Riley Adams's Blog, page 89

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 40,000 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. 

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

The Three C’s of Why Writing Conferences Are Valuable: @tessaemilyhall

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

What Video Games Can Teach You About Storytelling: @FredBobJohn @WriterUnboxed

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

6 Stephen King Villains Who Were Ridiculously Easy to Defeat: @fredventurini
Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings? @soldonlanguage
The Many Ways in Which We Are Wrong About Jane Austen: @MsAshtonDennis @lithub
7 Reasons Why 1 Writer Stops Reading a Novel: @JodyHedlund
9 Tales of Deliciously Dysfunctional Families: @SignatureReads

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

Character Motivation Entry: Being The Best At Something: @AngelaAckerman

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Little Hacks Writers Can Use to Be Productive: @CSLakin
When It’s Hard to Maintain Your Focus: @THahnBurkett
When Life Strikes: Writing through the Unexpected: @woodwardkaren
Routine Writing Habits Are Rewarding: @awhcolumbus
Reality vs. Expectations: Remaining Calm When it ALL Goes Pear-Shaped: @KristenLambTX
Forget Your Endless To-Do List: Try Time Blocking Instead: @HelloTheFuture

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Multi-Genre Writing to Help with Writer’s Block: by Jodi Webb @womenonwriting
How to Get Out of a Slump in Your Writing: @weems503
Bravely Push Through Your Writing Insecurities: @StephMorrill
How writers can change self-doubt into idea doubt: @pubcoach
Self Perception and How It Can Hold You Back: @RoniLoren
Is Writer’s Block a Form of Self-Protection? @jcbaggott
How to Be a Better Writer: Clean the House: @ErinMFeldman
Getting Your Mojo Back: @cathychall

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

The 3 Biggest Surprises When Starting (or Attempting) a Daily Writing Habit: @monicaleonelle
Less Focus For Better Writing: @jamesscottbell
5 Tips to Turn Slow Writers into Fast Drafters: @HeatherJacksonW

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

Where’s Your Edge in Your Writing? @jamesscottbell

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Mortality and the Writer: @MaryGillgannon @RMFWriters
5 Enticing Vacation Ideas for Book Lovers: @FredBobJohn
5 types of rest every creative should adopt: @williameier
7 Habits Every Writer Should Develop: @CaballoFrances
Hitting Pause Button While We Take A Deep Breath: @WritingOnBoard
So You’ve Been Called Out—How Not to Make It Worse: @JLAustin13 @Ava_Jae

Genres / Fantasy

Writing Historical Fantasy Fiction: Resources and Tips: @AshKrafton

Genres / Humor

4 Ways to Write Meaningful Comedy: @KMWeiland

Genres / Miscellaneous

The Difference Between Literary, Upmarket and Commercial Fiction: @carlywatters
2 Revolvers, 1 Rifle: Best Guns for Writing a Western Novel: @benjaminsobieck

Genres / Mystery

Resources for Mystery Writers:
Crime fiction: the word of mouth process of finding a PI or a ‘fixer’: @mkinberg
Writing the Crime Scene: Mental Illness: @repokempt

Genres / Picture Books

Politics in Children’s Books: @Kid_Lit

Genres / Poetry

Forward’s poetry awards: 3 shortlists, over $20K in prize money: @Porter_Anderson @AndrewMarr9

Genres / Romance

How to Write a (Romance) Blurb: @RosalindJames5

Genres / Screenwriting

5 Things Learned Converting a Screenplay Into A Novel: @TheWritingFitz @Bang2write

Promo / Blogging

How to Avoid Writing Boring Blog Posts using the IKEA Method: @lj_sedgwick

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

How To Write An Author Bio That Will Connect With Readers: @chrisrobley

Promo / Connecting with Readers

Tips for Creating Inexpensive Bookmarks as Part of a Giveaway:
Sell Your Books at Book Festivals and Craft Fairs: @mybookshepherd

Promo / Social Media Tips

A Detailed, Bookish Guide to Instagram: @carlywatters
How to Prepare and Promote a Facebook Live Broadcast: @WriteOnOnline

Publishing / Miscellaneous

News from @TheIWSG :Submissions Open for Free IWSG Guide, book club selection:
5 Critical Mistakes of Author Collaborations and How to Avoid Them: @thecreativepenn

Publishing / News / Amazon

Is Amazon Firing CreateSpace? by Raymond Esposito

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Hay Archive Goes to British Library; Cengage Fights Pirated Content: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
PRH Buys Out of Print; Germany’s Bertelsmann Buys WhiteCloud: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
PR License Rolls Out ‘Instant Rights’ Transactions, Start to Finish Online @Porter_Anderson @IPRLicense
BookExpo and BookCon Are ‘Powerful Platforms’: @Porter_Anderson
German Book Trade’s Peace Prize Goes to Canada’s Margaret Atwood: @Porter_Anderson @MargaretAtwood
David Grossman, Jessica Cohen Win Man Booker International Prize: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
“A German and Singaporean editor trade insights on their markets’ opportunities”: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

5 tips for indie authors from @Creativindie: @TheIWSG

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

5 Reasons for “Quick Pass” on a Query Letter: @carlywatters

Publishing / Process / Book Design

SHOULD You Create Your Own Book Cover? @damselwriter

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

3 Ways to Write a Character You Hate: @KathrynR47
Villains & Villainesses: Architects of Story: @carablack

Writing Craft / Characters / Arc

Create Compelling Character Arcs (podcast): @DIYMFA @KMWeiland

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

How to Strengthen Our Characters with Strong Writing: @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

