Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 121
March 15, 2015
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.
Query POV: http://ow.ly/K443r @Janet_Reid
On School Visits: an author’s perspective: http://ow.ly/K453N @dawnafinch
Writing on the Go: http://ow.ly/K46eu @jpderosa
7 Crucial Logline Mistakes and How to Fix Them: http://ow.ly/K46fn @therealtimothy @scriptmag
3 Questions to Ask As You Cut Your Manuscript: http://ow.ly/K444U @SarahAhiers
A former MFA teacher on MFA students: http://ow.ly/K46iP by E. T. Moreno
Writing the Back Blurb: http://ow.ly/K44zS @ShanAshleeT23
7 Key Character Motivations: http://ow.ly/K44fp @thePenleak
On Writing Trends: http://ow.ly/K45ww @kristinerusch
10 Things to Say to a Writer Who’s on the Ledge: http://ow.ly/K45zo @ediemelson
Weak Words And Their Use In Strong Writing: http://ow.ly/K45E9 @woodwardkaren
Can a Novel’s Plot Be Reduced to Data Points? http://ow.ly/K455Y @DanPiepenbring @parisreview
Your Protagonist’s Mental Health: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: http://ow.ly/K6BDA @FriesenJonathan
Death Turns The Page: 7 Notable Literary Kills: http://ow.ly/K6tuA @kornlock
6 Proven Tips for Getting into the “Write” Mood: http://ow.ly/K6t7U @lformichelli
Why Authors Walk Away From Big 5 Publishers: http://ow.ly/K6CdV @harryonthebrink
Writing and Publishing that Second Book: http://ow.ly/K6z1b @micheleyosto
9 Common Exposition Questions Answered: http://ow.ly/K6tBd @bang2write
Problems in writing a violent scene, and 1 unexpected benefit: http://ow.ly/K2Txn by Laura Droege
What does a good working relationship with an agent look like? http://ow.ly/K2TqA @Janet_Reid
Screenwriting: 6 Steps To Strategic Submissions: http://ow.ly/K2TJc @bang2write
1 Writer’s Method for Loose Outlining: http://ow.ly/K2Tpb @ava_jae
Should You Self-Publish? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself: http://ow.ly/K2TNj @ClaireCookwrite
Using Canva: A Step By Step Guide for the Graphic Design Newbie: http://ow.ly/K2RS9 @10MinuteNovelists
LinkedIn: 5 Quick Tips: http://ow.ly/K2Unn @janaylampkin @shewritesdotcom
4 Ways to Show Respect for Readers: http://ow.ly/K2TEW @birgitte_rasine
How to Succeed as a Writer in 2015: http://ow.ly/K2UcD @DeborahJRoss @passivevoiceblg
Join #FutureChat (now):different perspectives for trad-pub and self-pubbed authors: http://ow.ly/KitPE @Porter_Anderson
Do you love your trad publisher? Some early results from the survey: http://ow.ly/KhtMK @Porter_Anderson
Picture eBook Secrets (podcast): http://ow.ly/K2UjN @DIYMFA
40 Places to Find a Critique Partner: http://ow.ly/K2RWV @cathyyardley
Dear Teen Writer: Avoid the Perils of Perfection: http://ow.ly/K2RUh @dianarenn
Picnics in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/KhwoY @mkinberg
Everyday Versus Every Day: http://ow.ly/K0qT9 @brianklems
Why critique groups MUST DIE: http://ow.ly/K0uAo @speechwriterguy
The Art of Story: When Telling Trumps Showing: http://ow.ly/K0ouI @angelaackerman
How To Use Dialogue To Show And Not Tell: http://ow.ly/K0uEE @MiaJouBotha
Building Buzz and Finding Readers: A Conversation with Publicists: http://ow.ly/K0odv @EdanL
Your Best Friend Is a Horrible Fictional Character: http://ow.ly/K0tUo @ChristelleWrite
The problem with ‘dream agents': http://ow.ly/K0oYS @Janet_Reid
Do Writers Really Need to Use Social Media Anymore? http://ow.ly/K0oxq @jodyhedlund
What’s the Biggest Lie You Tell Yourself as a Writer? http://ow.ly/K0prZ @jamigold
That? Which? What…? http://ow.ly/K0oGx by Melissa Gilbert
The part luck plays in the publishing process: http://ow.ly/K0uJu @fredventurini
The Indie Author’s Bookshelf: 20 Best Titles for Self-Editing: http://ow.ly/K0oOo @CKmacleodwriter @CarlaJDouglas
How to Deal With Social Media Trolls: http://ow.ly/JZgwO @RachelWisuri
7 Productivity Tips to Boost Creativity on a Deadline: http://ow.ly/JZfQR @TaylorMHoll
3 Types of Procrastinators & What Motivates Them (infographic) http://ow.ly/JZfpT @larrykim
Picture Book Submission Tips: http://ow.ly/JZebj @RGrovePress
Tips for writing sports fiction: http://ow.ly/JZd3E @KaplonMegan @thewritermag
Understanding freelance independent editors: http://ow.ly/JZdBc @victoriamixon
5 Ways To Create Fictional Conflict That Counts: http://ow.ly/JZdlD @writers_write
Writing YA? How to Know for Sure: http://ow.ly/JZdSL @lindasclare
6 Tips for Re-wording Sentences: http://ow.ly/K91mv @Grammarly
Nobody cares about your book: Why an essay struck a nerve with writers : http://ow.ly/JZg8e @magiciansbook
How to Tell if Back Story is Sabotaging Your Novel: http://ow.ly/JZdLw @Roz_Morris
How ‘Alien’ Teaches Horror Writing: http://ow.ly/JZdpE @tordotcom @courtalameda
Flash Fiction: Why and How to Track Your Submissions: http://ow.ly/JZerM by Cameron Filas
What Writing Has in Common With Happiness: http://ow.ly/JUFUa @joefassler @theatlantic
The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity: http://ow.ly/JUF4U @bakadesuyo @TIMEIdeas
Build a Successful Writer’s Platform http://ow.ly/JUKG2 @everywriter
Tips for staying alert while writing: http://ow.ly/JUEEa @chrisbaty
The New World of Publishing: what’s changed…what hasn’t: http://ow.ly/JUKix @storyfix
5 Tips to Create a Winning Author Team: http://ow.ly/JUEPZ @wherewriterswin
How to Convert Scrivener to Word: http://ow.ly/JUGPF @jenn_mattern
Building Blocks: Avoiding Weak Sentence Construction: http://ow.ly/JUKud @writerstarr
Finding your way back to the story after rewriting through crit groups: http://ow.ly/JUKn7 @Roz_Morris
5 common writing mistakes: http://ow.ly/K8ZUE @Grammarly
7 Key Elements of Pacing Your Novel: http://ow.ly/JUGge @MartinaABoone
Writing Your Character’s’ Thoughts: http://ow.ly/JUKAS @lindasclare
How To Be A Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker: http://ow.ly/JUFwO @bakadesuyo
50 quick writing tips: http://ow.ly/JTwNo @RoyPeterClark
2 Tools Self Publishing Authors Need To Succeed: http://ow.ly/JTOSX @justpublishing
How to write good, realistic dialogue: http://ow.ly/JTwGq @IsabelWolff
Should you get your book cover designed by someone on Fiverr? http://ow.ly/JTOM2 by Frankie Johnnie
3 Types of Bios That Every Online Professional Needs: http://ow.ly/JTx1J @thewritermama @Janefriedman
7 Key Character Motivations: http://ow.ly/JTxoK @mrJRPatterson @thePenleak
3 Ways to Prevent Publishing Agony: http://ow.ly/JTxiK @cathyyardley
Roald Dahl on How Illness Emboldens Creativity: http://ow.ly/JTwKh @brainpicker
How to Avoid Staring at a Blank Screen: http://ow.ly/K5Gu1 @ereleases
101 Proven Practices for Focus: http://ow.ly/JTx7z @jdmeier
Fiberead Helps Foreign Authors Break Into China’s E-Book Market: http://ow.ly/K6vVe @catherineshu @TechCrunch
What Makes a Monster? http://ow.ly/JTxuV @SMarshallJones @ThisIsHorror
Finding Media Outlets and the Pitch: http://ow.ly/K5GmU @SpunkOnAStick
Resources for plotting, developing characters, and more: http://ow.ly/JTwAc from Write Like a Freak
Mentor relationships in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/K5R3j @mkinberg
5 things to know before sending that query letter: http://ow.ly/JTOuz @onevignette @womenwriters
Why Pride and Despair Are the Two Great Enemies of Creative Work: http://ow.ly/JODVg @brainpicker
