Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 119

10 ways to tell if your book is ready for publishing

by   Sarah Juckes,  @CompletelyNovel

Any writer nearing the end of the writing or editing process may be all-too familiar with the worrying prospect of sending their newly-fledged work out into the big, wide world. With questions like: ‘what if it flops?’ ringing in your ears, it’s easy enough to sink into what I like to call ‘publishing-procrastination’ – where you keep tinkering with your manuscript and changing the odd word, only to then change it back again. Sound familiar? Here are ten things you can do to prove to yourself that your manuscript is 100% finished. Do these, and your book is officially ready to fly.

Check for chronological inconsistencies

It’s so easy to get dates mixed up – especially if you’re writing fiction with flashbacks or a memoir. Try plotting your events on a timeline and match the dates up with the dates you have written in the book. There are some great online timeline tools that can help, such as Office Timeline. Although it’s made for presentations, it’s pretty easy to use and will help you get a clear view of how your book works in real-time.

Do a ‘find and replace’ for character names or references

Do you reference a name with an unusual spelling, or did you change a character’s name between drafts? Doing a ‘find and replace’ in Word is a really easy way to pick out those slip-ups without having to re-read your book – again. Just press ‘ctrl+’F’ (on Windows) or cmd+’F’ (on Mac) to search and correct.

Give your book to someone else to read

Whether you’re planning to send your book to an agent or traditional publisher, or self-publish your book as an eBook or in print, you should always give it to someone else to read first. As writers, we are way too close to our work to be able to see those gaping holes. Give it to those you trust – family, friends, or a writing circle – and see what they think. Or, if you are self-publishing, send your book to a professional editor for a developmental or copy edit.

Add in some basic typesetting

Make it easy for your preliminary readers to engage with your book by separating chapters with page breaks and using a clear font. There’s more information on how to do this in Microsoft Word on CompletelyNovel, here.

Speak to your target reader

Who are you writing for? This question should always be at the front of your mind throughout the writing, publishing and marketing process. Finding out what they think of your title, your concept, your voice and even your thoughts on cover design, can be a really useful way of ensuring that your book is going to appeal to your target market and sell once it’s published.

Know that you can’t please everyone

Books are subjective. Your mum might hate it, but your dad will love it. You might find that you get really great comments about your title from most people you speak to, but one person won’t like it at all. It’s impossible to please everyone and no author should try. As long as your book makes sense and your target readers give you mainly positive feedback, you’re on to a winner.

Know what your publishing aim is

What do you want to get out of publishing your book? Do you want to sell many to lots of readers, or are you happy being well-received by a few? Are you looking to build a career around your book, or do you want to focus on writing your next one? Answering these questions are important to realising what publishing path is the right one for you. If you’d like to earn money or build a career from your book, then you might want to think about self-publishing as an option.

Think about where your book fits into the current book market

“My book is Wild meets Elizabeth is Missing.”

“My book appeals to readers of Girl on a Train.”

Comparing your book to current bestsellers is a great way to help agents understand how they might go about selling your book, or how can talk about your book with readers. Publishing is a business and knowing how your book fits into this is a really helpful exercise, whether you are looking to be a bestseller, or are targeting a niche market.

Pitch your book to a total stranger

Think your family and friends are being nice when they tell you that your book is awesome? Try pitching it to someone you don’t know. What questions do they ask? Use this feedback to nail your elevator pitch.

Be prepared to work hard

However you’re publishing, sending your book out into the wide world isn’t the end. In fact, writing is only the beginning of a life-long relationship that you’ll have with your book through book creation, publishing and marketing. Be ready to put as much into this next stage as you have with your writing and trust me, you’ll do fine.

Now, it’s time to stop tinkering let fly!

Sarah Juckes is the Communications Manager for CompletelyNovel.com. Sarah helps hundreds of authors take the plunge into self-publishing, using simple online tools to create and publish high-quality print books.

For more advice on any aspect of publishing, check out the expert advice at http://completelynovel.com/. Connect  @CompletelyNovel

The post 10 ways to tell if your book is ready for publishing appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

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 Keys to Building Relatable Characters:  http://ow.ly/LJu8t @MartinaABoone

How 7 Literary Authors Collaborated to Launch a Box Set: http://ow.ly/LJunC @Roz_Morris @Janefriedman

Review on Pronouns: http://ow.ly/LJu1D from Melissa Gilbert

Avoiding Melodrama in Your Story:  http://ow.ly/LJtpD @LaurieTomlinson 

Using Examples to Learn Beat Sheets: http://ow.ly/LJugM @jamigold

Query Question: ‘toss this and start over':  http://ow.ly/LJtYX @Janet_Reid

3 Secrets to School Visit Success:  http://ow.ly/LJtOV @kirsticall

Strengthen the Foreshadowing and Reveals:  http://ow.ly/LJtti @Janice_Hardy

What Do Your Readers Know and When Do They Know It? http://ow.ly/LJucn by Dave King

7 foolproof design tips for book covers: http://ow.ly/LPgFe @creativindie

The rise of zombies as high-brow monsters:  http://ow.ly/LPg8H @albomike

Creating Responsive Characters:  http://ow.ly/LPfVM  @CarolAnneMalone

7 Tips for Writing Captivating Description: http://ow.ly/LPgdO @mrJRPatterson @thePenleak

How to keep writing when time is scarce: 6 tips: http://ow.ly/LPgMA @Roz_Morris

Where’s the Line? On Personal Sharing in Blog Posts and Online: http://ow.ly/LPgbx @amysundberg

The Power of Our Characters’ Wounds:  http://ow.ly/LPfSY @C_Herringshaw

The Truth About Memoirs: What Took You Off The Desire Line?  http://ow.ly/LPg0x  @AnthonyEhlers

When writing a novel, hit the ground running on page 1:  http://ow.ly/LPfXJ @CalebPirtle

Punctuation Tip: How to Use ‘However’ :  http://ow.ly/LPgoS  @mariamurnane

Make it Sting: How to Write Betrayal:  http://ow.ly/LPgit @susanjmorris

How To Write A Gothic Novel:  http://ow.ly/LPg21 by Esther Kim @OmniReboot

Suggestions For Publisher-Author Partnerships from @JaneFriedman http://ow.ly/LQ23I @thewritermama

Love triangle problems:  http://ow.ly/LQ5ec  from the Right Writing Blog

5 World-Building Tips for Writers of All Genres:  http://ow.ly/LQ4Qj  @SaraL_Writer

6 Old-School Rules You Should Break as a Freelance Writer:  http://ow.ly/LQ2kx @carefulcents

Rejection Doesn’t Stop:  http://ow.ly/LQ2i8 @ava_jae

A chart of the shifting sea of genres:  http://ow.ly/LQ1PE  @popchartlab

“Bad” Writing Habits:  http://ow.ly/LQ2fs  @LatifahSalom

Writing characters, not symptoms: Autism:  http://ow.ly/LQ5nw @JoeParlock

10 questions to ask a friend who just read your book:  http://ow.ly/LQ2oJ from Mordin Writes

Confessing and confiding: elevating an essay from therapy to art: http://ow.ly/LQ4jJ by Emily Fox Gordon @theamscho

Streamline the Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/LQ2cl @Janice_Hardy

How Harlequin Became the Most Famous Name in Romance:  http://ow.ly/LQ4EV @passivevoiceblg @kellyfaircloth

What’s the Emotional Value of a Word? http://ow.ly/LRV2d @parisreview @DanPiepenbring

Using Passive Voice in Creative Writing:  http://ow.ly/LRV9g @EimhWrite

Unlocking the Narrator’s Point of View:  http://ow.ly/LRW99  by Kyla Bagnall

4 ways to avoid screenplayizing your novel:  http://ow.ly/LRVDy @nathanbransford

Grappling with the Facts: Exposition:  http://ow.ly/LRVrn by Deborah Turner Harris

