Riley Adams's Blog, page 80

February 10, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately? Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox! Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

I’m spotlighting another conference for writers this week: the 2nd Annual Write This Way Indie Author Fest in Dallas, Texas. The event is free to the public and free participating authors. The goal is to inspire literacy, as well as provide a platform for authors to be of service to the community. The Future Author Contest encourages young writers ages 12 and older to write the book they have dreamed of writing.

Business / Miscellaneous

6 Tips to Hiring a Freelance Editor: @KarenCV

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

The International Publishers Association in India: Issues in a Hot-Button World: @Porter_Anderson @michielams

Viewpoints From the Children’s Books Salon: Trends, Concerns, and Publishing Pride: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives @EvyTillman

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

How to Write a Book in 2018 (A Step-by-Step Guide for New Writers): @BryanJCollins

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Lose the Guilt: You Don’t Have to Write Every Day: @RuthanneReid

1 Writer Assesses Her 2017 Goals and Makes New Ones for 2018: @AuthorSAT

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Writing is Writing, From ‘Seinfeld’ To Historical Fiction: by Lawrence H. Levy @SignatureReads

A Good Walk May be The Best Writing Exercise: by Scott McCormick @BookBaby

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Slow: Meandering Reader Ahead: @Julie_Glover

So You Want to Read Sword and Planet Fiction: Here’s Where to Start: @mattstaggs @unboundworlds

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

How to Use The Force to Write Your Novel: @SnowflakeGuy

How to Overcome Inner Challenges to Become a Successful Writer: @Daniel_Chidiac

Why You Should Name Your Artistic Nemesis: @AnnieNeugebauer @LitReactor

Creativity and Inspiration / Perfectionism

Why Fear of Imperfection Should Not Hold Up Publication: @DixieCarlton @IndieAuthorALLI

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Writing and the Creative Life: Boundaries of Space, Boundaries of Time: @GoIntoTheStory

Writing five minutes a day for a year equals a book: @AlexSokoloff

10 Ways to Find More Time to Write: @WritersCoach

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

The Writers’ Journey: Newbie to Mastery: @KristenLambTX

How to Boost Focus & Productivity with a Writing Space Makeover: @colleen_m_story

3 Simple Ways to Overcome the Challenges of Working from Home: @JustKimClark

Do Audiobooks Count As Reading? @JamesTateHill

At What Age Should a Writer Stop Writing? @GainesSteven @booktrib

Don’t Let Your Dream Die With You: @deborahdeetales

Write Everything: @SRaffelock @storyfix

10 Incredible Writing Superpowers: @robertleebrewer @WritersDigest

Things You Should Never Say To A Writer On A First Date (comic): @inkyelbows

Why Should You Journal? @laina_turner

Genres / Fantasy

How to Avoid the Dark Lord Cliché: @AuthorCoH

Genres / Memoir

Transforming an Essay Collection into a Memoir: @ChelseyDrysdale @brevitymag

Genres / Miscellaneous

How Writers Can Become Songwriters: @MellaNation @hopeclark

Genres / Mystery

Tips for Writing Killer Suspense: @WomenWriters @GayYellen

Genres / Non-Fiction

Writing Nonfiction vs. Writing Articles and Can Good Writing Be Taught? @votergirl @TheWriterMag

Genres / Poetry

Components of Your Poetry Chapbook: @wvancamp

Genres / Science Fiction

Distance Legal Systems in Sci-fi: @DanKoboldt

Adventure Awaits: A Brief History of Space Opera: @HairEverywhere_

Genres / Screenwriting

The 10 Best Pairings in the History of Film and Pop Culture: @JonDLand @BookTrib

25 Mistakes That Send Your Screenplay To The Trash: @Bang2write

Promo / Ads

Mastering Amazon Ads: @ExtremelyAvg @thecreativepenn

Promo / Blogging

Bring Social Media to Your Blog with Embedded Posts: @CaballoFrances

Promo / Connecting with Readers

How to Find Your 1,000 True Fans and Make a Living as an Artist: @TCKPublishing @JeffGoins

What to remember when you’re discouraged about connecting with readers: @DanBlank

5 Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Reader Engagement: @Bookgal

Promo / Miscellaneous

Best Book Marketing Advice for Authors: The Best of 2017: @JaneFriedman

Is December Good for Releasing the 12th Book in a Series? A Workaround: via @elizabethscraig

Understanding ‘Also Boughts’: @DavidGaughran

5 Tips on When and Where to Promote Your Book: @tmccauley_nyc @LitReactor

Promo / Newsletters

Newsletters and Discoverability: @KristineRusch

Promo / Platforms

Author Platform Cheat Sheet: @LillianJaine

Promo / Pricing

How to Price Your EBook for More Consistent Sales: @Bookgal

Promo / Social Media Tips

How to Set Up Facebook Groups for Pages: @thekristihines

7 Ways Instagram helps authors find readers: @LakotaGrace

Creating a Social Media Calendar: @10MinNovelists

Promo / Websites

Five Useful Elements for Your Website:

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Agent Laurie McLean’s Publishing Predictions for 2018: @agentsavant @annerallen

