Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 147

Speaking to Book Clubs

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Friday I spoke to a
book club in my hometown of Anderson, South Carolina.  It was a great group and a very
well-established one—it had been founded in 1920.  My grandmother had been among the early
members. 




In the past five years or so, I’ve spoken
to a variety of different kinds of book clubs. 
Some have been very casual with a loosely-organized program.  Some have been dressy, organized events.  Some have been at retirement homes.  Sometimes there’s even supper involved.  I’ve found that it’s good to know what to
expect before you arrive.




It’s also nice to know if you’re expected
to give a talk, for how long, and on what topics…limited to a particular
title?  About writing in general?  Or will the host going to introduce you and
then the club will start discussing the book and ask questions afterward? 

And, as with our writing, it helps to
know our audience.  I’ve spoken to book
clubs made up of a variety of different age groups…and I try to tailor my talk
to fit in more with their group.  If it’s
a group of moms, I’ll talk a little bit more about trying to write a book
around children.  When I talked in my
hometown, I talked about growing up there and my influences and the way the
town has figured into my writing. 

Although the groups have been very
different, I’ve noticed that, mostly, their questions are the same.

The most common questions:

When do you write? How much do you write
a day? How many books do you write a year?

Do you write yourself into the books? Do
you write your children into your books?

How do you bring characters to life?

How did you get started with a publisher?

Do you like ebooks/what do you think
about ebooks/are your books available as ebooks?

How do you keep your series straight?

Do you do signings at bookstores?  (And when I immediately answer ‘not usually,’
they ask ‘why?’)

How long does it take you to write a
book?

Do you write about people you know?

Do you help with your titles? With your
covers?

How many books are printed by the
publisher?

Do you write on the computer or longhand?


Sometimes I’ve spoken to groups about
writing, in general.  Sometimes the talk
has been focused around a particular book. If they’ve read one of your books,
you’d better know that book backwards and forwards.  I now have cheat sheets of all my books that
I can review before speaking to clubs.

I know writers who give away door prizes
at book club meetings.

And make sure that you bring books and a
pen with you.  Ugh.  As ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve forgotten to
bring books to sell before. 
 


Dina
Santorelli guest
blogged here in April and had some great tips about talking with book
clubs.  Among them, she recommends
bringing a mailing list signup sheet, a camera, and giving the book club a
group discount on books.

Finding book clubs can be a
challenge.  I’ve heard some people have
had luck on MeetUp.  I know people who have contacted retirement
homes, senior centers, bookstores, and libraries and asked if they needed
speakers at club meetings.  The times
I’ve spoken with book clubs, it’s been a word-of-mouth process.  Usually it’s a family member or a friend’s
club—sometimes it’s more of a friend-of-a-friend thing.

Have you spoken to any book clubs?  Have any tips? 

Image: MorgueFile: by MissMeganBunn

Twitterific

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig









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November 13-14:  Get
Read – Marketing Strategies for Writers: Dan Blank’s We Grow Media is a  two-day online conference for authors looking
for promotion strategies--and, ultimately, readers.  Speakers include Porter
Anderson, Chuck Wendig, Dan Blank, Jane
Friedman, Therese Walsh, and many
others.  (I'm one of the scheduled
speakers and am also am serving on the advisory board.)  More information about the conference and
registration information can be found here.




4 Ways to Improve Your Writing: http://dld.bz/cPz2m @ava_jae

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Are Novelists Too Wary of Criticizing
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Flannery O'Connor "was real"
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Writers and Their Reading

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig









Hi everyone.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  I've got a guest post today at the We
Wanted to be Writers blog--they have an interesting feature called
"Books by the Bed" and they asked me to contribute.

After reading some
of the great entries from other writers, I wasn't really sure I even felt
comfortable submitting a post! I had a feeling that when I explored my bedside
table, it was going to be crammed-packed with Agatha Christies (yellowing
paperbacks from the 80s that I still have) and a Kindle full of mysteries. As
usual, everything was a blur when I tried to remember what I'd been reading in
the last several months.  But when I took
a look and reconstructed my purchases, borrows, library checkouts, and old
favorites that I frequently peek at before sleeping, I realized that my reading
is actually more varied than I give myself credit for. 




Pop over if you can
and share what's on your bedside table (or what you've read in the past few
months).

Mystery with Spiritual Edge

by Stephen McCutchan, @stevemccutchan





A Good Mystery

A good mystery helps restore
order and makes sense out of something that is unexplainable in our society.
People do not like to live in a society that doesn't respond to logic. How do
you protect yourself if there is not a logical explanation for what is
happening? When we experience brokenness in our society, we need someone to fix
what is broken and fill the hole in our universe that threatens the logic of
our lives. The mystery can be personal, a mysterious death, or enter the area
of thrillers with a threat to our whole society. A good mystery helps us make
sense and restore order again.