10 Tips on How to Write Believable Crime and Murder Scenes: http://ow.ly/JODMK @garryrodgers1
Converting Excess Exposition into Dialogue: http://ow.ly/JOEXy @DrewChial
How To Find Your Most Productive Zone–And Honor It: http://ow.ly/JOEIT @ximenavengoechea via @FastCompany
10 Commandments of Writing Failure: http://ow.ly/JOE2k @jamesscottbell
Poetry, Typewriters, and Johnnycakes: the Best College Coffee Shops in the US: http://ow.ly/JOF9u @TravlandLeisure @theurbanologist
The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
March 12, 2015
Newsletter Signups and International Readers
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I thought I’d share my efforts at better marketing and for thinking on more of an international scale with my work. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
Newsletter: Sharing the Signup Link
I’ve mentioned before that I was very slow on the newsletter bandwagon. I read…oh… dozens of posts on the importance of email (newsletters) as a marketing tool for writers. Finally, about a year and a half ago, I started a newsletter for readers.
Now I’ve got over 500 subscribers, which is pretty darn amazing since I’ve never shared the signup link anywhere. It just sits quietly on my website with no real call to action.
Since I’ve noticed a (very) healthy spike in rank on Amazon whenever I send out a newsletter, I decided I should see if I could boost the subscriber number by just linking to the newsletter from different places. Clearly I wouldn’t do it on my Google Plus page and I wouldn’t do it on Twitter—those are my writer-related bases.
I decided that it would make the most sense to share the link in my email signature/tagline, on Facebook (I dislike Facebook, but the readers are there), on Wattpad, and on Goodreads (I also dislike Goodreads, but…well, see above).
Now how to get the link to the newsletter signup form. I use Mail Chimp, which is free when you have up to 2,000 newsletter subscribers. Maybe I’m just seriously burned out, but it took me the better part of an hour, intensive studying of the Mail Chimp site, and Googling to find the answer. The word I should apparently have been searching for is form. 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’.
I got Mail Chimp to generate a link for me for signups. Then I posted the link as an email signature tagline, on my Wattpad profile, and on Goodreads. Mail Chimp states: “You can share the link to this form on your website, across your various social media channels, or even with a QR code.”
For Facebook, I was able to add an entire tab for newsletter signups with help from Mail Chimp’s “integrate with Facebook” panel. You need a page and not a profile to do this on Facebook. It also took forever to find this info on Mail Chimp. Is it not intuitive, or is it just me?
While I was on Facebook, I clicked ‘manage tabs’ and rearranged the order of what was there. I also updated some of the material there. Here’s help from Facebook on how to rearrange your tabs. Mine had things like “photos” on prominent display and I thought the newsletter signup tab could better use that visible location on the page.
International Pricing
I was listening to an interesting podcast interview of Joanna Penn on the Self-Publishing Podcast by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David W. Wright (just a heads-up that some parts are NSFW…not suitable for work…and not because of Joanna..) and in part of the talk Joanna was speaking about pricing our books for the international market. For instance, in referencing India, she said : “…you shouldn’t be above 150 rupees. If you leave your US price it will probably be about 400. No one’s going to pay 400 rupees.”
So I immediately went to my KDP bookshelf and sure enough, I had all of my international market prices set to match the US prices. My prices for India were exorbitant, judging from the information I’d just received. It never occurred to me what I might be doing to that price in smaller markets (Joanna also specifically mentioned Mexico and Brazil). I adjusted my prices for various markets. If you don’t remember how to change prices on your KDP dashboard, here is the help page from Amazon.
There is a transcript of the interview here.
Fiberead
Speaking of international sales, I came across an interesting article by Catherine Shu in TechCrunch: “Fiberead Helps Foreign Authors Break Into China’s E-Book Market.” Fiberead is a start-up that’s based in Beijing and is working to help provide foreign authors’ ebooks to the Chinese market. They have 300 translators working for them. This is basically a revenue-sharing gig, similar in some ways to ACX (audiobooks for self-publishers). Authors who sign with Fiberead would receive 30% earnings on sales and translators and editors share 40% with Fiberead keeping the remainder.
I can’t endorse the company because there is little information on them right now…nothing from Writer Beware or Preditors and Editors (these are vital watchdog resources for writers that we should know about) yet. I did go ahead and submit my information to Fiberead, which apparently means I’m put on a waiting list to await an invitation. I’m assuming that then I hear back if there is interest in translating my series into Chinese.
I’ll look forward to getting more information. I’m not doing much with my foreign rights at this point and China would obviously be a huge market. I don’t usually think of China as being as much of an open market when it comes to ideas/content, so I’m curious how this works. But I’m looking forward to hearing more because it always pays to be one of the few in a market. The reason I did so well with the self-pubbed series is because I was underpricing all the other cozy writers (who were slow to self-pub)…small field of low-priced competition.
In some ways, I’m even more interested in just outright selling the series to a Chinese publisher. I’ve thought about using PubMatch for that purpose. After all, I have absolutely no ability to promote or bring visibility to the series in China. Fiberead states that’s part of its service, of course.
Once I get all the info on my choices, I’ll decide between translation/royalty share and selling rights outright. I’m planning on listing my books on PubMatch and also listening to the folks at Fiberead and seeing what works best…if anyone is even interested at all.
I have other things I’ve been working on, too but I’ll share those in another post since this one is already getting wordy. What have you been working on, marketing-wise or rights-wise? Thought about foreign rights and pricing? Do you have a newsletter?
The post Newsletter Signups and International Readers appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
March 8, 2015
How to Avoid Staring at a Blank Screen
We’ve all been there. You have to write SOMETHING, but there is literally nothing going on or your brain. You’re tired, feeling fried, and that blank screen is just staring you down. For those of us writing blog posts or marketing material for a recently published book, it can be particularly hard to be creative when you feel that there’s no real news to share.
