Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 112

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

And it was a sad week for cozy mystery lovers.  Joyce Lavene, who wrote cozies with her husband Jim, suddenly passed away this past week. They have about a dozen mystery series written under a variety of different names.  Joyce was a great writer and a good friend.  They live close by and I considered Joyce a mentor… she helped me jump start my writing career about ten years ago.  My thoughts are with Jim and his family.  Joyce will be missed. 

LinkedIn for Authors:  http://ow.ly/TI5v8 @ritesh_kala

Using Myers Briggs for Building Character Personalities:  http://ow.ly/TI4x9 @shesnovel

5 cures for writer’s block:  http://ow.ly/TKZG1 @JennyAlexander4           

Writing a Book in Chaos: How the Sausage Gets Made:  http://ow.ly/TL1aY @CourtWrites

7 Ways to Keep Writing During #NaNoWriMo:  http://ow.ly/TL03L @KMWeiland

5 Steps to Original Character Creation:  http://ow.ly/TL0ZM @krgpryal @womenwriters

Preparing for your first #NaNoWriMo:  http://ow.ly/TL0dA  @brianawrites

A Technique to Get to Know Your Characters:  http://ow.ly/TL0xI @brianawrites

Crime fiction writers: Dreaming of Murder:  http://ow.ly/TI5o0 @LifeSentenceMag @block_sandra

How to Defeat Our Perfectionism in Writing:  http://ow.ly/TI4V7 @RuthanneReid

How To Master Conflict In Young Adult Fiction:  http://ow.ly/TI4Qt  @paperbackbird

Chinese Market for Indie Books:  http://ow.ly/TI5hb @JenMinkman€¦

Character Exercise: 2 Truths and a Lie:  http://ow.ly/TI4Zz from Elumish

5 Bestselling Storytelling Lessons From Jackie Collins:  http://ow.ly/TI59I @AnthonyEhlers

Point of View: Who has the most to lose?  http://ow.ly/TI53y @shalvatzis

Streamline Your Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/TI5zS @patverducci

5 Best Tools for Self-Editing in a Hurry:  http://ow.ly/TI4oM  @ckmacleodwriter

Elements of a Great Book Trailer (And Where to Use One):  http://ow.ly/TI4H2 @WhereWritersWin by Evan Staley

A List of Smells and Tastes:  http://ow.ly/TFqmH @goteenwriters  @JillWilliamson

Reversing Payoff and Set-Up in The Fugitive:  http://ow.ly/TFqhN @cockeyedcaravan

How 1 Writer made 145% Return On Investment with Facebook Ads:  http://ow.ly/TMpxP @SeeleyJamesAuth

How has self-pub affected publishing’s relationship with authors? #FutureChat  11am ET/4pm BST (now) @Porter_Anderson

How to make a newspaper blackout poem:  http://ow.ly/TFysh @austinkleon

9 Writing and Grammar Rules Worth Breaking:  http://ow.ly/TFpZQ @lifeofaworkgirl

36 Poetry Writing Tips:  http://ow.ly/TFyLQ @WritingForward

How to Prepare for Author Events:  http://ow.ly/TFq2d @ceciliaedits

How to market an audio book:  http://ow.ly/TFywQ @rxena77

POV Choices in YA:  http://ow.ly/TFqqX @ava_jae

How to Weather the Ups and Downs of the Writing Life:  http://ow.ly/TFyP9 @colleen_m_story

7 Points To Consider When We Write An Epistolary  Novel:  http://ow.ly/TFqdG @MiaJouBotha

Boost social media success with these 3 image types: http://ow.ly/TFyoF @sandrabeckwith

From Zero to Pitch in 24 Hours:  http://ow.ly/TFq4c  @kaylamacneille

Politics: Inescapable, Infuriating, and a Writer’’s Best Friend? http://ow.ly/TCt9E @jan_ohara

How to Instantly Change Your Mind About Book Marketing:  http://ow.ly/TCtet @FightinBookworm

7 Online Tools To Help You Generate Content For Your Blog: http://ow.ly/TCt4Z @writers_write

5 Publishing Myths :  http://ow.ly/TCtu8 @marthamconway @womenwriters

The Battle of Action vs. Dialogue Tags:  http://ow.ly/TCtLa  @JamiGrayAuthor

Weeding Out Dead Writing:  http://ow.ly/TCtEV @lindasclare

3 Tools to Tune Fiction to An Audience:  http://ow.ly/TCtAw @artofstoriesAB

10 insights on Wattpad:  http://ow.ly/TJhgy @OrnaRoss

What is High Concept? http://ow.ly/TCtNY  @KateMoretti1

Should You Sign Up for a Writing Class? http://ow.ly/TCtC8  @monicamclark

When You’re Stuck In Your First Draft http://ow.ly/TCtIq @stephmorrill

The Impact of Yoga on Writing :  http://ow.ly/TAX8E @swetavikram @womenwriters

Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Sibling’s Betrayal:  http://ow.ly/TAYqI @angelaackerman

Tension between police and citizens in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/THjf8 @mkinberg

5 Reasons It’s Not Too Late to Write a Novel:  http://ow.ly/TAZni @Lauramcneillbks

Public speaking for writers and how it can help with our dialogue:   http://ow.ly/TAXwx  @AuthorJKR

5 Ways to Use Pets in Your Story –Without Killing Them:  http://ow.ly/TAXmi by Ariel Anderson @mythcreants

3 Reasons Censoring Your Writing Is Holding You Back:  http://ow.ly/TAYaw @RachelintheOC

6 Consequences of High Magic:  http://ow.ly/TAYiU  by Oren Ashkenazi @Mythcreants

Back cover copy is marketing copy:  http://ow.ly/TAYUC @angee

8 Paragraph Mistakes:  http://ow.ly/TAYzB @KMWeiland

Write a Romance Novel: Choose a Subgenre:  http://ow.ly/TAXWt @nownovel

How to Write a Rough Draft:  http://ow.ly/TAXMG @nownovel

Letting Go of the Practice Novel:  http://ow.ly/TAZhJ  @joeberhardt

Writing Fight Scenes: What an Editor Wants to See: http://ow.ly/TAYKf  @hierath77

On the Rise and Fall of the New Creative Class:  http://ow.ly/TAZ5w @IreneKeliher

Want to use #Wattpad to reach readers? Live hangout with Elizabeth Craig and   @OrnaRoss  at 3 p.m. ET/8pm BST: http://ow.ly/TD925

What Writers Should Do on Social Networks:  http://ow.ly/TxBsU @GaryJMcLaren

Five Great Genre Crossovers:  http://ow.ly/TxBKi @misterkristoff

8 Tips for Writing a Tenacious Teen Sleuth:  http://ow.ly/TxBuP  @KGGiarratano

Planning For Pantsers:  http://ow.ly/TxBmC @ryancaseybooks

Writing Tip: Add Body Parts:  http://ow.ly/TxBCp @KayRaeChomic

Tips for horror writing: http://ow.ly/TxBzG @rxena77

Writing after depression:  http://ow.ly/TxBtM @kseniaanske

3 Most Important Things To Remember About The Dramatic Question:  http://ow.ly/TxBnN @writers_write

A Novel Approach to Fiction: Instagram:  http://ow.ly/TxBqH  @MarkArmao @WSJ

Which Kind(s) of Editing Does Your Novel Need?  http://ow.ly/TxBpc  @KateMColby

Writing Diverse Characters:  http://ow.ly/TxBkQ  @artofstoriesAB

Explore the Layers of Conflict in Your Story:  http://ow.ly/TxBEA @piperbayard

4 things writers need in case of emergencies:  http://ow.ly/TtS4x @robinrwrites

How to Write an Epic Poem: Infographic: http://ow.ly/TtU3U  @lwlindquist

What Can We Learn From Hemingway’’s Implicit Writing Style?  http://ow.ly/TtUmL @cdtunstall @thePenleak