An Anxious Society

The news seems dominated by
scandals and examples of forces beyond human control. In politics, think
Anthony Wiener, in religion think Jimmy Swaggart, in ecology think Tsunami or
Hurricane Sandy, in the economy recall the large banks and investment firms
fiascos. On a personal level, we hear of crazy people with guns invading our
schools and terrorists threatening our embassies. How does a person make sense
of how to live in such a crazy world?

Fascination with Powers Beyond Our World

If the media is a barometer
of our society, we see an increased fascination with chaos, and with the
possibility of forces beyond our visible world touching our lives. Think of the
various versions of Dystopia in recent books and movies. Think also of the
popularity of stories about vampires, demons, and alien invasions as well as
the traumatic breakdown of our ability to control the forces of nature.




There is also an increased
interest in Super Heroes who can save us from ourselves. These range from
Superman, Spiderman, to friendly aliens like ET and the world of Harry Potter.
On a more personal level, there is the rise in popularity of Gurus with special
secrets of how to lose weight, find peace, become rich, etc.

Mysteries with a Spiritual Edge

This hunger in our society
for ways to restore order, either by human courage or mysterious forces from
outside our world, makes mysteries with a spiritual edge particularly
appealing. Such mysteries allow the reader to experience the chaos but also the
promise that life will ultimately make sense once the mystery is solved. By
adding the spiritual angle to the mystery, we address the interest in how we
can draw upon forces from beyond our visible world to assist us.




Some
mystery/thrillers like those written by Dan Brown, suggest that there is some
secret to be discovered that can unleash these powers into our world. In my
mystery novel, A Star and aTear,  I
choose access to the spiritual forces through the more common experience of
religious disciplines, relationships, and reason. In my story, the demonic
aspect of life is represented by the toxic mixture of a distorted version of
sex and religion that wreaks terror in the community. The mystery is solved by
a healthier confrontation with the symbiotic relationship of sexuality and
spirituality.

Sex, Religion, Reason, and Hope

As one of the
characters in my novel says, "religion and sex are two of the most
powerful creative and destructive forces in our universe." We deny the
reality of these forces at our own peril. However, as the mystery is solved, we
make sense out of life again, terror is banished, and hope is present. 

I invite
you to enter the conversation and join me in my effort "to build respect
for clergy one story at a time." Click here ,
enjoy the mystery, and consider if this would be a good book for discussion
among your friends.

Having a Discussion with Friends

If you have a
group of five or more, I am willing to provide you a discount code of 20% to
apply to your Amazon bill. Contact me at steve@smccutchan.com to secure the code.

The book includes provocative
questions at the end of each chapter to help your group probe some of the
themes that are in the book. As you discuss the book in your group, you may
also want to email two or three questions to me as the author and I will respond
as quickly as I can. We also may be able to find a common date in which we
could have a more personal conversation via Skype.

I hope you will enjoy A Star and a Tear. 









Stephen McCutchan, writer, humorist, and
advocate for the care of clergy, is a Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister and
the author of Let’s Have Lunch: Conversation,
Race, and Community; Experiencing
the Psalms (recipient of the Jim Angell award from the Presbyterian
Writers Guild); Good News for a Fractured
Society, and three volumes of lectionary devotionals for pastors
plus two CDs, A Deep Well for the
Pastor and Laughter from the
Well.

Interviews--My Checklist for Skype Interviews, Podcasts, or Radio

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig





Although I don’t do a ton of interviews,
I probably do a live or recorded interview every few months.  I especially like the recorded ones because I
figure if I say something dumb, they can edit it all out and make me look as if
I know what I’m talking about. :)

I’ve learned from my mistakes in the past
with these things, too.  I think of my
house as being a very quiet place, but apparently, judging from my interview
experiences, there is actually plenty of noise pollution there.  The pets, for one.  My corgi will bark at the cats, at the
doorbell, and sometimes when she wants to go outside.  The cats are male litter-mates and fight tooth
and nail with each other.  Various
appliances make buzzer-like alarms when they’re done running.  My UPS guy feels the need to hit the doorbell
when he drops off a package (I do appreciate this, but it makes the
aforementioned barking happen).



I try to schedule interviews when no one
is at home.  This has worked with 90% of
my Skype interviews. But I’ve got some kind of radio-related curse.  Whenever I have a radio interview, and the
ones I’ve done have unfortunately all been live, I will most certainly have a
sick child or a snow day on my hands (with school canceled). This is one reason
I know it’s a curse—y’all know it doesn’t snow down here in the American South
all that often.