What to Do if You Think You Have the Wrong Protagonist: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Indications an author hasn’t left enough space for the reader in a story: @wendypmiller

Writing Craft / Drafts

12 Questions To Ask Yourself After That First Draft: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Endings

Does Your Novel Have a Ta-Da Ending? @dlwebb

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Need to Type Faster? Try Zombies. Typing Of The Dead: @simonbrew @denofgeek

Writing Craft / Pacing

Using Compressed Narration in Fiction to Speed Up Plot: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / POV

The 3 Tiers of Point of View Technique: Observation, Interpretation, Imagination: @JuliaFierro

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

6 Ways to Identify a Contrived Plot: @Janice_Hardy
Save the Cat Revisited: @ThereseWalsh @WriterUnboxed
Sub-Plots and Story: @JoEberhardt

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

When dashes are a better choice than commas: @writing_tips
3 Cases of Mixed Metaphors: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Enhancing Your Story Through Macro and Micro Setting: @TashaSeegmiller

Writing Craft / Voice

How To Embrace Your Writing Voice: @Julie_Glover

Writing Craft / Word Crafting

5 Overused Words in Fiction: @KelsieEngen

Uncategorized

Story Prompts for historical fiction: @ToWriteHistory

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Theme in Commercial Fiction

Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Inexpensive Promoting

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 

Anyone familiar with this blog knows that I’m not a fan of old-fashioned promoting. I think I’ve sold a lot more books by using better book metadata and following best-practices for SEO on my book pages on my website.

But sometimes…you’ve got to promote the old-fashioned way. In my case, it’s usually by request.  My audiobook producer is big into old-fashioned promo: going out into bookstores for events, doing book tie-ins, and that type of thing. He’s really, really good at it. In the past, he’s asked me for free printed copies of my books to tie-in with the audio versions for giveaways at all kinds of special events. I’ve sent them over to him…just very happy that I wasn’t doing the promo legwork myself.

It’s expensive, though. Even getting the author copies from CreateSpace.  There’s the buying of the books, and then the shipping of the books.  If you’re talking a fair number of books or doing something regularly, it does add up.

This time I told my producer that I’d like to do something a little different (and basically free on my end).  I used Canva to design bookmarks especially for my audiobooks and then added an Instafreebie code to provide a free ebook. Realizing a lot of other writers might be going to summer events, I thought I’d share what I did. (And I used to be a VistaPrint customer…nothing wrong with that, except this particular project required immediacy. I couldn’t wait).

We decided to have the giveaway for “Murder on Opening Night,” which won an AudioFile Earphones Award because of the excellent narration of Judy Blue.  Because my books are written as standalones, reading the books out of order isn’t an issue.

I pulled up Canva, a free online tool that I use to combat my severe design disability.  They have lots of different templates for different types of projects.

Here is the template for bookmarks. 

I uploaded my book cover and put it at the top of the bookmark.  I changed the background to red to match the curtain on the book cover.

I added some text, mentioning the award-winning narration by Judy.

I added a bit more text, giving a code for receiving a free book from Instafreebie.  Instafreebie is also free (unless you choose to have your email list tied to their site so that readers can sign up for your newsletter when they claim their free book).  You upload an epub of your book and then can generate codes for free copies (you can limit the number that are given away, too, in case that code gets shared online, etc.) More instructions and info on Instafreebie here. 

One of the things I like about Instafreebie is that they offer customer support for readers who might not be tech-savvy enough to know how to upload books to their devices.

My project ended up looking like this (basic, but hey…free):

To email it to my producer, I downloaded the bookmark as a jpg, opened a fresh Word doc, put it in landscape mode, adjusted the page margins to be very wide, and copied four of the jpgs across the page.

The Instafreebie share code was long, so I ran it through bit.ly to shorten it for my purposes.  I attached the Word doc in an email and sent it to my producer.  He can either print them at home (if he has a printer that can handle cardstock) or take it to an Office Depot or Staples store to have them printed and cut there.

What’s your favorite inexpensive way to promote?

Tips for Creating Inexpensive Bookmarks as Part of a Giveaway:
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Photo via Visual Hunt

The post Inexpensive Promoting appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

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 40,000 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. 

Business / Miscellaneous

5 Tips from “Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living”: @manjulamartin @KolinaCicero

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

5 Things To Do After a Writers’ Conference: @AndreaMerrell
A Closer Look at BookCon in New York City: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Never Listen To The People Who Want To Limit You: @Jonwestenberg
Tabletops and Storytelling: @judyblackcloud
22 Writing Prompts Inspired By Tarot Cards: @BrynDonovan
Do it Again! Taking Readers on a Fantastic Voyage: @ByDougPeterson

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

The 12 Creepiest Companies in Literature: @carrievasios @ElectricLit

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

Are You Lying about Your Writing? To Yourself? @RosanneBane
Resurrect a Forgotten Manuscript: @Book_Arch
Don’t Let Your Writing Take the Summer Off: @jennienash
Time Management 101: Writing Through our Busy Lives: @msheatherwebb
A Kinder, Gentler Way to Force Yourself to Write: @karenbbooth @theverbs