“How is the political climate in the US affecting the sales of socially relevant books?” @Porter_Anderson @_secondstory

Publishing Wide: Selling Ebooks And Print Books Direct From Your Author Website: @thecreativepenn

The Audie Awards Finalists Are Announced, Amid Louder Competition for Audiobook Rights: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Interview With James Chao, Director, Taipei International Book Exhibition @Porter_Anderson

Industry Notes: In France, Arab Comics; In the US, Scholastic’s Nonfiction: @Porter_Anderson

Man Booker Prize for Fiction Pressured to “Reimpose a ‘Ban on American Writers’” @Porter_Anderson @ManBookerPrize

Italian Publishers and Frankfurter Buchmesse: Frankfurt Fellows Event: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

If, When, and How to Respond to Emails from Editors: @NathanielTower

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

How To Pitch A Series: @LH_Writes @WomenWriters

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

Submitting Your Novel: Key Tips for Success: @nownovel @rockingbooks

How to Stand Out in the Slush Pile 101: @SeptCFawkes

Publishing / Process / Formatting

Understanding Your Print Book Formatting Options: @MarcyKennedy

Publishing / Process / Legalities

Copyright Infringement By the Internet Archive (and What You Can Do About It): @victoriastrauss

3 quick thoughts about copyright: @austinkleon

Writing Craft / Beginnings

10 Easy Ways to Improve Your First Chapter Right Now: @repokempt

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

Keep Your Villain Coming at the Hero from all Directions: @SPressfield

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Do Your Characters Have the Right Flaws? @Janice_Hardy

How to Use Acting Techniques When Writing a Character’s Emotional Journey: @WarnerLoughlin

How to construct interesting and compelling characters for your stories: @SHalvatzis

Creating fully developed fictional characters (that are not secretly you): @SusanPerabo @TheWriterMag

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

10 Unlikable Literary Heroines That We Love to Hate: @rosmance

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Making Readers Care About Your Story: @Janice_Hardy

5 Reader Questions to Avoid: by Dawn Field @DIYMFA

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Action Beats: More than Dialogue Tag Surrogates: @KathySteinemann

Writing Craft / Diversity

Literary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing: @lithub

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Tips to Include Pets in Fiction: @SueColetta1

How to write an unreliable narrator: @ArlenePrunkl

How seriously should you take readability statistics? @pubcoach

Should I Use a Prologue for My Book? @MoonlightingWri

When A Character Does Something You Dislike: @AuthorSAT

Writing Craft / POV

Different Kinds of POV Slips and How to Avoid Them: @Ava_Jae

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Cases of Erroneous Use of Colons: @writing_tips

Exclamation Points in Fiction: @NovelEditor

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

5 Reasons You Need an In-Depth Critique: @katiemccoach

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

So You Want To Write About The Cold: @helpfulsnowman

Writing Craft / Tension

Suspense Writing: 5 Hacks to Improve Your Story: @aleshahomans

Writing Craft / Voice

Using Writing Vocabulary to Streamline Voice: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / World-Building

Conveying Worldbuilding Without Exposition: 4 Techniques: @DN_Bryn

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Therapist (Mental Health): @beccapuglisi

Uncategorized

8 Styles of Music to Listen to While Writing: @danasitar #TopTweets2017

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on February 10, 2018 21:01

February 8, 2018

Five Useful Elements for Your Website

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Through the years, I’ve run across a lot of author websites. When I see something really useful, I’ll add it to my own. Here are five things that I’ve found worthwhile to add.

A book page for each book

This is important for SEO for your books. If you look up my books on Google, you get ‘rich results’ in the sidebar showing the cover, ratings, publication date, my name, etc. This wasn’t the case until I had a separate page on my site for each title (I also used some schema markup on book WordPress pages to help search engines read my page elements. More on how I did that here).

A coming soon page

A reader in suggested back in 2016 that I should create a ‘coming soon’ page on my site because she kept losing track of my releases and what series was launching a book next. I’ve made sure to keep it updated (which is, of course, the danger of having a page like that).

A nice link to add to the Coming Soon page (along with other pages on our site) is a link to our Amazon Author Central page with instructions to follow us there. I just put a simple: ” Follow me on Amazon for release updates” up.

A newsletter signup

This is a frequent reason that readers visit our website–to find ways to stay updated. The easiest, and best, way to gain subscribers for our newsletter is by listing the signup info several places on our website. The readers who subscribe on our sites are most likely to be our most dedicated readers…and the most important ones to contact when we have releases. You should also have your newsletter signup on your Facebook page, if you have one.

A printable book list/your books listed in order

This was another reader request. At first, I didn’t really see a point to listing them in order because they could all be read out of order. But there are some readers who really, really want to read books in order. You can upload a Word doc or PDF to your site. The important thing, again, is to remember to update it when new books are released.

I’ve made a point, since my books are available in print from both CreateSpace and Ingram, to list the ISBNs for the books so they can be printed and ordered by readers at their local bookstore, if they wish.