How and why to make our book available for preordering: http://ow.ly/TzqqD

Secret rooms and secret passageways in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/TznAj @mkinberg

Freelance writing: Lists of Markets Open to Writers and Hot Writing Topics:  http://ow.ly/Tzhvl @AlexJCavanaugh

Writing Fiction Based on True Events: Pitfalls:  http://ow.ly/TtVEg @katrinschumann

When in Production is the Best Time for Cover Design?  http://ow.ly/TtUuB @DebbieYoungBN

4 Advantages of Adaptation:  http://ow.ly/TtTd4 @alexmarxactor @bang2write

6 Tasks For Your NaNo Pre-Writing List: http://ow.ly/TtSYE @KMWeiland  #NaNoWriMo

Future Editors: How to Use College the Best Way You Can:  http://ow.ly/TtTEm @llbarkat

Tips for Writing a Novel Synopsis:  http://ow.ly/TtSrl @JaneFriedman

10 Emotional Hurdles for the Newbie Writer:  http://ow.ly/TtSB8 @Blondewritemore

How Limitation is Integral to Good Writing: http://ow.ly/TtUgU  @cdtunstall @thePenleak

Video for Marketing:  http://ow.ly/TtUBw @authordesigner

Did my agent fire me and I just don’t know it?”  http://ow.ly/TrNNE @Janet_Reid”

5 Creative tips to overcome writer’s block for romance authors:  http://ow.ly/TrIjG @writerbreyking

189+ Tips  on How to Write, Edit, Market, and Sell Our Books:  http://ow.ly/TrII1 @sabsky

Define and Attract your Target Audience:  http://ow.ly/TrG96 @writerplatform

How to build your author platform on Google+:  http://ow.ly/TrMOV @tonyriches

Invasion of Privacy: Tricks and Traps of Writing About Real People:  http://ow.ly/TrNSm @HelenSedwick

The top writing links of the week on Twitterific:
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Backing Up, Organizing, Managing Time

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Although there are so many things that we can try to help us manage parts of our writing careers, I’ve found that some of the best are the smaller, quieter things.  It’s easy for me to get distracted by trying Facebook ads or working over my metadata…and these are both really good things to do.  But sometimes I need to return to the basics, especially when I’m very busy and don’t follow some of my own best practices.

Here are a few:

Backing up:  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard nightmares about losing content. Too many! It’s like a horror story for writers.  We hear all the time about backing up our work in progress, and that’s certainly important. But it’s also important to have previous projects backed up, covers backed up, contracts backed up. I just went through and backed up a ton of stuff and shuddered when I realized how much time had passed since my last backup.  I usually do it daily.

I use a variety of different methods.  We really don’t have to overthink it. I’ve used USB drives and servers and external hard drives in the past.  At some point, it occurred to me that if my house were destroyed by fire or a tornado or something, those types of backups wouldn’t be enough.   That’s when I started emailing files to myself so that I would have data on a cloud. Now I use various clouds to backup to, including Google and Microsoft.

Tagging and titling documents. Not only should documents, covers, and business papers be backed up, but it helps if they’re listed in a way that we can easily find them.  I’ve stupidly spent the last few weeks pulling up a document by searching for it because I couldn’t find it in my documents folder and I’m uploading it on Wednesdays to Wattpad.  I finally took the extra minute or two to tag the thing and then save a copy to a location on my computer that makes sense. I was just wasting that time every Wednesday (it was 5 a.m. every Wednesday and maybe I wasn’t at my sharpest, but still).

Now I’ve been on a tagging spree.  Sometimes I’ll save documents…all kinds of documents…and not have the slightest idea later what I was thinking when I saved it. I went through and put tags on a slew of documents and pictures this week so that I might save myself a bit of time later on by being able to quickly locate important files.

Another time saving thing that I do is to outsource my memory as much as humanly possible.  And this is one thing I haven’t neglected to do. I’d be sunk if I did, because my memory is abominable and always has been.  I use Google calendar so that I have it with me on both my laptop and phone. I add everything to the calendar…events I need to attend, events that other family members need to attend, chores, the grocery list, and any action items from emails.

When I receive anything in an email that requires an action from me, I put it on my calendar along with a copy/pasted bit from the email in the calendar notes area with the details and the name/phone number of the sender.  Having all the information in one spot helps me complete the tasks.

Timers and clocks and evaluating what’s not working.  I mention this frequently, I know, but it’s the way I keep track of my time and keep on task.  I set a timer (usually on Google…you just put ‘set a timer for ___minutes’ into the search box) and when the timer goes off, I know I need to stop being on social media, or whatever the current task was.

And, sometimes, we just need to assess when things aren’t working.  If something we’re doing is consistently not working (with our writing, our promoting, our accounting, etc.), we need to stop and ask ourselves why and brainstorm new approaches.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about and working on lately.  How about you?

And, if you’re interested in hearing more about Wattpad and best practices there, Orna Ross’s interview with me is on the ALLi site.

Back to Basics: Backing Up, Organizing, Managing Our Time:
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Image: MorgueFile: Dianne Hope

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Preorders

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m not one of the front-runners, ever, on promotion-related things.  I tend to be a lot more cautious.  Or, really, it’s more that I’m super-protective of my time and jealously guard it.  I want to make sure there’s plenty of data that something works before I spend the time figuring it out and pursuing it.

I’ve been hearing for the last year or so about the importance of preordering.  But I didn’t see how it would be something I wanted to pursue. When I was on the trad-published email loops, authors would complain about how preorders killed their chances for the bestseller lists and watered down their release day/week sales.

I also kept reading that preorders on Amazon didn’t make any sense because the visibility we gained on the site was only at the time of the order…not accumulated and toward release day sales.

At the recent NINC conference, I heard even more about preorders, this time from the folks at Draft2Digital.  They acknowledged that it doesn’t make sense for authors to make their self-published books available for preorder on Amazon…but thought it helped to increase sales on other retail platforms.  I’ve heard other authors talk about their successes with iBooks and Kobo through preorders (see the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast for more details) ,so I was inclined to believe that they were right about it giving authors an advantage on those sites.

I subscribe to Mark Coker’s blog (he’s the founder of Smashwords) and a July 2015 post specifically addressed hitting bestseller lists with preorders.  The link to his slideshow on the topic is here and the portion that deals specifically with preorders starts with slide 231.

Of note in the slideshow (for me, at any rate):

Customers’ credit cards aren’t charged until the release date (this, to me, again shows that the sale is technically on release day).

“Allows superfans to start reading and reviewing first.”  Good point.  The people that we most want to get our book first will get it first.

“Preorders can be merchandised inside your other books.”  Interesting. This means modifying our epub files (I wouldn’t be linking to other retailers in the backs of my Kindle books, obviously).

Apple iBooks automatic merchandising.  So they’re listing our preorder alongside our other titles.

“Consider releasing on a Saturday to fully leverage the increased visibility of your sales rank.”  Coker states that weekends have higher volumes of sales.

My thoughts on this:

I’m already getting covers done a year in advance of my even writing a book so that there aren’t any production delays in terms of cover design with my designer.  This means I’ve also already written the cover copy (description) because of the print version. Why not put the book up for preorder on sites where it can make a difference at the launch?

Mark Coker also recommended a best practice being to let our newsletter subscribers know that they could get the book, via preorder, at a reduced price.  My problem with that, though, is that most of my readers are buying through Amazon where the book wouldn’t be available via low price or preorder.  I didn’t really want any negative feedback on that, so I just decided to skip a newsletter mention of the preorder.

Both Draft2Digital and Smashwords say that the release date can be adjusted if, for some reason, we want to change it. That made me feel better, even though I’m used to working with deadlines.

