Cate Russell-Cole's Blog, page 11
May 22, 2014
Support an Author: Grab that Book You’ve Been Wanting ~ #saam14
There is a pie shop near here that has the slogan, “Buy one so we both don’t go hungry.” It is one of the best advertising slogans I’ve seen. Books feed both the reader’s and the writer’s soul in so many ways. So, you know you’ve been meaning to… this week, your love task for Support an Author Month is to go buy that book you’ve planned to get, but didn’t get around to.
Don’t forget, wherever you buy your books from, leave some love!
Please note: this is a pre-scheduled post. Comments are off.
Filed under: What's On Tagged: author, blogging, books, creativity, encouragement, growth, ideas, Indie publishing, inspiration, resource, success, support, writer, writing
May 19, 2014
A Call for Understanding Amongst International Writers ~ Support An Author Month
I was thumbing through novels last night, noting the differences in the way various authors, or publishing houses, format their books. It was hard not to notice the many ‘mistakes’ in these books. The question is, are they really mistakes? It depends on where you’re sitting.
There are profound differences in punctuation and layout styles between the British spelling and United States spelling countries: let alone the rest of the world. I know some fellow Australian writers, who have been savagely attacked for this in their book reviews. “Full of errors.” No, just written in Australian English which uses ‘our’ not ‘or’ and ‘s’ not ‘z.’
Great is the temptation to become a grammar or punctuation Nazi! I am finding myself, that reading books from the United States sometimes irritates me. My Aussie eyes see things they have been trained to edit out and it’s hard to move past them. I have read books which do contain outright errors. Ebooks seem to be littered with them and I find as many in books from traditional publishing houses, as I do from Independently published authors. Multiple spellings in word processor dictionaries allow these errors to go unnoticed, except by the most eagle eyed proofreaders. They seem to be on a permanent lunch break…
We need to be kind to each other, that is a fact, but do we also have to guard against lazy punctuation? I read through one of Terry Pratchett’s books last night. Had I handed in an assignment with that punctuation when I was working through my editing certificate, I would have failed. Had I used it when editing for a University I worked with, I would have had my butt handed to me and none too politely. Using dashes – instead of commas – is outright wrong: if that is your training. I have no problems with people writing dialogue to match the manner people speak in. And if the sentence starts with and or but, that’s fine, but some editors go nuts over that.
My spell checker and I fight frequently. I need to use double ‘L’ in some words, it won’t switch to Australian spelling and demands one ‘L.’ I honestly wonder, are we abbreviating everything for ease? I don’t know and the answer may be different for each person. I have used computers for years and years. I have seen the differences in the dictionaries they use and the standards are definitely morphing. The list of issues seems to grow. Do we hyphenate words that belong together such as easy-speak. Apple’s Page’s grammar checker says no, but the grammar checker here on WordPress says yes! Who do you believe?
You can let it all drive you crazy, or you can shrug it off and say, “that’s just the way the globe spins, folks!” I think that is the better option. I clearly remember being attacked by a memoir student who accused me of deliberately not using Australian research sources, favouring the Americans instead! She was firmly told I went to the authors with the best reference material, I didn’t give a fig where they were from and frankly, that attitude is racist. It still hurt me though. She had been particularly nasty in a public forum. Let’s not be like that. We need to support each other and show compassion. We all have our own personal style sheet in our heads. We all do things differently. As long as we’re moving forwards and improving our skills, there isn’t necessarily nothing wrong with that.
This article / blog post is Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2014. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without Cate’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using her work if it is for a commercial venture.
The pile of papers image is a purchase iStock photo which you are not legally allowed to use for your own purposes, private or otherwise.
Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Cate is the attributed Author.
Filed under: "Writing Lessons from the Writing Life" Tagged: author, books, grammar, Indie publishing, kindness, novel, punctuation, tolerance, writer, writing
May 17, 2014
What Do You Aim for and Include in Word Counts? An Odd Controversy
May I please ask for opinions and assistance in regards to novel word counts? This is a topic which affects us all and the feedback may also be helpful for you.
When I started writing the first book of The Chronicles of Mirchar, The Dragon Tree, I checked out acceptable word counts. 50,000 and up was a novel; under that were novellas etc. As NaNoWriMo shoots for 50,000 I accepted that as my goal and have happily surpassed it. One of my favourite books, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is 50,000 and so is The Great Gatsby: no concerns there. Publishers had accepted those books and they were hits.