Essentials of Character Building:  http://ow.ly/LRVS5 @MichelleGriep

Do-It-Yourself-MBA for Writers: Insight for the Business Side of Writing:  http://ow.ly/LJuvM @carolchiao

8 Ways Writers Can Be More Reader-Friendly:  http://ow.ly/LJtvM @JodyHedlund

Trying to free up more writing time? 10 commandments of NO:  http://ow.ly/LJtzV @jaltucher

Getting It Right: Writing About Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: http://ow.ly/LFoAu @writerology

5 Reader-Hooking Features Every Author Website Needs:  http://ow.ly/LFo7W @ChristelleWrite @shewrites

Kindle Cover Disasters:  http://ow.ly/LFmLa

A TED speaker coach shares 11 tips for right before you go on stage:  http://ow.ly/LFnTJ @tedtalks

Top 5 Ways Authors Can Use Instagram:  http://ow.ly/LFofC  @janaylampkin

5 Reasons to Write a Book Series:  http://ow.ly/LFo4T @ShelleySturgeon

Author Optimization 101: Changing Covers: http://ow.ly/LY53L @SeanPlatt

Why great novels don’t get noticed now:  http://ow.ly/LFmT6 @woodgaby @passivevoiceblg

Special Needs in Strange Worlds: Disabilities in Genre Panel from LTUE (audio) http://ow.ly/LFpdu by Sarah Chorn @sfsignal

London Book Fair: Authors, #IndieReCon And ALLi’s 3rd Anniversary:  http://ow.ly/LXvDf @Porter_Anderson @OrnaRoss

3 Keys to #writing Memoir with @LucindaSMcDowell: http://ow.ly/LFpzK @ediemelson

5 tricks to bringing emotion to life in your books: http://ow.ly/LFmGo @WriterDiaries  @vleighwrites

When Selling Books, Don’t Forget to Finish Your Swing:  http://ow.ly/LFmBD @PaulaMargulies

‘Stealing” Writing Time’ and Revisiting Your Goals: http://ow.ly/LFoiu @kayedacus

‘Women, give science fiction a chance’ : http://ow.ly/LD9DZ @JustinaRobson

Author Feuds: Infographic: http://ow.ly/LD9xk @galleycat

Different Ways to Brand Book Covers for Series:  http://ow.ly/LW6BM  @adrijusg

Meaningful Connections: The Semicolon:  http://ow.ly/LD91d  @JLeaLopez @WriteAngleBlog

6 Famous Authors Who Have Written Fanfiction:  http://ow.ly/LD95w @passivevoiceblg  @emma_a_whitford

Top 10 Elements of a Book People Want to Read: http://ow.ly/LDaUg @withpenandpaper @writersdigest

The Importance of Routines:  http://ow.ly/LD9Hz @kristinerusch

How Important is Originality? http://ow.ly/LDaRx @ava_jae

How to Create a Character Arc from Plot :  http://ow.ly/LD9LG @HeatherJacksonW

4 Reasons to Buy a Standup Desk: http://ow.ly/LDaMQ @michaelhyatt

Scrivener: The Ultimate Guide to Exporting Ebooks (Kindle, ePub, etc.): http://ow.ly/LD8OI  @NickThacker

How to Promote A Book: 3 Steps:  http://ow.ly/LDb4q  @JBennett111 @nickthacker

Organization In Writing – Drafts:  http://ow.ly/LD9lJ @rsmollisonread

Clean Up the Description and Stage Direction:  http://ow.ly/LAmz8 @Janice_Hardy

A Double Negative Is Not Always UnOK: http://ow.ly/LAmoy @writing_tips

How to Prioritize Your Creative Calling: http://ow.ly/LAn92 @ArtistThink

Aim for brevity, precision, and clarity in writing:  http://ow.ly/LAmYI @shalvatzis

Making Your Own Inspiration: A Writer’s Guide:  http://ow.ly/LAmFB @AnneGreenawalt

89+ Book Marketing Ideas:  http://ow.ly/LAmWa @authormedia

6 Suggestions for Serious Serialists: http://ow.ly/LAmhf @BeckySDoughty

Use Pinterest to Communicate with Your Cover Designer:  http://ow.ly/LR7wA @hanasu

Why are all writers paranoid?  http://ow.ly/LAnkB @CalebPirtle

Gray Areas: Sponsorship At Writers’ Conferences: http://ow.ly/LQ6K2 @Porter_Anderson

Words to Describe Hair in POC:  http://ow.ly/LAmKD by Writing With Color

How to Update an Amazon Widget:  http://ow.ly/LAmSs @authormedia

10 Issues When Self-Publishing A Children’s eBook:  http://ow.ly/LAmtw @selfpubreview

2 days of writer’s block unlocked a character’s secret:  http://ow.ly/LAm88 @Roz_Morris

Boxes of writing ideas: The Storymatic and Rory’s Story Cubes:  http://ow.ly/Lxurm @robotech_master

Smashwords and why it’s helpful for writers: http://ow.ly/LPhpB @suspense_writer @KingsRiverLife

5 Tips on Editing Another Writer’s Work:  http://ow.ly/LPgwL @BenJLancaster @thePenleak

10 Reasons for Authors to Blog:  http://ow.ly/Lxub3 @robinhoughton @annerallen

Book Titles That Sell, Productivity For Authors And Marketing For Introverts: http://ow.ly/LxC6s @thecreativepenn @timgrahl

How to turn a Complex Story into a Simple Synopsis:  http://ow.ly/LxtJi  @DrewChial

Writing with Color: Tips for Writing a Black Woman + White Man Friendship to Romance http://ow.ly/LxBN3

Top writing links for the week at Twitterific:
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Keywords for Visibility

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

There’s an adage that states potential customers must see a marketing message seven times before deciding to purchase a product.

I’m someone who has to hear about a promo technique seven times before finally deciding to experiment with it.

Except in the case of Amazon keywords. I’ve read likely a couple of dozen blog posts on Amazon keywords.  Only now have I finally scraped up enough time to work on it.

Amazon, of course,  is a search engine.  There’s metadata involved, there’s SEO involved. We need to make our books visible to potential readers.

When I originally chose my keywords, I went with terms I thought readers may be looking for. My keywords were like this: mystery, cozy mystery, women sleuths, etc.

And sure, readers are looking for these terms.  The only problem is that there was absolutely nothing unique about them. I wasn’t giving the books a boost with these keyword choices. My books are already listed in the mystery and cozy categories, so I’m basically wasting these keywords.  I’m hardly the only author putting mystery down as a keyword.  Thousands of other writers are doing the same thing.

What I wanted to do was to narrow the field and actually make my books show up on pages that cozy readers are searching for.  I took my old keywords and started plugging them into the Amazon search bar to see what came up for results. (This technique is mentioned by Joanna Penn , Penny Sansevieri , and the folks at Standout Books, among others.)

For instance, I typed cozy mystery into the search bar and then went through the alphabet. Cozy mystery a (and viewed what, if anything, came up with the auto-complete).  Then cozy mystery b…and so on.  I discovered, and this shouldn’t be a huge surprise, that apparently quite a few cozy mystery readers were searching for cozy mysteries with cats.  A look at the books on that page showed that many of the books were ranked highly on Amazon, which means they were selling, obviously.

And I thought: well, heck, I have a cat in my Myrtle Clover mysteries.  Pasha is a feral cat who occasionally obtains sidekick status during Myrtle’s exploits.  She’s not soft or cuddly or cute. But she’s a feline!  And my titles weren’t showing up for that search.