I’ve put two Myrtle Clovers up for preorder on retailers other than Amazon…one is just 2 months away, the other is 10 months away.  I’ll be watching to see how the experiment goes …both in the lead-up to the release and on launch day.  I’m especially curious to see if my footprint at these other retailers increases.

Have you put any books up for preorder?  Also, as a special note, I’m going to be doing a Q&A with ALLi founder Orna Ross Tuesday, October 20 at 3 p.m. ET about Wattpad. It will be live on Google Hangouts at this link. 

How and why to make our book available for preordering:
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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Sell More Books with Better Descriptions:  http://ow.ly/TrDD4 @SarahBolme

Storytelling Strategies: Sicario’s Vanishing Main Character: http://ow.ly/TrzCN by Paul Joseph Gulino @scriptmag

Remember our bios are also marketing devices:  http://ow.ly/TrDqf @stapilus @BookWorksNYC               

How to Start Your Author Newsletter in 8 Easy Steps:  http://ow.ly/TrKPt  @AuthorRx

2015 #NaNoWriMo Resources: Character: http://ow.ly/TrF1l  from Writersaurus

Writing Dual Narratives:  http://ow.ly/TrNuz @clairefuller2

11 Ideas for Revising a Novel:  http://ow.ly/TrNlO @clairefuller2

How to Get Started on Blab – Getting Ready for Your First Blab.im Broadcast:  http://ow.ly/TrJyN  @shelleyhitz

10 Tips From a 4-Time #NaNoWriMo Winner:  http://ow.ly/Trz3s @JamieSheff

How to Price Kindle Books to Free without Exclusivity:  http://ow.ly/TqKAs @markcoker

Checklist for “Passive” Book Marketing:  http://ow.ly/TrAPo  @111publishing

How to Publish Ebooks – An Ebook Publishing Intensive:  http://ow.ly/TrB5p @markcoker

Make “Unbelievable” Stories Feel Real: http://ow.ly/TrBFb  @michael_hauge

Common book marketing misconceptions:  http://ow.ly/TrAWm  @thecadencegrp

5 Questions Before You Write the First Draft:  http://ow.ly/TrA97 @UlaWrites

A Free EIN Simplifies the Business of Self-Publishing:  http://ow.ly/TrBoS @BookWorksNYC @MissAdventuring

How to make the most of a group critique at a conference: http://ow.ly/Trz9J @Janet_Reid

Creating Your Own Blog Tour: Signing up Bloggers: http://ow.ly/TrAC6 @WriteJoMichaels

Finding And Managing Content to Beef Up Your Social Media Presence:  http://ow.ly/TtWmf  @crystallyn

5 Exercises From Comics Creators That Will Save Your Prose:  http://ow.ly/TlEKR @helpfulsnowman

4 Branding Tips for Authors:  http://ow.ly/TlF0q @NinaAmir

Today’s #FutureChat: Can books generate excitement for the next gen?  4pBST / 5pCEST / 11aET (now) @Porter_Anderson

Fandom: can books generate excitement for the next gen? http://ow.ly/TtBjm #FutureChat @Porter_Anderson

100 Free or Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Ebook:  http://ow.ly/TtrcG @AndrewMayne

Do Free Book Promotions Work?  http://ow.ly/TlFZF  @Adversego @passivevoiceblg

Writing the Unknown Setting: 8 Tips: http://ow.ly/TlETu  @melissafolson

Writing case study: the flawed chick-lit heroine:  http://ow.ly/TlEEi @bwilliamsbooks

Become a Hybrid Blog-to-Book Author:  http://ow.ly/TlGnE @NinaAmir

Creating strong characters: 5 checkpoints:   http://ow.ly/TlFdP @TennysonEStead

What’s the Deal With Book Deals?  http://ow.ly/TlGjy  @johnpdavid

The Most Common Reasons Why Scripts Are Rejected:  http://ow.ly/TlGcj @coreymandell @filmindependent

5 Steps to Original Character Creation : http://ow.ly/TlFry  @krgpryal @womenwriters

How to Write a Big Middle Scene:  http://ow.ly/TlF7B  @stephmorrill

5 Situations Horror Characters Get Themselves Into (and What Would Happen in Real Life):  http://ow.ly/TlEOg @raine_winters

Amazon to Spend $10,000,000 on Translation:  http://ow.ly/TrHlX @translationista

Amazon scandal could mean resurgence in print?  http://ow.ly/TrEwW @philipdsjones @thememo

Interested in writing cozy mysteries? Read one of the best (video review): http://ow.ly/Tryf6 @richarddenneyyy

Frame of reference–to illuminate or irritate? http://ow.ly/TqYuP by JohnMcPhee @NewYorker

Frame of reference–to illuminate or irritate?  http://ow.ly/Tg2XO by JohnMcPhee @NewYorker

How to Write Your First Author Bio:  http://ow.ly/Ti4V8 @cameronfilas

Find an Extra Hour Every Day With a 5-Minute List:  http://ow.ly/Ti5rt  @jenn_mattern

7 Tricks To Differentiating Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Ti5AW @geofflepard

The Math and Music of Multiple Characters:  http://ow.ly/Ti58u by Dave King

6 Tricks to Mastering the Art of Imagery:  http://ow.ly/Ti55R @HartzlerBarbara

Public Speaking for Introverts: Tip #1 (courtesy of @Gladwell):  http://ow.ly/Ti5i4  @livequiet

How to Juggle Writing & School (video):  http://ow.ly/Ti5aV @ava_jae

Doodle Your Way Out Of Writer’s Block:  http://ow.ly/Ti4Hx  @hodgeswriter

Is There Any Room in Epic Fantasy for the Small Story?  http://ow.ly/Ti4O1 @tordotcom  by Chris Lough

The Macro Story:  http://ow.ly/Ti51E by Shawn Coyne

How To Recycle Writing Ideas:  http://ow.ly/Tg30o @bethswriting

A closer look: Screenwriting: Classic 40’s Movie: “Casablanca”:  http://ow.ly/Tg32A @gointothestory

Tips for Writing Nonfiction Articles:  http://ow.ly/Tg2Fx @WritersCoach

How to Be Funny Without Hurting Yourself:  http://ow.ly/Tg36H  @cbramkamp

Make Your Scenes Count:  http://ow.ly/Tg35Y @lindasclare

Self-Education for Writers:  http://ow.ly/Tg2N0 @artofstoriesAB

7 Crucial Mistakes Authors Makes with Their Email Lists: http://ow.ly/Tg34l @Creativindie

4 Common Short Story Mistakes:  http://ow.ly/Tg2Zs  @EmilyWenstrom

Creating an Author Bio With Flash Fiction:  http://ow.ly/Tg2Hz @_AliciaAudrey @DIYMFA

Good and bad writing advice: http://ow.ly/Tg2IQ  @rsmollisonread

The One Page Book Proposal:  http://ow.ly/Tg2DK @jennienash

Writing by Omission:  http://ow.ly/Tg2Vz by JohnMcPhee @NewYorker

Why we should be excited about Periscope:  http://ow.ly/Tg2Ob  @emily_tjaden

The Darknet: Info for Writers:  http://ow.ly/TdxoD @WrittenByBrian @fionaquinnbooks

Does Your Book and/or Author Website Include Book Club Questions?  http://ow.ly/Tdx1v @wherewriterswin

The non-linear plot: http://ow.ly/Tdy8T from Plot Line Hotline

How to Build Your Strengths as a Writer:  http://ow.ly/Tdxgr @ajhumpage

Are Your Characters Too Passive? http://ow.ly/Tdyir @ava_jae

The Plot Hole That May Not Be A Plot Hole:  http://ow.ly/Tdx70 @vgrefer

How to Manage Your Expectations as an Author: http://ow.ly/Tdy1R @HelenScheuerer

5 Hacks to Create a Good Writing Habit:  http://ow.ly/TdwR8 @joebunting

How to Write LGBT+ Characters:  http://ow.ly/TdwXY @HannahEGivens

Letter to 1 Writer’s Pre-publication Self :  http://ow.ly/TdxGW @VanessaLafaye @womenwriters