So here’s
the checklist that I use before an interview, in the hopes it can help you out,
too:

Where are the children?  Have I told them what I’m doing, so that they
won’t accidentally disturb me? Regardless of the fact you’ve told them about
the interview, put a sticky note on your door so that they’ll remember before
they knock.

Put the dog in a back bedroom.

Put the cats away (in a separate room
from the dog).

Put a sticky note on the door asking
Fed-X, UPS, and the mailman not to ring the doorbell.

Put my cellphone away or mute it.

Have water nearby.  I will immediately have a coughing fit,
guaranteed, whenever I’m supposed to be recorded. 

Skype
specific:

Do a sound/video check.

Turn on lots of lights in the house and
provide backlighting, too. 

Wear lots more makeup than usual. Or, in
my case, wear make-up, period.

Pull out my webcam. It seems to be much
better-quality than the one that came with my laptop.

Remember not to look at the computer,
where I see the interviewer.  I need to
look in the camera, or else I look distracted.

What’s in the background? Do I need to
dust?  :) 


Books. 
Have a book nearby that I can hold up…if it’s that kind of
interview.  Sometimes it’s not a promo
thing, it’s a craft thing and I might just have books on my dusted table in the background.

Radio and
podcast specific:

Don’t use my cellphone to call in.  Use the house phone.

Turn off call waiting if you have it.

They’re fond of hearing the station’s
call letters in the broadcast.

For any
interview:

See if I can get the questions in
advance.  It helps me give a more
thoughtful answer and just provides them with better content, in general.

Be able to sum up your book in one
sentence because you’ll usually be asked to tell the interviewer about your
most-recent release or what you’re working on now.

Last week’s interview was with Gabriela Pereira with DIYMFA for Lit Loft writing conference
and online course.  You can see a little
of what we touched on at Gabriela’s site, here.

Have any tips I’ve missed about
interviews?  Have you been
interviewed?  How did it go?

Twitterific

By
Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig





Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming)
which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search
engine for writers.




Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top
contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook. 




Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are
offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel
great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it
at Knockout Novel.com. 




My tips for handling
writing and life: http://dld.bz/cQncA @DIYMFA

What’s Important in the Man
Booker Debate? http://dld.bz/cQn3H
/@Porter_Anderson @nicksidwell @meandmybigmouth


Tips for Creating an Online
Community: http://dld.bz/cQde4  @annerallen @AlexJCavanaugh



Making Your Book Promotable
– Before It's Published: http://dld.bz/cQnYB
@theprexpert

Jonathan Franzen takes on
ebooks and Amazon: http://dld.bz/cQrUx
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You're Not a Real Writer Unless…:  http://dld.bz/cP9ZS
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1 writer's pre-writing process: http://dld.bz/cP9ZY @roniloren

Anatomy of a book proposal: http://dld.bz/cPAad @lisajjackson

What's the Difference Between an In-Depth
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How to Hone in on Memory When Writing
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Top Ten Tropes in YA: http://dld.bz/cPAb9 @StrangeChem

Neil Gaiman's Advice to Aspiring Writers:
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7 simple rules for good writing: http://dld.bz/cPA3U  @MsLianneLaroya

10 Bizarre Work Habits of Famous Authors:
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5 tips for being a better writer: http://dld.bz/cPA4m @storyfix

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Tips for First-Time Horror Writers: http://dld.bz/cPA42 @WriterlyTweets @kculpepper1

7 Ways to Write to the Future: http://dld.bz/cPA4G @Orion_Magazine

Twitter's effect on writers and writing: http://dld.bz/cPPnM @walkthelinesldn @lucyinglis

Tips for approaching authors for guest
posts or interviews: http://dld.bz/cPPpn
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Summer Lessons from an Unpublished Essay:
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Why Fan Fiction? http://dld.bz/cPPp8 @CarrieMesrobian

Becoming Shakespeare: http://dld.bz/cPPpC @TheEconomist

"Why I'm Not Writing YA (though I
often wish I was)": http://dld.bz/cPPqd
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You don't write books alone: http://dld.bz/cPPqy @AlissaLukara

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Style: http://dld.bz/cPYWa

How Not To Treat Your Editor: http://dld.bz/cPYW4 @edsikov

Pet words: http://dld.bz/cPYWA
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2 tips for finding your writing voice: http://dld.bz/cPYWK @KatieAxelson

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6 ways to be more like Hemingway: http://dld.bz/cPYXs @fastcompany

1 writer's journey to publication and her
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Even if you don't live great stories, you
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5 Reasons Every Writer Should Journal: http://dld.bz/cQd6z @shewritesdotcom

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Double trouble: two authors in the house:
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of offering only ebooks? http://dld.bz/cQs7j
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The $55 Wooden Pencil: http://dld.bz/cQs7s @ChandlerWrites

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Savvy Writing Advice from Famous Authors:
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More Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer and My Self-Publishing Discoveries

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig












On Monday’s post, I received a comment
from Colleen…she was interested in hearing more about balancing or approaching
life as a hybrid writer—someone who is both traditionally published and
self-published.

