Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 79

February 24, 2018

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 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately? Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox! Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

New Stuff to Try

Reedsy now has a free curated directory of 100+ writing exercises and prompts. I have an entry there. :)

Here’s something a little different for anyone struggling with writer’s block or for someone who can’t move forward with a story because of a desire to edit. Floor 23 (free for 2 weeks with no credit card needed). Title your work, set a word goal for your session, and start typing. The words fly away as you type…and are retrieved for you later after your session is over. Created by Patrick Krabeepetcharat.

Business / Miscellaneous

How to Quit Your Day Job to Write Full Time: @jasonbougger

Blockchain For Books: @IndieAuthorALLI

Looking for Professional Help with Your Book? Try Reedsy: @MJBowersock @ReedsyHQ

What’s a sample edit? Who does it help? And is it free? @LouiseHarnby

Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms Used by Writers: @KathySteinemann

How To Back Up Your Work Like An Author: by Paige Duke @standoutbooks

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

10 Things You Need to Know About Going to Conventions as a Writer: @johnhartness

London Book Fair Adds Authors Joanna Trollope and Jacqueline Wilson: @Porter_Anderson @FansofJWilson

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Things to Know Before You Set a Goal: @10MinNovelists

Your Best Writing Year Yet: Getting Started and Staying Motivated: @writingthrulife

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

One Essential Way to Boost Productivity: @JodyHedlund

100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors: @ReedsyHQ

Writing Prompts: 7 Inspirational Ideas to Spark Your Creative Writing: @DavidHSafford @write_practice

Story Ideas: The Complete Package or the Fragment: @SueBEdwards @womenonwriting

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Tackling Your 2018 Reading Goals: @RDCwrites @RMFWriters

How to Read like a Writer: @DIYMFA

The 10 Best Places to Find Quality Short Fiction: @EmmanuelNataf @ReedsyHQ

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

How Famous Authors Stay Inspired and Keep Writing: by Global English Editing @AlexJCavanaugh @TheIWSG

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Overcoming Creative Procrastination: @sarahlynnereul @WritersRumpus

Perfectionism and Procrastination: by Crystal Otto @womenonwriting

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Taking Inventory of Your Creative Health: @FinishedPages

How to organize your books: @unclutterer

Where Do You Write? @denisebarnesuk @WomenWriters

7 Ways To Stay Positive As A Writer: @sara_crawford @thecreativepenn

Refueling Your Creativity–How to Plan in Recovery Time as You Write (and Finish) Your Book: @writeabook

Taking Writing breaks, especially when you don’t want to: @whimsicallyours

Getting into Editing as a Writer: by Alex J. Coyne @hopeclark

Becoming a Healthy Writer (podcast): @DanBlank @thecreativepenn

How Writers Can Stop Holding Themselves Back: @losapala

5 Questions to Help You Find Your Creative Writing Sweet Spot: @colleen_m_story

5 Morning Habits to Add to Your Writing Routine: @emi1y_morgan

Genres / Fantasy

Using Your Constructed Language Without Ruining Your Story: by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

History for Fantasy Writers: Barber Surgeons: by E.L. Skip Knox @mythicscribes

Genres / Horror

On the Trope of the ‘Final Girl’ in Horror Movies and Books: @riley_sager @SignatureReads

Genres / Literary Fiction

What Star Wars Learned From Literary Fiction: @mikechenwriter @tordotcom

Genres / Memoir

The 16 Best Books on Writing Memoir: by Meghan McCullough @SignatureReads

Genres / Mystery

Breaks in narrative in crime fiction: @mkinberg

The Secret of a Successful Mystery: Making the Reader a Participant: @SeptCFawkes

Character flaws as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Non-Fiction

Promote Your Nonfiction Book with Online Groups: @NonfictionAssoc

Genres / Romance

Keeping the Bedroom Door Closed on Romantic Scenes: @RayneHall

Genres / Screenwriting

How Google Is Killing the Independent Movie Industry: @cassianelwes @newsweek

What 1 Writer Learned About Writing Romantic Subplots from “I, Tonya” and “Downsizing”: @dougeboch