Stop stressing! This post will go over some tried and true strategies to relieve writer’s block, and provide some prompts when you think your content well has run dry.
If You’re Simply Blocked…
WIRMI Technique – Sometimes writer’s block rears its ugly head because you aren’t quite sure about your topic yet. Now is the time to finish the phrase “What I Really Mean Is…” (i.e. WIRMI.) Once you’ve answered this question, your content should flow much more readily.
Free Write – Rather than plug away at a piece that’s going nowhere, try free writing. This exercise consist of simply starting with a word or phrase and writing on the topic for 3-5 minutes. Never let your hand (or fingers on the keyboard!) stop moving. I’ve done this exercise countless times and have often found that my subconscious mind wanders back to the problem at hand – the press release or blog post I’m writing – during a free writing session. Give it a try!
Start in the Middle – Often, as a writer, you know what you want to say, but aren’t quite sure exactly how to say it. So simply start by writing what you want to say. Don’t even call it a “press release” or a “blog post” yet. Just get the idea down in rough form. You’ll find that once you have your idea on paper, it starts to take on a life – and format – of it’s own.
When You Think There’s Nothing to Say…
Sometimes you are filled with the urge to write but topics just aren’t coming to you. In this case, try these prompts to fill your screen:
Update an Old Topic – Was one of your blog posts especially successful? Revisit it, with updated information or insight.
Answer a Fan Question – For every email you get from a fan (or supportive friend), you can be sure there are 5 more out there wondering the same thing. So answer the question they haven’t even asked in blog post form.
Share Your Opinion – Perhaps you specialize in a particular genre that may now be aligned with a current piece of news. What do you think of the events unfolding? Share it on your blog, or even issue a press release venting your thoughts and opinions.
Write a Problem-Solving Piece – Write up the tale of that time you had a problem with writing/publishing, and how you got over it. Other writers – or potential writers – will see this story and relate.
This is a nice way to not only show how something gets solved creatively, but it also ties in an emotional story with it: your struggle and eventual triumph over the obstacle. People love to feel that they are getting the inside scoop on an author’s journey — even if they have little-to-no familiarity with the craft of writing. Just remember to keep it brief; you want people to read to the very bottom of your story, and a long, boring one won’t get them there.
What do you do when you can’t think of a topic to write about?
Mickie E Kennedy is the founder of eReleases and the author of the PR Fuel blog. He lives in Baltimore, MD.
The post How to Avoid Staring at a Blank Screen appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
March 7, 2015
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/JLinR @amcbooks
Simple Promo Tip: Call Your Book By its Name: http://ow.ly/JLiry @SharonBially
Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from: http://ow.ly/JLic1 @annbauerwriter
How to Eke Out 2 Hours of Writing Per Day: http://ow.ly/JLiJV @amcbooks
5 Ways to Fall in Love With Marketing Your Work: http://ow.ly/JLitQ by Kent Bridgeman @DIYMFA
Writers, suit up. Your game is on. http://ow.ly/JLi15 @cathyyardley
5 Mindset Changes to Sell More Books: http://ow.ly/JNsWZ @amcbooks
How To Build A Rich Setting For A Contemporary Story: http://ow.ly/JNjNq @StephMorrill @GoTeenWriters
Why You Should (Almost) Always Use the Active Voice: http://ow.ly/JNjWE @cdtunstall @thePenleak
The Science of Creating Authentic Characters: http://ow.ly/JNk06 @msheatherwebb
How to Survive a Publishing Trend Cycle: http://ow.ly/JNsrW @cathyyardley
Bringing a Daughter Back From the Brink With Poems: http://ow.ly/JNjBj by Betsy MacWhinney @NYTimes
Nobody’s Sidekick: Intersectionality in Protagonists: http://ow.ly/JNjJI @sl_huang
Freelancers: 7 Inspiring Thoughts to Cure Your Newbie Writer Jitters: http://ow.ly/JNjyG @ticewrites
Artistic Freedom vs. Crowdsourcing, Censorship, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect: http://ow.ly/JNjLp @annerallen
Demystifying the muse: 5 creativity myths you need to stop believing: http://ow.ly/JNjx6 @pickcrew
4 Things you Must Know About your Narrator: http://ow.ly/JNjPh @thePenleak
Tips for Writing Dialogue: http://ow.ly/JNjTv @blindoggbooks
Confessions of a Comma Queen: http://ow.ly/JOEms @MaryNorrisTNY @newyorker
The Character Most Writers Get Wrong (And How to Fix It) http://ow.ly/JOFvJ @MandyCorine
11 Completely Free Apps To Boost Your Productivity: http://ow.ly/JOEUe from Plash
You Wrote a Killer Love Story–…But Did You Romance the Reader? http://ow.ly/JOFpF @angelaackerman
Self-Publishing Best Practices from the Experts: http://ow.ly/JOEBa @BookWorksNYC
Being a Writer-in-Residence: http://ow.ly/JOGje @PaulineAFrancis @AwfullyBigBlog
How Not to Fumble Your Social Media Presence: http://ow.ly/JLhHP @jamesscottbell
How Are You Going To Succeed As a Writer? http://ow.ly/JLhMr @cathyyardley
How successful is Amazon internationally? #FutureChat: 4pGMT / 11aET (now) http://ow.ly/K0xLv @Porter_Anderson
Do publisher imprints matter? http://ow.ly/K0wH6 @Porter_Anderson @michaelbhaskar
Moderating Panels: How to be Rude in the Nicest Possible Way: http://ow.ly/JLiHm @NancyFulda
Productivity Tips for the Scattered Writer: http://ow.ly/K0wfn
How to Get a Custom Book Cover for $5 Using Fiverr by JP Medved: http://ow.ly/JLiCB @goblinwriter
2 Red-Flag Sentences in Publishing Contracts: http://ow.ly/JLhCk @victoriastrauss
Why you need an author bio both inside your book AND on the outside book cover: http://ow.ly/JKqfR @creativindie
28 Things No One Tells You About Publishing: http://ow.ly/JJ2Sr @berkun
Writers and Gatekeepers–Are There Really Good Guys And Bad Guys? http://ow.ly/JZE3w @Porter_Anderson @jaelmchenry
Forget Fabio: DIY Covers: http://ow.ly/JJ3kD @passivevoiceblg by Jennifer McCartney
DRM Destroys Value: Why Years Old, But DRM Free, Devices Sell For Twice The Price Of New Devices: http://ow.ly/JJ2iV @techdirt
7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel: http://ow.ly/JJ2Db @joebunting
6 Must-Have Elements of a ‘Wow’ Story Premise: http://ow.ly/JJ3f7 @KMWeiland
Business Musings: A Year of Experiments: http://ow.ly/JJ2XV @kristinerusch
Free Writing Contest: Submit Scariest Short Fiction: http://ow.ly/JYgzh @theonlyshape @inkitt
What to Write Next: Deciding on Your Next Project: http://ow.ly/JJ2oF @blogsandplots