Contact information

I’m sure everyone is tired of me harping on this, ha! I must note this about every six months on this site. But the number of blogs and websites that I come across that don’t even have an author’s last name or email address is really amazing. Readers do want to contact us from time to time and so do others–maybe someone would like you to speak at a rotary club meeting or would like to get in touch with you about representing your fiction, etc.. It’s important to provide a way to connect.

Do you have any of these elements on your website? What have you found useful on your own site?

Five Useful Elements for Your Website
Click To Tweet

Photo on Visualhunt.com

The post Five Useful Elements for Your Website appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on February 08, 2018 21:02

February 4, 2018

Preorders Revisited

Although I wasn’t impressed by my first preorder experiment, I’ve grown to accept preorders as a good way to make sure everything is in perfect order at the retailers on release day. I made changes in my pre-order strategy by including the pre-order on Amazon and by running the pre-order for a shorter period of time.

In December I ran a preorder for a completely different reason: I wanted to delay a release until January, after the holiday busyness had settled down for readers. The book was finished by mid-December, so I decided to try to generate income while I waited for a better launch time.

Of course, I always second-guess myself. Would January really be better for sales than December? January is when everyone’s credit card bills come in. But then I reminded myself that December hasn’t been, for me, a good time to release. Fewer people are buying for themselves in December and they don’t have as much time to read. And I’d hardly be tempting new readers with the 12th book in a series.

I had good results with the preorder this time. I started the pre-order on December 18 and the book released on January 9th. I set it up for preorder on all the different channels I could: KDP, Nook, Kobo, IngramSpark, Amazon, etc.

I set up the print edition on CreateSpace, but let it sit for a while after proofing it and before hitting ‘publish’. I wanted the print edition to be more of a simultaneous release with the digital release (mostly to avoid questions from readers as to why the book was available in print and not in ebook).

Although common advice is to set the preorder price lower than the price at release, I left it at $4.99, which is my usual release price (a pricing experiment at $5.99 on a release day last year did not go well).

I did end up having a glitch, and the preorder period gave me time to get it fixed. A lot of my readers prefer print, and the CreateSpace version wasn’t linking on the same product page as the Kindle version (although both were listed in my Amazon Author Central). I was able to contact customer service and have it fixed (in fewer than 10 hours after reaching out to them). It was a relief to have the problem taken care of before the launch.

As usual with a preorder, it was nice having the buy-links ready ahead of time. I put the links up on my website and added them to the newsletter draft I was writing for release day.

For whatever reason (maybe I’m simply wrong about December sales), the preorder sales were triple the number for my second-best performer. But I did do a couple of different things this time. I did some subtle pre-release promo by journaling the book as I wrote it (I’d pinned my journal at the top of my Facebook page). When the book became available for preorder, I pinned a different post, noting that fact.

I was a little worried that the higher than usual preorder sales would mean a dip in ordering at the launch, but that, fortunately wasn’t the case. Release day sales were even higher than the accumulated preorder sales.

Looking back over this post, I’m thinking this is something I’ll repeat again. I frequently have a book that’s ready to publish in December because I write 3 books a year. And I’ll continue with preorders since they afford me the opportunity to get my ducks in a row (via buy-links, fixing glitches, and tweaking my newsletter). Many readers have also told me on Facebook, in comments on previous posts, and via email that they like preorders because they can order the book when it’s on their mind. I think I’ll still keep the preorder period short…a month or less is time enough.

For more on best practices with preorders, check out two posts on the BookBub blog:

17 Ways to Sell Preorder Books by Diana Urban

Should You Make a Book Available for Preorder? 14 Authors Weigh In by Carlyn Robertson

Do you use preorders? How have they worked for you in the past?

Is December Good for Releasing the 12th Book in a Series? A Workaround:
Click To Tweet

Photo on VisualHunt.com

The post Preorders Revisited appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on February 04, 2018 21:02

February 3, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 43,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Business / Miscellaneous

Hiring a Virtual Assistant: @ChloeAdlerWrite

11 Simple Steps to Setup Pre-Orders For Your Self-Published eBook on Smashwords: @lornafaith

Why You Should Review Your Writing Year: @DIYMFA

Top Ten Publishing Trends Every Author Needs to Know in 2018: @ricwol

Millennials’ Reading Habits and Why They Matter: by Amy Collins @BookWorksNYC

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

‘Books at Berlinale’ Sets New Record for Book to Film Submissions: @Porter_Anderson

London Book Fair’s ‘Book and Screen Week’ Embraces Women’s Suffrage: @jacksthomas @Porter_Anderson

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

10 Writing Resolutions Actually Worth Keeping: @NathanielTower

5 Marketing Initiatives for the New Year: @DebraEckerling

Daily Planner Printable – How to Plan Your Year in Reverse: @kikimojo

Why Publishing a Novel Is Not a New Year’s Resolution: @RosanneBane

How to Start Simple Habits to Reach Your Writing and Self-Publishing Goals: @lornafaith @stevescott1

3 Keys for Setting Writing Goals You Can Actually Stick to in 2018: @emi1y_morgan

A Tip to Help Women Writers Achieve More: @colleen_m_story

Setting Goals for 2018: @debluskin

Owning Your Writing Career in 2018: @sacha_black

The One Technique You Need to Nail Your Writing Goals: @colleen_m_story

The Benefit of Small Goals:

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

It’s Never Too Late to Make a Fresh Start: @NickPWilford @TheIWSG

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

11 of the Best Love Letters in Literature, Both Fictional and Not: @danispencie @ElectricLit

Jane Austen’s Most Widely Mocked Character is Also Her Most Subversive: @rachellouie @lithub

Five Books That Blend Science and Fantasy: @JPatrickBlack

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

The “Perfect Timing” Trap: @cathychall @womenonwriting

Fill Your Life With Intention, Not Reaction: @DanBlank

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

Writing Quickly Without Sacrificing Quality: @MichaelMoreci

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

How To Be A Healthy Writer: @thecreativepenn @euan_lawson

How to Reconcile the Writing Life and Faith: @KarisRogerson @LitReactor

Why do the best writers have the most emotional intelligence? @pubcoach

10 Famous Book Hoarders: @knownemily

9 Tips for Dealing With Writer’s Burnout: @_HannahHeath

Wellness for Writers: Walking, Sharing Work, Tracking Goals: @colleen_m_story @sandyfussell

8 Ways to Find Author Mentors and Learn From Them: @lornafaith

Why 1 Writer Sends Postcards Every Friday: by Peter Wayne Moe @The_Millions

8 Qualities More Important than Writing Talent: @annerallen

Genres / Dystopian

How to Write Dystopian Fiction: by Georgina Roy @writingtipsoasi

Genres / Fantasy

Should Your Story Use Prophecy? @Stepha_OBrien

Genres / Memoir

3 Important Tips if You’re Planning to Write a Memoir: @LiveWriteThrive

Genres / Miscellaneous

5 Tips for Drawing Comics: @Finsomniac @scottishbktrust

Genres / Mystery

The Cinema as an Element in Crime Fiction: @mkinberg

Mysteries with only a few suspects: @mkinberg

The ‘someone’s trying to kill me’ plot line in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Non-Fiction

How To Write About Place In Creative Nonfiction: @kayladeanwrites

Genres / Picture Books

How to Find the Right Illustrator for Your Children’s Book: @erikaliodice @WriterUnboxed

How to Write Children’s Picture Books: Place, Paraphernalia, and Plot: @YvBlackwood

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting: Script To Screen: “Clerks”: @GoIntoTheStory

Screenwriting: Script To Screen: “Cool Hand Luke”: @GoIntoTheStory

Promo / Ads

3 Easy Ways to Create Instagram Ads: @thekristihines @smexaminer

Promo / Crowdfunding

How Kickstarter Is Changing Publishing: @ann_oconnell @ElectricLit

Reaching readers if you write in multiple genres – could crowdfunding be the answer? @Roz_Morris @vicdougherty

Promo / Miscellaneous

How to Connect with any Influencer in 3 Sentences: @MikeLoomis

Top 5 Tips Making Teaser Graphics: @JAHuss

10 Ideas for Your Author Platform: @BuildYourBrandA

3 author mistakes that will hold you back in 2018: @sandrabeckwith

Promo / Platforms

Top 5 Tips to Create An Author Logo: @JAHuss

Promo / Pricing

The Price Is Right: 6 Tips to Pricing Your Ebook: by David Kudler @JFbookman

Promo / Social Media Tips

5 Tips for Using Twitter: @JAHuss

5 Ways to Boost Your Indie Author Brand with Images: @Bookgal

Why You Need an Author Profile – And Where to Post It: @EricaVerrillo

Use GIFS to Ignite Your Book Marketing: @CaballoFrances

5 Reasons Goodreads is a Book Marketing Staple: @Bookgal

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Rights Roundup: 10 Titles Doing Business at the Beginning of the Year: @Porter_Anderson

5 Ways to Conquer Deadline Anxiety: @SaudiYankee @DIYMFA

Publishing / News / Amazon

KDP Print now offers author copies. Expanded distribution coming. How long left for CreateSpace? @TNPS10

Publishing / News / International Publishing

30 Years of Celebrating Women Authors with the LiBeraturpreis: @HannahSJohnson

Kobo’s New Partnership with Walmart: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives @mtamblyn

Selling Publishing Rights Into China: Interview with Jackie Huang @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

China’s Fiction and Nonfiction Bestsellers of 2017: @Porter_Anderson @trajectory

After a reported re-detention in China, Gui Minhai awarded Prix Voltaire (his “whereabouts and condition” unknown: @Porter_Anderson

PEN America Announces Shortlisted Finalists, Flame Tree Opens Imprint: @Porter_Anderson

OpenBook Managing Director Cites 14.55 Percent Growth in Chinese Book Market: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

In South Africa, Jacana Media’s New Imprint Is Investing in Local Fiction: @Porter_Anderson @JacanaMedia

British Book Award Judges Announced as the ‘Nibbies’ Entry Deadline Approaches: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

7 Ways to Make It Easy for Publishers to Offer You a Book Contract: @ChadRAllen

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

8 Things You Should Never Do in a Query: @PaulaSMunier

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

Making peace with rejection: @rxena77

5 Tips to Start Over With A Pen Name: by Lilia Moon

Publishing / Process / Translation

The US National Book Award Goes International With a Translation Prize: @Porter_Anderson