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Getting over your writing inhibitions: @AllieLarkin
Warning: Are You at Risk of a Story Collapse? by Dale Kutzera @WritetoDone

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

How to Use Your First 2 Morning Hours to Boost Productivity: @colleen_m_story
How to Hack Your Way to Writing Productivity: @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

How To Prioritize Growth In Writing: @rsmollisonread

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

The Writer’s Process: @halliecantor @newyorker
50 Signs You’re In Love With A Writer: @AnnieNeugebauer
Writing About Marriage When You Want to Stay Married: @danijshapiro @CatapultStory
F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Psychic Cost of Selling Out: @venetianblonde @lithub
The Food Pyramid for Writers: @ChristophPaul_
4 Reasons Freelance Writers Should Work From a Coffee Shop: @sardegeorge
5 Great Creative Writing Tips (Which this Writer Never Follows): @DaniellaNLevy
11 Myths about creative writing and writers: @Peter_Rey_

Genres / Dystopian

How the Walking Dead Explores the Fabric of Society: by Nathan Lauffer @mythicscribes

Genres / Fantasy

The Chosen Children of Portal Fantasy: @seananmcguire @tordotcom

Genres / Miscellaneous

3 Secrets Great Writers Know About Experimental Fiction: @FredBobJohn

Genres / Mystery

5 Bands/Musicians Who Might Actually Write Crime Fiction: @GiveMeYourTeeth @LitReactor

Genres / Poetry

The Chinese Factory Workers Who Write Poems on Their Phones: by Megan Walsh @lithub

Genres / Romance

38 Clichés to Avoid when Writing Romance: @lansi26

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting: Great Scene: “Inglourious Basterds”: @GoIntoTheStory

Promo / Ads

11 Things You Should Know About BookBub Subscribers: @BeeLorelle @BookBub

Promo / Blogging

Content Creation for Bloggers: 14 Kinds of Shareable Content: @JFbookman

Promo / Miscellaneous

What’s Data Got To Do With Book Sales? (podcast): @cksyme
Loglines – 5 Reasons Why They Are So Incredibly Important: @ozzywood
How 1 Writer Went From One Sale in February to 100+ Sales in March: @Malfhok
Understanding The 3-Stages Of The Buying Cycle Can Improve Your Book Sales: @jckunzjr
Anatomy of a St. Martin’s Hit Built on the Goodreads Platform: @suzanneskyvara @Porter_Anderson

Promo / Newsletters

How to Quit Monkeying Around and Conquer MailChimp in 2017: @MarshaIngrao

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Publishing: A Decade in Review: @kcraftwriter
The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2017: @JaneFriedman
US Audiobook Growth Soars for 3rd Year in a Row: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
34 Writing Contests in June 2017 – No entry fees: @EricaVerrillo
Pronoun announces library distribution through OverDrive and Bibliotheca: @pronoun

Publishing / News / Amazon

What does Amazon Charts mean for the book industry? @davidmbarnett @GuardianBooks

Publishing / News / International Publishing

BookNet Canada: Digital Revenue Up in 2016, Ebook Sales Down: @Porter_Anderson @BookNet_Canada

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Self Publishing Vs Traditional Publishing: @GarySmailes

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

Tips for Better Query Letters: by Jaime Olin @OpAwesome6

Publishing / Process / Author Assistants

An Author Assistant on Her Job and Tips for Writers: @junglereds

Publishing / Process / Book Design

14 Sites for Making a Spectacular Book Cover: @thDigitalReader

Publishing / Process / Legalities

5 Legal Myths That Writers Still Fall For, Debunked: @HelenSedwick

Writing Craft / Beginnings

15 Cheesy Writing Fails To Avoid In The First 10 Pages: @Bang2write

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

Show Your Baddie R-E-S-P-E-C-T to Make Them Memorable: @JordanDane

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Character Archetypes: Enriching your Novel’s Cast: @nownovel
Get To Know Your Characters Better With This Novel Device: @standoutbooks
How to Take Advantage of Your 4 Most Important Characters: @KMWeiland

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

How to Figure Out How Much Development Your Minor Characters Need: @ink_and_quills

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Using true events in your novel? Some warning signs: @kcraftwriter
What Writing Rules Do You Always Get Wrong? by Bonnie Randall
Why The Best Book Marketing Cannot Sell A Poor Book: @cksyme
Stop Info Dumps Before They Start: @jennienash

Writing Craft / Drafts

3 Essential Tips for Writing Compelling Stories: @ChadRAllen

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Amplification: Embellish What You Just Wrote With More Information: @ZoeMMcCarthy

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

The unreliable narrator: @Peter_Rey_
On Character Minutiae and Seemingly Irrelevant Details: by Bonnie Randall
How to become a science writer: by Rebecca Hill @TheWriterMag
Real Life Diagnostics: Is This Action Scene Clear? @Janice_Hardy
Rule of Three: @PTBradley1

Writing Craft / Pacing

Pace Your Story Like a Symphony: @JanalynVoigt

Writing Craft / POV

Point of View: Second Person: @HelloTheFuture

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Prologue, Introduction, Preface, or Foreword: Which Is Right for You? @McgannKellie
5 Stories Afraid of Their Own Premise: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants
Rinse & Repeat – The 4 Act Novel Structure: @MikhaeylaK
Plotting with Mythic Structure: @AnnetteLyon

