Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 160

Comp Titles: What They Are and When You Need Them

Comp titles.  Just say it and I shudder.  I hate trying to come up with good comp titles. For those of you who don’t recognize the term, comp is short for complimentary.  Comp titles are titles that are similar in some way to your manuscript.  You use them in your cover or query letter to […]

Fueling Your Writing

On most Labor Day weekends, we head out of town.  We go down to Wayne County in southern Missouri.  Unfortunately, this year the boy had to work on Saturday and Sunday. I’m going to be getting some work done.  After all, I have a book deadline coming up and I’m helping write the questions for […]

Backstory: Keeping It Where It Belongs

Write a chapter.  Write a second chapter and realize that something in the first one needs to be changed.  Rewrite the first one. Tired of this particular process and the limited progress that went along with it, I decided to outline the beats in my cozy before writing any more.  And that’s when I made […]

A Writer’s Office: My Work Space

Recently someone asked writers on Twitter to share their office spaces.  Where do we work?  My space is hard to photograph because it is, according to real estate agents, a bedroom, approximately ten feet by eleven feet.  I have a desk that wraps around three walls of the room.  One leg is mine.  The other […]

Creating a Flowchart: Zen Flowchart

Monday when I wrote about receiving my author’s copies, I mentioned having to create a flowchart.  I used Illustrator which I realize not everyone has.  I got it as part of a package so it wasn’t cost prohibitive. Fortunately, there is also a free online program called Zen Flowchart.  With it, I made the chart […]

Why We Need Diverse Books Matters

Frankly, I’m more than a little disappointed that this is something we still need to explain.  Studies have shown that it is important for young readers to see themselves mirrored in the books they read.  Yet other studies have shown that reading about characters unlike yourself helps promote empathy. So why am I bringing this […]

Author Copies

It is like Christmas in August right now.  My son and I were making lunch when the doorbell rang.  I was expecting an order from Hanes and hurried to the door but instead of a mailer found a box.  A box with an Abdo sticker.  Author copies!   Woo hoo! When I write a book, sometimes […]

Series Characters: What It Takes to Bring Your Reader Back

I’ve been thinking about series characters a lot as I get back to work on my cozy mystery. What is it that makes them appealing? It isn’t that they grow and that’s a fact that until recently really bothered me.  Isn’t that how a character arc is supposed to work?  Character has a problem, solves […]

Inspiration: What Goes Into a Picture Book

I have to admit it.  I love getting to see videos about how different authors and illustrators work.  This video with Yuyi Morales, the creator of Dreamers, is a great companion piece for yesterday’s post on writing nonfiction today. Dreamers is based, in part, on Morales own experiences as an immigrant and mother of an infant.  […]

Children’s Nonfiction: Changing with the Times

The world is a rapidly changing place but this isn’t a post about trends.  Okay, I guess it is in a way.  But it isn’t a post about chasing trends in nonfiction. Instead, it is a post about writing nonfiction for today’s young readers in today’s world.  What does this mean?  Keep the internet in […]