Hank Quense's Blog: Hank Quense's Blog, page 7
April 24, 2022
Free stuff for writers and authors
So are self-publishing a book and marketing that book. I have over twenty years experience in each of these fields and I’ve encountered all of the major pain points.
In order to help others overcome these pain points, I built the Writers & Authors Resource Center (WritersARC) website https://hanque.gumroad.com/
It contains valuable content that will eliminate these pain points and provide worthwhile information based on my personal experiences.
Most of the content on the site is free! That’s right. Up to 70% of the stuff on the site can be downloaded without charge.
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April 19, 2022
Fiction DIY Bundle
Creating stories is a tough job no matter what the genre. It demands proficiency in the twin crafts of story design and story telling. Story design involves embedding all the writer’s ideas into the characters, the plot, the setting, the scenes and other elements. Story telling requires that the writer utilize techniques such as foreshadowing, show-don’t-tell and point of view to hold the reader’s attention.
Proficiency in these crafts comes about through experience, practice and study.
Now there is a way to accelerate the study phase of the process. Called the Fiction DIY Bundle, it packages two video classes with other material to provide a detailed tutorial in fiction writing. The video classes are Story Design and Story-telling Techniques. There are several exercises included in those classes.
Additional content includes:
– an ebook detailing how to go about creating a story
– A cast of characters spreadsheet
– A fiction writer SWOT chart
The bundle also includes an in-depth critique of a 5000 word story and a zoom meeting to discuss the critique.
The bundle can be found at hanque.gumroad.com/l/qboya
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March 28, 2022
Kiss of the Assassin: Review
My friend and fellow author, Joylene Butler’s new book is now available.
I read this book a while back and I have to say it’s a great read. Here is my 5-star review post on Amazon and many other sites.
Joylene Butler has done it again! She’s written another thriller that will keep you turning the pages. This time it isn’t a murder mystery set in western Canada. Kiss of the Assassin is a spy story in which the two main characters first meet as enemies during the Vietnam War. Over the course of the next few years, they cross paths a few more times and each time they grow closer. Both have enemies who want them dead and the climax to the story involves both characters striving to save their own life as well as the life of their former enemy.
Overall, an entertaining and gripping story.
a week ago, I had an opportunity to interview Joylene about the book. You can see the interview at https://youtu.be/HCidJk2nu9k
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March 15, 2022
Need help with your story creation efforts?
Creating a story is a complex endeavor.
Developing and merging all the story elements can be a confusing process. Another issue that complicates life is figuring out where to start the development: should the writer start with the characters? The plot? Something else?
Surveys indicate this concern is a major problem with new and inexperienced writers. My new book, Putting It All Together, addresses this concern by describing a process to create a new story from initial idea to finished draft.
Best of all, it’s a freebie!!!
Download your copy of this informative ebook!
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March 12, 2022
Scrintal App
I’ve tried just about every productivity app available.
They’re all good but there is always my feeling that there is something missing. Something that would make me say, “Yeah, this is the one!” I’ve tried and abandoned Trello, Ansana, Taskade, Notion (3 times) Coda, Monday, Clickup and others. After using them for a few weeks, I was left with the felling that this program isn’t quite what I’m looking for.
On Tuesday of this week, I had my onboarding session for a beta version of Scrintal. I played around with it for a day or so, then copied a project from a productivity app to start a new board on Scrintal. After an hour or so with the new program, I realized what my problem was with the “traditional” productivity apps: they are too restrictive. They start by opening a template and the template forces me to focus in narrow bands when my mind is trying to fly.
Typically with those apps, in addition to a Kanban board or other template, I had to start a folder on my laptop with several mind-maps and other assorted documents. I also had more information stashed on one or more websites (not the productivity app website.) So, working on the project required a lot of clicking and jumping around to
add or find various information.
So, with Scrintal, I copied the stuff from the productivity app, then from the project folder on my laptop, then from the other website. When I was done, it hit me. With Scrintal, I had _everything_ about the project on a single page. Whatever I needed to see was on the page and the page was infinitely expandable to add as much more data as I needed.