She mentioned (and she’s right) that many
self-pubbed/indie authors aren’t at all interested in being traditionally
published.  She was curious about how I
handle both worlds.

And…it’s interesting sometimes.  But for me, a job is a job. I have
traditionally published series with readers who want more books, so I’m
providing them more books.  I recently
signed a contract with Penguin for more mysteries in the Southern Quilting
series.



How I
manage the two parts of my writing life:

Since I was traditionally published
before I was self-pubbed, I don’t have expectations about my having much input
into the production side for traditional publishing.  I work well with my editors, I hit my
deadlines, I promote in a quiet way. 
I’ve got readers who enjoy these series and I’m not planning on walking
away from the series or those readers while I’m still being asked to write
books for them.

That being said—my bread and butter is
the self-pub—the Myrtle Clover series. While I put self-pubbed projects on hold
to finish traditionally published ones (they’re higher priority because I’m
paid in advance and because I have a deadline in my contract), I always return
to the self-pubbed projects as soon as I can. 


I’m not one of those who enjoys the
control I get with self-pub.  I enjoy the
royalties I get there, but the
production process always carries a little residual stress for me.  But once it’s done, I do feel a sense of
pride with the project—maybe more than I get from my traditionally published
ones…simply because I was responsible for the entire package.

What I’ve
noticed in the past couple of years:

Readers frequently don’t seem to notice
or care which books are self-pubbed and which are my traditionally pubbed—at
least, from what I can tell from Facebook messages and emails. But they will
fuss that my traditional pubs aren’t on audio and will ask me how one series is
and the others aren’t.  I’ve never,
oddly, had a reader ask me why they couldn’t find a Myrtle Clover book when
they went to Barnes & Noble.

I’ve noticed that my print sales are
definitely slipping in comparison to my digital sales. But there are still
readers who contact me about the lack of availability of particular print
titles (and they don’t want to read a digital book). 

And, if something isn’t available on
Nook, I hear about it.  Unfortunately,
one of my traditionally published titles isn’t on Nook—I had no idea until I
heard from a reader a couple of weeks ago. 
I contacted Midnight Ink about it and haven’t heard back yet. I sent the
reader an old print copy of the book that I had at home—she’d read all my other
books but that one.  I don’t think of
Nook as sending too many sales my way, but there are obviously readers who have
invested in that platform and aren’t going to read on other types of devices.

International sales take a while to start
up, but once they do, they add up quickly. 
My international sales were dead until the last 8 or 9 months, and now
books are selling briskly there.  I
suppose it works the same way as it does here with online retailers—once a few
sales are generated, your title gets more visibility.

I somehow feel compelled to tell family and friends who ask about my books that
I’m doing both traditional and self-pub. 
I have no idea why I feel this is important to disclose.  My disclosure is usually met with complete
confusion, which leads me to think that many non-writers aren’t really
following the self-pub revolution.  They
always recognize that ebooks are less-expensive—I do hear that all the time.  But they seem surprised that I’m choosing
this path.  Surprised…and usually
concerned.  Have my series been
discontinued?  I’ve found that a brief
explanation doesn’t seem to exist.

The more avenues you can open up for
already-published content, the better.  I
didn’t learn this until this year.  So
you’ve got some published ebooks.  If
they’re in demand, go ahead and offer them in print and audio.  Make your content work harder for you.  I’ve been so focused on creating new content
that I didn’t think about branching out. 


Are you a hybrid writer?  Do you have any insights about publishing or
self-publishing to share here?

A note:
Congratulations to my friend Alex
J. Cavanaugh for his new release, CassaStorm!  Alex not only has a successful series, but he
also has a terrific blog and a wonderful community for writers, the IWSG. You
can find my interview with Alex in this month’s newsletter for the Writer’s Knowledge
Base and here.

Past Imperfect

Guest Post by James Mullen

I’ve started to sketch out the plot for
my second book.  The book is a police
procedural based in Boston, and although I visit the area frequently, I haven’t
lived there in over 20 years. Computer research and phone interviews are
invaluable, you can’t beat putting your eyes on places – even if it’s just a
validation of what’s perfectly remembered. 
To be honest though, I went with the idea of visiting not the actual
places I image as crime scenes, because I know them so well, but want to
re-acquaint myself with the more peripheral areas of those scenes that could
serve as description. 