I got to 56,000 words (story only) and felt fine. As I am world building, there is a four page glossary and an Author’s note at the front, both of which are necessary. So I started searching for what actually got included in word count, just out of interest. I opened a can of worms. Reputable web sites were screaming at me, that absolutely no publisher would take a novel under 80,000 words – no way! Apparently Of Mice and Men was a novella, so that rule cannot be set in stone. There was an Austen book that was novella sized too. (See below for the official take on what genre word counts are expected to be.)
Then the debate got deeper. Author blogs started to talk about the great quantity versus quality debate; the Indie decision versus the traditional publishing route debate; the differences in expectations and differing standards between the different genres. My 2.30am this morning, my head was spinning and I was freaking out a bit. I have a second novel planned, I could merge them… but… I have the correct story arc, the novel makes sense without padding which would be redundant. So why should I slave over 30,000 more words?
I think I know what I want to do, but I am very interested in hearing your opinions. How many words minimum are acceptable to you? Do you pad your work out to hit the 80,000, or how do you handle it?
Also: what do you include in the word count. NaNoWriMo accepts Table of Contents, Chapter Headings and Copyright as inclusions. I don’t think they should be included. I would love to hear your say. If you’re feeling confused, maybe we can help each other.
A great blog post which goes into this in depth, comes from **The Swivet:
To quote Colleen Lindsay’s post in part:
middle grade fiction = Anywhere from 25k to 40k, with the average at 35k
YA fiction = For mainstream YA, anywhere from about 45k to 80k;
paranormal romance = 85k to 100k
romance = 85k to 100k
category romance = 55k to 75k
cozy mysteries = 65k to 90k
horror = 80k to 100k
western = 80k to 100k
science fiction and fantasy per sub genre
—> hard sf = 90k to 110k
—> space opera = 90k to 120k
—> epic/high/traditional/historical fantasy = 90k to 120k
—> contemporary fantasy = 90k to 100k
—> romantic SF = 85k to 100k
—> urban fantasy = 90k to 100k
—> new weird = 85k to 110k
—> slipstream = 80k to 100k
—> comic fantasy = 80k to 100k
—> everything else = 90k to 100k
**The Swivet is maintained by Colleen Lindsay, Associate Director Marketing, Social Media and Reader Experience at the NAL/Berkley Publishing Groups, divisions of Penguin Group (USA).
This blog post by Cate Russell-Cole is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to share and adapt it.
You may need Colleen’s permission to use her part, but from what I have seen, this is public information anyway.
Filed under: What's On Tagged: author, books, challenge, Indie publishing, novel, problem solving, support, word count, writer, writing
May 15, 2014
Support an Author: Show Your Appreciation to Someone Who Inspires You ~ #saam14
Success never comes solely from your own efforts. There are always others along the way who give you a hand up; encourage you; or give you that resource, or piece of advice you never could have done without.
When someone inspires you, or if you see someone who is using their writing gift to help others, please take the time to thank them publicly by giving them this award (and the rules for passing it on.)
This award is open to anyone to use. You don’t have to receive it, in order to be able to give it. Please take the details and images off this page and use it to encourage another writer.
The rules for passing it on are very simple:
You are welcome to give it out as many times as you like, but it is only to be given to a maximum of one person per blog post. If you wish to give multiple rewards, please space the blog posts by at least a week, so the sincerity is maintained.
Introduce the person; say how they encourage, help or inspire you; then link to their work and/or social media profiles. There may be a specific post you wish to link to which helped you. It’s up to you.
Please publicise your award post to Twitter or Google Plus using the hashtag #writtenkindness so that others can find and follow the award winners.
Please note: this is a pre-scheduled post. Comments are off.
Get the Award Badge and Code
Boxed code from “Grab My Button” Code Generator: http://www.mycoolrealm.com/sandbox/gbgen/
Filed under: What's On Tagged: author, award, community, encouragement, kindness, support, Support an Author Month, thank you, writer, Written Acts of Kindness Award
May 11, 2014
Supernova: When Writer’s Heads Explode from Boredom!
UPDATE: The decision has been made to go to once a week posting with comments off, as I had enough pre-written posts to last three months. That should give me sufficient break. Thank you everyone for your support and kindness. It’s helped me a great deal!
