @mkinberg

Inspiration from a cryptic text: http://bit.ly/J20I9o @GeneLempp

Why Small Publishers Fail: http://bit.ly/IE10CN @victoriastrauss

When Books Mattered: http://nyti.ms/IE0J2S

Is Pinterest Traffic Worthless? http://bit.ly/HLA2uk @nestguy

5 Principles for Using Facebook: http://bit.ly/HTkNMU @janefriedman

20 Verbs Smothered by "Be"s: http://bit.ly/IQWifN @writing_tips

An agent says you can't turn one genre into another to try and sell the story: http://bit.ly/HYmpDT @greyhausagency

Who and whom: http://bit.ly/IYFNnp @missedperiods

How to purchase ISBNs in the USA: http://bit.ly/IYG35I @woodwardkaren

The taxman and the artist: http://bit.ly/IYGnl4

How 1 author handled writing an emotionally troubled protagonist: http://bit.ly/IYGU6j @kcraftwriter

Amazon Lets Authors Spy on Readers: http://bit.ly/IYHb9y @writersdigest

Tips for writing a synopsis: http://bit.ly/IYHr8r @nicolamorgan

How 1 writer reworked a 1st chapter: http://bit.ly/IYHNfj @DaveThomeWriter

How to Create Characters that Fascinate: http://bit.ly/IarQko @WriterThesaurus

4 Tips on Adding a New Twist to an Old Plot: http://bit.ly/IarXN0 @janice_hardy

Social Networking—Take Time to get Your Feet Wet: http://bit.ly/Ias4Im @novelrocket

3 Possibilities for Defeating Writer's Block: http://bit.ly/IasgaB @CDRosales

Answers to Book Discount Questions: http://bit.ly/HW7quT @jfbookman

4 Important Character Concerns: http://bit.ly/HW7zhS @vigorio

5 Effective Book Marketing Strategies: http://bit.ly/JbYnVN @KarinaFabian

The Writer's Life is Full of Second Chances: http://bit.ly/JbYCQq @RLLaFevers

Combating Confusion: http://bit.ly/JbYJLX @BretBallou

Patience Is a Writer's Most Important Virtue: http://bit.ly/JbYVL4 @jeffgoins

Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis: http://bit.ly/HXlOTy @passivevoiceblg

Being habitually creative requires far more than original thinking: http://bit.ly/HXlWCp @JeffreyDavis108

Does One Book a Writer Make? http://bit.ly/HXm3hm @bob_brooke

21% Of Adults Have Read An eBook In The Last Year: Pew Research: http://bit.ly/HXm8lf @ebooknewser

Top 5 Tips to Maximize Your Writing Conference: http://bit.ly/HXmpEH @kristenlambTX

Grammar Today: Rigid Rules or Rhetorical Choices? http://bit.ly/HXmvMz @pubperspectives

How The Wall Street Journal Uses Pinterest: http://bit.ly/HXmCI4 @10000words

Plot Fixer – Part I: Your Premise Isn't Compelling: http://bit.ly/HXmIPR @karalennox

How to boost the number of your friends on Goodreads: http://bit.ly/IFBPwF @PublicityHound

DRM is crushing indie booksellers online: http://bit.ly/Jlm81j

The Importance of Persistence: http://bit.ly/Jlpmlt @thecreativepenn

Don't Just Create "On Demand," Create For You: http://bit.ly/Jlptxl

Industry in collapse: The strain is showing: http://bit.ly/IAQFVc @Porter_Anderson @RachelleGardner

How much lead-in time do you really need before your story's inciting incident? http://bit.ly/JWpmmZ

Traditional mystery writing--tips for delaying the body's discovery: http://bit.ly/IcSpEt
@camillelaguire

Guidelines for story length: http://bit.ly/IcTtpG @noveleditor

Get to your inciting incident or call to action as soon as possible: http://bit.ly/IcTCcB @AlexSokoloff

Common logical mistakes to avoid: http://bit.ly/IcTLwH @readingape

Why Poetry Should Be More Playful: http://bit.ly/IcTUjI @hoodedu @theatlantic

How To Properly Harvest Your Very Best Ideas: http://bit.ly/IcTXfu @write_practice

Open Letter to Friends of Authors: http://bit.ly/IcU0YL @fictionnotes

Thoughts on using flashbacks: http://bit.ly/Idxzqk

Writing religion into speculative fiction: http://bit.ly/IdxJxZ @sarahahoyt

12 Myths About Being a Writer: http://bit.ly/IdxP8P @annerallen

Story structure--the midpoint: http://bit.ly/IdxUcD @KMWeiland

How Much Lead-In Time do You Really Need?

[image error]Right now I’m writing the fourth Memphis Barbeque mystery.  I’m still working on the first draft and, like all first drafts, I’m realizing I’ve got some issues.