I plan to have the opening crime scene
take place at a downtown subway stop, or as we like to say in Boston, a “T”
stop.  I’ve found most subway stations
very linear and shaped like, well, the letter “T”;  ascending or descending stairs that pour out
to a waiting horizontal platform in front of the rails.  Pretty straight forward, pretty simple.  Since I was planning a murder, I needed a
place with more complication, more corners. 
I need malevolence.

I remember a stop I used back in the
mid-70s when I commuted from the Back Bay to downtown Boston.  The station always struck me as up to no
good, and on nights I worked late, felt like I was descending into a film noir
movie set.  Mack the Knife or Philip
Marlowe could pop out of the shadows and stick a shiv or a gat in my back
without warning.  The place defined grimy
and dark.  The layout was more like the
letter “Y”, but with intricate and shadowy angles.  Perfect!






So I had my hopes up when I went to
re-visit the street-level environment surrounding the stop two weeks ago. I
almost didn’t enter the stop itself since I knew the details were firmly
embedded in my memory – even 40 years later.

Boston, back then, covered both sides of
the social contract with its ridership. 
The city wanted efficient use of its system, so made the environment
extremely unpleasant; searing heat in any season; zero air exchange; squealing
breaks on subways at all times; crowd movements resembling schools of fish in a
Dixie cup; most overhead light bulbs broken – illumination being supplied by
any natural light able to crawl on its hands and knees down the stairs and make
it to the platform area on the first level. 
Yes, the city made good on its promise that no matter what slings and
arrows were suffered during a given workday by its citizens, they would take
place in an environment much more pleasant than the station.

But look what I walked into?  As you can see from the recent photo; white
tiles on the wall!  A wall, recently
cleaned!  Posters, and get this, a mural
on the back wall behind the escalators. 
Art appreciation!  And the
lights!  More than adequate ceiling
fluorescents throughout. People holding hands! 
I fully expected to see folks alight from arriving subway cars singing
show tunes and then lining up for a dance routine.  How could my memory do this to me?  Or is it the city’s fault?

The second day I took a boat trip to
another crime scene, Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor.  Although I have never set foot on the island,
it is one of many in Boston Harbor located on a well-used flight path to and
from Logan Airport that I’ve flown numerous times.  If you look out a plane’s window enough, you
get to know the landmarks and the approach well. As a precaution, I also
checked maps on the internet prior to my trip and could see that the island’s
view of the Boston skyline would be blocked by several others in the harbor;
that fact being germane to an intended plot point of my story.  I give you Spectacle Island:

 









Lesser men would suffer boredom from
being right all the time.  Me, I just
take it in stride.












James
Mullen currently lives in North Carolina. 
His first novel, Ketchum and Cobb, can be purchased on Amazon.   

Website:  Grumpy Gets Better (jimamullen.blogspot.com)
– things literary and not so much.

Also on
Facebook and Goodreads. 

When Your Work in Progress Needs Early Revisions

By
Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig





As I mentioned last week, I recently
turned in a teaser chapter and an outline to one of my Penguin editors.  This particular editor likes to see an
outline before a book is written.

The deadline for the outline was actually
Sept. 1.  The deadline for the book
itself is January 1.  I have a self-pub
project that I stopped working on to write this book, so I decided to go ahead
and start writing the Penguin book while I waited for feedback on the outline.  There’s a bit of risk in doing so, since it
means that I might need to make big changes on a work-in-progress.

And…I did end up needing to make those
changes.  The editor liked the concept
for the book, but thought the set-up in the first chapter was a bit too similar
to the one in Knot What it Seams, which
came out in February. 


My editor’s memory is flawless and mine
is faulty.  Although that book came out
in February, I’d written it in early 2012 and had written 4.5 books since then
(including the quickly deserted self-pub I dropped to
work on this project). I re-read the start of the story in question and did
notice similarities.

My editor asked for two more suspects, or
at least one more.  She also asked for me to include subplots
involving 3 characters she really enjoys and feels that readers also enjoy.

While these weren’t radical changes, they
were fairly substantial and would definitely require a rewrite of the teaser
chapter I’d just turned in.

I was also already 38 pages into the
book.

I started out by making a list. This
keeps me from being completely overwhelmed by the task ahead.

Brainstorm
new direction:  Who might work as
additional suspects? I came up with as many scenarios as I could, and then
picked the strongest.  How could I
connect the requested subplots in with the mystery?  With the other subplot?  How could I make those characters grow or
change in the process?  What was another
way to start out the book…could I skip the set-up altogether and go right into
the action? I picked the best ideas and dumped the rest.

Revise
teaser chapter:  This had to be
revised first, since it was technically overdue.

Revise
outline:  Incorporate the
additions in the outline (the additional suspects, the additional subplots).

Delete portions of the outline that no
longer fit in with the revisions.