A few months ago, I wrote a post on blogging which looked at when you should seriously consider giving your blog up. As I am writing this, I am looking over those notes and thinking… I don’t want to completely relinquish CommuniCATE, but I seriously need a break for a few months. I’m very bored with what I am doing. Three years is too long for me to go without a change.
I’m grateful to CommuniCATE, as I’ve met awesome people, it has honed my writing skills and made it easier to get the first draft of my novel down; plus it’s been a great learning experience. I will definitely be back, but it may be a few months. I’m going to give myself until the end of June to decide what to do. I may come back and do something with a completely different angle.
In the meantime, thank you for the support and God bless all of you. I will do as much as I can to support my Triberr tribes but that will be limited, as computer and iPad screens are murder for migraine sufferers! My health still hasn’t improved and is posing very serious problems in regards to how much time I can spend online. I’ve been unable to keep up with social media, blog comments, promotion and reciprocal blog visits and that’s getting to me.
For now, I have a novel to edit and it’s sequel to plan to my leisure and I’m going to enjoy that new venture.
Please keep in touch! You can find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cateartios
or friend me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caterussellcole
Filed under: What's On
Supernova: When Writer’s Heads Explode from Bordeom!
A few months ago, I wrote a post on blogging which looked at when you should seriously consider giving your blog up. As I am writing this, I am looking over those notes and thinking… I don’t want to completely relinquish CommuniCATE, but I seriously need a break for a few months. I’m very bored with what I am doing. Three years is too long for me to go without a change.
I’m grateful to CommuniCATE, as I’ve met awesome people, it has honed my writing skills and made it easier to get the first draft of my novel down; plus it’s been a great learning experience. I will definitely be back, but it may be a few months. I’m going to give myself until the end of June to decide what to do. I may come back and do something with a completely different angle.
In the meantime, thank you for the support and God bless all of you. I will do as much as I can to support my Triberr tribes but that will be limited, as computer and iPad screens are murder for migraine sufferers! My health still hasn’t improved and is posing very serious problems in regards to how much time I can spend online. I’ve been unable to keep up with social media, blog comments, promotion and reciprocal blog visits and that’s getting to me.
For now, I have a novel to edit and it’s sequel to plan to my leisure and I’m going to enjoy that new venture.
Please keep in touch! You can find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cateartios
or friend me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caterussellcole
Filed under: What's On
Author Survival Resources
CommuniCATE frequently posts tips, references and encouragement for all writers and authors. The post links below will take you to the most helpful information on the blog.
International Copyright Resources
Stopping Writing Distractions
Story and Character Tracking Forms
App Heaven for Writers: iPhone, iPad and Android
Social Media and Networking Help
Book Promotion Tweets
: What to Avoid, What to CopyHashtags for Authors
Google Plus Communities for Indie Authors
Facebook Groups for Indie Authors
Indie Author Organizations for Publicity
Shyness in the Marketplace
Blog Post Promotion on Social Media: Instantly Hooking Reader Attention
Book Marketing
Professional, Effective Author Sites: The Problems With Using Blogs
Clear Covers: Making Your Ebook Identifiable at Thumbnail Size
Your Individuality is Your Greatest Asset: Writing and Marketing as You
Guest Posting as Advertising: How To Be Professional and Be Asked Back
Filed under: Writing Resources Tagged: author, blogging, book promotion, books, encouragement, failure, fiction, goals, growth, Indie publishing, marketing, novel, problem solving, promotion, resource, self promotion, social media, success, support, Support An Author Month 2014, Twitter, writer, writing
Author Survival Resources ~ #saam14
CommuniCATE frequently posts tips, references and encouragement for all writers and authors. The post links below will take you to the most helpful information on the blog.