Promo / Blogging

How to find stats for your WordPress blog: @WordDreams

Promo / Book Reviews

Is There Such a Thing as a Good Book Review? @egabbert @ElectricLit

5 Creative Ways to Highlight Your Book Reviews and Sell More Books: @Bookgal

Promo / Miscellaneous

Improve Your Skill Set: Best Single-Strategy Marketing Books for Authors: @cksyme

8 Ways for Authors to Promote & Launch Their Books: by Marquis Williamson @theindiepubmag

Promo / Newsletters

Why a Newsletter is One of the Most Important Book Marketing Tools You Have: @Bookgal

Promo / Social Media Tips

11 Exercises for Introverted Writers Working on Promo: @CaballoFrances

Promo / Websites

How to Use and Understand SEO as a Beginner: @HelloMorganTimm @teachable

Optimum Author Website Content for Media Response: @BuildYourBrandA @BookWorksNYC

Publishing / Miscellaneous

France’s Arnaud Nourry and that ‘Stupid Product’ Description of Ebooks: @Porter_Anderson @ArnaudNourry

Self-Censorship in Publishing: World Industry Leaders on a Subtle, Growing Challenge: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Serial Box Has New Funding for Audio Bundling as a ‘Publishing Studio’: @molbarton @porter_anderson

PEN America Names Close to $350,000 in Literary Honors for 2018: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Readers to Choose the ‘Golden Man Booker Prize’: 50 Years of Winners: @Porter_Anderson @ManBookerPrize

The UK’s Republic of Consciousness Prize for Names its 2018 Shortlist: @Porter_Anderson @neilgriffiths

International Prize for Arabic Fiction Names Six 2018 Shortlisted Novels: @Porter_Anderson

British Book Awards Shortlist for Independent Bookshop of the Year: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

Cover Letters: Advice from a Literary Magazine Editor: @gooddirt

Publishing / Process / Distribution

Updates on the Successes and Failures of Platforms and Formats:

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Flog a Pro: would you pay to turn the first page of this bestseller? @RayRhamey @WriterUnboxed

How to Lose Readers: Not Starting in Media Res: @byStevenRamirez

Real Life Diagnostics: Would You Keep Reading this Fantasy Opening? By Maria D’Marco

The First Act: Nailing Your Novel’s Opening Chapters: @kristen_kieffer

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

Five Underpowered Antagonists: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Personalizing Your Character’s Emotional Wound: @JerryBJenkins

9 Tips for Crafting A Large (And Well-Developed) Cast of Characters: @_HannahHeath

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

5 Key Ways to Balance Internal Monologue with Pitfalls to Avoid: @JordanDane

Top 3 Risky Moves for Writers: @PaulaSMunier @CareerAuthors

How to Lose Readers by Abandoning Your Protagonist: @byStevenRamirez

Writing Craft / Diversity

How To Write Diverse Characters: @AlexAndersBooks @thecreativepenn

When Diversity Is Bad: from Tropes are Tools

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Learning Narrative Structure from Video Games: by Sarah Maria Griffin @tordotcom

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Discovering your story: @ShanDitty

Internal Monologue: by John Gilstrap @killzoneauthors

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Tips for better subplots: @KayKeppler

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

Writing About Eating Disorders: Bulimia Nervosa: @SloanTamar

3 Tips for Research Management: @RobinRWrites

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Types of Redundancy to Avoid: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

10 Extra Ways To Proofread Your Writing Like A Boss: @LesleyVos @writerswrite

The Different Kinds of Editing: A Breakdown (with Examples): @jennienash

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How to think laterally about editor feedback: @raimeygallant

Writing Craft / Series

Keeping a Series Interesting Twelve Books In:

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Describing Food: a Worksheet: @EvaDeverell

Writing Craft / Voice

How Alice B. Toklas Found her Voice Through Food: @JustinDSpring

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

Speech to Text: How to Use Dictation Software Like a Pro: @BryanJCollins

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Character Development: Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Animal Rescue Worker: @AngelaAckerman

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on February 24, 2018 21:01

February 22, 2018

Keeping a Series Interesting Twelve Books In

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m a fan of series…both reading and writing them. As a reader, though, it really bothered me when my favorite series would get stale or if I felt as if the writer was recycling plots and other elements.