How to Research Your Novel without Annoying Readers:  http://ow.ly/TdxbK @hollyrob1

The Perfect Book Sales Page :  http://ow.ly/TdxPG @daveBricker

Music For Writers: Jodie Landau In Iceland, Romancing ‘You’ : http://ow.ly/TgONa @JodieLandau @Porter_Anderson

Flashbacks: 4 Commandments for Writing Them:  http://ow.ly/Ta9UF  @PeggyBechko

As @Pubslush goes under, vision for the future (industry-related manifestos):  http://ow.ly/TgPgJ @Porter_Anderson

Dying words, in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/ThSCK @mkinberg

How much slack will you cut a character? http://ow.ly/ThS96 via @authorterryo

The Ultimate List of Books About Writing:  http://ow.ly/Ta8Xi by Gary Smailes

Fixing These 3 Mistakes Could Transform Our Manuscript:  http://ow.ly/Ta9Ni agentkristinNLA

Work & Sleep Habits of Famous Writers: http://ow.ly/Ta92q @sstodola

Using Dreams in Literature: http://ow.ly/Ta9JD @KelsieEngen

Synopsis writing tips:  http://ow.ly/Ta9E3  @ink_and_quills

Writing Horror:  Lessons:  http://ow.ly/Ta9g6  @kirabutler

3 Ways to Break the 4th Wall:  http://ow.ly/Ta9nK @johnkbucher

Better Dialogue: 10 Tips http://ow.ly/Ta9RU @TYCWriting

Supporting characters:  http://ow.ly/Ta98i  and http://ow.ly/Ta9cw @Jackson_D_Chase

3 tools for more productive writing:  http://ow.ly/Ta9rT  @nicholesevern

Pitching at Cons: 5 Things to Remember:  http://ow.ly/Taa0v @BreatheConf @SusieFinkbeiner

An author newsletter is our key to sales without selling (by @SomedayBox ) : http://ow.ly/ThYMb

Why don’t the kids read digital?  http://ow.ly/TgOGY @Porter_Anderson @sarahmedway

Style Sheets, Style Guides, and Why Audrey Hepburn Style is a Writer’s Best Friend:  http://ow.ly/Ta1DG @RuthHarrisBooks

Nobody Said YA Books Aren’t For Teens:  http://ow.ly/TgOvc @Porter_Anderson @molly_wetta

How to Write Anti-Heroes and Villains:  http://ow.ly/Ta2YR @Jackson_D_Chase

A Writing Notebook: The One Tool Every Writer Needs:  http://ow.ly/Ta2PM @MaryleeMacD

How to Co-Write a Story in Google Docs:  http://ow.ly/Ta32f @alyssa__holly

The Job of Protagonists & Antagonists:  http://ow.ly/Ta2U3 @hookedonnoir

The top writing links of the week on Twitterific:
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Writing the Cozy Mystery–Points to Consider

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the last post in my series on cozy writing. (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  6.) Today I thought I’d wrap up a few things that are, mostly, specific to cozies (where some of the earlier posts could have been applied to other subgenres of mysteries.)

Murder method.  If the method is gory, the state of the victim’s body isn’t explained in great detail. There isn’t a focus on forensics in cozies.  If you’re using guns, be accurate but move away from a lot of forensic detail…keeping it simple.  In a cozy, the focus is on the puzzle itself.

There tends to be a lot of blunt force trauma, suffocation, strangulation, stabbing, poisoning, and victims being pushed down staircases.

When should the body be found?  If you’re writing for a trade press, your cozy should be a murder mystery instead of a robbery, etc.   My editors wanted to have a body before page thirty, if at all possible. I think that’s because they were worried about pace, but also because mystery readers are always looking out for who the possible victim is and they can get frustrated if that victim doesn’t surface.  They want to start figuring out the puzzle.

Profanity.  Although some cozies do have profanity, many don’t.  There are even reader lists online of profanity-free cozies.  Authors are, naturally, free to write what they want—but I will say that I responded to readers (and you wouldn’t believe how many messages I got on my use of profanity in early books) and cut it out completely.  I didn’t really care one way or another about it and there were readers who really cared a lot.  I thought the profanity I used was very minor, but I stopped using it after 2011 or so.

Puzzles.  One of the most important elements of the book.  It needs to be complex enough for experienced mystery readers to be surprised by the ending, but it must be completely fair.  Distractions must follow clues, there needs to be enough diversity in motive, and it helps if suspects obfuscate.

Series.  If you’re writing a cozy, be prepared to write a series.  Readers expect it, and some mystery readers won’t even start reading a series until there are at least several books in it.  I think they feel that if they’re going to invest their time in learning the characters and the story world, they want to make sure the author isn’t going to give up on the series.

It used to be that trad pubs would offer 3-book deals.  Then it became 3 books for the first contract, 2 each for following contracts.  They’re in a state of flux now with the digital disruption, but the publishers are still buying/pushing series.  And, if we’re publishing the cozies independently, it’s a good idea for us to follow their lead there.

Humor. Strongly suggested.  The book doesn’t have to be filled with it, but the general tone of a cozy shouldn’t be too heavy. If the focus is mainly on crime, we should try to lighten it up in spots when things get too serious.  The books tend to be more of an escape for readers.

Adult content.  The author should close the door on the couple…there is no explicit sex in cozies.

Title Selection.  Obviously, again, authors can choose what they want.  But I will say that the punning title is specific to cozies and can help readers to quickly identify the type of mystery that you write.

Hope this series has helped for anyone who is working on a cozy mystery.  I know there have also been some questions from writers who thought they were writing a cozy mystery and now aren’t so sure.  There is definitely some crossover with mysteries.  But, in general, if you were to pull up “cozy mysteries” on Amazon, you’ll see a lot of common ground in the choice of title, cover design, book description, and series hook. Series published by the Big 5 will have recipes and craft tips in the back of the books. That’s the commercial cozy.

If you have some similarities to cozies in your mystery…lack of gore, lack of profanity, amateur sleuth, crime takes place offstage, focus on the puzzle…but you don’t have a series hook (crafts, cuisine, pet lovers) or a lot of humor, you may want to independently publish your book. You could also query a book with a slightly more complex, heavier feel as a “dark cozy” or “edgy cozy.” (I think Sheila Connolly’s popular series are a good example.)

If you’re self-publishing it, you could choose to call it a cozy (you’d want to indicate it’s a cozy with your cover design, your title, and your book description), or you could think of it more as a traditional mystery or a soft-boiled (somewhere between a hard-boiled mystery and a cozy…maybe Janet Evanovich or Sue Grafton. I would include M.C. Beaton’s books, too ). Some call these contemporary mysteries, but I think that’s a little too vague.  Definitions vary with a traditional mystery, but you have a little more leeway. The sleuth can be an amateur or a professional.  They can be light or darker.  The stories can address more controversial subjects. The reader expectations aren’t quite as rigid as they are for the cozy mystery.

Hopefully this all makes sense.  Any questions from anyone?  And thanks for reading this blog series.

Points to consider when writing the cozy mystery:
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The Secret to Sales Without Selling: Your Author Newsletter

by Joel D Canfield, @SomedayBox

I once surveyed all the authors I knew about what they wanted most for their writing.

The universal response was “Someone to do my marketing for me.”

I considered setting up an affordable and effective marketing service and then trying to sell it to all those people, but that’d be like Henry Ford giving us faster horses.

What authors really want is a way to spend more time writing and less time marketing, but still sell books. And if possible, to do it without hating themselves in the morning. Or being hated by everyone around them.

I’ll state my premise up front: the way to do that is follow these two steps:

Write more top-quality books, and
have a great email/newsletter list.