International Copyright Resources
Stopping Writing Distractions
Story and Character Tracking Forms
App Heaven for Writers: iPhone, iPad and Android
Social Media and Networking Help
Book Promotion Tweets
: What to Avoid, What to CopyHashtags for Authors
Google Plus Communities for Indie Authors
Facebook Groups for Indie Authors
Indie Author Organizations for Publicity
Shyness in the Marketplace
Blog Post Promotion on Social Media: Instantly Hooking Reader Attention
Book Marketing
Professional, Effective Author Sites: The Problems With Using Blogs
Clear Covers: Making Your Ebook Identifiable at Thumbnail Size
Your Individuality is Your Greatest Asset: Writing and Marketing as You
Guest Posting as Advertising: How To Be Professional and Be Asked Back
Filed under: Support An Author Month 2014 Tagged: author, blogging, book promotion, books, encouragement, failure, fiction, goals, growth, Indie publishing, marketing, novel, problem solving, promotion, resource, self promotion, social media, success, support, Support An Author Month 2014, Twitter, writer, writing
May 8, 2014
Where to Back Up Your Work ~ #Novel Safety for #Authors
I’ve spent 78 hours over the last two weeks, writing the first book in the Chronicles of Mirchar series. The story has been bouncing around in my head and developing over the past year, it was time to binge write, to get it down. I sent my husband a pdf copy for safe keeping and he said, “this has to be backed up somewhere outside the house.” Not a bad idea. Here are safe back up suggestions for you.
Keep copies of your documents at the various stages you’ve gone through. If a later document won’t open, there is at least something to go back to. I also kept pdf copies and stuffed them into a back up folder. The other benefit is, you can also get back to that bit you deleted, then wanted later.
Portable harddrives and flashdrives are awesome. They also overheat, fail and are not permanent copies. They only last, I think it is about seven years? If you leave one in a hot place, like in a car, it’s possible to kill them. Have several, back it up to all of them. It will only take a minute at the end of the day.
A good old fashioned DVD or CD Rom backup is worth the time. Don’t just keep them to yourself. Send copies to your Mum, sister, best friend, whoever is not a competing author and ask, “please stash this, don’t lose it and NEVER let it go!”
If you have online storage, use that too. Beware of hacking on Cloud services. Adobe got hit earlier this year.
Apple people, use Time Machine. If you are running Mavericks, that is the only way you can ever fix your computer, if disaster occurs, anyway. Install discs are gone with the wind.
If you have a web site, like I do, you can stash your work in any form, somewhere at the back end. That way, your documents are not part of your web site, but are still safely online. I log into our site on Melbourne IT, under one of the email name log ins we have (not the main web site directory.) It also allows some storage. That is what I am using.
Don’t forget to clearly label all backups, so you know what is what. I resorted to version numbers at one stage, and reflected them in the page footers too.
Good luck!
This work, created and Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2014 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Filed under: Author First Aid, Writing Resources Tagged: author, back up, books, Cloud, flash drive, novel, safety, security, stress management, web storage, writer, writing
Support an Author: How to Write a Book Review
To sell books, we all need reviews… as much as we sometimes dread them! One of the best ways to support any author is to write a well-crafted review. I had to do a lot of searching online to find out how. Most of the information you get off the Internet is about F.o.r.m.a.l. college-type reviews, technical journals and things that scare my hair off. So to save us all, I have “borrowed,” and slightly modified these awesome tips. They are user-friendly. So please, write a book review this week… unless you hate the book. In that case, just walk away quietly and leave the world a more peaceful place.
The source of the wisdom below is http://slashdot.org/faq/bookreviews.shtml I took out the negative parts of writing a critique, as this is support, not tear apart, month!
Did you like previous works from the same author or series?Where and when does the story take place?
Is this book part of a series?
Is there an identifiable central conflict, or a complex of conflicts?
What is the tone and style? Is it frightening? Clinical? Amusing? Scattered?
Do you like the characters? What about them makes them believable, dynamic or static?
From whose viewpoint is the story told, and how does that affect the narrative?
Does the book remind you of others by the same author, or in the same genre?
Do any twists particularly inspire? (Don’t give away too much, of course.)
If you really have to, don’t ‘pan’ a book without specifying your context and expectations. I did ask you nicely not to though, so please, walk away…
If you can add more suggestions, please do in the comments below. Plus, as one commenter pointed out, if someone asks you to write a review, don’t say that in the review! It looks rigged.
Please do not reblog this post.
The suggestions in this blog post are Copyright Slashdot.org. Only a very small part of their entire page has been reproduced here. (It is massive.)
“Slashdot welcomes readers’ book reviews. In particular, we’re interested in reviews of books on programming, computer security, the history of technology and anything else (including Science Fiction, cyberpunk, etc.) that fits under the “News for Nerds” umbrella.” http://slashdot.org
Filed under: What's On Tagged: author, blogging, book review, books, creativity, encouragement, growth, ideas, Indie publishing, inspiration, resource, success, support, writer, writing