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Quick Fixes for Commas Splices: @annkroeker
Parentheses in Fiction: Do They Break the Fourth Wall? @LyndaDietz4
Restrictive and Unrestrictive Use of “Such As”: @writing_tips
Constructing Paragraphs in Fiction: by Diane Tibert

Writing Craft / Revision

Getting Out of Rewrite Hell Alive: by PJ Parrish
How to Fill the Gaps in Your Plot: @jamesscottbell

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How To Be (And Keep) A Highly Effective Critique Partner: @ThePaigeDuke
Revising (Why You Need to Find Your People): @lauraeweymouth

Writing Craft / Series

A Tale of Two Trilogies: @alison_morton @WomenWriters

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Fantastic Settings and How to Write Them: by Michaela Whatnall

Writing Craft / Transitions

How to Write a Killer Transition: @KathyEdens1

Writing Tools / Apps

BuzzTrace: New Social Media Software Review: @CaballoFrances @BookWorksNYC @buzz_trace
Setting Up Your Scrivener Project for Easier Compiling: @Gwen_Hernandez @WriterUnboxed

Uncategorized

How British and American Spelling Parted Ways: @arikaokrent via @PassiveVoiceBlg
Book Translation: Using Babelcube:

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Resources for Mystery Writers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Probably one of the things I’m emailed the most about by other writers is how to find mystery writing resources.

Sometimes I feel that many mystery writers aren’t very visible online…at least to other writers. I think there are many more fantasy and romance writers who are active and interactive online. There are plenty of mystery writer blogs that are reader-facing blogs, but not very many that deal with crime writing.  I’m guessing that’s why I get the emails.

Now I’ll have a post to refer writers to.  :)

Blogs to Follow: 

I’ll start out with Margot Kinberg’s blog. Margot is a mystery writer and avid mystery reader with an encyclopedic memory. Both readers and writers follow her blog. If you’re interested in considering common themes in murder mysteries of all sorts (including international mysteries), I highly recommend her blog. It will help you read as a writer.

K.B. Owen has some nice resources for the historical mystery writer.

D.P. Lyle, M.D. really knows his stuff. He’s an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction and has worked with writers on Law & Order, CSI: Miami, and Monk, among many others. He also maintains a list of forensic resources. 

 Fiona Quinn writes romantic suspense, but her blog covers all aspects of crime and crime investigation.

 Thriller writer Sue Coletta knows a lot of law enforcement professionals and posts informative interviews on her site. She has a list of forensic resources for writers.  dditionally, she hosts an informative Twitter chat every other Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST : #ACrimeChat (next one on the 14th, if you want to tune in live, but you can just look up the hashtag to see older chats.) As Sue puts it: “I couldn’t do my job if it weren’t for my police/coroner/firearm/profiler consultants/friends. Of which, I have many.” She taps into their knowledge every other week.

Lee Lofland is a veteran police investigator and writer with expert advice on a variety of topics. His blog is especially good for adding realism to a crime novel since he tells his experiences in sometimes gritty detail.

A group of mystery writers posts on The Kill Zone, including James Scott Bell.

In terms of the mystery writing community, I frequently recommend that new writers look into joining the Sisters in Crime group (and men are welcome) known as the Guppies (the Great Unpublished.  :) )

Courses (covering a variety of different areas): The courses I’d recommend (and which tend to be more bang for your buck) are the ones through the Romance Writers of America…regardless of your genre (I took several about 10 years ago and they really helped me out). Some upcoming online classes are listed here (search the page for ‘online workshops’: https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=517  . Other RWA opportunities: http://rwasd.com/register/ and http://lowcountryrwa.com/workshops/2017-online-courses/ . Most of them are just $25 for non-members of the RWA.

I wrote a series on cozy mystery writing.

This is what I’ve got, but I have the feeling I’m missing some great blogs (maybe some of yours).  What resources have I missed?

Resources for mystery writers:
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Photo via VisualHunt.com

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Book Translation

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve worked hard to make sure that my books are available internationally.  They sell well in Canada, the UK, and Australia, in particular. Not only do I have them available through the Amazon sites in those countries, printed books are available internationally through Ingram. Because Ingram has printers all over the world, shipping costs are a lot more reasonable for international readers than purchasing a printed copy through Amazon.

But why are my books doing well in the previously-mentioned countries, in particular? Because they’re English-speaking countries. Although my books do sell in Europe, Japan, and India, the sales aren’t nearly as strong.  This is completely understandable. I know with my college French that I wouldn’t want to tackle a book in French to relax.  I want to read in my native tongue.

I first posted my books as available for translation on the site Fiberead, as mentioned in this post. But I haven’t seemed to be able to get any traction there.  All I’ve done is sign a bunch of updated terms of service agreements.

I decided a few months ago to put a few of my Myrtle Clover books up on a different translation platform: Babelcube.

I’ll admit to doing this a little reluctantly. I knew that Babelcube, although most likely the largest platform, had a reputation for poor customer service on some indie author forums.  But I also knew that I’m familiar with similar platforms: ACX (audiobooks for indie authors) operates much the same way. You audition for talent through their portal (pitching your book in the process), communicate with your audiobook producer through a portal, sign your contract through a portal, agree on deadlines for completion, and review work after certain milestones (first page, first 6 pages, etc.)  This is also the way that Babelcube works.