If you try to download the Scrintal app, you can’t do it. It’s not available yet. I signed up for on a wait list to try the beta version. https://www.scrintal.com
To sign up, I actually had to fill out an application form. After a time, I was accepted as a beta tester and then had to schedule a 45 minute onboarding session at the end of which I was logged into the program. So far, the wait was worth it
This is a screen shot of the initial project I copied into Scrintal. The tan boxes (called cards) contain general data about the cluster of cards that surround it. The tan and pink cards are from the other productivity app and and the other clusters are from my laptop and websites.
A card can hold text, lists, PDFs, videos, audio tracks and graphics. It’s quite easy to create a to-do list or any other type of note on the card.
While copying the project information from other sources was a time-consuming, it allowed me to test Scrintal and to conclude this new app is a giant step forward for me. Now, when starting and working on a new project, I have space and the tools to capture all my thoughts and ideas on a single canvas. Whenever I get a new idea I simply click on an empty space to start a new card to hold the idea.
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February 27, 2022
Book Publishing & Marketing Insights
Unfortunatley, writing the book does nothing to prepare you for the publishing and marketing tasks you now face.
Given this situation, I developed a video class that addresses this situation. It isn’t a how-to course, rather it addresses the situation by discussing a dozen topics of interest to authors, especially self-publishing authors.
Among the topics are:
The course also includes two downloadable spreadsheets to help you manage the projects.
The video class is here
Use the discount code: 0x1138v to get 50% off the list price.
Below is a taste of the Insights course.
http://hankquense.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/BPMI-intro.mp4
The post Book Publishing & Marketing Insights appeared first on Hank Quense.
Book Publishing & Marketing Insights now available
Unfortunatley, writing the book does nothing to prepare you for the publishing and marketing tasks you now face.
Given this situation, I developed a video class that addresses this situation. It isn’t a how-to course, rather it addresses the situation by discussing a dozen topics of interest to authors, especially self-publishing authors.
Among the topics are:
The course also includes two downloadable spreadsheets to help you manage the projects.
The video class is here
Use the discount code: 0x1138v to get 50% off the list price.
Below is a taste of the Insights course.
http://hankquense.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/BPMI-intro.mp4
The post Book Publishing & Marketing Insights now available appeared first on Hank Quense.
February 14, 2022
What Authors Think About Book Marketing
If you’re a writer or a potential author, are you curious how other authors think about book marketing?I was, so I asked a bunch of them to answer five questions:
1: What is your favorite or most successful marketing tactic?
2: How do you use it?
3: Would you recommend it for newbies?
4: What is your least favorite or least successful marketing tactic?
5: If you could recommend one marketing tactic for newbie book marketers, what would it be?
I gathered the responses from a dozen authors (include me) and published them in my book, Book Marketing Fundamentals. I recently produced a small ebook with just the Q&As. The title of the book is the same as the title of this pst. The ebook is a free download. You can grab a copy using this link: hanque.gumroad.com/l/nssql
I was amazed at the diversity of the answers. Now two of them are similar. If you have a different take on the questions, send me your comments.
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February 11, 2022
For writers and authors who aren’t satisfied with their work
I recently found a great new website called Gumroad.
I’m using as another place to stash my content.
The primary one is as an alternative to Udemy for my video classes.
The second one is as an alternative to the defunct WritersARC site on Podia.
So, if you’re a fiction writer or an author, visit
https://hanque.gumroad.com/
Sign up as a subscriber and you’ll know when new material becomes available or when the existing content goes on sale.
While the site doesn’t have a lot of material on it right now, new stuff will be added quite frequently.
The post For writers and authors who aren’t satisfied with their work appeared first on Hank Quense.
February 5, 2022
Free Reads!
you can new read all of my books (fiction & non-fiction) for free.
Go to this Amazon page to see them all.
The post Free Reads! appeared first on Hank Quense.
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