Ryan Casey's Blog, page 15

Rewriting a Novel: Five Ways to Make It Less Painful

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I hate rewriting.

I know, I know. I shouldenjoy rebuilding characters and their motives. I shouldtake pleasure in ironing out all those little plot inconsistencies and cutting away the excess weight of irrelevancies. Ishould, but I don’t.

Context: I finished a new first draft back in December. Yay! More books! Only not quite. I refer to characters by different names throughout. Everything seems to be spelt incorrectly. I go off on wild, irrelevant tangents, a...

Indies Forward: Anxiety & Overcoming Life’s Obstacles

You might remember a few weeks back I spoke aboutauthor Julie Forward DeMay, and how I was planning to dedicate a blog post to her on January 31st as part of SelfPublishingTeam’s ‘Indies Forward’ event.

The premise of the event is simple:What if you couldn’t promote your own book?

Julie Forward DeMay, a mother with a lifelong passion for writing, finally realised her dream when her book,Cell War Notebooks, wasreleased in 2011.

Tragically, Julie was never able to promote or enjoy the success of h...

KDP Select: Is It Still Worth It? Thoughts for 2013

Yes, I’m going to talk about KDP Select again.

I’ll let you in on a secret. My previous post on how to maximise your KDP Select free days is rather popular with the Google searchers. Maybe it’s because of good SEO, or content, or whatever — I don’t know. But the fact that tonnes of people seem to hit this post every day makes me determined to keep my KDP Select experiences up to date.

Where do I stand on KDP Select going into 2013?

Pretty much in the same place, with a few alterations. I’d recom...

Aspiring Authors: Stop Calling Yourselves ‘Aspiring Authors’

I suppose this is something of a follow-up to last week’s writer’s block post, in that it’s another common issue I see in writers, particularly newer ones. Call this the January Writing Blues series, or whatever you fancy. The fact is, I have an issue with aspiring authors.

I know this seems to be at odds with my whole philosophy — technically, I myself was an aspiring author just a few short months ago. But actually, I wasn’t, because I never really called myself an aspiring author.

Instead, I...

Aspiring Authors: Stop Calling Yourself ‘Aspiring Authors’

I suppose this is something of a follow-up to last week’s writer’s block post, in that it’s another common issue I see in writers, particularly newer ones. Call this the January Writing Blues series, or whatever you fancy. The fact is, I have an issue with aspiring authors.

I know this seems to be at odds with my whole philosophy — technically, I myself was an aspiring author just a few short months ago. But actually, I wasn’t, because I never really called myself an aspiring author.

Instead, I...

Writer’s Block: Why it’s a Dangerous Lie

I want to talk about writer’s block.

You see, I’ve had a theory about writer’s block for quite some time. I’ve yet to be disproven, so until that day, I’m sticking with my theory. If ever I am disproven, then I’ll be the first to hold my hands up.

Ready? Okay. Writer’s block is a way for writers to bullshit their way out of writing.

I’ve spoken to a few writers who claim to have writer’s block in the past. ‘I just can’t write, because I have writer’s block and it won’t let me write.’I thought ab...

Self-Publishing Costs: What is the Price of Publishing?

A lot of people ask me how much it costs to self-publish work. The misguided idea that self-publishing costs ridiculous amounts of cash is one that has been drilled into our skulls through years of dominance by the major publishing houses, and the apparent unattainability of a good publishing deal to all but the most fortunate and godly of writers. If you can’t get a publishing deal the traditional way, then the alternative has to cost a bucket-load, right?

Wrong. In fact, self-publishing cost...

Writing Goals for 2013: Production Schedule & New Releases

Yes, another 2013 post.

Last week, I spoke about New Year’s Resolutions for Writers. Some great suggestions in the comments — cheers to everybody who contributed. It’s always such a boost seeing people’s ambitious but achievable targets outlined. The start of a new year is a perfect opportunity to set new plans and work towards them.

Seeing as 90% of non-writerly resolutions are broken in the first week, I’ve done well to stick to one of my main writing goals for 2013 of an ‘hour per day’. Five...

New Year’s Resolutions for Writers in 2013

First things first, how’s that turkey hangover coming along? Mine’s progressing rather nicely, although I am starting to grow slightly sick of eating sweets and chocolates I received…

Just kidding. I’m gorging away, and I hope you are too.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine’s been nice, although somewhat surreal without the blog in my life for two weeks or so. Bear in mind I’ve been posting two-three times per week for six months prior to my self-imposed Christmas break, so it f...

Editing Process Part 2: Dealing With Feedback

The following is part two of a guest post from my editor,Brenda Erricheillo. Part one is available to read here.

Once you know what kind of editing you’d like, you’ve selected a service, and submitted your manuscript, it’s time to wait for your feedback. Some editors will contact you during the editing process, and some won’t. It takes me a while to digest and think about things, so I will often wait to contact the author until I’m done reading the book. Other editors will fire off questions r...