7 Harsh Realities of Self-Publishing as a Side Hustle: http://ow.ly/JJ2Iq @DeniseWakeman
Moving From Scene to Scene in Our Story: http://ow.ly/JJ2un @Janice_Hardy
Volunteering: Marketing’s Best Kept Secret: http://ow.ly/JJ2z1 @janice_hardy
Goodreads Giveaways: Don’t Do What You’re Told: http://ow.ly/JJ42W @cathryanhoward
Creating Dimensional Characters: —The Blind Spot: http://ow.ly/JJ27z @kristenlambtx
The importance of hiring a cover designer: http://ow.ly/JHomp @RicardoFayet @LawstonDesign
The Difference Between A Great Twist And A Mediocre Twist: http://ow.ly/JHmOf @charliejane
Your Cover Letter Does Not Matter, and Other Insights from a Contest Judge: http://ow.ly/JHpbF @ninabadzin
Writing in ‘Islands’–How 1 Writer Wrote Her First Memoir in 45 Days: http://ow.ly/JHnCV @writeabook
10 Great Ways to Find Character Names: http://ow.ly/JUKP0 @JanetBoyer
Oddest Book Title Of The Year: A Mercifully Short List: http://ow.ly/JWqBE @Porter_Anderson @tomtivnan
3 Reasons to Bundle the Early Books in Your Series: http://ow.ly/JHoe9 @goblinwriter
The Strategic Use of Book Giveaways: http://ow.ly/JHntT @JaneFriedman
Is Your Editor Worth It? Or Not? http://ow.ly/JHnp5 @novel_gazing
How to Find an Agent: http://ow.ly/JHo4c @Janice_Hardy
How to Personalize Your Blog in 3 Simple Steps: http://ow.ly/JHohR @BlotsandPlots
Writing in Kindle Worlds: Something All Novelists Should Consider: http://ow.ly/JUG4C @silas_payton
How To Tell If You Are In A Soft Science Fiction Novel: http://ow.ly/JHn9C by @mallelis
Corrections Are Good: How to Take Critique Like a Dancer: http://ow.ly/JHnZM @KBullockAuthor
How to Avoid the 2nd Book Slump: http://ow.ly/JHmu3 @janalynvoigt
Power of the Space Between Creative Bursts: http://ow.ly/JElkW @CreativeKatrina
10 Editorial Steps From the Agent “Call” to Published Book: http://ow.ly/JEgAv @martinaaboone
How to Stay Positive When Writing a Novel: http://ow.ly/JElFq by Alyssa Boorman
4 Ways a Journalist Can Help Creative Writers: http://ow.ly/JEh9C @sharilopatin
How to Get Our Thoughts onto the Page: http://ow.ly/JEgVy @jamigold
15 Tips for Reaching More Readers with Your Writing: http://ow.ly/JElcj @JodieRennerEd
6 Uncommon Romantic Love Subplots – http://ow.ly/JElqy @writers_write
Getting our character naming right: http://ow.ly/JEfho @guardianbooks @Harkaway
13 mistakes writers make with fight scenes: http://ow.ly/JEf7i @raynehall
Agent question: Is she just not that into me? http://ow.ly/JEgSN @Janet_Reid
—Don’t Wait for the Mood to Strike to Write: http://ow.ly/JEfO4 @EdieMelson
A Copyeditor’s Perspective on 4 common indie author questions: http://ow.ly/JEgsM @Dario_Ciriello
Writers: 5 Ways To Become More Productive in 2015: http://ow.ly/JzZlF @thecreativepenn
‘Do You Love Your Publisher?’ A new survey of authors in digital times: http://ow.ly/JQG4b @Porter_Anderson @Janefriedman
52 questions to go deeper with characters: http://ow.ly/JzZly @laurelgarver
Where the Error Is: Antecedents: http://ow.ly/JzZlq @shay_goodman
6 ways emphasis can change meaning in dialogue: http://ow.ly/JzZlh @AnthonyEhlers
Guides to writing fanfiction: http://ow.ly/JzZl7 from rphelper
When a plot isn’t strong enough to make a full story: http://ow.ly/JzZkZ from Keyboard Smashwriters
Humor in a Query: http://ow.ly/JzZkP @behlerpublish
Using Click to Tweet: http://ow.ly/JzZkI @authorterryo
Tips for Writing Children with Divorced Parents: http://ow.ly/JzZkC from Fix Your Writing Habits
How to Write Faster: The Brainwave Blueprint: http://ow.ly/JzZkr @writetodone
Use attitude when introducing characters. Here€™s how: http://bit.ly/1F0zZUh @JodieRennerEd
Writing Humor, Writing Quickly, and Well-Rounded Characters: http://ow.ly/JzZkh @goblinwriter
Using Passive Voice in Creative Writing: http://ow.ly/JzZka @EimhWrite
Music For Writers: Michael Gordon’s Wild Ride Called ‘Dystopia’: http://ow.ly/JMHWL @Q2Music @Porter_Anderson
Using Astrology as a Character Generator: http://ow.ly/JwP09 @megwolfewrites
How to use dialogue for story development: Ibsen’s Ghosts”: http://ow.ly/JNBnK {lang} @RidethePen”
5 Ways to Improve Your Writing Style: http://ow.ly/JwP04 @RogerDColby
Two main impact characters? http://ow.ly/JwP00 @glencstrathy
Naming Your Characters – 4 Quick and Dirty Tips: http://ow.ly/JwOZT by Terrie Quincey
The links I shared last week: http://ow.ly/JN6au . All the links I’ve ever shared (30K+ searchable and free): writerskb.com .
10 REAL Reasons Your Book Was Rejected: A Big 5 Editor Tells All: http://ow.ly/JwOZR @RuthHarrisBooks
The 3 Basic Building Blocks of Writing a Memoir: http://ow.ly/JwOZM @HaggertyCM
All Bloggers and Writers Should be on Flipboard: Here’s Why: http://ow.ly/JN1dn @silas_payton
The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
March 5, 2015
Productivity Tips for the Scattered Writer
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I think of myself as a pretty productive writer. But this winter has been the toughest ever for me in terms of being able to finish a project.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m behind on my current book. And I never like to think of myself as behind…I start each day fresh with no catching up.
However, at this point, it’s time for this particular book to be finished with. My freelance editor is waiting for it. My beta reader is waiting for it. I have been emailed several times about it by readers (I’d been smart this time and said ‘spring 2015’ to keep it vague. Now they’re emailing to ask exactly what spring means).
In some ways, I’ve remained fairly productive. I’d heard the advice, years ago, about creating first. I’ve worked on the book, as is my habit, every morning before five shortly after waking up. I know what I’m going to write each morning, so the daily work has been completed quickly. I meet that day’s page goal before anyone else gets up.
My problem is the rest of the day and the part where I’m making up for lost time. I told a friend of mine on Monday that I just felt so scattered. I’m pulled in so many different directions at once. This is everything from the personal (college-related forms, a new water heater, a change in prescription provider, sick children, various middle school carpool catastrophes, and tax-related stuff) to the professional (recent interviews, blog-related issues, copyedits for another project, back and forth with book reviewers, business with my editor, and a talk I’m giving in a couple of weeks at the Macon, Georgia, Cherry Blossom Festival).
It’s tough when every task seems like an emergency. When we start working on one thing, remember another priority, and stop what we’re doing to switch over.