The biggest one I’ve got right now is that I’ll need to move the discovery of the victim’s body up.  Right now, the body is found around page 32 and that’s going to be a bit too far back for my editor (and readers.)

I’ve read posts where writers have fussed about having to put the inciting incident so close to the front of the book—but, to me, that’s just the modern reality. Unfortunately, we’re not only competing with books that have that early hook, we’re also competing with short attention spans and readers hooked on TV, computers, and game systems.

I think late inciting incidents presents a recurring issue for most writers and for many genres.  It’s easy to write in a long lead-in time while we’re setting up the story’s big event.  (For a nice review on a inciting incident, take a look at writer K.M. Weiland’s posts:  one on maximizing your inciting incident and one on the difference between the inciting incident and the key event.)

As an example, here’s an overview of what’s going on with my current story (and I’m not addressing this until I’m done writing the first draft):

First of all, I’ve introduced several of the main characters in the story—my protagonist and two important supporting characters. 

The characters are introduced through a scene where a ticking time bomb element is in place (and no—I write cozy mysteries, so this isn’t an actual bomb, but it’s a stressful event with a stated deadline.)  So there’s some tension—but it’s not the inciting incident.  It’s not the murder.

Then I started setting up the murder.  I introduced another of the supporting cast and wrote a scene to show how the future murder victim is making certain people unhappy….two characters talking about the future victim.  One person he’s making unhappy is close to my protagonist, introduced in the opening scene.

But a murder needs at least 3-5 suspects just to keep the reader guessing.  So I’ve got an additional, tense scene with the future victim and some future suspects—people that the protagonist and supporting cast don’t really know, but who play important roles in this book.

Then I’ve got the setting to work in—and this setting is important for this particular murder.  I write in a scene at the festival, bringing in the elements of the setting that are important to the murder.

Finally—the body is discovered. 

Now I know that I’ve kept things moving along in those 30-odd pages.  I’ve set up the murder so it’s not just some out-of-context, out-of-the-blue body being thrown at the reader.  I’ve had tension and conflict and humor and necessary character introductions.

But I know that my editor will want me to move the body’s discovery up.

This means that when I’m done with this draft, I’m going to probably cut out some of those scenes.  There was a time when I’d have dumped the body in a prologue (you’ll see that in a couple of my first books) and then proceeded on with the story exactly as I just explained it above.  I’d crossed off the body’s discovery by putting it on the first page of the book, then moved back to my usual set-up.

I’m not as crazy about doing that anymore.  It worked all right, but now I get the feeling that the whole time the reader is reading the set-up, they’re wanting to get back to the body they’d heard about in the prologue.  I just don’t like it as much as I used to.

So what I’ll do at the end of this draft is to ramp things up. I’ll move the discovery of the body about 10 pages up.  I’m going to have some of my character development and introduction in response  to my inciting incident.  After all, it’s going to be a stressful event for these characters—their response to it will show a lot about them to the readers.

I’ve also realized that I disclose a few things in my book’s beginning that I could hold off explaining until later.  There’s, I think, a tendency for writers to want to loop the reader in.  I know I have that tendency.  It’s good not to want the reader confused, but if we’re just holding off on revealing a connection between characters or a character’s secret—there’s no reason not to let that  extra element of tension spice up the story.  Why not?  

Working in the inciting incident:

Have it be your opening hook.  The characters’ reaction to the events will be the readers’ introduction to them.

If you’re trying to delay the inciting incident but hint at it (to keep readers hooked), use flashbacks and flashforwards with caution.  These can either backfire or intrigue.  The ones I read seem to backfire more often than not.

If you just can’t think of a way to move the inciting incident closer to the front of the book, make sure that you’ve got a good amount of tension and conflict in your lead-in to that point.  If the first part of your story is all backstory and set-up, the reader might not stick with it.

Remember that we don’t have to tell everything upfront.  We can raise questions and delay answering these questions until later in the book…even at the end of the book.  As long as it’s not confusing or unduly frustrating, this delayed revelation adds tension to a story. See if some of that explanatory lead-in material can be put off until later in the book.

When do you usually include your story’s inciting incident? Do you ever have to push it up?  As a reader, when do you find yourself losing interest in a book—and is it related to the placement of the inciting incident?

 

The Excitement of What’s Coming Around the Bend in Publishing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I visited my parents a couple of weeks ago during my children’s spring break. We also helped them to clean out their attic. (It’s hard not to take advantage of having a hale and hearty 15 year old boy in the house.)

One of the things that was uncovered up there was my father’s electric typewriter. He was an English teacher and typed quite a bit, so it was a pretty nice model. My daughter was completely enchanted by it and asked if we could take it home (she’d been asking about my typewriter, but it’s definitely gotten buried somewhere in a closet or our own attic.)