I looked at the page and sure enough, plenty of the cozy mysteries on that Amazon page appeared to be doing well.

I logged onto my KDP dashboard, changed keywords for various titles to cozy mysteries with cats and hit publish.

As I’m writing this post, I see that I have a title listed on the second search page, two on the fourth, and one on the fifth.

So, although cozy mysteries is now becoming more crowded field, I’m standing out in a narrow field with a refined search. I’m more visible.

What’s more, I’ve seen an increase in sales resulting from this technique.

Another popular search was cozy mysteries kindle free.  So I applied that to my permafree title.  Another was cozy mystery new releases. So that keyword went onto the book that came out early this month.

We can change keywords at any time.  If we don’t see good results, we can revisit what we’re doing. Obviously, the best way to sell books is to have a professional product: nice cover, good cover copy, plenty of (fair) reviews, and more titles than fewer. But if something as small as tweaking metadata can help…and this didn’t take me but a few minutes…then I’m all for it.

I’ve also seen popular keywords added as subtitles to both fiction and nonfiction books.

A word of caution that we definitely don’t want to keyword stuff  (adding our keywords to our title, subtitle, and book description to an excessive degree…where it appears very forced) or else that could potentially lead to Amazon wanting to pull the title. We wouldn’t want to violate their Terms of Service.

How did you choose your keywords?  Have you ever done a keyword search on Amazon?

Use smarter keywords for visibility on Amazon:
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How to Use Pinterest to Communicate with Your Cover Designer

by Hanna Sandvig, @hanasu

I’m a big Pinterest user, and as a cover artist nothing makes me more happy than an author who also uses Pinterest.  Cover designers are, by our nature, very visual and Pinterest is a purely visual way of conveying ideas, making it the perfect way to work with your cover designer.  Designers often don’t have time to read your book before working on the cover (and often the book is still being written when I get started!) so communicating your story through images gives us a way to read your mind, which is a pretty handy trick. Here are a few ways you can use Pinterest to communicate with your cover designer:

Make a board to communicate details about your story and characters

Do you have a specific celebrity or a photo in mind when you create the look of your characters? Pin your reference photos with a description that includes the characters name, and maybe what it is about the photo that reminds you of the character.  Sometimes it’s not just one photo, but the hair from one, the tattoo from another, you get the idea.  Pin them all!  I’ve seen boards with thirty images (photos, artwork, movie stills) about one character.  By looking at all those inspirations I can get a really clear idea of who the character is.

Characters are the most central part of your story, but you can also pin images of clothes, the setting, any details that are important.

Make a board that conveys the mood of your book

This is usually a board that you’ve created to provide inspiration while writing your book.  Especially in fantasy/sci-fi stories and historical fiction, I see a lot of boards that include all sorts of inspirations.  I love to see artwork and movie stills in boards like this.  Emotional photography, images that tell a story.   When you combine all those images together, I can get a great sense of the books tone.  Is it dreamy? Dark? Whimsical? Gritty? Romantic? You can tell me what the mood of your story is, but if I see your inspirations I can really feel it with you. Nailing the mood for your cover is the best way to attract the readers who will truly love your book.

Pin book covers that you really love 

Create a board for book covers, and whenever you come across one that inspires you, pin it with a note saying, specifically, what you like about it.  So you might pin a cover and make a note in the description that you love the font, or the layout, or the photo.  The more covers you pin, the better sense your designer will be able to get of your taste.  Don’t just pin one or two and expect them to copy the elements you like, you want a cover that suits your story and genre without being a rip-off of someone else’s work.

Try to stick to covers that are in your genre.  Readers can spot a book they will love by the way a book looks, so you don’t want to pull too much inspiration from covers outside your niche, no matter how pretty they are.  A good cover designer will research and understand the market, but you should always be an expert in what’s selling well in your genre.

Create a shared board with your designer

If your designer uses Pinterest, you can create a board for the cover project and add them as a pinner using the little “invite” button in the board’s header. This allows you both to pin images and collaborate visually.  You can share covers you like, stock photos you think could work, or different font choices.  If you don’t want the world to see the cover design process, just set the board to “private” when you create it.  Anyone you invite to a private board will be able to see it and pin on it with you.  Shared boards are a fantastic way to swap ideas about the cover and keep each other in the loop as you’re working.

I believe that the best covers are created by the designer and the author working as a team.  The author has the knowledge of the story and the market, and the designer knows the artistic side of it.  The better your communication with each other, the better the result.  So learn your designers language and work with us as visually as you can!

Do you have any questions about using Pinterest or collaborating well with a cover artist?  Let me know in the comments!

Use Pinterest to communicate with your cover designer (via @hanasu):
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Hanna Sandvig is the cover artist behind The Book Cover Bakery. She specializes in covers for Romance, Cozy Mystery and Chick-Lit novels featuring custom illustrations, original photography, and hand lettering. She is passionate about helping indie authors connect with the readers who are waiting to hear their stories.

Hanna lives in the mountains of BC, Canada, with her husband and two little girls.

The post How to Use Pinterest to Communicate with Your Cover Designer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

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.

50 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Author Platform:  http://ow.ly/LnY7I @amcbooks

Writing Tip: Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Lo0JY @lindasclare

The Ups and Downs of Indie Life:  http://ow.ly/LnYUj @Nicholas_Rossis               

5 Things 1 writer learned from Fifty Shades of Grey: http://ow.ly/Lo0GP @s_lovett

Promo basics:  http://ow.ly/Lo1gp @niniehammon

Speaking out on issues as an author:  http://ow.ly/LqRwC @mikemartinez72

15+ Tactics for Writing Humor:  http://ow.ly/LqP9E  @SeptCFawkes

10 things 1 writer learned while writing his last book:  http://ow.ly/LqR0d @austinkleon

Expand, Deepen, and Create Motion–3 Tweaks that Keep Details Interesting:  http://ow.ly/LqPIj  @SeptCFawkes

Writing a story from the villain’s POV:  http://ow.ly/LqRgQ @EimhWrite

4 Writing Processes: What Is Your Red-Zone? http://ow.ly/LqQyf @RogerDColby

Crime Writers: How To Properly Rot Your Corpses: Postmortem Decomposition:  http://ow.ly/LqQIO @LeeLofland

Writing Oneself Back to Life: http://ow.ly/LqOPB by Jamie Luce @_TheChangeBlog

The Complete Guide to Italicization:  http://ow.ly/LqP1Q @epbure

How to Write What’s Not Written (Subtext):  http://ow.ly/LqPkq @SeptCFawkes

Structure for building your novel:  http://ow.ly/LqRaR @YAtopia_blog

6 Ways to Sell Books:  http://ow.ly/LqQWa @tobywneal

5 Ways to Balance Freelance Writing Jobs and Personal Projects:  http://ow.ly/LvLIO  @charityscraig

How to Build Your Platform and Sell More Books with Podcasting:  http://ow.ly/LvLKq  @juicetom

Find your writing voice:  http://ow.ly/LvM6z by Meredith Quinn @TheWriterMag

Manuscript Pitch Websites: Do Literary Agents Use Them? http://ow.ly/LvM3g @victoriastrauss

The Query Process: laughably bad rejections:  http://ow.ly/LvLZ4  @JaneLebak

Online Writer Resources Roundup:  http://ow.ly/LvLNu @ava_jae

Eliminate Unnecessary Infodumps:  http://ow.ly/LvLGX @Janice_Hardy

What to Put On Your Author Website:  http://ow.ly/LvLRU @LEEandLOW

Tips for describing a main character: http://ow.ly/LvLDv @glencstrathy

When books don’t live up to their names:  http://ow.ly/LvLUX by Moira Redmond

How to Polish Your Writer Brand:  http://ow.ly/LvM24 @NicoleLautore

Difference Between Novels and Tales:  http://ow.ly/LvM0L @noveleditor

13  Picture Books Celebrating the Lives of Great Artists, Writers, and Scientists:  http://ow.ly/LxtYC @brainpicker

When Writing Comes Easy, Don’t Make These Mistakes:  http://ow.ly/LxtbC @vgrefer

Screenwriters: On Writing “Rules”: 8 Things to Remember:  http://ow.ly/Lxtht @bang2write