Authors who write more good books sell more books.

Authors with a newsletter email list full of fans sell more books.

And they do it with less marketing, more writing.

Here’s how.

The Magic Formula

Everybody loves a step-by-step to get reliable repeatable results. A checklist for success.

The thinking is, if only we could find exactly the right time of day to tweet, the precise number of blog posts to write each week, the perfect balance of Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Kobo and just the right book launch strategy, everything would fall into place.

There’s good news, and there’s bad news.

The Good News

Marketing is easy: tell people who love books like yours that you’ve written one.

The Bad News

I don’t know who those people are. Neither do you.

Back to the Good News

You can find out who those people are by watching them sign up for your newsletter. A newsletter list of people who signed up because they care is the Golden Ticket, the brass ring, the Holy Grail.

So here’s the one-step magical formula for marketing your books: tell your newsletter list about it.

If you wish you didn’t have to spend so much time marketing, you hate marketing, why do you have to sell yourself for pity’s sake what’s with all the marketing I just want to write, here’s some more good news: building your newsletter is the organic result of making personal connections with people.

It’s slow. It’s not guaranteed. It involves interacting with other human beings, something many authors are unaccustomed to.

But it’s relatively easy, it won’t interfere with your writing, or anything else in your life, and it doesn’t require skills beyond what you already have. You’re probably already spending more time on social media than it requires.

Here’s how it works (wherein we finally get that list you’ve been looking for.)

The Step-by-Step List

Everything you do to market yourself (yourself, not your books) leads folks to your newsletter. Here’s how it works:

They sign up for your newsletter because
they like what they read at your blog because
you answered their question generously after
they liked your Facebook page because
they read your Twitter feed about
your comment at someone else’s blog.

Swap in any social media platforms (Pinterest, LinkedIn, Ello) because mostly, it doesn’t matter. Go where your people are. Or, be where you already are, and connect with your people who are also there. 7 billion people on the planet. Finding people is not hard. Narrowing your focus is hard.

Go forth and be generous and patient. People will follow you home. Slowly. But they will.

And when they fall in love with your writing, the hard part is done and the marketing becomes dead simple: tell them you’ve written another book.

Should I Give Something Away?

Another ubiquitous question. For your author newsletter, I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The best way to let visitors become fans, to fall in love with your writing, is to give them some of it, like a sample in the grocery store will have you scrambling to the aisle where you can pick up some of that coconut cherry almond fudge you just sampled.

Generosity is your greatest marketing tool. Don’t use it sparingly; spread it around like manure (or, perhaps, coconut cherry almond fudge) and watch things grow.

Generosity and free aren’t the same thing. Generous can include over-delivering on what you were paid to do. I’ve had generous helpings of fish at our favorite chippy in St. Paul. Paid for, but still generous. When you hire me to help with your writing and publishing, generosity will be ladled over you like gravy. Good white gravy like we make in Texas for your sausage and biscuits; that kind of generous.

A newsletter is your inner circle, the folks who’ve said the blog and other social media isn’t enough; I want more.

What smart marketing person could miss the fact that these are the folks most likely to spend real live money on other things you offer?

It’s about context. A free sample doesn’t lead anyone to believe the product is free as well. If I give away my first mystery in a series to get folks hooked, they don’t believe they can have all the others free.

Quality Leads to Quantity

While this form of list-growing is slow, it’s oak-strong. Most of the folks on my list are people I interacted with personally before they signed up. I taught them something, and explicitly or not, let them know I had a newsletter.

My personal approach gives me open rates 3X more than the average. My small list engages.

We are not the Persians with an army of millions, coming to take Greece. We are the Spartans, defending the pass. Small, focused, changing the world so it won’t change us.

Want to spend your time writing instead of marketing?

It’s a one-item list:

Make good use of a newsletter.

Joel D Canfield teaches authors how to write and selfpublish without losing their mind — or their shirt.

Read more at http://SomedayBox.com and find out about his mystery-writing at http://JoelDCanfield.com .

 

 

 

Our author newsletter is the key to sales without selling (by @SomedayBox):
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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Stop sweating the synopsis and write it:  http://ow.ly/T7oW8 @hollyrob1

The Evolving Literary Agent: What Savvy Writers Need to Know:  http://ow.ly/T7oQS @JaneFriedman

5 Books About Imaginary Religions:  http://ow.ly/T7pyy @tordotcom  by Michael W. Clune

Weaving a Tapestry of Page-Turning Story:  http://ow.ly/T7oXH @Saboviec             

On Trying Something New:  http://ow.ly/T7pje @ava_jae

The Legal Side of Writing for Anthologies:  http://ow.ly/T7ohM @susanspann

Hanging in the Back Matter: Indents Are the Rule: http://ow.ly/Ta2O7 @JFBookman

A 12-Month Strategic Plan for Marketing Your Book before Release:  http://ow.ly/Ta2xQ @instntpublisher

The Secret to a Powerful Author Brand:  http://ow.ly/Ta1u8 @kristenlambtx

Pay-What-You-Want Pricing: Does it work for books?  http://ow.ly/Ta1oW @payhip

Promo efforts that worked best for one bestselling author:  http://ow.ly/Ta2Bq @VirginiaGraybks

Toy Story Shows the Key to Subtle Character Development:  http://ow.ly/T7omg @KMWeiland

Manuscript to Ebook: A Cleaning Guide:  http://ow.ly/T7owE @dkudler

6 Tips for Finding a Cover Artist:  http://ow.ly/T7oBP @jamigold

Literary Style: 15 Writers and Their Bedrooms:  http://ow.ly/T7pp6 @writers_write

5 Reasons Writers Should be on Social Media Networks:  http://ow.ly/T7pCw @garyjmclaren

How to Write About Anything: 5 Steps for Researching a New Topic: http://ow.ly/T7odC @chanawrites

Establishing Your Writing Fallback Point:  http://ow.ly/T7pdK  @SuzanneBrazil

BookBub Interview, Pt 1:  http://ow.ly/T7oG1 and part 2: http://ow.ly/T7oGo    @ThereseWalsh

7 Fatal Flaws That Told 1 Writer Her Novel Wasn’t Ready to Pitch:  http://ow.ly/T4XQp @StephofLegends

Writing and the Creative Life: The Creative Personality:  http://ow.ly/T4Y4E @gointothestory

4 Essential Tips On Writing Young Adult Fiction:  http://ow.ly/T4XC4 @RuthanneReid

Simple Tips for Smarter Self Promotion:  http://ow.ly/T4Yaf @artofstoriesAB

Rewrite: Revisit the Story:  http://ow.ly/T4YNn @seanbhood

What is the 1st Act? http://ow.ly/T4YEX @seanbhood

So You Want to Write YA Thrillers? http://ow.ly/T4Xhe @ava_jae

8 Things to Cut When You Kill Your Darlings:  http://ow.ly/T4XZ9 @shesnovel

Deep editing:  http://ow.ly/T4Xmx  @MargieLawson @erniewords

A 4-draft writing process:  http://ow.ly/T4XGt @kseniaanske

8 Ways the Military Deals With Magical Powers:  http://ow.ly/T4YmI @tordotcom  by Chris Lough

Should We Keep Writing the Same Characters for Years? http://ow.ly/T4X1k @RobinGunn

Post Conference To Do List:  http://ow.ly/T2eKR  @SLeesmithAuthor

A great question to ask about your protagonist:  http://ow.ly/T2eef @gointothestory

Simple Instagram Tips For Authors:  http://ow.ly/T2ewG @shelleyhitz

Are Major, Traumatic Events Off Limits? http://ow.ly/T2dMW  @sarahrcallender

Hide your story’s structure with emotion:  http://ow.ly/T2dA6 @shalvatzis

5 Steps to Creating Your Writing Ritual:  http://ow.ly/T2dDS @Cara_Putman

Blog Your Book to Build Author Platform:  http://ow.ly/T2eqZ @NinaAmir

Writing Mental Illness in Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/T2emK  @AmberSkyeF