Make notes
on manuscript:  Obviously, I was
going to immediately rewrite chapter one because of the teaser chapter
issue.  Then I needed to replace the
original chapter one with the new one.

Make a note to myself on Word in Track
Changes that page 12ish—38 were unedited.

Keep
moving forward with story: For me, I do major revisions after the first
draft is finished.  So I picked up on
page 38 with the changes from that point forward, following the revised outline
and the point that I was in with the story. 
Others, I know, want to fix those other pages in between, but that’s
what my second draft is for.

So I quickly revised the first chapter
and sent it back to my editor, since she needed it for the end of the December
book.  I finished the other tasks and am
now picking up with the story as if the beginning of the book were already
fixed.

So…yeah, it can be a little unnerving to
get requests from changes from an editor in midstream.  It might not even be an editor—it could be a
first reader or a critique group.  But by
breaking it down into small tasks and prioritizing them, it does make the job a
lot easier.

Have you ever made large revisions in the
early stages of a project?  How did you
organize the process?

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig









Twitterific
links are fed into the Writer’s
Knowledge Base search engine (developed by
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Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top
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Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are
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great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it
at Knockout Novel.com. 
 
A free directory of cover designers,
formatters, freelance editors, and more: http://bit.ly/nolbXq

26 Minority Screenwriters to Inspire You:
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20 Tips for Writing Picture Books: http://dld.bz/cPea3




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Cover to Cover: From Inception to
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@Philip_Overby

Stephen King On What Makes An Opening
Line Great: http://dld.bz/cPebm
@woodwardkaren

Fight Club's 8 Rules for Writing that
Creates a Ruckus: http://dld.bz/cPebv
@JonMorrow

Keeping Action Scenes Clear and
Interesting: http://dld.bz/cPebx
@janice_hardy

Writing Biographies for Children: http://dld.bz/cPeb2

The Kindle has turned a rare book dealer
off of paper books: http://dld.bz/cPebA
@guardianbooks

Writing with Dyslexia: http://dld.bz/cPebJ @womenwriters
@Dandeliongirl01

Interview with agent @SaraMegibow: http://dld.bz/cPeeD @fantasyfaction

3 Lessons 1 Editor Has Learned from Her
First Year as Publisher: http://dld.bz/cPegc
@shewrites

Writing to heal--1 writer's journey: http://dld.bz/cPeRd @AnneWainscott

How to Tell People You're a Writer
(Without Telling Them Anything): http://dld.bz/cPeSg
@shermanave1

The Fine Art of Saying No: http://dld.bz/cPfbh @pshares

Motivational Tools for the Freelance
Writer: http://dld.bz/cPfbv @B2Community

10 rules of writing fiction: http://dld.bz/cPfb8 @BlackmanAndrew

Writing is all about trust: http://dld.bz/cPffJ @altait

On writing and dating: http://dld.bz/cPfgd @duchessofrock @salon

Fan Fiction Writers are Gryffindors: http://dld.bz/cPfgn @lucyhallowell

'Also, the Drink Helps': Famous Writers'
Daily Writing Routines: http://dld.bz/cPfgq
@TheAtlantic @brainpicker

Setting Details—Mastering Technology: http://dld.bz/cPfrM @noveleditor

3 blogging mistakes to avoid: http://dld.bz/cPfsm @JFBookman

Tips for building strong characters: http://dld.bz/cPfsv @write_practice

4 Tips on Using Theme in Science-Fiction:
http://dld.bz/cPfs8 @cairnswrites
@@VeronicaSicoe

Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating
Characters: http://dld.bz/cPfsR
@melissadonovan

Grid Lets You Organize Your Ideas
Visually: http://dld.bz/cNTX3 @mediabistro

What sucks and what's great about letting
go of the novel you've been working on for 2.5 years: http://dld.bz/cNTbC @lucas_klauss

This Is Your Writing On Drugs: http://dld.bz/cNReK @kenyonreview

A community for screenwriters offering
resources for screenwriters and fiction writers in other media: http://dld.bz/cPjwJ @theBlackBoard

Bare-Knuckle Writing: http://dld.bz/cPjym @katiekitamura

21 Ways to Not Finish a First Draft: http://dld.bz/cPjy4 @MADaboutWords

5 Writing Quotes that are Wall Worthy: http://dld.bz/cPjyM @SherlockedSarah

Backstory - What It Is And Why We Use It:
http://dld.bz/cPjzn @pyrosama

Great Openings Grab the Reader by the
Throat: http://dld.bz/cPjzY @Eve_Silver
@martinaaboone

Bad reasons to blog and how to know you
shouldn't do it: http://dld.bz/cPj2e
@TiceWrites