Most significantly similar to ACX (and this will be music to self-published author’s ears), the process is free. You split royalties with your translator (as you’d split them with your narrator on ACX, if you chose a royalty share agreement).  My only cost for the project will be an updated, translated, cover. This is worth a royalty split for me.  It’s not cost-effective to pay for a translator out of pocket and so my books wouldn’t be translated any other way.

As opposed to Fiberead, I received interest in my series within a few months of signing up. The translator, Freddy Moyano, was experienced, had a solid resume of projects, and lives in the US. A translator’s place of residence can be useful because it may result in fewer culture-related questions from the translator. He’ll be translating several books into Spanish.

Soon after Freddy contacted me, another book received interest and is currently being translated into Portuguese by Fernanda Marchezini Brahemcha.

Taking the samples to a bilingual friend to check the content is a best practice.  Spanish was easier to check than Portuguese.

I’ve set a date with my cover designer to incorporate the translated copy.

On my side, the process is very simple and easy.  On Freddy’s and Fernanda’s sides, it’s a lot more complex and time-consuming.  I’m looking forward to introducing my books to new audiences.

For further reading on both Babelcube and Fiberead, read Keith Dixon’s post on the ALLi blog, “Writing: How Helpful are Free Translation Services for Self-publishing Authors?”

Have you considered translation? Are you using Babelcube?

A closer look at book translation through Babelcube:
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Photo credit: jenny downing via VisualHunt.com / CC BY

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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 40,000 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. 

Have you seen the Top WKB websites for writers for 2017? Check them out here. 

Business / Miscellaneous

How to Make a Business Plan for Success as an Indie Author: @lornafaith @DeniseMSwank

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

61 Writing Conferences in June 2017: @EricaVerrillo
BookExpo Opens With Industry Data and a Focus on Consumers: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Local Heroes: Librarians Address Inequity Where They See It: @MarvaAHinton @sljournal
Mining Your Life for Your Stories: @KateMoretti1

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Literature’s Arctic Obsession: @kathrynschulz @newyorker
“What I’ve Learned About Female Desire From Reading”: by Mallory Ortberg @TheToast

Creativity and Inspiration / Miscellaneous

Finding the Quiet to Create: @sbkaufman @carolyn_greg

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

7 Things To Do When You Want to Give Up (Instead of Giving Up): @DanicaDavidson @WritersDigest
How to Re-motivate Your Writing Career: @AnneKnol1

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Stuck with Your Story? Why You Keep Hitting Walls and Dead Ends: @losapala
Writer Struggles: 6 Steps to Get Unstuck: @RobinRWrites

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

How Writers Can Retrain Their Brain to Tune Out Distractions: @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

Want to Become a Successful Writer? Develop Your Intuition: @AngelaAckerman
9 Tips for Writers from The Outsiders Author S.E. Hinton: @se4realhinton

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

50 Things Learned about The Writing Life: @HeatherWeidner1
Transcending Worlds: How Travel Can Benefit Writers: @allisonamend
True Confessions of a Midlist Writer: by Chris Goff @RMFWriters
13 Ways to Support an Author Without Ever Spending a Dime: @StephPostAuthor
The incredible advantage of fast typing: @NathanBransford
Are you suffering from burnout? @pubcoach
Destined To Write: @VaughnRoycroft
An Hour Renting Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom Where She Wrote Her Entire Life’s Work: @AnyaJaremko
A Curse of Creativity: Writing with Anxiety and Depression: by Renee Ramsey @duelinglibs
Stop Yourself from Obsessing Over Duplicating Writing Success: by Noelle Sterne @WritersDigest
“How Embracing Minimalism Made Me a Better (And Happier) Writer”: @besscozby
10 Similarities Between Birding and Writing: @JMJauthor

Genres / Dystopian

Fitness Tips for the Apocalypse: Getting Around: @speechwriterguy

Genres / Historical

Taking the Mystery Out of Writing History: @michellecox33

Genres / Mystery

Family histories as elements of crime fiction: @mkinberg
Writing a Murder Mystery: 8 Ways to Make a Murderer: @woodwardkaren
Crime fiction: When reality differs from the myth of perfect relationships: @mkinberg
Mystery writing: the appeal of the amateur: @kbowenwriter
Self-absorption as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg
Writing a Murder Mystery: 7 Tips for Creating an Interesting Detective: @woodwardkaren
Slums as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Picture Books

Sell More Children’s Books With A Great Cover: @Bookgal
How to Write with a Sense of Wonder When Writing for and About Children: @DonnaGalanti

Genres / Screenwriting

Is It Done? 7 Signs You’re Ready To Sell Your Script: @ozzywood

Genres / Short Stories

4 Quick Tips for Short Story Editing: by Jeff Elkins

Promo / Blogging

A Step-by-Step Guide for Featuring Quotes in Your Blog Posts: @aliventures

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Tips for Crafting a Blurb (video): @ScholarlyFox

Promo / Book Reviews

8 Tips to Keep in Your Mind When Seeking Book Reviews: @McKinneyPR

Promo / Miscellaneous

When to Start Marketing if You’re Unpublished: @NadineBrandes

Promo / Platforms

Craft vs. platform: which comes first? @DanBlank

Promo / Speaking

How to Give a Book Reading: A Bashful Author’s Guide: @MelodieCampbell

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Writing for the Star Wars Universe: @ChuckWendig @AlexanderMFreed @claudiagray
9 Reasons Audiobook Growth Is Soaring: by Sandy McDowell @DigiBookWorld
This Crucial Skill Will Help You Get on Your Book Editor’s Good Side: @batwood
Interview With Subrights & Royalties Manager Nancy Bruckman:

Publishing / News / Amazon

AmazonCrossing’s (Amazon’s translation imprint’s) 7th Anniversary: @Porter_Anderson @AmazonPub

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Germany in Poland: ‘Protection from Political Interference” @Porter_Anderson @ChefSteinmeier
Industry Notes: Foreign Rights at Diversion; Australian Teens on Reading: @Porter_Anderson
‘Soaring’ Ebook Sales in Spanish Markets: @Porter_Anderson @javiercelaya @bookwire
THE ARTS+ at Frankfurt Book Fair Issues a Call for Papers, Proposals: @Porter_Anderson @holgervolland
Industry Notes: Frankfurt’s Tiered Pricing; Sourcebooks’ Raccah Honored: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

10 Things We Hate About Agents (And 10 Things They Hate About Us): @EricaVerrillo

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

An Agent on Why Authors Need to Dump the Elevator Pitch: @BookEndsJessica

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

10 Tips to Query Literary Agents—Successfully: @LisaTener

Publishing / Process / Book Design

Tips for better book covers for your fantasy novel: @RobertsonWrites

Publishing / Process / Contracts

When to Walk Away from a Contract: @SusanSpann

Writing Craft / Beginnings

How NOT to start your novel: Six First Page No-Nos: @annerallen

Writing Craft / Characters / Arc

How to Plan Your Character’s Arc: by S.H. Mastersmith

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Developing characters through everyday situations: @mishy1727
When Good Characters Behave Despicably (and They Should): @KBullockAuthor

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

3 Tips for Writing Sad Scenes: @ceciliaedits

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Practice Novels: 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Publish that 1st Novel…Yet: @annerallen

Writing Craft / Endings

How to Write a Great Last Line: @PBRWriter

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

“How Being Patient Improved My Writing”: @millie_ho
Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Writing: @10MinNovelists
Have You Written Your Story’s ‘Mirror Moment’ Yet? @ProWritingAid
Where Are You on The Writing Growth Curve? @allisonmaruska

Writing Craft / POV

Should I use 3rd Omniscient within 3rd Limited? @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

3 Quick and Easy Tips That Will Make Your Novel Better: @storyfix
7 Tactics for Creative Writers to Generate New Story Ideas: @gloria_kopp

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Punctuation Quiz: Attribution: @writing_tips
Words Ending in “-ly” Aren’t Always Adverbs: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

3 Groups of Words and Phrases to Edit in Your Novel: @lornafaith
Writing Cinematically: 10 Movie Techniques to Apply to Your Novel: @AuthorDebRaney
“10 Things I Look For When Selecting Submissions”: by Kara Cochran
The Benefits of Reading Your Work Out Loud: @Janice_Hardy
How to Shorten Longer Writing: @Lindasclare

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How NOT to Give Up When You Get Feedback on Your Manuscript: @writeabook

Writing Craft / Synopses

A Cheat’s Guide to Writing a Synopsis: @sarahannjuckes

Writing Craft / Tension

4 Proven Ways to Build Suspense: by S.C. Sharman @mythicscribes

Writing Craft / Voice

How to Embrace Your Strengths—and Flaws—to Find Your Writing Voice: @Tallie_Charles @WritersDigest

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Character Motivation Entry: Escaping Invaders: @AngelaAckerman

Uncategorized

Congratulations @WriterUnboxed for being the top WKB website for writers! https://t.co/TUheP6nODF
RT @pubperspectives: We appreciate being named among Top 10 sites by @Hiveword on #Writer’s Knowledge Base, thanks!
RT @ReedsyHQ: Why does @ElizabethSCraig love to write? Watch her story, and help make a difference yourself: #IWrit…
Need help organizing your thoughts? Check out @Hiveword :

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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Creating Distractions for A Protagonist

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Larry Brooks of StoryFix frequently offers helpful posts for writers. He wrote a post recently for the Kill Zone blog called “Three Quick and Easy Tips that Will Make Your Novel Better.”  One of the tips he listed was to “give your hero a distracting personal relationship.”

This is one element that can be used in a lot of different helpful ways in your story. It helps make your protagonist seem real and helps create reader empathy for the protagonist. It also can make for a nice subplot to weave through the course of the story to help keep readers reading to see how it will resolve (sometimes as a reader, I’ve found myself more interested in the subplot of a book than the main plot).

It’s especially helpful as a continuing arc in your series, if your series is to be read in order. It can be one thing that remains a constant in the series as crises and supporting characters and settings change.

The distraction could be a lot of different things. I think it makes it especially good if it’s something that resonates with readers because it’s a typical problem: helping aging parents, being a single mom or dad,  struggling with an addiction,  trying to balance work and a relationship, dealing with a difficult manager, handling a health issue for yourself or a family member.

Is your distraction any good? You can test it by asking yourself a series of questions: writer Janice Hardy has created a nice list to check your subplot (which is what your distraction is) against.  They include “does it explore a new problem and raise the stakes?”

