30 ratings | 38 reviews | avg rating:4.37

Angela Benedetti’s Followers (49)

Angela’s Bookshelves

read (1161)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (537)
dnf (25)
gangbang-challenge (0)
gangbang-pick (0)
reference (2)
to-buy (572)
20-5 (26)
alt-history (7)
See all bookshelves »

Angela’s Friends (127)

MsMiz (Tina)

14,947 books | 395 friends

Charles

4,612 books | 815 friends

Chris

7,285 books | 250 friends

Hilcia

3,444 books | 186 friends

Eden Winters

549 books | 408 friends

Lori

2,684 books | 1,251 friends

Erin (PT)

3,928 books | 254 friends

Deanna

5,891 books | 303 friends

More friends…

Angela Benedetti

Goodreads Author

Born

in San Francisco, The United States

Website

http://www.angiebenedetti.com/blog/

Genre

Gay & Lesbian, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Member Since

January 2010

edit data

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Angela Benedetti questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Angela Benedetti Write. Write a lot. Read. Write. Take a class. Write. Read a book about writing. Write some more. Finish a story, send it out or indie pub it, and sta…moreWrite. Write a lot. Read. Write. Take a class. Write. Read a book about writing. Write some more. Finish a story, send it out or indie pub it, and start another one. Until you have a substantial body of work (like twenty or more stories published) marketing is a useless waste. If you really enjoy blogging or tweeting or whatever, and would do it anyway, then do that fun thing because it's fun, but don't do promo stuff just because you think you should. And the worst thing you can do is publish your first book, then take the next year off of writing to "promo." Don't do that.

The second worst thing you can do is let other people put limits on what you write. If you want to write a sequel to your last book, then write it. If you want to write something completely new, do that. If you want to write a story in a new subgenre, or a new genre, then do that. If you want to try something that sounds crazy, go ahead and try it. Don't write something just because you think others expect it of you, or NOT write something because you think some people might not like it. Write what you want, and worry about where to publish it after. (While you write the next thing.)

If you go tradpub -- submitting to editors and waiting for acceptance or rejection -- you'll probably be getting a lot of rejections for a while. Maybe for years. This goes with not letting other people limit you; if you want a tradpub career, keep writing and studying and writing and learning and writing and trying. If you still think a story that's gathered a dozen or twenty rejection slips is good, then indie pub it and let the readers decide. There are people making a living off of their indie pubbed books, and plenty of genres and subgenres the big publishers decided were dead are blooming again because there are readers who love them, and indie publishing is reaching them. It might be that tradpub editors don't think your work has enough of a market, but there might be plenty of readers to support indie pubbed book in that genre or subgenre or tone or form.

Or if all you have is fifty or a hundred form rejections, maybe your craftsmanship isn't up to par yet. Keep working, studying, writing.

Keep writing. (Can't say that enough.) Writing is like any craft -- mastering it takes hours and hours and YEARS of practice. Writing is the only craft, the only art, where popular wisdom says that Baby's First Project can be polished up to professional standards if you just keep reworking and reworking and reworking it. Imagine getting your first trumpet lesson ever, and learning to honk out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and going immediately out to the park to play your song with a hat at your feet for tips. Or getting your first set of oil paints and doing a painting of your mother, then working on That One Painting over and over, scraping and repainting and adding and scraping and repainting, until you find a gallery willing to take it. :P That sounds dumb, doesn't it? But a large chunk of the writing community (not counting most of the published writers, but a lot of the unpublished writers and way too many teachers) encourages exactly that, the idea that Baby's First Story can be rewritten and rewritten, and polished-polished-polished until a paying market will accept it, if you just work hard enough and focus on perfecting that one story. Don't do that! Write something, send it out, write something else. You'll learn MUCH more from writing six stories than you will from writing one story and rewriting it five times. That path leads into the pit of doom! Write new words regularly -- every week if not every day. Especially if you're just starting out, learning and improving your skills should be your main goal, and you do that by writing lots and lots and LOTS of stories.

(And even when you've been at this for a while, you should still be learning and growing and improving. It never stops, you'll never have learned all there is to know, or max out all your skills.)

Schedule your writing time first. Writing means writing new words. Editing is not writing. Research is not writing. Submitting, or formatting and making a cover is not writing. Marketing and promo are most definitely not writing. Protect the writing first. If you have five hours free per week to work on your writing, spend at least four of them actually writing. All five is better, especially if you're just starting out.