Which is why, when I came across an article by Time magazine a few days ago, I found it especially helpful. It’s “The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity” by Eric Barker. In it, Barker has five ways to maintain productivity. They’re: stop reacting, decide what matters today, use your ‘magic hours’ for the top 3 important things, have a starting ritual, and ‘positive procrastination.’
I particularly like the ideas of the three most important things each day and the ‘magic hours’. Regarding ‘the most important things’, Barker states:
What will let you end the day feeling like you accomplished something? No more than 3 goals.
The ‘magic hours’ you can probably figure out. Barker references Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely:
Dan says you have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time.
When everything seems like an emergency, this approach provides a thoughtful way to examine, reorder, and prioritize my tasks.
It’s easy for me to see where I’ve gotten off track the last few months. Some days I’ve squandered my magic hours by using them for high-energy activities like housework. Sometimes I haven’t done a brain dump to create a master to-do list. Sometimes I haven’t prioritized the items on my list or staggered the tasks on the calendar. I’m reacting all the time, spinning my wheels, scrambling to get everything done at once.
Identifying the three daily priorities has helped me focus. I realize that I can edit my three top tasks at any time if things come up. Or, since my productive magic hours are in the morning, maybe I’ve already done my three things by the time the emergency crops up. This means that last week my day wouldn’t have been nearly as knocked off course when a snowstorm was (allegedly…meteorologists blew it) approaching and I suddenly was saddled with a teen with a respiratory infection and an elderly corgi experiencing a sudden, immediate health issue. I’d have finished my important tasks by then and would have edited my list to the new most important things: my child’s appointment and prescription pick-up, the corgi’s vet appointment, and possibly a shopping trip for wine in advance of the storm. :)
So it’s sort of like having an outline…for my day. A flexible one that can be adjusted as needs arise, just as my story outlines are adjusted when something interesting comes up in my story.
I know a lot of the writers here with a business background and day jobs will likely find this all familiar. I’ve seen similar tactics online but nothing as succinct as this. It definitely has improved my working from home strategy. For one thing, it takes that panicky feeling away…the feeling that I’ve got to jump in and fix something immediately. I’ve figured out all the things that I know about that need to be addressed and put them on my calendar in a more orderly fashion.
Do you ever feel scattered? How do you approach it?
Image: Death to the Stock Photo: Wired
The post Productivity Tips for the Scattered Writer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
March 1, 2015
Use Attitude When Introducing Characters
by Jodie Renner, editor and author @JodieRennerEd
To celebrate the release of her third writing guide, Captivate Your Readers, Jodie has priced it at 99 cents for today only and will also be giving away 4 electronic copies – your choice of mobi (for Kindle), ePub (for other e-readers), or PDF – of this book, in exchange for an honest review by the end of March. Enter to win in the comments below.
A sure sign of a fiction writer who’s still learning his/her craft is when a character comes on the scene for the first time and the writer stops the story to describe the character from head to toe – height, build, hair color, eyes, other facial features, and all the details of their clothing, including colors, down to their shoes. Then the story picks up where it left off and carries on.
My latest writing guide, Captivate Your Readers, devotes four chapters to how to introduce and describe characters in a natural, intriguing way. The basic message is to stay in the protagonist’s viewpoint when introducing him, and describe other characters through the POV of the character observing them, not neutrally, as the author stepping in. Here, I’ll be discussing effective techniques for describing other characters through the observations and attitudes of the viewpoint character (most often the protagonist).
Whether you’re describing the main character or someone he/she is observing, readers don’t need or welcome a list of every physical attribute and what they’re wearing – readers want a quick glimpse into their personality and character, how they carry themselves, how they enter a room, the effect they have on others. The readers can easily fill in any details themselves – if they want to. As a reader, I want a general impression but not every tiny detail – I’m more concerned about what’s happening, the interaction between the characters.
Which brings me to my next point – the protagonist (or other POV character) is busy interacting with that person, in a scene with some tension (at least there should be!), so they don’t have time to detail everything the person is wearing and think about the color of their hair and eyes, their height, etc., unless these are details that really stand out. If the person is very tall or very short, very heavy or thin, overbearing or timid and apologetic, bombastic or shy, these are details the observing, viewpoint character will register right away and take note of, even react to internally. The most important thing is to keep it real – what would the POV character really be thinking at the time?
~ Show the essence of the character and his effect on those around him.
Rather than giving readers a long, detailed police line-up description of a character’s height, build, facial features, and clothing, it’s best to just show an immediate impression of the character, including his personality or state of mind, as perceived by the viewer, through a few well-chosen details. Then let the readers imagine the rest themselves.
Here’s an example of just giving the relevant info, and from the character’s point of view. This is from LJ Sellers’ Agent Jamie Dallas thriller, The Target. Cortez, a young police detective, is investigating a murder with his senior, an older detective named Hawthorne. We’re in Cortez’s point of view.
The older detective stood, so Cortez did too. Even with his rounded shoulders, Hawthorne’s Ichabod-Crane body type made Cortez feel short at five-seven. Next to his father and cousins, he was the tall one.
These three sentences give us quite a bit of information about the two characters, with almost no interruption to the action, and we stay firmly in the thoughts and observations of the character.
In The Shield, by Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore, the main character, a scientist, who’s a bit intimidated, watches as two powerful Russians enter the scene.
The general appeared quite physically fit, even for his age. The casual, open-collared shirt hid little of his muscular build, no doubt from years of setting an example as a leader of the Russian Army
“How was your flight?” asked Ivankov. Unlike the general, the Russian banker was portly and balding, and bore the veined, red nose of a heavy drinker. He, too, was dressed casually.
In these two short paragraphs, we get quite a complete picture of these two guys (who are minor characters in the story), including info on their past, lifestyle, and characters. We don’t really care what they were wearing, exactly, as we’re eager to find out what happens next in this power meeting. And it doesn’t feel like the author interrupting the story to describe these people; it feels like the character observing them.
In her novel, Hot Rocks, Nora Roberts describes the appearance of a stranger like this:
A heroic belch of thunder followed the strange little man into the shop. He glanced around apologetically, as if the rude noise were his responsibility rather than nature’s, and fumbled a package under his arm so he could close a black-and-white-striped umbrella.
Both umbrella and man dripped, somewhat mournfully, onto the neat square of mat just inside the door… He stood where he was, as if not entirely sure of his welcome.
We readers might all visualize this man a bit differently, to suit our own ideas of what he should look like, but we get an immediate impression of his timidity and hesitancy, which is all we really need at this point.
And here’s a depiction of a prematurely aging middle-aged woman that strikes to the core, with just a few masterful brush strokes. In Moonlight Mile, instead of saying, “She looked old for her age, with her white hair and wrinkles,” Dennis Lehane describes her like this:
I did some quick math and guessed she was about fifty. These days, fifty might be the new forty, but in her case it was the new sixty. Her once-strawberry hair was white. The lines in her face were deep enough to hide gravel in. She had the air of someone clinging to a wall of soap.
~ Show the viewpoint character’s feelings and reactions to the character he/she is observing.
Also, work in the viewer’s emotional reaction to the character. Is the narrator character impressed? Intimidated? Fearful? Attracted to them? Disgusted or repulsed?