You can even take this distraction a step farther. One of the posts I’ve got saved on my Evernote is Allen Palmer’s post on Cracking Yarn: “The One Subplot You Really Need.”  He’s a screenwriter, but his advice works well for novelists. He points out that:

“Emotionally powerful movies tend to have those 3 narrative elements:

The want that’s about external achievement
Subplots that complicate the quest for the want
A need subplot that’s at odds with the want ” 

Your protagonist’s distraction could both complicate his quest (and I think most distractions would do this…some more than most) and provide the ‘need’ that conflicts with the ‘want.’

Palmer offers concrete examples of how to pull this off well.

What distractions do your protagonists have in their lives while they’re saving the world?

Why distractions are important for our protagonist:
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Photo via Visualhunt

 

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 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’ll be away tomorrow in observance of Memorial Day, but back on the blog on Friday. 

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

London Book Fair’s Virtual Conference: 9 Markets in 9 Hours @Porter_Anderson @ornaob
The Authors Guild Honors Morrison, Patterson, and…IngramSpark @Porter_Anderson @rcutlerSpark

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

5 Books About Achieving Immortality: @nealasher @tordotcom
The Greatest Resurrections in Literature: @ElectricLit
Flowchart Connects the Entire Stephen King Universe: @FreddyInSpace

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

How to kill your procrastination by quitting: @beprolifiko
3 Habits of Prolific Writers: @WritersAfterDrk

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

Fast Drafting Tips: @sona_c

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

3 Elements of a Good book: @MichelleGriep @NovelRocket
Writing for Your Readers: @Lindasclare
New Novelist: Write A Selling Novel With One Simple Strategy: @angee
The 7 Differences Between Professionals and Amateurs: @JeffGoins

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

When your life goes off the rails: @Janet_Reid
“What I Didn’t Know Before Becoming a Writer”: @FinishedPages
3 Ways to Deal With the Feeling of Loss after Finishing a Highly Inspired Creative Project: by Pekoe Blaze
How to Write a Journal: 6 Tips: @hodgeswriter
A simple email trick for better organization: @mayorjenni
3 Benefits of Accountability Groups for Writers: @lornafaith

Genres / Miscellaneous

In Support of New-Adult Fiction: @MegWestfield @WomenWriters

Genres / Mystery

The murkiness between childhood and adulthood in crime fiction: @mkinberg
The Detective’s Sidekick: 3 Character Types: @woodwardkaren

Genres / Picture Books

Advice for illustrators: @pinocastellano
Writing Children’s Books With Readaloud Potential: @Kid_Lit

Genres / Romance

Writing Romance: the Alpha Hero: @JaxMHunter @RMFWriters

Genres / Science Fiction

How to create maps for SF/F: @Brianna_daSilva

Genres / Screenwriting

How To Assign A Character’s Race In A Screenplay: @Bang2write
Learning Screenwriting by studying The Bourne Identity: @CockeyedCaravan

Genres / Short Stories

5 Semi-Pro Markets for Short Stories: @jasonbougger

Promo / Book Reviews

Getting a Top Reviewer to Read Your Book: @TLCBookDesign
A plea for reviewers: can we open up a dialogue about self-published books? @Roz_Morris

Promo / Miscellaneous

How to Confidently Plan and Execute a Successful Book Launch: @KimberleyGrabas
The Importance Of Time For Selling Books And Building An Author Career: @bryancohenbooks @thecreativepenn
Writing Short While Going Long: @Lindasclare

Promo / Newsletters

Is Your Author Mailing List Effective? 5 Ways To Find Out: @clarewhitmell
This Is Why You Should Do Newsletter Surveys: @ADStarrling

Promo / Social Media Tips

10 Great New Social Media Tools for Indie Authors: @Bookgal @_theverbs
Repeat After Me: “Goodreads Is My Friend”: @SonjaYoerg
10 Ideas for Social Media Posts: @WriteOnOnline

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Publishing’s Digital Transformation: ‘What the Readers and Users Want’: @Porter_Anderson
How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps @JerryBJenkins
Co-Writing Dark Fantasy In New Orleans With 4 Authors: @thecreativepenn

Publishing / News / Amazon

A Closer Look at “Amazon Charts”, Which Tracks What’s Hot at the Retailer: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

60% growth in ebook sales in Russia last year: By Eugene Gerden @pubperspectives
Historian Margaret MacMillan Chairs $75,000 Cundill Prize: @Porter_Anderson
A Rights Agent’s View: Szylvia Molnar on Making True Crime Travel @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

When you don’t want to follow an agent’s editorial suggestions: @Janet_Reid

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

Are you ready to Pitch? The Pro Check: @jennienash

Publishing / Process / Book Design

How to Create a Book Cover That Connects with Readers: @erikaliodice
7 Essential Tips To Ensure Your Book Cover Is A Winner: @kj_bags

Publishing / Process / Formatting

Some Fun CSS Tricks for Ebooks: @dkudler

Publishing / Process / Legalities

How can you register the copyright for your book? Follow 8 simple steps: @ReedsyHQ

Publishing / Process / Translation

American Literary Translators’ Mentorship Program Applications Are Open: @Porter_Anderson

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Writing Chapter One: Tips: @Dwallacepeach

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

‘Hearing’ your characters: @GoIntoTheStory
Deepening Characterization: @WritingOnBoard @NovelRocket
Writing character flaws: @MisoMiss
How to Build an Interesting Character: 10 Questions: @woodwardkaren

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

3 Common Mistakes Writers Make (And How to Avoid Them): by Blake Powell @write_practice
Why Readers Stop Reading: @beccapuglisi