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Real Life Diagnostics: Would You Keep Reading this YA Fantasy? @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

The 2 Secrets to Creating Unforgettable Character: @VictoriaMixon @WritetoDone

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Five Stories Hurt by Unlikable Protagonists: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Make the Best Use of James Scott Bell’s Writing Blunders Solutions: @MarshaIngrao @jamesscottbell

4 Reasons Readers Stopped Caring About Your Story: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Dialogue

2 Sentences Your Characters Should Never Say: @Bang2write

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

Expository flashbacks: from Just a Writing Aid

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

5 Lessons Writers Can Learn from The Story of Ferdinand: @Kerrie_Flanagan

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Use a Variety of Sentence Lengths: @writingthrulife

5 Types of Surprises in Our Stories: @SeptCFawkes

Why you shouldn’t mix British and American English in your novel: @LisaPoisso

3 Techniques To Harness A Reader’s Curiosity: @SloanTamar @AngelaAckerman

Writing Craft / POV

5 Tips on Writing Multiple Points of View While Keeping the Reader in Suspense: @TRRaganAuthor @WritersDigest

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

How to Find Obligatory Scenes and Conventions: @valerie_francis

Untangle Plot Problems With This Quick Tip: @sacha_black

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Beats

“Taken” Beat Sheet: @savethecat @NaomiBeaty

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Concept

5 Ways to Find New Writing Ideas: by Nicole Pyles @womenonwriting

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

So, What’s The Big Deal With Starting A Sentence With ‘So’? @GeoffNunberg @npr

5 Ways to Minimize Prepositional Phrases: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Self-Editing Awkward Sentences: @ZoeMMcCarthy

Writing Craft / Tropes

Reluctant heroes and literary tropes: @Peter_Rey_

Writing Craft / Voice

4 Ways to Develop a Unique Writing Voice: @LauraDavis213 @thewritelife

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

Other Ways to Say “Use”: A Word List for Writers: @KathySteinemann

450+ Ways to Describe Legs: A Word List for Writers: @KathySteinemann

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on February 03, 2018 21:01

February 1, 2018

The Benefit of Small Goals

by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read an interesting article recently, “What Setting Small Goals is Costing You,” from author and publisher Michael Hyatt. I think it interested me because it had such a radically-different point of view from mine. But it was onethat gave me food for thought.

In it, he said:

“Setting small, unchallenging goals is one of the five blunders I cover. I call it “sailing too close to shore.” We tend to set small goals because we’re unaware of our own inherent fear of loss. We don’t want to risk much. But there’s a direct correlation between low risk and low achievement. The greatest achievements are waiting on the other side of discomfort.”

He gave a couple of pretty compelling examples to support his position.

I could see where he was coming from. But for me, it’s totally the opposite.

For me, slow and steady wins the race. I’ve had 25 books published, but this has been over nine years. I set small goals that I can easily achieve. These small goals have made it possible for me to build a daily habit of writing and have helped to keep me motivated over the long-haul.

When I was first starting out and seriously writing, I purposefully set my writing goal as low as I could. I had a toddler in the house and a kindergartener. I set a goal of writing for 5-15 minutes a day. In less than a year, I had a book.

Knowing that I could accomplish my goals under challenging circumstances gave me confidence in my ability to push through, just like finishing a project (as opposed to stalling out or starting a completely different manuscript) gave me confidence in following through and trusting my ability to deliver.

But back to Michael Hyatt’s point of view. He does make some good points. For me, though, I think I’ll incorporate them differently. It is important to stretch oneself. But I’d rather that be a weekly extra goal instead of a daily challenging goal. Since I nearly always hit my daily goal, maybe that is an indication that I need to re-evaluate how much I’m expecting of myself.

But let’s face it. Some days just stink from start to finish. The kids are sick, the dog needs to go to the vet, you thought there was chicken in the freezer, but there wasn’t. I think on days like those, it’s best to still hit our usual goal, maintain our habit, and not feel disappointed in our performance.

What kinds of goals do you set? Do you stretch yourself or set small, attainable goals?

The benefits of small, attainable goals:
Click To Tweet

Photo on VisualHunt

The post The Benefit of Small Goals appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on February 01, 2018 21:02

January 28, 2018

Rep Days for Writers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read an interesting article by writer Victoria Griffin called “Writing Gains are Made on Rep Days.”

Griffin explains rep days for weightlifters:

“For lifters, rep days mean loading light weights on the bar and repping it out until you’re entirely sick of whatever exercise you’re doing…For example, hip contact is important to a good snatch. I’ll spend days doing nothing but hip contact drills until I’m black and blue. It’s not fun, and it’s not glamorous. But guess what? Next time I do snatches, my form is better and I lift heavier weight.”

She then makes the writing analogy:

“For writerly folk, rep days may be big word count days. Or they may be those days when we just don’t want to do it. For whatever reason, we don’t feel like writing, but we sit down and do it anyway. Writing on those days strengthens our writing “muscles” so that on the days we do feel like writing, when the words are flowing, we’re able to write more and better than we would have otherwise.”