We’re all genre readers now:  http://ow.ly/LxBFL @passivevoiceblg @magiciansbook

Giving Readers Surprises and Revelations:  http://ow.ly/LxtrO  @davidfarland

The 50 Best Genre-Bending Books: http://ow.ly/LxsRn @emilypekar

10 Things That Make a Book Un-Put-Downable:  http://ow.ly/LnYiU @JohnnyBTruant

4 Tips for the Aspiring Professional Writer:  http://ow.ly/Lo0Ye @the_squishyness

Pursuing a Trad Published Dream:  http://ow.ly/LnZjG  @SueColetta1

Need – The Protagonist Wants Something:  http://ow.ly/Lo0N9 @woodwardkaren

How To Make An Author Video:  http://ow.ly/Lo0wB  @BenMWallace @mollygreene

Talking about setting: Time:  http://ow.ly/Lo0Bl @nownovel

Your Brand Needs a Visual Style Guide: Here’s How to Create One:  http://ow.ly/LnYvd @canva

At London Book Fair, talking Frankfurt Book Fair:  http://ow.ly/LFtKc @Porter_Anderson @TheFutureBook

How 1 writer improved her writing productivity by 100%:  http://ow.ly/LnWkF @novelexperienc3

4 Mistakes When Naming Characters:  http://ow.ly/LnUrd from Ima Work in Progress

The Difference Between “Flawed” Characters and “Too Dumb to Live”:  http://ow.ly/LnVTm @kristenlambtx

How the Rule of 3 Can Help Writers Avoid Backstory Slumps:  http://ow.ly/LnU4T @lindasclare

Creating to-do lists that incorporate mind, heart, and body:  http://ow.ly/LnSXL @mlvwrites

3 Essential Editing Tips For Writers:  http://ow.ly/LnT6J  @DonnaRadley

How Mirror Characters Can Illustrate Literary Themes: http://ow.ly/LnUcV @SaraL_Writer @DIYMFA

The importance of change in a setting:  http://ow.ly/LnUgC @nathanbransford

The Terror and Wonder of Watching Your Book Get Made Into a Movie:  http://ow.ly/LnVKW @TheDanWells

1st pass editing–16 questions to ask yourself:  http://ow.ly/LnVZv @KLGoing

Help for Women Writers Seeking to Bridge “The Confidence Gap”: http://ow.ly/LnTVh @themegduffy

Tips for plot time jumps and getting bogged down:  http://ow.ly/LDc3w @deanwesleysmith

Series? Stand Alone Books? What Should You Write?  http://ow.ly/LDltE @JulieMusil @AlexJCavanaugh

Tools for Novel Writers: The Editing Checklist:  http://ow.ly/LnWa4  @coolcarsoncraig

A closer look at the ebook subscription model: http://ow.ly/LwL5V #FutureChat recap @Porter_Anderson

Writing A Book According To Pinterest:  http://ow.ly/Lmvci  @larin20

How To Create The Perfect Plus Sized Heroine:  http://ow.ly/Lmvtu @DarlaGDenton

3 Simple Steps for Creating Engagement on LinkedIn:  http://ow.ly/Lmwbs @mktgcopywriter

Having Too Many Ideas: Solutions: http://ow.ly/LmvBR @jonathanballcom

3 Reasons Twitter and Writers are a Perfect Match:  http://ow.ly/Lmw2V @EdieMelson

Create a Call to Action for Your Blog:  http://ow.ly/LmvZG  @BlotsandPlots

How to take an author photo:  http://ow.ly/LBuD7 @Pages2Type

Keys to Discoverability:  http://ow.ly/LBrGf @kristinerusch @SteveCampbellFL (podcast)

Tired Of Doing It All? A Virtual Assistant Can Help:  http://ow.ly/LBm6d  @artconnectsus @thecreativepenn

How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Revisions:  http://ow.ly/Lmw6H @ava_jae

Protagonists: Making vs. Following Fate:  http://ow.ly/LmvH4 @Kid_Lit

Pop-culture and obscure references in fiction:  http://ow.ly/LmvjC @RobertJSawyer

Infographic: 50 of the World’s Most Translated Books:  http://ow.ly/Lmvfg @InkBitsPixels

A series on scenes:  http://ow.ly/LmvPu @kayedacus

Make Your Novel Salable in 7 Steps:  http://ow.ly/Lmvw2 @DeniseDrespling @WriteAngleBlog

Help with Facing Writing Fears:  http://ow.ly/Lm9mG  @ingridsundberg

Writing Nonfiction Ebooks: Easy Ideas:  http://ow.ly/Lm92b @angee

7 Ways to Make Facebook Worth Your Time:  http://ow.ly/Lm9KQ @amcbooks

Flesh Out Character Development:  http://ow.ly/Lm9Co @Janice_Hardy

Adjusting to Expectations After Publishing Your 1st Novel: http://ow.ly/LyNMy  @bryonq

7 Visual Ideas to Increase Your Social Engagement:  http://ow.ly/Lm8pn @marcushokh

Indies Hitting The Big Time: Jasinda And Jack Wilder At Berkley Books:  http://ow.ly/LwJId @Porter_Anderson @JasindaWilder

How to Build a Compelling Novel Concept:  http://ow.ly/Lm8Hs @CSLakin

11 Writers on Writing Inspiration:  http://ow.ly/LwD4D @nownovel

6 Simple Ways To Handle Viewpoint Changes:  http://ow.ly/Lm9W7 @writers_write

Do clichés have any place in writing?  http://ow.ly/LwDiu @silas_payton

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting an Author Podcast:  http://ow.ly/Lma5y @amcbooks

Publishing For Digital Minds Conference Opens London Book Fair Today:  http://ow.ly/LwJQT @Porter_Anderson

Political movements in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/LwJsL @mkinberg

3 Mistakes Nonfiction Writers Make and How to Fix Them:  http://ow.ly/Lm9gb @ninaamir

Book Bloggers: Where to Find Them and How to Win Them Over:  http://ow.ly/Lm9x8  @BlotsandPlots

Finding Media Outlets and the Pitch:  http://ow.ly/Lm8D3 @SpunkOnAStick

Building characters with hard-boiled dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Lm9cz @Jake_Lassiter

3 Insights Into Writing about Social Issues:  http://ow.ly/LdMYe @LisaPBennett

How To Write A Memoir:  http://ow.ly/LdNaE  @berkun

Writing Devices: Pros and Cons of Connectivity: http://ow.ly/LdMAF @JAZarins

Self-Editing for Point of View: http://ow.ly/LdMFP by Rachel E. Newman

7 Crucial Logline Mistakes and How to Fix Them:  http://ow.ly/LdNf9  @therealtimothy @scriptmag

What Fresh Hell Is This? On rewriting your novel: http://ow.ly/LdN65 @ChristaDesir

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Audio as a Means to Connect and Learn

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

It’s taken me a while to come around to enjoying audio and podcasting. I prefer to read transcripts of podcasts.  I skim, pick out the wheat from the chaff.  And then I move on to the next thing I’ve got to do.