Writing Craft / Conflict

Conflict, Plot Lines, and The Devil Wears Prada: @maryhorner @womenonwriting

Writing Craft / Dialogue

The Dos and Don’ts of Dialogue Tags: @KelsieEngen
The Dos and Don’ts of Dialogue Tags: @TheRyanLanz

Writing Craft / Drafts

Embrace your own process: @reallucyflint

Writing Craft / Endings

How Not to Crash-land an Ending: @SonjaYoerg
How to Write Better Endings: @WritersCoach

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Piano Man’s Unexpected Writing Lesson: @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Foreshadowing — When and Where to Use It: by S.C. Sharman @mythicscribes

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Kindred Spirits: In Praise of Online Classes: by Ann V. Klotz
Better Use of Verbs in Your Writing: @JerryBJenkins
6 Reasons to use Chapter Titles: @WritersAfterDrk by Raymond Esposito
10 Tips for Successful Ghostwriters: m by John Peragine

Writing Craft / Pacing

Pacing: What Plot and Poker Have in Common: by Codey Amprim @mythicscribes

Writing Craft / Plot Holes

How Trust Affects Mysteries and Plot Holes: @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Story Structure: The Magic Bullet that Nearly Killed Me: @mquirk
Classic Story Structures and What They Teach Us About Novel Plotting: @jesslourey @JaneFriedman
The “And then!” Plot @JaneLebak
Pets: Ways to Include Animals to Enhance Your Fictional World: @SueColetta1

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Cases of Superfluous Wording: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

5 Questions to Ask When Editing Your First Novel: @lornafaith

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

5 Tips for Surviving a Writing Workshop: @YourTrustyAlibi @BookRiot
How to Spot Toxic Feedback: 7 Signs: @manzanitafire @JaneFriedman
To Share Your Work Now or Later: When Is The Best Time? @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Imagery: Create Strong Mental Pictures for Your Reader: @ZoeMMcCarthy
Description: Letting Readers Fill in the Gaps:

Writing Craft / Tension

Adding Tension to Your Story: @johnbriggsbooks

Writing Tools / Apps

Making A Story/Series Bible In Scrivener: @KhaosFoxe

Writing Tools / Services for Writers

A closer look at @ReedsyHQ ‘s resources for writers: @TheIWSG

Uncategorized

‘A German Life’ Memoir Finds Strong International Rights Interest: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives
Congratulations to @JFbookman for being a top website on the WKB!
Congratulations to @TheCreativePenn for being a top WKB website for writers!
Congratulations to https://t.co/IYpL4pZnWS for being a top WKB website for writers! @write_practice
Congratulations to @writing_tips for being a top WKB website for writers! https://t.co/3Ajv1BeZr3
Congratulations to @WritersDigest : a top WKB website and resource for writers: https://t.co/iPNEgaAbUq
Congratulations to @pubperspectives for being a top WKB website for writers! https://t.co/t1bSF8wUTP
Congratulations to @Janice_Hardy for being a top WKB website for writers! https://t.co/XM0M6JvVCC
Industry Notes: A Milestone at Dutch Sweek; Facebook Live at BookExpo @Porter_Anderson

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Description: Letting Readers Fill in the Gaps

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read a nice post by Nils Ödlund, “Don’t Show, Don’t Tell — How to Leave Room for the Reader’s Imagination ” on the Mythic Scribes blog.

As he says in the post: “…I’d like to explain why the reader’s mind is so strong: it’s because they put something of themselves into it. They use their own experiences, expectations, and associations to create the image, and this make it theirs. It becomes more personal; making it easier to understand and to believe in.”

Twice recently, I’ve been surprised by readers with compliments on my character descriptions.

One woman said, “I could see her perfectly. She was just like my Aunt May.”

I strongly suspect that the woman simply filled in the gaps of my description of the character herself. That something in the character’s dialogue or manner revealed itself to be similar to her aunt.

I don’t like to over-describe…anything, really. I was prompted for more detailed description in the Southern Quilting series because that was part of the cozy brand for Penguin’s craft cozies.

I’ve written on this subject before, but the reason I want to again is because writers can worry a lot about descriptions. They can overthink them.

I’m not saying there aren’t books that are better served with a lot more description than mine have. But with a few telling details or broad brushstrokes, you can give the readers more than enough to go on. And you don’t have to stress yourself out in the process.

A couple of telling details are helpful. A sour expression, hooded eyes, a condescending smile, a galloping gait, a braying laugh.

You can also describe characters indirectly, letting readers draw their own conclusions based on character dialogue and other characters’ observations about him. Or by describing the character’s house or car, letting readers know how tidy he is, or whether he owns expensive things, or doesn’t have enough food in the house.

As a reader, I tend to skim over extra character or setting description. I’m not looking for a dump of physical characteristics that I won’t remember.  I’m looking for insight into the character or at least some sort of quirk or detail that will help me to remember him while he’s offstage.

I like this article from writer Ali Luke: “How to Write Character Descriptions that Work” (she also agrees with the minimal approach).  She gives a helpful list of description dos and don’ts, including “try describing one character through another character’s eyes” and “with any kind of description, word choices matter a lot.”

You can find more resources for writing description in the WKB “settings and description” entries.  Or sign up to receive articles on the subject via email.

What’s your view on description as a reader and writer?

Tips for writing minimal character description:
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Photo via Visualhunt

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