6 P’s to Success in Your Writing Life:  http://ow.ly/T2dIH @OrlyKonigLopez

Following Through After a Conference:  http://ow.ly/T2eTQ  @bethany_house

5 Books About Inconvenient (Unlikable) Women:  http://ow.ly/T2e44 @zenaldehyde

5 Observations on the Evolution of Author Business Models:  http://ow.ly/T9bVg @JaneFriedman

4 Puzzle Pieces to Hook Your Readers:  http://ow.ly/SYu1B @jeancogdell

Script Analysis: “Looper”: Scene By Scene Breakdown: http://ow.ly/SYu8t @gointothestory

Pitching on Twitter: How to Circumvent the Slush:  http://ow.ly/SYu5V @s_lovett @DIYMFA

A Case Study on Family as a Literary Theme:  http://ow.ly/SYu74 @SaraL_Writer @DIYMFA

Taking the Standing Desk to the Next Level:  http://ow.ly/SYtRn  @KeithCronin

Picking the Right Viewpoint Character for Your Scene:  http://ow.ly/SYuaw @septcfawkes

10 Poses To Show Character Development Through Body Language:  http://ow.ly/SYtVC  @MiaJouBotha

What to Expect from Editors:  http://ow.ly/SYu9E @lindasclare

Confidence. If You Don’t Have This, You Might As Well Forget It:  http://ow.ly/SYtyC @10minnovelist

Is It Okay To End A Sentence With A Preposition? http://ow.ly/SYu4j @epbure

Podcasts for Authors: 5 author marketing podcasts:  http://ow.ly/SYtT7 @wherewriterswin

The Fundamentals of Writing a Scene:  http://ow.ly/SYtNu @plotwhisperer

Tracking dysfunctional sleuths in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/T1nl6 @mkinberg

Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? http://ow.ly/SVRlD  @StephenKing

How Authors and Editors Can Work Better Together:  http://ow.ly/SVREu @andylowe99 @ReedsyHQ

Quit Your Day Job:  http://ow.ly/SVRBo @jaelmchenry

On the Lack of Chronic Illness Rep in YA:  http://ow.ly/SVRq7 @ava_jae

Beta-Readers and Editors: Diversity is Strength : http://ow.ly/SVReb by Diane Fraser @womenwriters

Create characters with the Enneagram Personalisty model:  http://ow.ly/SVRHt @nicholesevern

How to Let Your Characters Move The Story Forward:  http://ow.ly/SVRu4 @stephmorrill

2 Stammer Verbs to Avoid in Your Fiction:  http://ow.ly/SVR9o @JRHwords

What should you do when you don’t want to write anymore?  http://ow.ly/SVRiV @calebpirtle

Voice recognition Software:  http://ow.ly/SVRxy @PBRWriter

How Setting Affects Our Characters:  http://ow.ly/SVR38 @writers_write

Strengthen Your Story Concept with Story Generators:  http://ow.ly/SVRNb @artofstoriesAB

Query Boot Camp:  Unsuccessful Query Letters are Analyzed: http://ow.ly/T1o1n @ReedsyHQ and @RFaithEditorial

Inspiration for Indie Authors Going Global: #NINC15 Conference Report:  http://ow.ly/T2juI @OrnaRoss

Will I ever feel like a Real Writer?  http://ow.ly/T1yqO  by @Alison_Stone

Takeaways from the #NINC15 conference: http://ow.ly/T1e66

Quests in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/T1dBn @mkinberg

Focusing On The Premise:  http://ow.ly/SSXGO @RachelHauck

When to give up on a story: http://ow.ly/SSXwF from Writing Questions Answered

Don’t hide being a writer:  http://ow.ly/SSXaB @angiedicken

Make the Thing That Scares You:  http://ow.ly/SSWHz @artistthink

Where to market or publish your poetry and resources for poets:  http://ow.ly/SSXhL @booklaunchdemon

Trope Spotlight: The MacGuffin:  http://ow.ly/SSX0Y @enderawiggin

Ebook Covers: Create Cover Images Which Sell:  http://ow.ly/SSWSo @angee

Obsession, Delusion, and Writing:  http://ow.ly/SSXPX @kristinerusch

5 Excuses to Protect Your Writing Time:  http://ow.ly/SSX7F @HeatherJacksonW

7 Ways Self-Publishing Can Save Your Career:  http://ow.ly/SSWWk @courtneyromano

Tips for Character Development: http://ow.ly/SSXMJ

The Obsessive Worldbuilder Quiz:  http://ow.ly/SSXtv  @Philip_Overby

How a Character’s Choice of Clothing Benefits the Story:  http://ow.ly/SMQdc

3 Things Learned About Writing from Analyzing Stephen King’s IT:  http://ow.ly/SMPZH @hannah_haney

Searching for Tim Cook’s Energy Bar:  http://ow.ly/SLpCr @DanBlank @99u

When to start physically describing characters? http://ow.ly/SMQQ1 from FYCD

6 Tips for Switching Genres:  http://ow.ly/SMRK8 @JulietBlackwell

Track Changes:  The Essential Tool for Writers and Editors:  http://ow.ly/SMQ8P @daveBricker

The Pros and Cons of Audiobook Publishing:  http://ow.ly/SMRGE @RogerDColby

How to Overcome the Fear of Putting Yourself Out There:  http://ow.ly/SMQVS @susancain

12 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Magic System:  http://ow.ly/SMQxD @metteharrison

Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Being in the Shadow of a Successful Sibling:  http://ow.ly/SMQo2 @beccapuglisi

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Writing the Cozy Mystery–Common Pitfalls

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

If you’re just joining us, I’ve been running a series on writing cozy mysteries. (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  Today I thought I’d cover a few problem areas that we might run into when writing a cozy mystery.

Slow pace, story seems weighed down.   Is the story too basic and formulaic? What’s going on with your sleuth in her personal life? What background can we discover about the suspects? Is there a subplot we can develop that sheds light on one of the recurring story characters? Are there recurring story characters (they are common in cozies).  Can we tie in the subplot with the mystery somehow?

The issue could be mechanical, too. Try for shorter sentences, more dialogue, and shorter chapters.  Try changing the sentence structure around a little.

The story is confusing.  Review the number of suspects and supporting characters. Eliminate any that don’t contribute or at least offer a brief reintroduction of the character if he’s been offstage for a while.

Is the mystery too complex?  Sometimes too much complexity can make the story unbelievable. We can still make a simple mystery with very basic motives (this is better for a cozy mystery, anyway) and surprise the reader at the end.  Remember, the sleuth is also learning more about each suspect and how they related to the victim—it’s not all about clues to the killer.  It’s about clues to the suspects’ character, too.

Our beta readers figure out whodunit…way too early. Or, they’re not surprised at the killer at the end of the story.

If readers are figuring out clues to the killer too early in the story, we need to distract from the clues with very noisy red herrings.  An argument, another body, something that appears to be an important clue. An alibi that’s disproven. Anything that we can input to make it look as though the red herring is more important than the actual clue.

If readers aren’t surprised when the killer is revealed, we need to redirect them better.  I like to pick a suspect who seems very likely to have done it and throw a last minute red herring out there in a very subtle way.  So the reader thinks they’re picking up on a hidden clue.  Instead, we close down the story quickly after that and unveil the actual murderer.  In the wrap-up, we can address any loose ends.

Series hook seems clunky when inserted in the text instead of woven in more seamlessly.

If the series hook is quilting, for instance, we could create the murder around a quilting event…a guild meeting or a quilt show, etc.  Or we could stage it at the local quilt shop.  Or the quilt shop could function as a sort of town hub or hangout for characters to facilitate suspect questioning.