For example, Brad Parks, in The Girl Next Door, describes the first-person narrator’s feelings about a love interest:
…in addition to being fun, smart, and quick-witted—in a feisty way that always kept me honest—she’s quite easy to look at, with never-ending legs, toned arms, curly brown hair, and eyes that tease and smile and glint all at the same time.
By contrast, the protagonist of Dennis Lehane’s Moonlight Mile describes a spoiled rich kid who leaves victims in his wake without a second thought, as Mummy and Daddy will clean up after him. Here, the disgust of the observer character comes through loud and clear:
…Brandon wasn’t your run-of-the-mill rich kid asshole. He worked double shifts at it.
The investigator paid to spy on him goes on to describe the kid’s clothes:
Brandon wore a manufacturer-stained, manufacturer-faded hoodie that retailed for around $900 over a while silk T with a collar dragged down by a pair of $600 shades. His baggy shorts also had little rips in them, compliments of whichever nine-year-old Indonesian had been poorly paid to put them there.
Lehane’s astute investigator later describes a trophy-wife stepmother:
She had the look of a woman who kept her plastic surgeon on speed dial. Her breasts were prominently displayed in most of the photos and looked like perfect softballs made of flesh. Her forehead was unlined in the way of the recently embalmed and her smile resembled that of someone undergoing electroshock.
All of these descriptions paint a quick picture of the effect these characters have on the viewpoint character, the POV character’s immediate impression of them, without listing their height, build, hair color, and clothing, like a police line-up.
Do you have any examples or tips to add?
Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Fire up Your Fiction, Writing a Killer Thriller, and Captivate Your Readers. She has also published two clickable time-saving e-resources to date: Quick Clicks: Spelling List and Quick Clicks: Word Usage. You can find Jodie at www.JodieRenner.com, www.JodieRennerEditing.com, at The Kill Zone blog alternate Mondays, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Tweet: Use attitude when introducing characters. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/1F0zZUh @JodieRennerEd
The post Use Attitude When Introducing Characters appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
February 28, 2015
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.
Agent @Janet_Reid on strategy for a second book: http://ow.ly/JrwhL
The Art of ARC-ing: http://ow.ly/JrsOs @MarcyKate
Calendars, Timelines, and Collages: Mapping the Imaginary: http://ow.ly/JrwhM from Hannah Gerson @The_Millions
8 Tips From Literary Agents About How to Get Published: http://ow.ly/JrteH @monicamclark
Mobile Marketing Just for Authors: http://ow.ly/JL4g4 @CaballoFrances
Crime fiction: crime stories played out on the stage: http://ow.ly/JISy9 @mkinberg
4 Crucial Tips For Creating a Transmedia Story: http://ow.ly/JsC4M @pbsmediashift @storynotes
What a Novelist Can Learn from Nonfiction: http://ow.ly/JsC4N by Michelle Ule
The Best Bad Choice Crisis: http://ow.ly/JsC4O by Shawn Coyne
Calculating the ROI (return on investment) of Why I Am Writing a Book: http://ow.ly/JsC4Q @DanBlank
5 Ways to Grow Your Email List With Facebook Contests: http://ow.ly/JsC4R @smexaminer
How mindfulness techniques can bring us success in a wired world: http://ow.ly/JsC4U @fran_booth
Should You Avoid Topical Issues in Your Writing? http://ow.ly/JsC4V @PAShortt
5 Things Learned in Creative Writing Class: http://ow.ly/JsC4X @writingforward
Benefits of editing: http://ow.ly/JsC4Z by Tom Bentley @writerunboxed
How to Query: The Query Letter (video): http://ow.ly/JsC51 @ava_jae
Agent answers query question: print books only deals: http://ow.ly/JsC54 @Janet_Reid
How to Handle Bad Book Reviews: http://ow.ly/JsC55 @jodyhedlund
Overcoming Writer’s Block – A Compendium: http://ow.ly/JwOZl @DaxMacGregor
How to Create Multi-Dimensional Characters—Everybody Lies: http://ow.ly/JwOZu @kristenlambtx
Editing Clauses in Publishing Contracts: How to Protect Yourself: http://ow.ly/JwOZA @victoriastrauss
How to Create Characters Worth Reading: http://ow.ly/Jwz0Z @jamigold
Amazon Hack: Get Your Book into the Hands of an International Audience: http://ow.ly/JwOZE @bookgal
Making the Most of Publicity: http://ow.ly/JwOZI @bookendsjessica
“Imprints are done. Right?” http://ow.ly/JJOa8 @philipdsjones @Porter_Anderson
Screenwriters: The Procrastination Productivity Checklist: http://ow.ly/JrwhK @brettwean
A Book Signing Checklist: http://ow.ly/JrwhJ @bookgal
Why it’s Smart to Get Our Own ISBN: http://ow.ly/Jrvfy @111publishing
The Impact of Free Promos: http://ow.ly/JJ4Wx
5 Point Checklist To Help Writers Get to Know Their Characters: http://ow.ly/JrwhH @jodyhedlund
8 Foods to Beat Writer’s Block: http://ow.ly/JrwhF by Meredith Quinn @TheWriterMag
Tips for succeeding as a writer: http://ow.ly/JrwhD @cathyyardley
Evidence and conclusions in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/JIRXm @mkinberg
Using Everyday Life to Improve Our Story: http://ow.ly/Jrt5M @Jen_328
How to use tone and mood (to make your novel richer): http://ow.ly/JrwhA @nownovel
Why 1 writer moved out of Christian lit into the general market: http://ow.ly/Jo0nQ @cerebralgrump
5 Digital Publishing Questions for Seth Godin: http://ow.ly/JHpwd @RicardoFayet @ReedsyHQ
Writing And Gaming: Tabletop RPGs, Character Creation And Conflict: http://ow.ly/JHO3u @woodwardkaren
8 Ways to Make Your Characters More Relatable: http://ow.ly/Jo0nJ @_RobbieBlair_
13 Steps to Become a Successful Writer This Year: http://ow.ly/Jo0nG @KMWeiland
39 Things to Remember While Building Your Writing Career: http://ow.ly/Jo0nD @writerplatform
How To Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers: http://ow.ly/Jo0nz @thecreativepenn
How to Build an Online Platform: tumblr: http://ow.ly/Jo0nw @ava_jae
19 Quick Ways to Grow Your Author Following on Social Media: http://ow.ly/Jo0ns @Susan_Shain
Get Close to your Readers through PoV: http://ow.ly/Jo0nl @LindaKSienkwicz @buddhapuss
Types, Archetypes, and the Occasional Human Being: http://ow.ly/Jo0nf @DavidCorbett_CA
Characters Who Care: http://ow.ly/Jo0n5 @kid_lit
No empathy in horror?” http://ow.ly/Jo0ni @RayGarton
How to Write A Plausible Character: 3 Key Tips: http://ow.ly/Jo0nb @AnneLParrish
Music For Writers: The Good, The Bad, And The Soundtrack: http://ow.ly/JE45T @Porter_Anderson @MEnnioMorricone
One Of Your Crucial Characters Isn’t Working. What Do You Do? http://ow.ly/JkUNQ @charliejane