I published book twelve in the Myrtle Clover series in January and am planning a 13th release in the same series later this year. This has caused me to be a lot more deliberate with my plotting and with the other ‘layers’ that I include in my stories. The last thing that I want is to disappoint readers.

Thinking it through, I made a list of elements that I either appreciated from other long-running series, or wished that those series would have used to pique my interest. Here’s what I came up with:

Use unique descriptions for staple characters and settings. One thing I noticed in one of my favorite series is that the author seems to cut-and-paste the descriptions of her protagonist and other recurring characters from older books to the new one. In some ways, this can be a fun inside joke (I loved Agatha Christie’s descriptions of Poirot as having ‘an egg-shaped head’, for example), it might be good to come up with fresh ways of describing characters and settings.

Offer up any details that have never been mentioned (and immediately add these details to your story bible). I realized I’d never actually named the street that Myrtle lived on, for example, or talked about her sidekick’s family. Incorporating interesting details can help readers stay interested.

Dig into the protagonist’s backstory. While this is something that would likely be tedious in book one, you have the luxury of a reader’s interest by book 12 or 13. It’s just important that we handle it in a way that we don’t lose their interest. I’m exploring having a friend from a protagonist’s past reappear and cause trouble in a future mystery.

Can characters grow while still remaining consistent? One good thing about being this far into a series is that you really know your characters. It’s possible to have a lot of fun with that by putting your characters in situations that make them uncomfortable…or just new situations, altogether. They could start a new job or a new relationship. The most important thing to consider is … does it feel forced or natural? Does it serve the story and the reader?

Related to the above, but a bit more external: Are there new elements (new characters, new situations, new setting, new setbacks) that can be naturally added to help the characters continue growing and help the readers discover more about them?

Specific to mysteries: Make the mysteries more complex. Have two separate murderers, change the number of victims, increase the clues and red herrings. Add or reduce the number of suspects. Play around with locked room or manor house set-ups.

The point is that we should make sure that the series is still satisfying for our readers (as well as for ourselves). By putting a little extra thought into the process, it’s really not that hard to do.

Do you have a long series? How do you keep it fresh? As a reader, what has kept you reading longer series?

Tips for keeping reader interest in a long-running series:
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Published on February 22, 2018 21:02

February 18, 2018

Updates on Platforms and Formats

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I thought I’d give an update on how things are going for various formats and platforms.

Wattpad

Wattpad is one of my favorite places to upload. The community there is very supportive and encouraging. If you’re one of those writers who feels as if you’re writing into a black hole, you might want to check it out.

Why am I there? Has it led to more sales? I know that it’s led to some sales, because those were self-reported by readers there. Wattpad is free for readers, so there’s no direct income. The main reason that I’m there is to broaden my reader base and expose my writing to new and younger readers.

My demographics tell me this is working.

The second highest group (represented by the purple) is age 13-18, at 27% of my readers on Wattpad.

I also wanted more international exposure for my stories. Although the US still represents the largest reader base, I’ve been able to build readership in many other countries:

More about putting your books on Wattpad in this post, here, and here.

Audio

Audio is a consistent income-generator for me each month, although the royalties aren’t as high as they were when I first started with ACX in 2013. Still, I make steady income there (I will note that I have ten books available). According to my dashboard at ACX, I’ve sold 4,461 audiobooks. I will say this: audiobook ‘readers’ are dedicated. When there is any delay at all in one of my books being available in audio, I get emails and messages on Facebook, asking about it.