Amazingly, my parents still had an ink cartridge for the typewriter in a desk and headed right to it, and handed it over to my daughter. (My head exploded just a bit at this….had to wonder what else they’ve held onto!) We drove back home to North Carolina and my daughter immediately asked for me to show her how to work the typewriter….but I was already busy unpacking us and cooking supper.

The next day she asked me again to show it to her…..but I was cooking Easter dinner (seems to have been a good deal of cooking lately.) I was a little impatient, I’ll admit, and told her I was sure she could figure it out. This is a ten year old who spends a great deal of time on the computer, understands social media, and is a fair little typist at 45 wpm.

And she had, y’all, no clue.

She couldn’t figure out where to roll the paper in on the roller, where to line it up on the little silver ruler on the typewriter, where to stick the ink cartridge in. That she had to hit return for the thing to go to the next line (no word wrap on typewriters). And---there was no way for her to correct her mistakes, either.

But put her with any cell phone and she intuitively interacts with the device—enlarging pictures and text on the screen by that reverse-pinch that this generation has down perfectly.

The fact that I thought the typewriter would be intuitive to a lifelong, very experienced computer user (a computer native) who’d never seen a typewriter and the fact that it really wasn’t to someone born in 2001, just goes to show how fast and far and quickly everything has changed. It illustrated to me how fast the world changed. At 41, my life is evenly divided between life on a typewriter and life on a computer.

What does the computer revolution mean for writers? It means that we can write faster. That writing is easier. It means we have the luxury of creating horrible first drafts…deleting or rearranging text is easy. It was the first step toward today’s proliferation of writers and the large number of books that many writers have written.

Recently, I’ve noticed amazing changes in both the television and music industries (which have also been impacted by the changes in technology.)

HBO now offers an online subscription service to provide online viewing. They’ve enhanced older episodes to identify in the sidebar each new character who comes onstage--giving their picture and a paragraph explaining their connection to the protagonist and the storyline.

In the music industry, independent musicians who previously would never have been able to attract a following without signing with a major label are now able to reach audiences directly. Their singles are sold through venues like Amazon and have the potential of reaching the millions that songs by the mainstream artists do.

General wisdom states that writers should simply keep writing as much as their schedule allows and focus on writing the best books possible. I think this is still the best approach. But I think we need to also start mulling over a little bit some out-of-the-box approaches that can be better utilized by the new technology…as we start moving into the future.

Things like extras (enhanced books)

Alternate endings for books is something I’m seeing more of lately. I actually love the idea of having different killers for a mystery. I change my murderer enough for this to be an easy thing to write.

Casts of characters could provide a useful reader reference if we’ve written in a large cast.

Interviews with the authors can provide readers with a behind the scenes look at the novel’s creation.

Chapter teasers from upcoming releases—this makes a tremendous amount of sense from a marketing perspective and provides the author with a firm deadline that he might not otherwise have with a self-published book.

Down the road (honestly, probably not too much farther down the road) we’ll have to think about other aspects of these extras—maybe music, mp3 clips (recorded interview, for instance), forums (social commentary on our books—while actually reading our books), picture slideshows/video, related articles…

I’m not mentioning this to scare anyone. But I think that the more open we are to this change, the better we might adapt (and ultimately profit) as these changes start happening.

When I was busily striking the keys of my typewriter while writing essays in high school, I’d have been overwhelmed if you’d talked to me about Skype and Facebook and Twitter. I’d have been overwhelmed even at basic word processing — icons for underlining and bolding? Font choices and font size? Things that are intuitive now were once completely confusing.

What I think this means to me is that I’m going to try to change my still old-fashioned notions of what a book is. It means I’ll be adjusting my parameters for “creative.” It means realizing that, in this new age of reading, writers will have to not only be creative with words but with marketing and effects.

But the most important thing, as always, will be the story we give our readers. The packaging can be slick and interactive, but it won’t mean a thing if the readers don’t care about our story.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

To me, the future seems full of promise and excitement for writers. We just have to be open to it. What do you see, though, when you look ahead?

Want to Write a Best Seller? It’s All In Your Genes by Dr. John Yeoman

by Dr. John Yeoman, @Yeomanis

“Brace yourself,” my doctor said. “This won’t come easy” he fiddled with his pen “for either of us.” He averted his eyes. I braced myself.

“You eat junk food,” he muttered. “You smoke and drink in industrial quantities. You take no exercise.”

I protested. “I go jogging with my tortoise!”

“Yet by every test known to medical science, you are in perfect health.” He glared at me. “People like you put doctors out of work.”

Some authors are like that. They consume junk fiction, take no exercise in their craft, and have the work ethic of a sloth. Yet they can scamp out a novel in three months. Then they trip over a literary agent at a cocktail party and - lo! - next day they get a contract from Random House. It happens. And it isn’t fair.