But when I had a back injury last year…from sitting…ha…I unfortunately ended up spending a lot more time at the gym as a result. Podcasts are lovely ways to distract ourselves from the unpleasant task at hand. That unpleasant task might be the frustration of a traffic jam for those of us in urban areas, the boredom of a transit commute, or the tedium of exercise. And podcasts are often jam-packed with information.

For those who are interested in completely forgetting about the fact that they’re exercising (as I am), here are some of the podcasts I’ve enjoyed (mixture of writing business and writing craft):

Jeff Rutherford’s Reading and Writing Podcast

The Author Biz from Stephen Campbell

Joanna Penn’s Podcasts at The Creative Penn

The Self-Publishing Podcast with David Wright, Sean Platt, and Johnny B. Truant

Author Marketing Institute (AMI) Podcasts

Rocking Self-Publishing with Simon Whistler

Dead Robot Society (various authors contributing)

Self-Publishing Roundtable  (various authors contributing)

And then I really started reading posts on the benefits of podcasting. Joanna Penn states during her podcast interview with Tim Grahl:

“…I still think as authors if you get into multimedia, you are so ahead of most authors, because most authors will not go through the pain barrier of learning some basic technical stuff and putting your face and your voice out there.”

And Joanna’s interview with author audio marketing expert Viv Oyolu was also fascinating and made excellent persuasive arguments for the power of audio.

And I thought: no, I really, really don’t have the time for this.  In fact, I have so little time for podcasts that if I elected to regularly tape one, I believe my family would brandish pitchforks.

But I do want to connect with readers. I agree that it’s a personal way to stand out. Do I hate my voice?  Of course I do.  Don’t most of us? But heck, if recording my voice will help me connect with my readers, I’m happy to do it…as long as I don’t encounter pitchfork-brandishing family members.

After all, it was my choice to connect with writers.  My sites and efforts have been overwhelmingly writer-focused for six years.  I’m ready to swing the pendulum back in the other direction.

I decided to figure out SoundCloud (which I heard about through the Joanna Penn interview with Viv Oyolu that I referenced above), interview myself,  and embed it on the reader-related pages on my site (books, buy my books, etc.)  I get pretty much the same reader questions over and over so I picked a few of the most common and answered them.  I decided I could do this as often as I had time, changing things up when I could.  SoundCloud is free for up to three hours of content.

Here’s how I did it:

I wrote a script, then recorded myself on the free voice recorder that came with my phone.  Then I emailed the file to myself on Gmail (surprisingly it wasn’t a big file).  I downloaded the file.  Then I signed into SoundCloud and uploaded the file.  I set it as private (which becomes public on the blog, but not on the SoundCloud site), uploaded an audio jpg cover as the cover for the file (I have audiobooks on ACX), added a link to my Amazon author page under metadata. So we can link to a buy-link. That’s very cool.

I downloaded a WordPress plugin called SC Ultimate (or SoundCloud ultimate). I activated it and connected it (via the plugin’s instructions)  to SoundCloud, allowing access to SoundCloud.

To embed the audio clip, I go to wherever on the page I want the audio clip, go to text editor, and put in a  code.  The track link is found in the sidebar under the orange SC Ultimate/Your SC tracks/ and Track URL.

Here’s a link for the process on WordPress from SoundCloud’s team.

Here’s a link for the process on Blogger from SoundCloud’s team.

And here’s a video for the process on Blogger from misterandrade1

Is this as effective as a podcast?  Well, no, probably not. Because listeners subscribe to podcasts that are regular programs. This is obviously more deliberate: interested readers visit our sites and click on the audio portion.  But an important benefit of podcasting is the same for this small bit of embedded audio…a more personal approach. And for those of us who are wanting to have a stronger, more personal connection with our readers,  I believe this is a good place to start.

A recommendation from Tom Corson who guest posted on Joel Friedlander’s blog (and appears to have an interesting podcast himself) was to be a guest on podcasts. He recognized that some authors might have schedules that prohibit regular podcasting.  He states:

“You can make a name for yourself by being interviewed on popular podcast shows in your market and area of expertise.”

This is something I’ve done.  I’ve been featured several times on different podcasts, as well as traditional radio.  You don’t really need any special equipment for it…I’m usually interviewed through Skype (occasionally on the phone) and I do have a USB-style microphone, but half the time I end up using my laptop’s internal mic. I do have a cautionary tale for parents of young children, but other than that, these types of interviews are easy.

I won’t always be this busy (knock on wood).  I won’t say I’ll never podcast.  In the meantime, guesting on others’ programs and embedding interviews fills the gap.

Have you podcasted?  Been interviewed on a podcast?  Tried audio on your blog?

Using audio to connect with readers and learn:
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Adjusting to Expectations After Publishing Your First Novel

by Bryon Quertermous, @bryonq

I’d always hoped that I would have my second book written before my first book was published and before the reception (good or bad) of the first book was known. Alas, I was not able to pull that off and I’m only about halfway through writing the sequel. In addition to writing under a deadline for the first time and the general issues that come with writing about the same characters again and keeping them fresh, the thing I’ve struggled with most is how much to stretch myself as a writer.

I’ve been very lucky to have a great reception for my first novel. It’s received great reviews,  seems to be selling well, and the notes I get from readers are mostly positive. So it would seem to make sense that if I’m writing another book I’d want to do whatever I did the first time that got me this great reception, right? Well, sort of. I certainly want to keep readers happy, but I’ve had horrible luck any time I’ve ignored my instincts and tried to write toward what I thought readers expected. But I’ve also seen friends publish well-received novels and then get slammed when their next book goes in a different direction. I sure don’t want to torpedo my career before it’s even begun.

Aside from style and subject matter, there’s also the issue of confronting one’s weaknesses as a writer and whether or not to stretch and get better. For myself, this is plotting. I SUCK at traditional mystery plotting. In an effort to keep readers in suspense I end up over-complicating my plots to an absurd degree. It’s so bad that I don’t really anticipate facing down that demon until several more books down the line. Does that make me a weak writer? Maybe. But that’s the thin line an artist walks when they share their work with the world. I’ve always had high commercial ambitions for myself and that means making sacrifices once in a while. The key is to find a way to give readers what they want and what they expect in a way that maybe they don’t expect.

In the case of the next book I’m working on, I plan on stretching myself with my characters. I have a tendency with my supporting characters to create them more as caricatures than living, breathing people. This is a benefit of writing series fiction. I have the opportunity to go back to characters I may have just sketched out in book one and start filling in the details and shading that make for great characters. I also plan on stretching myself by not relying on easy jokes and meta jokes to power my narrative. I solved a lot of story problems in my first book by having the main character point to the fact that he wasn’t in a story and things in real life don’t always go the way they do in fiction. I think it worked well for the first book but it’s not a well I want to go back to again.

So that’s what my balance looks like. How about the other writers out there? Is it better to sacrifice some readers to attempt things that might fail but can make you a better writer? Is it better to forget stretching at all and keep giving readers what they want book after book?

Bryon Quertermous is the author of the novels Murder Boy and the forthcoming Riot Load. His short stories have appeared in Plots With Guns, Thuglit, and Crime Factory among others, and in the anthologies Hardcore Hardboiled, The Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, and Uncage Me. He was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger Award from the UK Crime Writers Association. He currently lives outside of Detroit with his wife and kids.

Adjusting to expectations after publishing your first novel via @bryonq:
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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.