It’s an incredible amount of work for a narrator/producer. I’m lucky to have found a production company and narrator that were happy to take me on with a royalty share agreement.

More on getting your books on ACX in these posts: here and here.

Overdrive (Library sales)

Although I’ve noticed a winter slump in my Overdrive sales, this is, again, a no-brainer platform for me to upload to. I upload it and then forget about it. I always have Overdrive sales and I like having my books available as digital loans to libraries (and discoverable to new readers). Although most of my sales are in the US, I’ve had Overdrive sales in Canada and the UK, as well.

More on getting your books into Overdrive here.

International sales:

I’ll start off by saying that most of my international sales do come through Amazon. A look at the last 30 days on the KDP dashboard shows sales in the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, and Australia. (As I’m writing this, I had a release during this time period.)

IngramSpark (I use them for print, along with CreateSpace) also is responsible for a large chunk of my international sales. More on uploading to IngramSpark here.

And other retailers and distributors also contribute to my international sales, as I’ll explain below.

Most of my international sales come from the UK, Australia, and Canada. But it always makes me smile to see Italy, Germany, and other countries popping up on my sales map.

I use PublishDrive, Draft2Digital and StreetLib to distribute my books to international markets.

Looking at the sales results, I’m interested to see that my German sales are through PublishDrive’s distribution to Ciando.

Most of my StreetLib sales are through the Google Play Store.

Most of my Canadian and Australia sales are through Draft2Digital.

Again, although there isn’t tons of money to be made in international sales, it’s a no-brainer. I upload to my aggregators and then can forget about it…and I certainly wouldn’t turn the money down.

More about expanding into international distribution here.

Translation

Here is my one disappointment on the list, although I’m unfortunately not too surprised. I’d read about the difficulties that translations face, most notably covered in this article by Porter Anderson on the Authors Guild survey in 2017. This covers the translators’ end of things, but the authors’ end is equally bleak.

I currently have a book available in Spanish and one in Italian. Another book is being translated into Portuguese.

Although my Spanish title, La muerte teñida de rojo, was energetically promoted to my translator’s (the talented Alfredo “Freddy” Moyano-Barroso’s) Spanish-speaking base, the results have still been disappointing.

More disappointing is Babelcube’s platform. The printed books are only distributed through Amazon and the cost of purchasing them overseas is higher than if they were distributed through IngramSpark. There is no audiobook option through Babelcube.

I believe that there would be a good deal more revenue generated if there was a better revenue-sharing platform (making it easy to pay authors and translators) and if we could upload in a variety of formats and retailers.

I don’t regret having my books translated because of the celebrated ‘long-tail’ in publishing. But I feel badly for my translators who had to put in all the effort and all the risk into this royalty-sharing venture. My only cost was for the translated cover (and that was minimal).

More about uploading to Babelcube here and here.

Hardcover

I’ve sold hardcover versions of most of my self-published titles this year through IngramSpark and have more than made back my investment in time and money (for hardback covers). This means that I’ll be continuing the process this year.

I’m guessing these are libraries purchasing them, unless they are readers who prefer hardcovers for their favorite titles.

Another nice thing about the hardcover edition is that it does make the digital version look like a bargain:

More about creating hardcover editions here.

This was a long-read for my blog, but it was helpful for me to go through each format and platform and see what was working well and what wasn’t.

What formats is your book in? Do you have international reach?