I liked what Griffin was saying. I agree with her that there is a sort of ‘writing muscle’ that atrophies when we don’t work it out enough. It’s always harder to jump back into a story after taking a long break…the characters aren’t as familiar to us, we have to get reacquainted with the story world, and it’s easier to make continuity errors.

I’ll take it a step farther and say that it gives a tremendous boost to our overall confidence as writers to write on those days when we have to push ourselves through it. I know that most days out of the week, I’m not feeling inspired as I sit down to write. As I go, I get more into my story and into the flow of writing. I show up. I’m not one of those who says writers have to write every single day, but it sure helps if you can write for most of them.

Writer Teresa Frohock put this well in her post “Writing When You’re Uninspired“:

“By forcing myself to write, even when I don’t feel like it, I build on the self-discipline that I will need to get me through those deadlines when I must write.”

If we know we can tackle our project on the toughest days, it can give us the motivation to power through most days. Also, having a string of successful days of working in a row can help us to build confidence in our ability to keep making progress on a story. Writer Karen Woodward’s post, “How to Write Everyday: Jerry Seinfeld and the Chain Method,” explains how we can gain motivation by marking off writing days on our calendar.

While I don’t feel like it’s necessary to write every day (I’ll miss a day several days out of the month, if not more), I do feel it can help to write most days–and that there’s a special benefit to pushing forward with our writing on some of the more challenging days, if possible.

What if you have gone a while without writing, but you want to pick it up again? Read this helpful article by Daphne Gray-Grant, “How to Get Back Into Writing After a Break.”

Do you write on the tough days? What keeps you motivated, as a writer?

Photo on Visualhunt.com

The post Rep Days for Writers appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 28, 2018 21:02

January 27, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m spotlighting an upcoming conference for mystery writers (wish I could make it, but I have a conflict). SleuthFest 2018 will take place in Boca Raton, Florida, on March 1-4 at the Embassy Suites. It’s an intensive four-day conference featuring writing workshops, social events, and pitch sessions. The conference includes four tracks of workshops, presentations, and panels on the craft of writing, business, traditional and self-publishing, marketing, and forensics. In addition, top literary agents and editors will be available to hear pitches from aspiring writers, offer troubleshooting sessions, and manuscript critiques. Speakers include Andrew Gross, Hallie Ephron, and Hank Phillippi Ryan. To Register: www.sleuthfest.com.

Business / Miscellaneous

Reverse Engineer Your Editorial Calendar: @annkroeker

Image and Backup Your Computer: @WordDreams

Business / Taxes

6 Ways Writers Can Prepare for Tax Season: by Kristen Pope @thewritelife

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Censorship in the Arab World: Debating Its Impact at a Conference in Tunisia: @Porter_Anderson

On Piracy and the Myth of ‘Free Content’ : @Porter_Anderson @JoseBorghino

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

A Book Launch Plan for First-Time Authors Without an Online Presence: @JaneFriedman

Top 5 Tips Launch Your First Book: @JAHuss

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

What Setting Small Goals Is Costing You: @MichaelHyatt

8 common mistakes to avoid when setting your 2018 goals: @beprolifiko

5 rules for setting a writing goal you’ll stick to: @beprolifiko

2 Questions Every Writer Should Ask (Instead of Writing Resolutions): @weems503 @write_practice

3 Steps to Complete Your Writing Goals in the New Year: @hodgeswriter

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

3 Rules For Creating Art That Matters: @StephMorrill

Ways to write every day even when your muse is off shopping: @SurfCityJames

3 Common Writing Problems and How to Solve Them: @kikimojo

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

10 Books on Technology Run Amok: @KEITH_RICE1 @SignatureReads

The Favorite Literary Work of Every Country Visualized on a World Map: @tedmills @openculture by BackForward24

7 Curiouser and Curiouser Retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: @tordotcom @nataliezutter

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

What’s on Your Writer’s ‘I Did It List’ for 2017? @LisaRomeo

3 Creativity Tips To Help You To Write A Book: @angee

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

3 Ways Writers can Overcome Procrastination: @lornafaith

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

Roz Morris, Self-publishing Success Story: @Roz_Morris @IndieAuthorALLI

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Literary Holidays You Should Add To Your Calendar: by Natalee Cruz @ElectricLit

The 8 Best Writing Retreats That Won’t Break the Bank: @smbucklin @ElectricLit

On Quitting: @KristineRusch

“What Does Your Husband Think of Your Novel?” @jamiequatro @parisreview

18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently: @GoIntoTheStory

5 Things About Being a Writer:

Writers: Your Number One Enemy Is Your Ego: @victorialandis1

What to Give Yourself This Year: @KAMcCleary @WriterUnboxed

Genres / Horror

How to build suspense in a story: @Peter_Rey_

Genres / Memoir

Writing a Memoir vs. Novelizing Your Life: @JoanLJackson @WritersDigest

Genres / Miscellaneous

10 Tips for Writing Christian Fantasy: @_HannahHeath

Genres / Mystery

Behind-the-scene influencers as elements in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Non-Fiction