21 Book Marketing Tips for Authors: http://ow.ly/JkUNK @trainingauthors
Reading in the Age of Distraction: http://ow.ly/JEP9H @Porter_Anderson @ThoughtCatalog @PeterDiamandis
List of researching resources for writers: http://ow.ly/JkUNE from Clever Girl Helps
How to Find a Freelance Editor for Your Book: http://ow.ly/JkUNz @BlotsandPlots
How to Self-Publish Your Book: http://ow.ly/JkUNx @Janefriedman
7 Steps to Overcome Resistance and Get Stuff Done: http://ow.ly/JkUNs @yaseend
How to Sell Readers on Your Story’s Main Ideas in 4 Easy Steps: http://ow.ly/JkUNp @charliejane
Agents And Editors Reaching out to Authors during #MSWL events. Tips for Writers: http://ow.ly/JE3nj @Porter_Anderson
How To Set Up Your Goodreads Author Profile: http://ow.ly/JkUNo @futureofink
How Fifty Shades of Grey Is Dominating the Literary Scene: http://ow.ly/JkUNl @vanityfair @ShanaTingLipton
10 Reasons Why 1 Writer Would Never Publish Traditionally: http://ow.ly/JkUNi @deanwesleysmith
How to Research Your Novel Effectively: http://ow.ly/JkUNe @shesnovel
Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer by Elizabeth S. Craig: http://ow.ly/JD4Al @AlexJCavanaugh
5 Ways to Wander: 1st Draft Writing Advice: http://ow.ly/JkUNM @jeffreydavis108 @psychtoday
10 Self-Publishing Tools To Check Out In The New Year: http://ow.ly/JfQXN @abigailcarter
5 Times to Say Yes Before Hiring an Editor: http://ow.ly/JfQXH @HLazare
Literary lingo to know: http://ow.ly/JfQXD @shesnovel
Time to bury the ISBN? http://ow.ly/JfQXB @RicardoFayet @bookmachine
11 Stories You Can Start Telling By Dinnertime: http://ow.ly/JfGfZ @seanplatt
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Be Your Own Critic: http://ow.ly/JfQXA @BlotsandPlots
7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel: http://ow.ly/JfQXw @joebunting
Start a mailing list for your books (video): http://ow.ly/JfF8O @nmeunier
Women in publishing — achievements and challenges: http://ow.ly/JuROT @Porter_Anderson @dannyarteruk @gailrebuck
7 Reasons Why Most Authors Fail: http://ow.ly/JfQXr @johnnybtruant
7 Benefits of Writing Short Kindle Books: http://ow.ly/JfDAX @nmeunier
1 author agreed to publish 3 novels in a year€”and then things got weird: http://ow.ly/JzUPQ @theatlantic @jeffvandermeer
Selling On Proposal: http://ow.ly/JfQXm @karatwrites
How Authors Can Use Listmania to Promote Their Book: http://ow.ly/JfQXe @CathyStucker
“Bird Box” Named Horror Novel Of The Year by @ThisIsHorror: http://ow.ly/JBVJ1 @JoshMalerman @Porter_Anderson
Rewriting: How To Be Your Own Editor: http://ow.ly/Jccik @robblightfoot
33 Experts Share What They Want Next From Female Characters: http://ow.ly/JbTjS @bang2write
Easing Readers Into Your Story http://ow.ly/Jccig @Janice_Hardy
How to Find the Right Idea to Turn into a Book: http://ow.ly/Jccia @sjaejones @PubCrawlBlog
Should You Send Out that First Novel? 9 Things to Consider First: http://ow.ly/JxfUk @annerallen”
5 Facts About Your Book’s Ranking on Amazon: http://ow.ly/Jcci7 @111publishing
How to Choose Kindle Keywords: http://ow.ly/Jcci5 @selfpubreview by Henry Baum
A Process of Randomizing Revision: http://ow.ly/JuVb3 @LeslieBudewitz
Tropes Vs. Cliches: A Storyteller’s Guide: http://ow.ly/Jcci0 @bang2write
5 Elements Every Book Needs: http://ow.ly/JcchW @PeggyEddleman @PubCrawlBlog
Love it or hate it, LA coffee shops are full of screenwriters: http://ow.ly/JcchQ by Collin Friesen @KPCC
Why ‘royalties’ is a misnomer: http://ow.ly/JuRFs @theindiepubmag @Porter_Anderson
On prologue structure and antagonists: http://ow.ly/JcchK @HookedOnNoir
Music For Writers: Gregory W. Brown’s Natural Selections: http://ow.ly/JuQPJ @GregoryWBrown @Porter_Anderson
Gathering Phase and Structuring Phase–2 Stages of Building a Book: http://ow.ly/J9TWn @writeabook
The Novel with Many Narrators is a Multiheaded Beast: http://ow.ly/J9TWj @Kathy_Crowley
What to do when the fire of your first draft has gone out: http://ow.ly/J9TWi @SWolfe_Editor @womenwriters
10 Common Editing Mistakes: http://ow.ly/J9TWg @selfpubreview
6 Ways to Prepare Yourself and Your Manuscript for Success: http://ow.ly/J9TWd @K_Pashley
The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
February 26, 2015
The Impact of Free Promos
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I had to answer a questionnaire for self-publishers recently and several of the questions stumped me. I have a feeling that this isn’t a good thing.
One of the questions was ‘How many books have you sold (not given away)?’ I had absolutely no idea. And this information is not exactly as easy to come by as you might think. There is no way on your KDP dashboard to find lifetime sales.
I also had no idea how many books, total, I’d given away.
Another question was ‘What is your strongest selling title? How many units have you sold?’
Hmm.
In my defense…I have been very busy writing several series. My self-published books number six which, although not a huge number, certainly adds a bunch of lines and some complexity to each month’s KDP excel sheet.
Sadly, I did not take the excellent advice of writer Jack Welling and have one or both of my teenage children work on this stuff. Somehow my clerical needs always seem to coincide with massive projects on their end.
My printer is upstairs and my laptop was with me at the kitchen table. I pulled up all of the KDP reports from 2011 to 2015. Then I started clicking ‘print.’
I failed to notice that some of my monthly KDP reports were 12 pages long because of the number of books and the countries that the books are selling in.
I also failed to notice that I had not set up the reports to print in ‘landscape’ and not ‘portrait.’
My son, who was actually working on a computer in the room where the printer was, found me after a while. “Mom, what are you doing?” He indicated that he had just noticed some of the pages that were printing only had a few words on them.
Sigh.
Some findings from my Amazon reports (doesn’t include other retailers):
My foreign sales became strong after price matching freebies ran. Somehow, clearly, those free books gained me visibility on Amazon’s international sites. I did set it up for the international prices to be based on the US prices.
I’ve given away 429,944 free units.
Looking at the months where I had a lot of downloads of a free title, in general the sales of the same/other titles increased. But sometimes, the sales the following month declined and then dramatically bumped up the next month. I’ve never seen sales decline more than one month following a free promo.