Elizabeth Craig takes a look at the successes and failures of different formats and platforms:
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Published on February 18, 2018 21:02

February 17, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Business / Miscellaneous

Brazilian Ebook Market in 2017: Trends and Predictions: @publishdrive

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Opening the 32nd International Publishers Congress: ‘Shout About What We Do’: @michielams @Porter_Anderson

Four Speakers’ Talking Points: Ahead of the IPA Congress in New Delhi : @Porter_Anderson @Bodour

Wales’ All-Hay-Festival’s Fellow Named for 2018-2019: @Porter_Anderson

New York’s Festival Neue Literatur 2018 Theme: ‘Insider | Outsider’: @Porter_Anderson

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

5 Tips for a Successful Debut Novel: @slipperywhisper @careerauthors

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

How to Set and Keep Your Writing Resolutions: @BJoycePatterson

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

You are a Writer(Choose Yourself): @lornafaith

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

7 Ways to Boost Your Writing Willpower: @colleen_m_story

Harness Your Creative Momentum: @DIYMFA

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

How Not Writing Can Help Your Writing: by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick

Organizing Your Emotions For The New Year (So You Can Write More!) : @10MinNovelists

How To Create Space And Time For Writing: @StephMorrill

Ideas for New Writing Challenges for 2018: @WilsonTheWriter

The Daily Writing Routines of 20 Famous Authors (Infographic): by Sierra Delarosa

How to get back into writing after a break: @pubcoach

Making Progress on Tough Writing Days:

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

5 Tips To Eliminate Writer’s Block Forever: @angee

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

The 3 Fastest Ways to Improve Your Writing in 2018: @Wordstrumpet

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

How to Create a Healthy Working Environment Anywhere: by Phil Stamper-Halpin @penguinrandom

All Wounds Matter: Writing Better Stories: @KristenLambTX

Writers Need to be Amphibious: @jamesscottbell

Writing and the Fear of Failure: @ClaireFayers

3 Ways to Improve Your Writing Life: @kirsticall @WritersRumpus

Tips to Help You Concentrate While Writing: @MegDowell

The Writing Effect: How Writing Well Improves Your Life and Vice Versa: @LisaTener

5 Ways to Boost Your Mood Right Before Writing: @colleen_m_story

Genres / Fantasy

Creating a Fantasy Race: by Aaron Miles @FantasyFaction

Genres / Humor

5 Lessons on Writing Humor: @ChrisvonHalle

Genres / Mystery

Crime Writing: Cops: Fight Fair, Or Fight To Win? @LeeLofland

The aftereffects of gossip as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Crime fiction: lying to protect a friend who’s a suspect: @mkinberg

Genres / Picture Books

Writing or illustrating a picture book? A free Picture Book Creation Resource (including templates): @inkyelbows

5 tips for writing children’s books: by Margaret Meacham @TheWriterMag

Genres / Romance

Romance Publishers Who Accept Unsolicited Manuscripts – 2018: @BrynDonovan

3 Ways To Write A Better Sex Scene: by Robert Wood @standoutbooks

Genres / Short Stories

5 lessons learned about writing flash fiction: @JJ_Burry

Promo / Ads

How to Increase the ROI of Your BookBub Ads (+ a BookBub Fast Pass): @DianaUrban @WriterUnboxed

Promo / Blogging

How to Create a Bullet Journal for Blogging: @suzie81blog

Why Should Fiction Writers Blog? @annerallen

5 Tips for Picking a Blog Topic People Will Actually Read: @NathanielTower

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Why Characterization Matters in Back Cover Copy: @AndreaWriterlea

Promo / Book Reviews

The 5 Worst Kinds of Amazon Reviews: @BrynDonovan

How to Jumpstart Book Reviews for Self-Published Books: @Wogahn

Promo / Miscellaneous

5 ways to use audio for book marketing and reader engagement: @LouiseHarnby

Promo / Pricing

5 Ways That Playing with Pricing Can Sell More Books: @Bookgal

Promo / Social Media Tips

Facebook Algorithm Updates and How to Survive Them: @kikimojo

Tips for the New Goodreads Giveaways: @ChrisDMcMullen

How to get kicked out of a Facebook group: @sandrabeckwith

Promo / Speaking

Broaden Your Speaking-Platform Potential with These 10 Tips: by Heather Brown @penguinrandom

Promo / Websites

WordPress for Authors – How & Why: @rachelmccollin @IndieAuthorALLI

An important tool for author websites: @KathySteinemann

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Publishing, Online Business And Tech Trends For Authors In 2018: @thecreativepenn