A Few Reasons to Self-Publish Your Nonfiction Book: @WritersCoach

Genres / Romance

The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing An Amazing Romance: by Paige Duke @standoutbooks

Genres / Short Stories

What Does It Take for a Short Story to Go Viral? @ElectricLit

Promo / Blogging

How to deliver your blog posts automatically via MailChimp: @LouiseHarnby

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Why Even New Writers Need to Prepare an Author Bio: @annerallen

How to Pick a Best-selling Title for Your Book: @BryanJCollins

Promo / Miscellaneous

Presenting Your Book Cover (in a Media Kit): @BuildYourBrandA

Top 5 Tips for Hosting a Giveaway: @BlairBabylon

Tip sheets and advice for creating them: @Bookgal

3 Steps to Increase your Discoverability: by Bryan Oettel @CareerAuthors

How to Tame the Social Media Beast: @cksyme @annerallen

Promo / Social Media Tips

YouTube Boosts the ISNI Identifier: Creators Standing Out From the Crowd: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Miscellaneous

How Indie Presses Are Elevating the Publishing World: @jbakernyc @RMoralesKearns @lcheuk @ForestAvePress

Does Your Book Pass the “LOOK INSIDE!” Test? @annerallen

Google Play’s Introduction of Audiobooks Amplifies the Format’s Growth: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Forward Prizes for Poetry Open 2018 Submissions, Announce Jury: @Porter_Anderson

Macmillan’s ‘Fire and Fury’: Now More Than 30 Foreign Rights Deals, ‘Fuego y Furia’ on the Way: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Industry Notes: A UNESCO Honor Today in Havana and a Francophone Bookshop in Bucharest: @Porter_Anderson @UNESCO

Children’s Books: International Issues, Trends, and Rights Sales: @Porter_Anderson

In Second Full Week, Macmillan’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Sales Roar to a Bonfire: @Porter_Anderson

Specsavers Bestseller Awards Honor Paula Hawkins, Philip Pullman, Many More: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

10 Cons Of Self-Publishing: @jckunzjr

10 More Cons Of Self-Publishing: @jckunzjr

Everything You Need To Know About Ebook Publishing Platforms: @TheIWSG @ReedsyHQ

Self-Publishing a Series that Started in Trad-Pub: @joannaslan

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

An interview with Agent Molly O’Neill: @molly_oneill @NatalieIAguirre

Publishing / Process / Legalities

Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again: @PassiveVoiceBlg @binarybits

Writing Craft / Beginnings

10 Tasks of the First Chapter: @Diana_Hurwitz

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

The Villain is Not Always a Person: @SPressfield

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Developing Character Motivation: @LMacNaughton

Five Things Your Characters Need: @WritingForward

How to Lend Each Character Their Unique Voice: @RidethePen

New Novelist: 3 Tips For Creating Great Fictional Characters: @angee

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Motivating the Reluctant Protagonist: @DavidCorbett_CA @WriterUnboxed

Is Your Protagonist Multidimensional? @KarenCV

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

5 Top Writing Mistakes to Avoid: @AJHumpage

Writing Craft / Conflict

Power Up Your Story with Character Four-Point Opposition: @Michael_Finberg

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Bring Your Dialogue to Life: @kcraftwriter

Writing Craft / Diversity

Five Signs Your Story Is Transphobic: by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Read Like a Writer: Structure: Born to Run Memoir: @writingthrulife

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Do You Dare To Eat A Peach? Finding the Perfect Metaphor: By PJ Parrish @killzoneauthors

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

The 5 Commandments of Storytelling: @StoryGrid

One Moment That Reveals Everything You Need To Know About A Character: @kathrynelilley @killzoneauthors

Episodic vs. Epic: Go Bigger with Your Writing: @JamiGold

Here’s How To Vary Your Sentence Structure: by Rebecca Langley @standoutbooks

4 Tips on Writing Action Scenes: @Janice_Hardy

Five Insufficient Reasons for Including Bigotry in Your Story: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

5 Tips for Better Sex Scenes: by Lilia Moon @JAHuss

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

When We Try to Sort Writers Into ‘Plotter’ or ‘Pantser’: @Ada_Palmer @tordotcom

Dual Timeline Novels: More Than a Flashback: @cottagelovebook @RomanceUniv

Discover Your Story’s Emotional Core with Story Grid: @AnneHawley @StoryGrid

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Does someone in your life abuse apostrophes? A handy flowchart to share: by Leigh Anderson @lifehacker

3 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Top 10 Things To Do When You’ve Written A Hot Mess: @10MinNovelists

4 Writing Issues You are Probably Missing When You Self-Edit: @ElleWSilver

Fine-Tuning Sentence Structure: @PStoltey

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

The Power of a Writing Group for Publishing Success: @sharonbially

Writing Craft / Scenes

A Scene Template For New Writers: @jamesscottbell

Writing Craft / Series

Series? Standalone? Companion Novels? (video): @Ava_Jae

Six Tips for Sequels: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Tension

A Writing Exercise to Help You Raise the Stakes for Your Characters: @Margo_L_Dill @womenonwriting

Writing Craft / Voice

New Ways to Gain Confidence in Your Writing Voice: @colleen_m_story

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

16 Confusing Words and Phrases to Monitor in Writing: @KathySteinemann

Tips for How to Choose the Right Sentences: @KMWeiland

Uncategorized

Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88: by Gerald Jonas @nytimesbooks

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 27, 2018 21:02

January 25, 2018

5 Things About Being a Writer

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The writing life can be a wonderfully rewarding one. But there can be headaches along the way.