So, I conclude that free promos tend to give me visibility in international markets as well as here at home. That bump in income may not show up the following month, but two months later. I think that, for me and my genre and with the number of titles I have, free is a good strategy for me for visibility in a crowded marketplace. I recently read a thought-provoking post from Jane Friedman: “The Strategic Use of Book Giveaways and How They Can Increase Earnings Potential.” In it, Jane says, “Giveaways (or freebies) are popular for good reason; they’re a classic, frictionless way to make people aware of your work.”
Strategies for the free books?
I was interviewed on Tuesday by Camille Fabre-Pergola and Phin Lambert at Vook and they asked me if I had a strategy for which titles were free. It was a good question and it made me realize how undeliberate I can be when I’m running a free book promo. Since my books don’t really have continuing subplots, I haven’t found it strictly necessary to make the first book in the series free. In fact, I can’t make the first book in the series free, because it was traditionally published by Midnight Ink (and that ebook is actually currently priced over $8, I believe).
So I choose my free title a bit differently, since I have no control over the pricing of that first book and the books don’t have a continuing story arc. Usually I take a look at the Amazon ranking and reviews of all the titles. If there’s a title that could really benefit from a boost in either rank or number of reviews, I pick that one. I make the book free on Smashwords and then Amazon (usually very quickly…24 hours?) price matches.
Things I’m going to start tracking better (some related to free promotions, some for other data):
Sales per title (unless/until Amazon does a better job helping us collect it on the dashboard). I still don’t know my strongest title or the number of units because I completely ran out of time. I think this will be something I give the 13 year old to do on a rainy day when she has little homework.
Monthly sales totals.
Monthly downloads totals.
And to keep up with it better, I’m going to print out those reports each month. Then I won’t have such a huge chore. Somehow, it’s easier for me to add the stuff up when it’s on paper.
Have you tried these types of promotions? How did it work for you? Any revelations of your own from your sales and downloads reports?
Tweetable:
Potential benefits of free book promos: http://bit.ly/1BDBrhZ via @elizabethscraig (Click to Tweet)
Image: from Death to the Stock Photo
The post The Impact of Free Promos appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
February 25, 2015
Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 
What’s it like being a hybrid writer (someone who both publishes traditionally and self-publishes)?
Today I’m at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group listing pros and cons of being a hybrid writer and tips for making it work. Hope you’ll pop over and join me.
The post Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
February 22, 2015
Randomizing Revision
by Leslie Budewitz, @LeslieBudewitz 
I take a methodical approach to revision. As I work on the draft, I start a list of “Revision Notes”—facts to check, inconsistencies to iron out, name changes to clean up. When the draft is complete I print it out and punch it into a fat, three-ring binder. I make an outline, adding to the Revision Notes as I go, with some comments organized by chapter and some by topic. (“Jen or Jenn?;” “Deepen Pepper’s doubts about investigating;” “Kristen lecture Pepper about getting involved with Tag twice? Earlier is better.”)
Then I start the read-throughs, which I sometimes call drafts even though I’m working from the same physical copy. Each read-through involves a different layer of the ms. In the plot draft, I fix the holes I’ve identified in the outline and others that jump out at me as I work. In the character draft, I make sure the protagonist drives the action (I write in first person) and that every secondary character pops. In the scene draft, I sharpen the goals, motivation, and conflicts, and make each transition clear, so the reader never wonders about time or place. I look to make sure I’ve kept it cozy, that I’ve never lost track of the dog, and that I’ve given my protagonist all the trouble she can handle—and then some.
But the final step may be the most important, because it introduces a key element to my otherwise orderly process: randomization. That’s the “Repetitive Word draft.” Like every writer, I’ve got my pet words: still, only, really, turn, smile, perfect. Every book seems to develop its own overused vocabulary. This stage eliminates unconscious echoes, and helps me sharpen my characters’ observations and introduce more variety and vibrance. In my latest ms., second in my Spice Shop Mysteries, my protagonist Pepper seemed to adore everything she didn’t find odd; she laughed too much, and overused the word figure, in a variety of contexts. Chili and chile went on the list because I continually mistyped them, as did Viaduct, a proper noun when referring to the elevated highway running along the Seattle waterfront. In my Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, I tend to repeat fresh and local. (Worthy concepts; overused words.) After I read a blog post on describing characters’ voices, I got a little carried away with that aspect of craft, so voice and tone went on the list.
But even more than making sure I don’t turn head into a synonym for walk three times on the same page, this process helps me catch (spot, nab) repetitive structure. I use the Find function, jumping from one instance of the target word to the next. I may land on two consecutive pages or skip several chapters. By taking context out of the picture, I can see what I’ve actually written—not what I think I’ve written. I’m not reading chronologically, so it’s easier to recognize repetitive thoughts or phrases and unnecessary sentences. An overused phrase often indicates a clause or sentence that can be eliminated. Sometimes it’s a filtering phrase—“I thought…”, “… caught my attention,” “I felt…”—that creates a distance between narrator and reader. Deleting it allows me to go a touch deeper into my protagonist’s POV.
Some overuses are easy to overlook because words like could, with, and though are so ordinary, so necessary. Do I really replace a good chunk of them? Yes and no. The eye scans over many of these words, and often, they are exactly the right word. But the real importance of the exercise is to show me where I’ve been tentative instead of bold, made a phrase conditional, pulled punches in my dialogue.
An example of a word that shows up too often in the same way—at least for me; your linguistic quirks may vary—is with. I tend to toss it into descriptions far too often. For example, my protagonist, Pepper Reece, describes a chef who comes into her shop this way: “Tamara vibrated with intensity, her presence boosting everyone around her to a higher frequency.” And only seven lines later, Pepper thinks of her this way: “Thin and wiry—from hard work, not workouts—her features too intense to call pretty. But she buzzed with an irresistible energy.” It’s a common sentence structure, but not one for every page.
These searches show us our weak spots.
Because of the random factor, I sometimes notice unnecessary words or phrases apart from those I’m searching for. And though I’ve already deleted dozens of throat-clearing phrases and eliminated thoughts or phrases that belonged in earlier drafts but don’t relate to action in the current version, I still find those stragglers, artifacts of previous thoughts that no longer fit. Out they go. They’re easier to spot when you’re not reading for substance. As a bonus, you may spot missing words or punctuation errors, too, because when the eye sees out of context, it doesn’t make the automatic corrections that trip us up.
For a 75,000 word ms., the process may take me two days. It can be tedious. But I can eliminate several hundred words without eliminating action. And the real payoff is a stronger, tighter manuscript.
Leslie Budewitz is the national best-selling author of DEATH AL DENTE, first in the 
Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries set in northwest Montana, and winner of the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, and the sequel, CRIME RIB (2014). ASSAULT & PEPPER, first in her Spice Shop Mysteries will debut in March 2015 from Berkley Prime Crime. Pepper Reece, owner of the Seattle Spice Shop, thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murderer ends up in the mix…
Also a lawyer, Leslie won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction for BOOKS, CROOKS & COUNSELORS: HOW TO WRITE ACCURATELY ABOUT CRIMINAL LAW & COURTROOM PROCEDURE (Quill Driver Books), making her the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction.
Leslie blogs for writers on using the law accurately in their fiction. Visit her blog. http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com/blog
Find her on Facebook http://www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewit...
or on Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/LeslieBudewitz
The post Randomizing Revision appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.