Newbery and Caldecott Medals Lead American Library Association’s 2018 Youth Media Awards: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

The Prix Voltaire 2018 Is Formally Awarded to Gui Minhai in New Delhi (Currently Detained in China): @Porter_Anderson @angelagui_ @pubperspectives

A publisher who disappeared in China this year is awarded the Prix Voltaire. His daughter, @angelagui_ , on the freedom to publish: @Porter_Anderson

The UK’s Book Aid International Opens ‘New Worlds Through Books’ Campaign: @Porter_Anderson

As IPA Congress Closes in India, Norway’s Lillehammer Is Named 2020 Venue: @Porter_Anderson @michielams

The Netherlands’ Sweek Adds a Spanish-Language Contest: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Wattpad Studios Aims at Hollywood With a Pilot: ‘Cupid’s Match’: @Porter_Anderson @wattpad

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

Why Working With Small Traditional Publishers Can Be Beneficial: @KristineRusch

“How My Editor Became My Agent”: @NatalieIAguirre @LindaWJackson @ElizBewley

8 Submission Strategies That Get Results: @manzanitafire

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

Creating the Perfect Elevator Pitch: @jennienash

Publishing / Process / Contracts

5 Book Contract Terms Authors Should Know: by Dana Isaacson @CareerAuthors

Publishing / Process / Translation

What Gets Lost in Translation Gets Transformed: by Jianan Qian @The_Millions

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Masterful Narrative Scenes: @LiveWriteThrive

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Character Sheets: The Good, The Bad, and the Messy: from Lesya at Tropes are Tools

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Are You Writing Your Hero Into the Dreaded Cliche’ Corner? @LeeLofland

Give Your Hero a Hero Speech: @SPressfield

Writing Craft / Conflict

Story is Conflict: @WritingForward

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Writing Movement and Action in Dialogue: 6 Tips: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Diversity

Native American Representation, Characterization: by Mod Lesya at Writing With Color

Who Gets to Write About Gentrification? @zafatista @lithub

Writing Craft / Endings

7 Ways End Your Novel: by Kris Noel

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Can You Write to a Theme? @SeptCFawkes

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Chronicling a Non-Chronological Story: Writing a Dual Timeline Novel: @juliecardalt @WriterUnboxed

Insider and Outsider Viewpoints: @magpiemareth @mythicscribes

Thinking About Audience (with some classroom applications): @sshubitz

How To Write An Evergreen Book That Never Stops Selling: @FredBobJohn @standoutbooks

How to Write an Action Scene: @WriteToSell

Writing Craft / POV

Wrestling with Tense and Point of View: @jan_ohara @WriterUnboxed

Writing Deep POV: @Lindasclare

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Outlining

Outlining and Organizing Master Post: @plotlinehotline

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Plotting a Novel: The Big Picture vs. Single Scenes: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa: @SloanTamar

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Cases of Tense Errors: @writing_tips

3 Examples of Incorrect Use of Semicolons: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

How to Use a Word Cloud to Edit Your Draft: @lidywilks

An example of editing for pace: by Dave King @WriterUnboxed

3 Convincing Reasons to Read Out Loud During Revision: @the_writing_pal

5 Novel Editing Mistakes That Will Make You Pull out Your Hair: @RidethePen

Writing Craft / Special Needs

10 Literary Magazines Curated By and For People with Disabilities: @the_anamaria

Writing Craft / Voice

3 Creative Tricks to Find Your Character’s Voice: @Jffelkins

Writing Tools / Apps

Using Google Keep to Record Ideas:

Uncategorized

15 Wonderfully Wise Quotes From Judy Blume on Her 80th Birthday: by Caitlin Schneider @mentalfloss

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on February 17, 2018 21:01

February 15, 2018

Making Progress on Tough Writing Days

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read an interesting article by James Preston titled “How to Get to Carnegie Hall. ” Preston used an old joke as the basis of the piece: A tourist asks a resident how to get to Carnegie Hall and the resident replies “Practice, practice, practice.”