Irony— The Final Cliché:  http://ow.ly/LdN9c  @DavidCorbett_CA

The Big ‘W’ and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Story Arc:  http://ow.ly/LdNbH @writeabook

7 Ways End Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/LdNwz @enderawiggin

5 Price Points to Consider For Your Book:  http://ow.ly/LdNCj @amcbooks

Tips and Tools to Make Your Writing Life Easier:  http://ow.ly/LdNIq  @ecoversed

Is a Writing Retreat Right for You? http://ow.ly/LcL1A @LynnHBlackburn

How Writers See Themselves And How Others See Them: http://ow.ly/LcKVW @AlienNextDoor

How to Create an Author Newsletter:  http://ow.ly/LcLi3 @klbusti

The 4 Most Important Things To Remember About Pacing:  http://ow.ly/LcLxV @writers_write

10 Tips To Get Your Profile Found On LinkedIn:  http://ow.ly/LcLxk  @askkim

How to Punch Up a Blurb or Query:  http://ow.ly/LcLe5  @julie_glover

A Great Villain Can Save Your Story:  http://ow.ly/LcKYo by RK Troughton

Writing Women Characters as Human Beings: http://ow.ly/LcKV5 @KateElliottSFF

5 Ways To Get Out Of A Writing Funk:  http://ow.ly/LcL9m @NanciPanuccio

How to Always Have a Bagful of Exciting Writing Ideas:  http://ow.ly/LcLuz @TalValante

It Is Never Too Late To Start Writing Your Bestseller:  http://ow.ly/LcLf8 @galleycat

Make Your Writing Clearer: 6 Tips for Re-wording Sentences:  http://ow.ly/LcLaq by Allison VanNest @Grammarly

Self-Pubbing Picture Books: 2 Agents Weigh In:  http://ow.ly/Lbk2l @sangeeta_editor

Nonfiction: Your Past is a Source of Inspiration:  http://ow.ly/LbjYA @ninaamir

Main character descriptions in 3rd and 1st person:  http://ow.ly/LbiGH @LazetteG

5 ‘Show Don’t Tell’ Danger Zones:  http://ow.ly/La5n8 @Diana_Hurwitz

How Independent Publishers Can Stay Profitable:  http://ow.ly/Lbjuo by Liz Bury @pubperspectives

House of Cards: 5 Lessons for Writers from Season 3:  http://ow.ly/LbkEj @MandyCorine

7 Stages Of Novel Revision:  http://ow.ly/LbjCO @VeronicaSicoe

11 Things to Know About Query Letters: http://ow.ly/LrFxh @ColbyMarshall

6 Easy Steps to Great Character Mapping:  http://ow.ly/Lbjhi @robinrwrites

How big is the “prestige factor” for trad-published writers?  #FutureChat 4pBST / 11aET (now)  http://ow.ly/LqS97  @Porter_Anderson

The Rules of Writing … or Not:  http://ow.ly/LbiPw @storyfix

21 Surefire Ways to Sink Your Writing Career http://ow.ly/Lbj2O @deborahdeetales

Using ‘what ifs’ and other strategies to develop story ideas:  http://ow.ly/LqLY1 @AlexJCavanaugh

When a Writer Becomes a Target: http://ow.ly/LbiXj @rachellegardner

How Do You Know When You’re Done?  http://ow.ly/LbjUb @berkun

Analyze the Scene Structure:  http://ow.ly/La5ff @Janice_Hardy

Modify Your Modifiers:  http://ow.ly/La4Nj from Melissa Gilbert

How Does Your Novel Grow? The Writing/Gardening Connection http://ow.ly/La4TO @Katrinakittle

On Heroism in Romance:  http://ow.ly/La4FE @dearauthor

Amazon Advertising Services for Indie Authors, Yea or Nay? http://ow.ly/La4DA @goblinwriter

7 Key Elements of Pacing a Novel:  http://ow.ly/La5bA @MartinaABoone

Reading is the Training Ground for Becoming a Better Writer:  http://ow.ly/La4Ko @jodyhedlund

How to Find Your Trademark Writing Style:  http://ow.ly/La5kO @CSLakin

Query question: more on comp titles:  http://ow.ly/La4QJ @Janet_Reid

5 Strategic Mistakes In Self-Publishing:  http://ow.ly/Lo2Ck  @benmwallace

When Rejection is Necessary, or Rejecting All the Fear:  http://ow.ly/La4XU @msheatherwebb

Create Dialogue From the Outside In:  http://ow.ly/La4Hj @jackieblain

Fall in Love with Your Characters (So The Reader Will Too): http://ow.ly/La57m  @Author_J_White

Writing Clear Accessible Sentences:  http://ow.ly/L5DGq @lindasclare

Dr. Seuss On Writing:  http://ow.ly/L5B21 @writers_write

Tips for introducing a character:  http://ow.ly/L5BzT @EimhWrite

The need to reform copyright:  http://ow.ly/L5C5W @JAKonrath

The mythology of the starving, tortured writer: http://ow.ly/L5BQE @mikemartinez72

Rediscovering the joy of writing:  http://ow.ly/L5DmZ @nownovel

Artistic Freedom vs. Crowdsourcing, Censorship, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect:  http://ow.ly/L5BFw @annerallen

Helpful Websites for Authors to Learn About Self-Pub:  http://ow.ly/L5AMe @amcbooks

Why risk aversion is killing publishing innovation:  http://ow.ly/L5CAN  @JanetKGrant

Create A Protagonist Audiences Will Relate To:  http://ow.ly/L5Dvb @woodwardkaren

Book Trailers And Using Video For Book Marketing: http://ow.ly/L5CTe @thecreativepenn

The Rise of the Nameless Narrator: http://ow.ly/LfcTY @newyorker by Sam Sacks

Character Development – Making the Reader Care:  http://ow.ly/LffqK @behlerpublish

1 author considers stopping marketing and writing more books:  http://ow.ly/Lfbcv @JamiGrayAuthor

Lessons from a great book jacket designer:  http://ow.ly/Lfe57 by Alan Rinzler

Can a small publisher make ‘pay what you want’ model work? http://ow.ly/LfdE9 @asap_jonathon @flavorwire

Focus the Narrative Drive:  http://ow.ly/Lfb7b @janice_hardy

Navigating a Big Writer’s Conference:  http://ow.ly/LfeER @writeabook

Can A Book Teach You How To Write?  http://ow.ly/Lff8w  @lawz_m

Screenwriting: Hitchcock’s POV Says You’re A Psycho:  http://ow.ly/LfcCz @ozzywood

On School Visits from an Author’s Perspective:  http://ow.ly/LfaRt @dawnafinch

Anthropomorphic: Definition and Examples for Writers:  http://ow.ly/LfenP @joebunting

NASA’s Space Educators’ Handbook (for SF Writers):  http://ow.ly/Lfccz

Things ‘Justified’ Teaches About Writing:  http://ow.ly/L1ogF  @misskyokom

Upcoming conferences and a surprising look at the Indian book market:  http://ow.ly/LeUQ5 @Porter_Anderson

Attracting Readers to Our Newsletters:  http://ow.ly/LeShc

Stress-Free Mingling And Conversation Starters At Conferences:  http://ow.ly/L1oCy @writersrelief

Effective Use of LinkedIn:  http://ow.ly/KYpAa @terrywhalin

Why 1 Writer Quit Goodreads (or, The Bookternet Is Not Safe for Women):  http://ow.ly/L1oUN @passivevoiceblg @brennacgray

3 ways to lead Amazon search bots to your book: http://ow.ly/L1owO @niniehammon

The Declaration Every Great Writer Makes:  http://ow.ly/L1oGY @jeffgoins

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Manifesto:  http://ow.ly/KYiHa @danasitar

Reasons why querying writers may not be getting requests:  http://ow.ly/L1pov  by Kim English

Whose Story Is It? Self-Editing for Point of View:  http://ow.ly/L1pza by Rachel E. Newman

Juxtapose like Banshee to Make Work Resonate with Readers: http://ow.ly/L1ol1 @lansi26

Don’t Wait for the Mood to Strike to Write:  http://ow.ly/L1p0d @ediemelson

The Venn Diagram Stage of Writing:  http://ow.ly/L1pgI by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

As The World Gets Smaller, Authors’ Jobs Get Bigger: http://ow.ly/LdkTF @Porter_Anderson

The author assistant relationship needs to be a partnership: http://ow.ly/KY9cU ?@SKWillsAuthor @patricia_eddy  @K8Tilton

22 Free Online Courses for Writers:  http://ow.ly/KY7ye @ShelleySturgeon

Why Writers Need Marketing Plans:  http://ow.ly/KY8LE  @KristenJett

How to add value to a novel to sell more:  http://ow.ly/KY8hG  @lansi26

Has KDP Pre-order helped level the playing field for authors? http://ow.ly/KY6Jp @thecadencegrp

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Eleven Things You Should Know About Query Letters

by Colby Marshall, @ColbyMarshall

You’ve done it. You’ve finished and polished your first manuscript. Let’s see, what’s next.  Whaaat to do next…

Oh, no… Not that…

*cue Jaws theme*

The query. You have to write a damned query.