Using a Chapter Framework to Manage Plots
and Subplots: http://dld.bz/cPj2F
@querytracker

7 tips for open and honest communication
in a writers group: http://dld.bz/cPj2U
@WriterlyTweets

Tips for building strong characters: http://dld.bz/cPfsv @write_practice

5 Quick Fixes for a Story that Goes
Wrong: http://dld.bz/cPjCt @yeomanis
@writeitsideways

Healthy Eating Tips for Writers: http://dld.bz/cPjCR

Writer's Spreadsheets: http://dld.bz/cPjDr @janlewis77 @lisagailgreen

A look at epic fantasy: http://dld.bz/cPjHf @TeresaFrohock

Lessons Learned While Preparing for a
Writer's Workshop: http://dld.bz/cPjHg
@davidbcoe

What to Do When a Possessive Blocks
Punctuation: http://dld.bz/cPjHs
@writing_tips

21 Things Writers Know that Non-Writers
Don't: http://dld.bz/cPjHv @victoriamixon

The Fine Art of Saying No: http://dld.bz/cPfbh @pshares

The Many Layers of Structure and Design: http://dld.bz/cPjHC @ingridsundberg

Why All Self-Publishers Should Sell
Direct: http://dld.bz/cPjJd @TheWritPlatform

Stephen King's 20 Quotes on Writing: http://dld.bz/cPjJw @LuisAFAzevedo

Selling Your Novel in a Digital World: http://dld.bz/cPjJ6 @NAAlleyBlog

How to Handle Rejection: Don't Give Up: http://dld.bz/cPjJH @wherewriterswin

Refresher on pronoun usage: http://dld.bz/cPjJZ

Valuing Complexity in Entertainment: http://dld.bz/cPjKm @okalrelsrv @ClarionUCSD

How To Format A Perfect Novel: http://dld.bz/cPjKA @gbr0binson

Getting Your Rights Back From the
Publisher: http://dld.bz/cPjTW
@rachellegardner

A Quick Tip for Getting to Know Your
Characters--And Your Plot: http://dld.bz/cPm2W
@Janice_Hardy

Best time of year to submit to an agent? http://dld.bz/cPm3a @carlywatters

The New Explosion in Audio Books: http://dld.bz/cPm3d @passivevoiceblg

Unleashing the Writer in You: http://dld.bz/cPm3j

Storytelling is getting formulaic. This
is an opportunity: http://dld.bz/cPm3r
@nathanbransford

5 reasons to embrace the 21st century: http://dld.bz/cPm3s @rachellegardner

The Art of Anthology: http://dld.bz/cPm3u @ErinUnderwood

A Blogging Technique That Will Cut Your
Writing Time in Half: http://dld.bz/cPm32
@ticewrites

Writers and Self-Promotion: Stop
bleating, start writing: http://dld.bz/cPm36
@pstjmack

5 Moments of Horror in Unexpected Places:
http://dld.bz/cPm3D @AnnieNeugebauer

Restless for Writing, or How Writing
Ruins Everything: http://dld.bz/cPm4f
@LetaBlake

Leveraging Anxiety as a Creative: http://dld.bz/cPm4m @RealLifeE

Six lessons we can learn from a family of
writers: http://dld.bz/cPm4v

Find a Fun Hobby to Boost Your Writing: http://dld.bz/cPm4x @PhilosBooks

How To Turn Complicated Books Into
Movies: http://dld.bz/cPm42

Why it's difficult to get into the
manga/comic business: http://dld.bz/cNZAs
@DavidCampitiGHG

For coffee-addicted writers: What
Caffeine Really Does to Your Brain: http://dld.bz/cNZAy
@PsyBlog

Ambiguity, Fiction, and TV? http://dld.bz/cPmHd @PsychCentral

How your morning pages may become a
sacred space: http://dld.bz/cPmH9
@emilypfreeman

Tips for getting more reviews: http://dld.bz/cPmJa @gbr0binson

Priming The Pump: Selling Your eBook On
Amazon Isn't As Easy As It Seems: http://dld.bz/cPnap
@erikwecks

4 Ways To Create A Strong Antagonist: http://dld.bz/cPnaw @woodwardkaren

Getting Your Start as an Indie Author in
2013: http://dld.bz/cPna8

How Doing Nothing Makes You More
Creative: http://dld.bz/cPnaC @beaccidental

Conjuring a fright: what makes a great
horror movie? http://dld.bz/cPnaG
@guardianfilm @Tom_Shone

How To Let Yourself Be Imperfect And Win
Big: http://dld.bz/cPnaK @ollinmorales

Mental Illness and Writing: http://dld.bz/cPnaQ @GKBCinc

Crap someone should have told you writers
by now: http://dld.bz/cPnbs @rebeccatdickson