Preston goes on to list exercises that help him write on uninspired days, including writing letters from the protagonist’s POV, and writing a paragraph about your character’s life before the time your story starts.

Sometimes a project seems so big and so overwhelming that it feels as though we must have equal parts inspiration to face it. But this isn’t really true. I’m usually uninspired when I sit down to my manuscript every day. Inspiration usually only hits about five minutes into my story, when I become immersed in the story world. I know what I do every day at 5:30 in the morning, however: I write. It’s practically muscle memory at this point.

But some days start out chaotic (fortunately, these days are few and far between for me now) and we can’t write on our schedule: inspired or uninspired. Kids can be sick, animals can be sick, we can be sick there are family emergencies, etc. For those days, there’s nothing wrong in skipping writing altogether.

But if you’re worried that you’re going to mess up your writing habit from taking a break, there are things that we can do to make progress on our stories (practice, practice, practice), even on the toughest days.

Writer Jael McHenry mentioned in her post “Write Some Days” for Writer Unboxed, that she lets her story percolate on tough writing days:

“Working out plot and character elements, and turning them over and over to consider all the possible ramifications and permutations, is better done without access to a keyboard.”

What I do on tough writing days is a sort of focused brainstorming. When even brainstorming can seem too tough, focused brainstorming, in the form of making lists, can be an easy and productive way of working. Top 10 ways for my protagonist to change during the story, 10 details of my story’s main setting, 10 possible endings for my book.

More on my method here in my post from 2010.

One important note: if you do skip a day or two or three of writing, don’t try to catch up. It’s incredibly demotivating. Just jump right in wherever you are in your manuscript and make that day’s goal. Pick up where you left off.

What are your thoughts about taking breaks from your story? Is it easy for you to hop back in? How do you make progress on your book on the toughest writing days?

Tips for making progress on our books during the toughest days:
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Published on February 15, 2018 21:02

February 11, 2018

Using Google Keep

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

If you’re like me, sometimes you can get ideas at the most inconvenient times. Like sitting at an intersection, waiting for a light to turn green. Or in the produce section of the grocery store. And I have to write these ideas down. I may think that I can remember them, but I never do unless they’re recorded somehow.

Many times I’ve resorted to scribbling things on the backs of receipts but now I’m taking a more high-tech approach. Of course, you could use an app like Evernote: which I do…but not for ideas. Evernote has a few too many bells and whistles for me to use it for something like a quick note. I do keep all of my recipes there (handy when in the grocery store and trying to remember ingredients), the best writing articles that I want to refer back to, and even records of the Christmas or birthday gifts I’ve given family members in a particular year (and their sizes, etc.)

But for ideas I want something a bit more basic. And you really can’t get much more basic than Google Keep. It’s a free app for your phone and it’s, to me at least, very intuitive.

I have a shortcut for the app saved to my phone’s home page and when I have an idea, I click to open. Then I click the microphone icon and speak into it since I’m very slow when I type on my phone (I’m very speedy on a laptop keyboard, but have never mastered the tiny “keys” on the phone).

After you’ve created your note, you can share it, either with someone else or even with yourself, if you want it emailed as a reminder. You can also get a reminder that your note exists by clicking the ‘reminder’ icon (which is a finger with a string tied around it). When you click the reminder icon, you can choose the day and time to remind yourself. You can even collaborate with someone else on the note.

If it’s more important than your other ideas, you can click the tack icon to pin it to the top of your notes.

And really…that’s basically all it does. No bells and whistles on this model, but clean functionality from Google.

How do you record ideas that you have on the go?

How to Use Google Keep to Record Ideas:
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Published on February 11, 2018 21:02

February 10, 2018

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m spotlighting another conference for writers this week: the 2nd Annual Write This Way Indie Author Fest in Dallas, Texas. The event is free to the public and free participating authors. The goal is to inspire literacy, as well as provide a platform for authors to be of service to the community. The Future Author Contest encourages young writers ages 12 and older to write the book they have dreamed of writing.