This one page pitch beast is to publishing what that obnoxious 900 sheet stack of mortgage paperwork that requires a signature every page is to a homebuyer who just wants the damned key to their house already. But it’s a necessary evil. And it’s not easy.

Query letters vary greatly in quality, and the range of reactions they elicit can be as diverse as the types of queries themselves.  I’ll go ahead and tell you, this post isn’t a how-to on writing a query letter, nor is it all-inclusive regarding elements to include in a query letter.  The topic of how to write a query letter has been covered more than the measles outbreak at Disneyland, the Obamacare debate, and every Walking Dead theory ever conceived of combined.  If you need something more instructive, check out this wonderful post of Elizabeth’s:  http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2010/12/querying.html . It contains lots of links with that sort of info and was very helpful to me when learning to write a query.

So, I won’t give you a tutorial, but I can relay some things I’ve noticed along my way: a few intricacies people tend to over-think, some successful techniques, and a few aspects of queries that sometimes don’t get quite as much emphasis as they should. I can’t offer a final, perfect query formula. This powerful dark magic does not yet exist. But what I can do is pass along some things I’ve learned through securing an agent and getting editor requests over the years that will hopefully add a little extra insight. So without further ado, I give you the Top Eleven Things I’ve Learned About Query Letters:

11.)  Go the extra mile when researching an agent or editor’s preferences.

We’ve all been told it’s a Cardinal sin to mass blast a query to 100 agents and to be sure to address them by name instead of “Dear Agent. But more in depth preferences on how some agents wish to be address can fall through the cracks. I once queried an agent who, deep in the bowels of his blog asked that all queries address him as Neil* (the names have been changed to protect the particulars). While Mr. For-Some-Reason-Doesn’t-Like-Seeing-His-Last-Name-on-Queries might not send you a form rejection just for using the surname that shall not be-erm-named—after all, it is standard querying practice and you bothered to personally address him—obliging his request can only show you did your homework and maybe give you a leg up.

10.)  Just say no to attachments.

Agents and Editors (and anyone on the internet with a brain) know opening attachments from unknown senders could result in a nasty virus.  Not only that, but e-mails with attachments coming from anyone other than regulars in that agent or editor’s inbox are spam folder magnets.  You might think that Best Agent Ever would rep you in a second  if only she saw your first five pages/your professional headshot/a picture of your kitten Squishy Face. Only the first of those is possibly wanted, but the point is, she won’t see your query letter (or Squishy Face) at all if the attachments give it a one-way ticket to the spam folder.

9.)  Pimp your bio

Traditionally, at least one paragraph of a query letter is devoted to a bio of the author.  Obviously, the agent or editor reading wants to know more about the person behind the work she’s considering.  But some pieces of bio information benefit your cause more than others.

In addition to your education info, published works, and awards or other writing-related credentials, pack your bio with facts relevant to your book or a potential platform you have or are building that could make you more marketable as an author.  If your main character is a meteorologist and so are you, include your day job, but if you’re a theme park tour guide, maybe hold that one back for this book. Is your book set in Italy and you lived there for five years?  Yep.  Mention it.

8.)   Suppress the urge to—*ahem* “enhance” your bio.

You’d think this would go without saying, but don’t lie in your bio. It’s never good to start off a business relationship with dishonesty.

7.)  It’s okay to leave out that couple of sentences in which you gush about a connection you don’t have.

Lots of articles about how to write a query letter encourage writers to include a sentence or two about why they’re querying this agent specifically. Some advise mentioning some of the authors or books you love that the agent represents or editor edits, or to explain you thought agent/editor might be a good fit for you and your book since agent/editor’s client’s book showed a similar writing style, sense of humor, or appreciation for main characters with smokin’ fictional six-packs.  If you have read and enjoyed agent/editor’s client’s work and/or legitimately have a similar writing style, then it can’t hurt to say so.

If you have another genuine, specific reason you’re queryingthis agent or editor, by all means, include it.  Maybe you’ve followed their blog for years and think your personalities would mesh based on her penchant for sarcasm and low tolerance for people who mispronounce the word “pecan.”  Perhaps you heard him speak on a panel and what he said about his approach to agenting appealed to you.

Bottom line: personalization is great. But as long as you’ve researched the agent’s preferences thoroughly, it’s ok to let the query explain for itself why you think the agent might be right for your book.

6.)   It’s definitely  okay to include a couple of sentences to gush about strong connections you do have.

Definitely include that time you met her at a conference (unless the meeting involved you ambushing her with your pitch as she exited a stall in the ladies’ restroom).   Even if Conference Agent doesn’t remember meeting you specifically (agents and editors shake lots of hands at conferences!), it’s a subtle indicator that you’re serious enough about your craft that you attend industry events.  Also be sure to tell her if you’re querying because you were referred by one of her clients or if you have a manuscript that just happens to be that modern retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird  set in space she’d raved about on her blog in a list of books she’s dying to represent.

5.)   Yes, your letter should have a paragraph providing your manuscript’s vital stats.  No, its placement will not make or break your chances.

You know the essentials: title, word count of the complete manuscript, genre…Any query destined to receive a manuscript request includes these.  Easy, right?

And yet, for some reason, writers agonize over whether the placement of those few little pieces of information will be the difference between a request and a rejection.

“Leading off with it bores agents before they even get to your pitch!  Put it last!”

“Always open with the basic, pertinent information.  It’s a professional, strong opening!”

But here’s the truth, and you can take me to the bank on this one, because I’ve written queries both ways and have gotten requests off of both versions.  It doesn’t matter where the “specs paragraph” is located.  All that matters is that the pitch leaves the agent in crisis wanting more.

4.)   It’s all about the voice, baby.

Many queries are so bland they could be served on a heart patient’s diet tray alongside cottage cheese and boiled cauliflower.  You can’t knock them too hard, though. It’s tough to condense an 80,000 word book into a one page intriguing explanation.

Sometimes, stepping out of synopsis speak and stepping into your story’s voice can take a good query to a great one.  Say you’re pitching your MG novel SPELLS AND SNEEZING SPELLS.  This first paragraph might intrigue an agent:

11-year-old Alex is like every person in his family: magic.  He’s also the only one who happens to be allergic to magic.  So, he keeps to himself and tries to steer clear of mysterious orbs, but one day, he comes home from school to find his whole family vanished, a ransom note left in their place.  It looks like the only way to get his family back is to follow the magic-steeped clues the kidnappers left and hope he doesn’t run out of Kleenex along the way.