Worse, it fools every would-be author that they can do the same. After 100 rejection slips and a fling with clinical depression they discover the truth. Success in fiction writing is 50% practice and 50% persistence.

Talent is optional.

Or so I tell my students at the creative writing classes I teach at a UK university. They don’t believe me, especially when one of their number goes on to sign a three-book contract after one term’s work. It’s all in the genes, I say. Some authors are lucky, like that, but most have rotten genes.

It took Agatha Christie 20 attempts to get The Mysterious Affair at Styles into print. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times. Joanne Harris broke into print with Chocolat only after 15 years in the wilderness. And The Lord of the Flies was published by the purest accident.

“So what are we doing here?” some students moan.

“Learning to write stories,” I tell them “in the event that you have rotten genes. It might take you just three years, with practice, to write a story that works. Then you can embark on a novel. The rest is persistence.”

Earn while you learn

Better still, I say, you can earn while you learn.

Write a story every week, enter it in a story contest, and you might soon be winning a cash sum from every three in five contests you enter. What’s more (I add, returning reluctantly to the syllabus), each story is a five finger exercise in craft technique. Focus on exploring a new skill in every story. One week it’s characterisation, the next could be body language. In time, you might even explore emblematic resonance!

“You’re only saying that because you run a story competition,” they protest, cheekily.

“True,” I sulk “yet it’s true.”

To punish them, I then assign them an exercise - to rewrite the top news story of the day in the styles of James Patterson, Proust and Annie Proulx, successively. (The latter is a punishment very cruel.) To do that, they have to read the authors first. Blatant imitation is another way to learn one’s craft, and quickly. I tell them. And it’s true.

Of course, I already know which of my students will get a solid B+ - the ones who practise most. But I shall have no option but to grant, as always, a sparkling A- to those who practise least, rarely turn up to classes and cheek me when they do. But who were born with lucky genes.

I hate such people. They put doctors out of work.

Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. His free course in winning story competitions for profit can be found at: http://www.writers-village.org/contest-success.php

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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Pew Research's numbers on the rise of ereading: http://bit.ly/HZTdPy @Porter_Anderson @PewInternet

6 Core Storytelling Competencies: Good… Better… Best. http://bit.ly/Ho0oC5 @storyfix

How to successfully launch a YA print novel: http://bit.ly/Ho0OZk @laurapauling

Making a living as a writer--challenges: http://bit.ly/Ho1azf @rachellegardner

How To Get Book Reviews Without Spending (Too Much) Money: http://bit.ly/Ho1qhD @KenBrosky @thecreativepenn

Farther vs. Further: http://bit.ly/HruM8A @writing_tips

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The Power of What If: http://bit.ly/Ho1Og8 @bookemdonna

Crime fiction--killers who don't take responsibility: http://bit.ly/IGODXU @mkinberg

Amazon book reviews--democracy in action, ignorance, or bullying? http://bit.ly/Ho1YE9 @Bob_Mayer

7 Military Ranks Common in Popular Culture: http://bit.ly/Ho23Yx @writing_tips

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Distinguishing between Plot and Premise: http://bit.ly/J0F5AR

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When to hit send? http://bit.ly/J0G1Fx

How Copyright Protection Makes Books Vanish: http://bit.ly/J0Gk38 @passivevoiceblg

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1 writer's draft system: http://bit.ly/J0H8Vv @JillKemerer

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Write What You Don't Know: http://bit.ly/J0HRGh @jaelmchenry

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7 Similar but Distinct Word Pairs: http://bit.ly/HHHKpg @writing_tips

The 7 virtues: http://bit.ly/HHHO8w @mistymassey

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Should I Add [fill in the blank] To My Story? http://bit.ly/HHIgUn @greyhausagency

9 ways to use Meetup.com in a publicity campaign: http://bit.ly/HHJ2ki @PublicityHound

2 Hours to Write (And Why it Works): http://bit.ly/IRYCEl @serbaughman

Teacher's Guide for your Children's Books: http://bit.ly/HHJcIl

Using setting to create mood: http://bit.ly/IRZ6tY

Making Readers Turn the Page: http://bit.ly/HHJm2n @novelrocket

The Action / Tension / Emotion Ratio: http://bit.ly/HHJqiy @michellediener

Another reason why experience is important for writers: http://bit.ly/HHJuix

The Funds for Writers resource of grants, markets, and contest listings for writers: http://bit.ly/HHJAGO @hopeclark

This week's Writing on the Ether from @Porter_Anderson features @ljndawson @mathewi @draccah @MegWolitzer @nickbilton: http://bit.ly/HHKfrT

For literary inspiration follow @AdviceToWriters. Jon Winokur dispenses writerly wisdom of the ages.

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A useful resource for describing settings, emotions, shapes, textures, and more: http://bit.ly/eIGRMO @AngelaAckerman

Have a great week!