Ghostwriting: Have Pen. Will Write. (For
Pay): http://dld.bz/cPnby

10 Triumphs Of Low Budget Horror Film
Making: http://dld.bz/cPnb6

4 Reasons to Buy Books in Print: http://dld.bz/cPyxg @SylviaNey

Editing issues in trad published books: http://dld.bz/cPyxu @passivevoiceblg

An Agent Answers Questions on Querying,
Graphic Novels, and Books for Children: http://dld.bz/cPyx2
@ginger_clark

12 Ways to Americanize Your Dialogue: http://dld.bz/cPyxD @WriteDivas

Getting Your Start as an Indie Author:
Don't Wait: http://dld.bz/cPyxQ

Standard Pages for A Non-Fiction Website:
http://dld.bz/cPyxU @authormedia

Don't Be an All-or-Nothing Writer: http://dld.bz/cPyxZ @grubwriters

How the Talent of Productive Loafing Aids
Creativity: http://dld.bz/cPyym
@JeffreyDavis108

3 Ways Writers Can Compete Well in
Today's Crowded Market: http://dld.bz/cPyyn
@jodyhedlund

2 Ways to Manage a Large Cast of
Characters in Your Novel: http://dld.bz/cPyyr
@write_practice

5 Ways Mindful Breathing can Stimulate
Your Creativity: http://dld.bz/cPyy6

How to write discussion questions for
your novel: http://dld.bz/cPzzp
@JordanMcCollum

An interview with Audible: http://dld.bz/cPzzH @LorenKleinman

Editing pet peeves: http://dld.bz/cPz2j @WriteDivas @larin20

4 Ways to Improve Your Writing: http://dld.bz/cPz2m @ava_jae

7 Tips on Writing a Series: http://dld.bz/cPz2q @janice_hardy

12 Reasons to Include Video As Part of
Your Online Strategy: http://dld.bz/cPz7R
@12most @mistygirlph

What you should work on now: http://dld.bz/cPz8q @tannerc

Great Character: Miles Monroe
("Sleeper"): http://dld.bz/cPz8s
@gointothestory

Why Writers Should Read: http://dld.bz/cPzA8 @howtowriteshop

The Character Therapist: Teen v. Adult
Reactions and Guilt Trips: http://dld.bz/cPzAB
@jeanniecampbell

Top 10 joy stealers for writers: http://dld.bz/cPzAS @wendypmiller

The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing: http://dld.bz/cPzAZ @BrendaMoguez

5 Social Media Branding Lessons From The
Grateful Dead: http://dld.bz/cPzBk
@heidicohen

Producer's POV: Dos and Don't's of
Reality Show Pitch Proposals: http://dld.bz/cPzB3
@scriptmag @HeatherJHale

10 things 1 self-pubbed writer has
discovered: http://dld.bz/cPzBB

Creative Author Marketing: Beyond the
Bookstore: http://dld.bz/cPzBE
@wherewriterswin

Does A Writer Need An Office? http://dld.bz/cP4Je

Lessons on Storytelling and Being a
Writer: http://dld.bz/cP4J5 @lydia_sharp

Interview with agent @SaraMegibow: http://dld.bz/cPeeD @fantasyfaction

5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your
Editing Experience: http://dld.bz/cPbFm
@BookAnalyst

7 Reasons Why Social Media Isn't Growing
Your Fiction Readership: http://dld.bz/cP4K2
@storyrally

Healthcare for the Self-Employed Writer: http://dld.bz/cP4KJ @VistaHealth

Encouraging your Readers to Suspend
Disbelief: http://dld.bz/cP4KZ @laurapauling

The roots of anger and how they help us
understand our characters: http://dld.bz/cP4Mk
@catie_rhodes

The issue of novel length: http://dld.bz/cPbGU @lawrence_wray

Writing About Shock and Trauma: http://dld.bz/cP5XR  by @cateartios

Yes, Virginia, You Can Totally Force Art:
http://dld.bz/cP5Yn @chuckwendig (lang)

The real secret of productive writers: http://dld.bz/cP5Yv @nickthacker

Stories Are About Change: http://dld.bz/cP5Y6 @SPressfield

Great scene--The Natural: http://dld.bz/cP6az (watch scene here: http://dld.bz/cP6a2 ) @gointothestory

Writer Beware: American Book Publ /
Alexis Press / All Classic Books / Atlantic National Books: http://dld.bz/cP6bs @victoriastrauss

On travel writing: http://dld.bz/cP6bD @bob_brooke

4 Tips to Reach Your Writing and
Publishing Goals: http://dld.bz/cP6bM
@jfbookman

Writing Authentic Dialog That Hooks a
Reader: http://dld.bz/cP6bQ @janice_hardy