But this first paragraph might intrigue him more:

How could this be happening to him? Eleven years old and Alex had never once so much as had to use his epi-pen, despite the epidemic of magic that runs in his family and the health hazardous by-products they expose him to. He wants nothing more than to come home from school and avoid his obnoxiously magical parents and siblings, and, by extension, having to run to the store for more Kleenex. But when his family is abducted, replaced by a note demanding Alex use his own peculiar brand of magic for their schemes as ransom, he musters his bravery, arms himself with inhalers, and charges into a terrifying maze filled with pixie dander, dusty magic carpets, and high faeries higher in histamine.

3.)    Make your protagonist pop.

Your pitch should let the agent know who your protagonist is and what his conflict is, but you can do more to highlight the right things about your hero.  Instead of telling about me that Dark headed, fifty-five-year-old Tom is about to find out he’s the only person who can stop the murder of someone he doesn’t even know, tell me about how agoraphobic Tom hasn’t been out of his house since he was held up as a teller at the bank he worked at four years before. A hostage is being held across town, and Tom knows he has the only information that can save this stranger. But the only way to pass along what he knows is in person.  Unless details like age or hair color are relevant to the story, skip them in favor of your main character’s compelling features.

Another way to make sure your main characters shines his brightest is to make sure your pitch includes your character’s actions regarding his conflict and not just thing happening to him. Aladdin is much more compelling after going into a dangerous place to retrieve this mysterious lamp than he would’ve been if he’d just been sleeping under a tree when it dropped and fell on his head.

2.)   Compare, but compare alike.

If all the agents and editors got together and took a shot every time a hopeful writer’s query said his books were similar to James Patterson’s or Nora Roberts’, there’d be some pretty nasty hangovers the next day. It’s ok to compare your work other authors that your work is actually similar to, but try to control the urge to call yourself the next Stephen King.

1.)   Doing something unconventional or debatable can be an amazing or a volatile thing. 

Sure, there will always be the Cinderella stories of how someone landed an agent because they queried their dream agent even though that agent wasn’t accepting submissions at the time.  Sometimes, out-of-the box pitches like a query letter written from the point of view in the kidnapper in her manuscript, demanding a request in exchange for the safety of the character in the book who is kidnapped.  It might just cool enough to garner a request, or it might creep the agent out and send her running.  It depends on the individual agent.  So weigh risks wisely, and always remember your story has to sell itself.  Rules aren’t a bad thing, and your query can stand out even if you play by every single one.

How do you try to make your query stand out from the pack?

Writer by day, ballroom dancer and choreographer by night, Colby has a tendency to turn every hobby she has into a job, thus ensuring that she is a perpetual workaholic.  In addition to her 9,502 jobs, she is a proud member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime.  She is actively involved in local theatres as a choreographer and occasionally indulges her prima donna side by taking the stage as an actress.  She lives in Georgia with her family, three mutts, and an array of cats that, if she were a bit older, would qualify her immediately for crazy cat lady status.  She’s uniquely qualified to write about Dr. Jenna Ramey’s synesthesia, because she has the rare condition.

Learn more about Colby and her books by visiting her website at www.colbymarshall.com

ABOUT DOUBLE VISION:

New from the author of Color Blind…FBI profiler Jenna Ramey has synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes perceptions of color to flash through her mind, triggered by seemingly unrelated stimuli. But she has learned to understand and interpret these associations. They help her do her job. They can help save lives…

A little girl has witnessed a mass shooting. What she knows may be the key to finding the man responsible. Jenna has been tasked with drawing her out, figuring out what she saw, what she remembers, what it means.

But Molly is an unusual child. She is sweet and bright, and eager to help, but she has a quirk of her own: an intense preoccupation with numbers. It helps her notice things that others don’t. It also leads Jenna into a maze of speculation that could turn into a wild goose chase while the body count continues to rise.

Jenna and Molly view the world through their own filters. In some ways, they speak different languages. Now Jenna must learn to communicate, to break Molly’s code, to understand the mind of a murderer…

11 things to know about query letters via @ColbyMarshall:
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Attracting Readers to Our Newsletters

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I may have been slow to the email newsletter party. I believe, in fact, that I was the last guest to show up.  I’m finally making up for lost time.

I mentioned recently that I’d actually decided to subtly promote my reader newsletter.  This may not really qualify as promotion since it actually means I’m helping readers just locate the newsletter signup. It was almost secret before. If readers somehow found their way to my website, perhaps they could miraculously locate my newsletter signup in my crowded sidebar.

Realizing that this was (however accidentally) rather anti-reader in approach, I thought the whole thing through a bit more.  I started putting my newsletter signup in my email signatures, on my profile at Wattpad, on Goodreads, on Facebook, and other places that readers were likely to congregate or look me up. I also pitched my newsletter on this site on the reader-oriented pages (books, buy my books, etc.) This has resulted in over 30 signups since I started this drive in mid-March.

I’ve been reading noticing on writer sites/blogs that many writers have a visual prompt, sort of an ad, for their newsletter. I decided that I’d like to come up with a visual that would hopefully stand out to readers.  Designs that I create myself tend to be hideous.  This is why I hire professionals for covers, websites, etc. But for something small like this, I decided I could do it myself with Canva.

I wrote about Canva here.  It’s a free tool that helps me handle small projects that I would rather not pay for. No design skills?  No worries! The ability to drag and drop is all that’s really needed for Canva.

Now…don’t judge.  But with minimal work (ten minutes?), I was able to come up with this:

So, pretty simple elements here, nothing fancy. Book cover, call to action that sort of looks like a button, a bit of text, and a picture of me.

While I was on Canva, I made the whole image hyperlinked to the signup page for my newsletter. So readers can click anywhere on the image and it will take them to my newsletter signup page.  I use Mail Chimp (free for up to 2,000 subscribers) for my newsletters.  Here is a link to Mail Chimp’s directions for generating a link to your signup form.  You scroll about a quarter of the way down the page.  Basically, you’re going through the ‘Lists’ tab on your account and then clicking ‘signup forms’ to get Mail Chimp to generate a link.

But the big thing here is the incentive to sign up…a free book. I recently watched a very informative free video series from author Nick Stephenson on, among other things, the importance of incentives for newsletter signups. What’s more, the incentive is not my perma-free book, it’s a book that, while inexpensive to begin with, would cost readers several dollars if they were to pay for it online.  So a fairly decent incentive…a free full-length novel.  But then I do have 8 books in this series, so I can afford to give this one away.  I put it on my reader-oriented pages on this site.

I also had this newsletter ad placed in the back of one of my books.  I had my formatter (thanks, Rik Hall) stick it at the end of the perma-free book. So the readers who are being introduced to the series via the freebie get another freebie for signing up. The perma-free book acts, as Nick Stephenson put it, as a funnel that draws in new readers and the incentive encourages them to sign up for the newsletter. Works for me.

What if you don’t have 8 books in a series?  What if you don’t want to give away an entire book?  There are other incentives for signups out there.  I’ve seen things like “sign up for my newsletter and automatically be entered in a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card.”  I’ve seen short stories and novellas as giveaways.  You can give away swag like notepads, tee shirts, coffee mugs. Putting your cover image on these things is easy and cheap(ish) through VistaPrint or CaféPress or Zazzle. The sky is really the limit.

Obviously, the cooler the giveaway, the more likely it serves as encouragement for readers to sign up.

My reader newsletters are fairly chatty updates.  I know my readers pretty well and I create the newsletter with them in mind. I give a (somewhat) personal update, I include Southern recipes, I tell them what I’m working on, and lately I’ve given book recommendations based on what I’ve been reading.

How do you encourage readers to sign up for your newsletter?  What types of things go into your newsletter?  If you haven’t started up a newsletter, it’s never too late…I promise.

Tips for attracting readers to our newsletters.
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Image: Death to the Stock Photo

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