In my culinary series, I’ve had murders take place at barbeque festivals and functions the barbeque restaurant was catering.

Editors have stressed to me time and time again that readers of mysteries with craft hooks like a good deal of detail on fabric, texture, etc., in addition to quilting activity.  This also goes for culinary mysteries and other crafting mysteries.  If we’re looking to query a trade press, then that’s the direction we’re going to want to go in.  It doesn’t come naturally to me so I have to work it in (usually in a pass during draft two).

Are there any other trouble areas you can think of in a cozy mystery?  What have I missed?  The saggy middle is easy for mysteries…insert another body. :)

Tips for overcoming common pitfalls in writing the cozy mystery:
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The NINC Conference—Interesting Points

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The Novelists, Inc. or NINC, conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida, was chock-full of interesting speakers and takeaways.  Looking around the conference rooms, nearly everyone was jotting down notes on paper or their laptops.  And…the weather was wonderful there. I was happy to escape the dismal weather North Carolina has had lately.

A few takeaways I wanted to share (these are from sessions I attended, but you can hear from others if you go to @Porter_Anderson or @JaneFriedman’s #NINC15 tweets on Twitter:

International markets: 

In the interesting First Word session of the conference (a day-long session of industry thinkers), I was interested to hear that Germany is the third largest ebook market after the US and the UK (this from Matthias Matting, who is a German author and publisher).

However, interesting point, Amazon can’t compete on price in Germany because price-fixing laws. Books must cost the same whether they’re for sale in a store or online.

But Amazon is still popular there.  Amazon and the German Tolino dominate the market there. If you go solely through Amazon, though, you will miss 40% of the market.

Scott Beatty and Jim Bryant, co-founders of Trajectory, spoke on their work in the Chinese market.  Self-publishing there is called “online literature” and is driven, similarly to Wattpad here, by mobilization and story serialization. Writers there have their work licensed as video games, film, and television.

There are 294 million readers there and  1.4 billion consumers.  It’s the second largest publishing market with a 16 billion dollar valuation.

And…according to Scott, the size of the English-speaking market in China is the same as the US population.

Unfortunately, the books Trajectory submits to the Chinese book market has to be approved by government censors.  This includes each format of every book, even if one format (print) has already been approved by censors. They’re particularly looking for what Scott called “the three Ts”: Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan.

Digital publishing analyst Thad McIlroy emphasized the size of the English market…enormous. It’s not just the native speakers or second-language speakers, it’s also those learning English. One in five people, worldwide, speak English as a native, second, or foreign language.

Pricing and Selling tips: 

Gareth Cuddy, CEO of Vearsa recommended averaging together the top 20 or top 100 titles in your genre/subgenre and then check in on and change prices frequently.

He also recommends selling ebooks directly  using Gumroad, Aerbook, and Payhip.

Draft2Digital‘s Dan Wood and Joshua Unruh provided data indicating that series with the first book free generated over three times the revenue of those that didn’t.

Draft2Digital can set-up pre-orders (even without a manuscript) for books at retailers Tolino, Nook, Apple, and Kobo.  They recommend Apple as having the most profitable results from pre-orders.  You can set them up there even a year in advance and they will boost a book’s ranking during both the pre-order and the release day.

At #NINC: Also-boughts are social-driven, @trajectory recommends books by content. @InfoJedi

— Elizabeth S Craig (@elizabethscraig) October 2, 2015

Innovation:

The audience also heard about Trajectory’s work in mapping books.  Book recommendations are getting smarter. Trajectory’s Scott Beatty and Jim Bryant use algorithms that map books to show patterns of intensity and sentiment .  Where Also-boughts are social-driven, Trajectory recommends books by content.

Draft2Digital uses a tool that will generate back-matter buy links for our ebooks and  automatically changes them when we have new releases.

Author Asst. @AuthorRx : Time-saving tip: create a file with interview Qs and As. Tweak answers for new interview requests. #ninc15

— Elizabeth S Craig (@elizabethscraig) October 3, 2015

Metadata: 

I am geeky enough to have really gotten into this informative session from Lori Bennett who is the digital liaison for Nelson Literary Agency.  Her tips:

Make sure your book description includes elements from your bio (“bestselling author” is a good one) as well as a quote from a blurb.

Consistency is very important, especially with series metadata. We want readers to be able to find the other books in our series.  The title of our series needs to be exactly the same from book to book and retailer to retailer. (Is it The My YA Series, or is it just My YA Series?)

If a retailer or distributor doesn’t give us a tags or keywords field, we can fake it by adding these keywords into our book descriptions.

Another best practice Lori mentioned is to use the most specific BISAC codes we can.  We should avoid the throwaway category of Fiction/our genre/general.  Enter as many codes as possible:  three is good, five is better.

Metadata:Lori Bennett of NLA Digital:Synchronize series titles:Is it "*The* My YA Series" or "My YA Series?"Consistency is key. #NINC15

— Elizabeth S Craig (@elizabethscraig) October 3, 2015

I’m a member of ALLi (the Alliance of Independent Authors) and am sometimes asked if it makes sense for US writers to join or if it’s more UK centric.  Founder Orna Ross stressed that they’re committed to being an international organization and are now working toward offering MeetUps for members.

ALLi is a "bridge between good services and members," providing info for writers around the globe. #ninc15 @OrnaRoss http://t.co/0jHZDoXfpV

— Elizabeth S Craig (@elizabethscraig) October 4, 2015

Information: 

Since publishing news changes rapidly, Porter Anderson and Jane Friedman have developed The Hot Sheet: a subscription newsletter to keep writers and industry observers informed.

Those are the notes that I took. As I mentioned, it was a great conference and full of very useful information.  Any questions on anything here (if I can’t answer them, I can always try to find the answers)?

Takeaways from the #NINC15 conference:
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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

7 Of The Worst Tropes About Creativity:  http://ow.ly/SAvlH @Jonwestenberg

13 Ways to Be a Successful Guest Post Author:  http://ow.ly/SAvDy @ShelleySturgeon

Script To Screen: “Alien”:  http://ow.ly/SAven @gointothestory

Is New York publishing: a dream or the big lie?  http://ow.ly/SAv5M @calebpirtle      

Word Count: How Many Words In a Novel? http://ow.ly/SAvI2 @joebunting

Active Practice vs. Passive Learning:  http://ow.ly/SAvPZ  @CarolAnneMalone

How to Become a Bestselling, Full-Time Novelist: It’s SO Easy! http://ow.ly/SAv7S @DanBlank

10 Tips for Coming Up With Story Ideas:  http://ow.ly/SAvLJ  @ink_and_quills

Struggling to Get Published? You’re Not Alone. http://ow.ly/SAvuC  @readjennymartin

Writing Better Characters:  http://ow.ly/SAvbD  @PBRWriter

7 Steps to Creating a Flexible Outline for Any Story:  http://ow.ly/SAvhT @KMWeiland

What is Theme?  Deconstructing an Elusive Concept:  http://ow.ly/SAvyD @ink_and_quills

What Makes a Good Ending? http://ow.ly/SEBaH from Not so Classically Trained Writer

How to Write About Your Pets:  http://ow.ly/SEAKe by Anne Kaier @writersdigest

6 tips on writing characters:  http://ow.ly/SEB0j @DinahJefferies

Writing the YA Contemporary:  http://ow.ly/SEAXJ @ava_jae

Quick Fix Revision: Plugging Plot Holes:  http://ow.ly/SEBcA @lindasclare

3 Literary Devices to Use in Our Writing:  http://ow.ly/SEAF9 @EmilyWenstrom

10 Ways To Stand Out With A Unique Writing Style:  http://ow.ly/SEB4N @bookrangerkath

Using Short Stories to Promote Our Novels:  http://ow.ly/SEB2i @raynehall

Writing In a Foreign Language: Like English:  http://ow.ly/SEB8c by Nils Ödlund

Rewrite: Revisit The Story:  http://ow.ly/SEARG @seanbhood

Pushing the Boundaries of Literature:  http://ow.ly/SEAWR @artofstoriesAB

5 Things Every Antagonist Needs:  http://ow.ly/SEAU2 @larin20 @writedivas

5 Publishing Tips Learned From Working at Amazon: http://ow.ly/SHElg  @Lexirad

100+ Places to Market Your Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Book: http://ow.ly/SHEFs  @booklaunchdemon