Once you've got your writing time locked in, find some more time to read and learn. Read a lot of books, a lot of stories. Keep up with the genre(s) you write in, yes, but also read stories in other genres, and from other times, and from other cultures; they'll give you new styles and new techniques and new structures. Read non-fiction; it'll give you more things to write ABOUT. And schedule time for learning, for taking a class or reading a how-to book. If you want to indie pub, figure out what you need to learn -- setting up a business, formatting, designing and making covers, writing blurbs and other marketing copy, bookkeeping and taxes -- and schedule time (and money when needed) to learn each thing. Spread it out; if it takes you a year or two or more to learn all the basics, that's fine. Make a reasonable schedule based on your life and your finances. Keep writing, but acquire the skills and knowledge you'll need to be a good businessperson. Note that things like setting up a business and keeping your books and doing taxes apply to people who only tradpub, as well as indie pubbers; make sure you don't get blindsided by the IRS, or whoever your local tax authorities are!

Practice. Keep writing. And don't let anyone tell you that you should write this or shouldn't write that. If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong. :)(less)

flag

4 likes · like
2 comments

Will there be a Sentinels book 4?

Angela Benedetti Yes. :) The boys are being stubborn right now, but I have about 25K words of the next book done. At this point, I'm still poking around, trying to fig…moreYes. :) The boys are being stubborn right now, but I have about 25K words of the next book done. At this point, I'm still poking around, trying to figure out what to do. (No, it's not usually this hard. Like I said, they're being stubborn. [side-eyes the guys]) But yes, there'll definitely be more.(less)

flag

1 like · like
3 comments

See all 3 answers from Angela Benedetti…

Combine Editions
Angela Benedetti’s books

Average rating: 3.64 · 1,838 ratings · 306 reviews · 18 distinct works

	A Hidden Magic (Sentinels #1) 3.68 avg rating — 190 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Executive Lounge 3.76 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Emerging Magic (Sentinels #2) 3.81 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gift 3.33 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Candy Courage 3.42 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unfinished Business (Sentinels #1.5) 3.44 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Captive Magic (Sentinels #3) 3.77 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hell Is in the Details 3.55 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reach Out and Touch (Sentinels #1.6) 3.35 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chasing Fear (Sentinels #1.7) 3.18 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Angela Benedetti…

25 posts
Angela Benedetti's Blog

Looks Like Astroturfing, Quacks Like Astroturfing...

I got a book recommendation in my e-mail from someone I have friended on Goodreads. Okay, that happens occasionally. I click through to check out the book.

What I see is that only one other person I know has reviewed it, and they're just boinging because it's out, rather than talking about the book itself. There are a bunch of reviews from people I don't know. Okay, I can work with that, usually, a Read more of this blog post »

2 likes · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on March 12, 2014 09:15 • Tags: astroturfing, doing-it-wrong, marketing, new-release, reviews, street-teams

View all 25 posts »

Series by Angela Benedetti

Sentinels (3 books)
by

Angela Benedetti (Goodreads Author)

3.64 avg rating — 332 ratings

rss
Angela’s Recent Updates

Angela Benedetti has read The Fates Trilogy Vol 2 Books 4-6 (The Fates Universe) by Kristine Grayson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 22, 2021 04:09AM · 2 likes · like
Angela Benedetti has read The Charming Trilogy, Vol. 1: Books 1-3 (The Fates Universe) by Kristine Grayson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 16, 2021 07:05PM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Charming Trilogy, Vol. 1 by Kristine Grayson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Charming Trilogy, Vol. 1 by Kristine Grayson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Angela's books…

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
100+ Books in 2023: Lily's 100+ Book Challenge List 2009	47	256	Jan 06, 2010 08:48PM

Angela’s Quotes

“The fact of the matter is that readers and audiences are never blank slates: individuals see in a work whatever they need to see at that moment.”
― Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America

tags: writers

4 likes

“English teachers, workshops, and myths try to make writers slow down. We are the ONLY ART on the planet that tells young artists to not practice and do less to get better. Head-shaking in its stupidity. And new writers buy into that.”
― Dean Wesley Smith

tags: improvement, inspirational, practice, productivity, skill-building, working, writing

0 likes

“But 'I worked hard on this' doesn’t exempt you from criticism. Those harsh reviews aren’t about anyone being out to get me. It’s not an Authors vs. Reviewers thing. It’s people taking the time to express their opinions because they care about this stuff."

[Us vs. Them vs. Grow the Hell Up (Blog post, September 1, 2013)]”
― Jim C. Hines

tags: authors, books, criticism, freedom-of-expression, opinions, reviewers, reviewing

6 likes

“I’ve said for years — ever since I figured out how to write Goblin Hero — that it’s important to give yourself permission to write crap. Perfection is the destroyer of art. It’s paralyzing. Art, whether it’s writing or painting or anything else, requires risk. And risk means you’re going to make mistakes. Sometimes you’re going to fail.”
― Jim C. Hines

tags: art, perfection, writing

2 likes