Here are five things I’ve learned about being a writer: some of them apply solely to self-publishing and some to both traditional and self-publishing.

There is always something else to consider with self-publishing.

This might be expanding your formats (print, audio, translation, digital, hardcover). This might be expanding your distribution (to aggregators like Draft2Digital and Smashwords, to the library market through Overdrive via PublishDrive or Street Lib, to international markets through PublishDrive or Street Lib), or it might mean expanding your social media presence by exploring Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Consistency is better than racking up huge word counts, unless you can do both at once without burning out.

Unless you can maintain a daily high word count goal, I think it’s easier to be productive by simply being consistent–showing up most days to meet an easy goal.

Book production can take longer than planned.

Things always seem to take longer than you think they will. This includes the editing process, cover design, formatting, and even the process of uploading to retail sites (if you go wide). To combat this, it’s helpful to do as much as possible in advance … and get on your production team’s calendar early.

In terms of back matter, newsletters, etc., one shortcut is to keep a template handy. Keep a back matter file so that you won’t forget any of the usual elements (acknowledgments, list of titles, where to find you online, etc.) And your newsletter can be worked on while your story is with the editor. It can help to have as much done in advance as possible.

Promo can be subtle.

My most effective form of promo is sending out my release newsletter to the readers who’ve subscribed of their own free will. The second most effective is changing my Facebook cover to the new/upcoming book cover and pinning a simple announcement that my book is available for preorder/sale. Aside from that, my ‘promo’ consists of making sure that my book page SEO returns rich results on Google, that my Amazon product pages connect to my author page and to each other (for print and ebook), and that I include back matter in my books that point to my other books and series.

Once you end up with control over your writing and publishing, it’s tough (impossible?) to go back.

Having self-published exclusively for the last couple of years, it’s hard for me to imagine going back to traditional publishing (and I have had offers). I feel as though Penguin Random House didn’t do enough to make the material I wrote work harder. It could have sold overseas (as it does now), it could have branched into audio, etc. And, having gotten used to playing a part in the cover design and every other bit of production, it’s tough to think about handing over my manuscript and not even having control over the release date.

What have you learned as a writer?

5 things about being a writer:
Click To Tweet

Photo on Visual hunt

The post 5 Things About Being a Writer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 25, 2018 21:02

January 21, 2018

Self-Publishing a Series that Started in Trad-Pub

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

From time to time I’ll read about authors whose series were dropped by their publisher for one reason or another (this may be happening more frequently now as times are tight at publishing companies). Some of them will get their character rights back and continue these series and some will decide to start others.

I’ve continued the two series that I could get rights back on. One had only one traditionally-published book (book one of the Myrtle Clover series) and one had five trade-published books in the series (one through five of the Southern Quilting mysteries).

Although I’ve run into challenges along the way, I’ve never regretted taking either series to traditional publishing.

For one thing, traditional publishing had given me something of a springboard. At the time both series were started, physical bookstores were more important for a book’s visibility. I started out with a fairly strong readership to build on and readers who asked for more books in both series.

It’s also much easier to continue a series than it is to create one from scratch. Most of the work is already done for you in terms of worldbuilding and character creation.

The only real negatives I encountered were my inability to have the first book in the series as a perma-free (which I countered by making another book in the series perma-free…my books don’t need to be read in order), and the inability to include the books in a bundle/box set (which I countered by simply skipping the books I didn’t have rights to…you could choose to create prequels and a bundle for those, instead).

I read an article mystery writer Joanna Campbell Slan wrote with some interest: “Never Give Up on Getting Back Your Rights.” In it, she quotes a veteran writer as having told her that she was only making money for the trad-publishers by self-publishing the rest of her series. To me, I used them as much as they used me. In Joanna’s case, her persistence in getting her rights reverted paid off.

Joanna goes on to talk about continuing the process of requesting rights:

If you’re in the same situation as I was, don’t give up. Your fans will stick with you. Your publisher might not be willing to give up your rights today, but there’s always tomorrow. Keep asking. Ask politely. Ask repeatedly. Stay in touch with your readers. Make a plan, and stick to it.

I agree with her advice. I’ve been rejected sometimes, but sometimes I’ve gotten partial rights back. If you need help understanding the terms of your original contract, there’s a PDF available from Authors Alliance (and Berkeley Law).

I write more on how I wrote to request rights reversion in this post from last August.

Have you continued a discontinued trad-pubbed series? What challenges have you encountered?

Photo on Visual hunt

The post Self-Publishing a Series that Started in Trad-Pub appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

View more on Riley Adams's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 21, 2018 21:02