Getting Over the Hump of the Blank Page: http://ow.ly/SHE7e @kristanhoffman

How 1 Writer Revises in Passes (video):  http://ow.ly/SHEKO @ava_jae

What Makes Good Creative Non-Fiction?  http://ow.ly/SHEgZ  @lawz_m

How to Typeset a Novel in Microsoft Word: http://ow.ly/SHEaZ  @JillWilliamson  @Goteenwriters

The Art of Making It: Rekindling Your Motivation:  http://ow.ly/SHEAe @VaughnRoycroft

On Repetition in Writing:  http://ow.ly/SHE5L @ava_jae

Avoiding Distractions:  http://ow.ly/SHEnc @MaryVeeWriter

Characters of Color, Constant Abuse, and Racism as a Theme:  http://ow.ly/SHEec from Writing With Color

7 Tips for Negotiating Your Mystery Movie Deal:  http://ow.ly/SHE55 @CarmenConnects

Screenwriting: Creative Career Failures (And Why You Will Succeed):  http://ow.ly/SHECf @ozzywood

Understanding Screenwriting (With Films as Examples): http://ow.ly/SHEwh by Tom Stempel

4 Reasons to Never Write Alone:  http://ow.ly/SIist @McgannKellie

It’s Not A Story Until Something Goes Wrong:  http://ow.ly/SIisT @AnthonyEhlers

Why 1 Writer Hates Wattpad (And Then: Why She Doesn’t):  http://ow.ly/SIio0 @EmilyFRussell

8 Ways to Take Control of Social Media:  http://ow.ly/SIiDa @timgrahl

3 Ways To Make Your Stories Credible:  http://ow.ly/SIiLH @authorterryo

The 4 Steps to Sustained Creativity:  http://ow.ly/SIiv1 @gingermoran

Scientific Tips to Improve Our Writing:  http://ow.ly/SIiND @passivevoiceblg @FuturityNews

Self Publishing a Book? Advice we shouldn’t follow:  http://ow.ly/SIiVR @Nick_Stephenson

The Overwhelmed Writer:  http://ow.ly/SIiT1 @kristinerusch

4 Women-in-Fantasy Tropes That Are Getting Old:  http://ow.ly/SIiaa @EmilyFRussell

1st Person Or 3rd? How To Choose What’s Right For Our Story:  http://ow.ly/SIiJI  @CathyStucker

Sell More Books at the Back of the Room:  http://ow.ly/SIiEM @CathyStucker

Story Glue: 3 Examples:  http://ow.ly/SJWcr  @anna_elliott

Getting an Author Domain Name When YourName.com Is Taken:  http://ow.ly/SJULd @michaelkeshen @wherewriterswin

When love causes conflict in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/SJVTC @mkinberg

Time Management for Writers:  http://ow.ly/SJWVl  @jenroland @FinishedPages

A Writing Life and Motherhood:  http://ow.ly/SJWIP @Nina_Schuyler @FinishedPages

The Evolving Literary Agent: What Savvy Writers Need to Know:  http://ow.ly/SJVjh @JaneFriedman @writersdigest

How Not to Miss Your Editor’s Suggestions: http://ow.ly/SJUQM @ckmacleodwriter

Self-Publishing for Author-Illustrators:  http://ow.ly/SJXuX @Skipper_Bay

5 Overlooked Marketing Channels to Promote Your Books:  http://ow.ly/SJWwr by Kevin J. Wood

New ways to murder your characters: http://ow.ly/SJW0T @SueColetta1

Avoiding Common Punctuation Errors: Adjectives and Commas:  http://ow.ly/SJXc0 by Melinda Brasher

How to Edit Like a Pro:  http://ow.ly/SJVpu @RuthanneReid

When to start physically describing characters? http://ow.ly/SMQQ1 from FYCD

From Setting to Inciting Incident:  http://ow.ly/SMQJ8 @ShanDitty

Searching for Tim Cook’s Energy Bar:  http://ow.ly/SLpCr @DanBlank @99u

3 Things Learned About Writing from Analyzing Stephen King’s IT:  http://ow.ly/SMPZH @hannah_haney

How a Character’s Choice of Clothing Benefits the Story:  http://ow.ly/SMQdc

Are you guilty of taking shortcuts with your writing? http://ow.ly/SMQsR @stephenwoodfin

Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Being in the Shadow of a Successful Sibling:  http://ow.ly/SMQo2 @beccapuglisi

12 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Magic System:  http://ow.ly/SMQxD @metteharrison

How to Overcome the Fear of Putting Yourself Out There:  http://ow.ly/SMQVS @susancain

The Pros and Cons of Audiobook Publishing:  http://ow.ly/SMRGE @RogerDColby

Track Changes:  The Essential Tool for Writers and Editors:  http://ow.ly/SMQ8P @daveBricker

6 Tips for Switching Genres:  http://ow.ly/SMRK8 @JulietBlackwell

4 Steps to Querying a Small Press:  http://ow.ly/SJP1E @KarenGowen

You Haven’t Failed Until You’ve Quit Trying:  http://ow.ly/SyXpH from the Writer’s Society

Field trips featured in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/SJJ9b @mkinberg

A Characterization Study on Little Women:  http://ow.ly/SyXej @JillWilliamson

5 Things 1 Writer Wishes She’d Have Known Before Self-Publishing:  http://ow.ly/SyX2o  @dela_52

New Writers: Balancing Personal Life and Writing Career:  http://ow.ly/SyXD7 by Kathleen Moulton

Preparing the Perfect Pitch:  http://ow.ly/SyXyq @writerashley

10 Rules of Writing a Novel:  http://ow.ly/SyWRc @BettyDraper

9 Famous Anti-Social Fictional Characters:  http://ow.ly/SyXnh @writers_write

Avoid Common Ebook Marketing Mistakes in 6 Steps:  http://ow.ly/SyWY5 by Edward Warner

How to Switch Gears from Writing to Editing:  http://ow.ly/SyWTD @MudpieWriting

10 Tricks to Cut Your Word Count:  http://ow.ly/SyXLV  @karenmarston

How to be a Better Writer: Be Precise:  http://ow.ly/SyXjV  @ErinMFeldman

Pulling Your Hero Into the Magical Realm:  http://ow.ly/SyX84 @mythcreants by Chris Winkle

7 Ways to Build a Business Around Our Nonfiction Book: http://ow.ly/Swmcn @NinaAmir

How to Be a Successful Writer: Stop Comparing Ourselves to Others:  http://ow.ly/Swl02 @sara_crawford

Should We Delete That Conflict Scene? A 3-Question Quiz: http://ow.ly/SwkWJ @Write_Tomorrow

15 Tips for Achieving Our Creative Goals Every Day:  http://ow.ly/Swmgu @WriterJoMalby

7 Things to Do Before We Get Published:  http://ow.ly/SwlrC  @MadelineMMartin

30 Marketing Questions that Self-Published Authors Must Answer:  http://ow.ly/Swm5H by Jason Walberg

3 mistakes we’re making on Goodreads:  http://ow.ly/SwlyU @sandrabeckwith

3 Ways to Explore Your Own Imagination:  http://ow.ly/SwlQJ  @PerigeeBooks

State by state list of libraries and their contact info:  http://ow.ly/SwlFA @wherewriterswin

 

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