Business / Miscellaneous

6 Tips to Hiring a Freelance Editor: @KarenCV

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

The International Publishers Association in India: Issues in a Hot-Button World: @Porter_Anderson @michielams

Viewpoints From the Children’s Books Salon: Trends, Concerns, and Publishing Pride: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives @EvyTillman

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

How to Write a Book in 2018 (A Step-by-Step Guide for New Writers): @BryanJCollins

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Lose the Guilt: You Don’t Have to Write Every Day: @RuthanneReid

1 Writer Assesses Her 2017 Goals and Makes New Ones for 2018: @AuthorSAT

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Writing is Writing, From ‘Seinfeld’ To Historical Fiction: by Lawrence H. Levy @SignatureReads

A Good Walk May be The Best Writing Exercise: by Scott McCormick @BookBaby

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

Slow: Meandering Reader Ahead: @Julie_Glover

So You Want to Read Sword and Planet Fiction: Here’s Where to Start: @mattstaggs @unboundworlds

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

How to Use The Force to Write Your Novel: @SnowflakeGuy

How to Overcome Inner Challenges to Become a Successful Writer: @Daniel_Chidiac

Why You Should Name Your Artistic Nemesis: @AnnieNeugebauer @LitReactor

Creativity and Inspiration / Perfectionism

Why Fear of Imperfection Should Not Hold Up Publication: @DixieCarlton @IndieAuthorALLI

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Writing and the Creative Life: Boundaries of Space, Boundaries of Time: @GoIntoTheStory

Writing five minutes a day for a year equals a book: @AlexSokoloff

10 Ways to Find More Time to Write: @WritersCoach

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

The Writers’ Journey: Newbie to Mastery: @KristenLambTX

How to Boost Focus & Productivity with a Writing Space Makeover: @colleen_m_story

3 Simple Ways to Overcome the Challenges of Working from Home: @JustKimClark

Do Audiobooks Count As Reading? @JamesTateHill

At What Age Should a Writer Stop Writing? @GainesSteven @booktrib

Don’t Let Your Dream Die With You: @deborahdeetales

Write Everything: @SRaffelock @storyfix

10 Incredible Writing Superpowers: @robertleebrewer @WritersDigest

Things You Should Never Say To A Writer On A First Date (comic): @inkyelbows

Why Should You Journal? @laina_turner

Genres / Fantasy

How to Avoid the Dark Lord Cliché: @AuthorCoH

Genres / Memoir

Transforming an Essay Collection into a Memoir: @ChelseyDrysdale @brevitymag

Genres / Miscellaneous

How Writers Can Become Songwriters: @MellaNation @hopeclark

Genres / Mystery

Tips for Writing Killer Suspense: @WomenWriters @GayYellen

Genres / Non-Fiction

Writing Nonfiction vs. Writing Articles and Can Good Writing Be Taught? @votergirl @TheWriterMag

Genres / Poetry

Components of Your Poetry Chapbook: @wvancamp

Genres / Science Fiction

Distance Legal Systems in Sci-fi: @DanKoboldt

Adventure Awaits: A Brief History of Space Opera: @HairEverywhere_

Genres / Screenwriting

The 10 Best Pairings in the History of Film and Pop Culture: @JonDLand @BookTrib

25 Mistakes That Send Your Screenplay To The Trash: @Bang2write

Promo / Ads

Mastering Amazon Ads: @ExtremelyAvg @thecreativepenn

Promo / Blogging

Bring Social Media to Your Blog with Embedded Posts: @CaballoFrances

Promo / Connecting with Readers

How to Find Your 1,000 True Fans and Make a Living as an Artist: @TCKPublishing @JeffGoins

What to remember when you’re discouraged about connecting with readers: @DanBlank

5 Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Reader Engagement: @Bookgal

Promo / Miscellaneous

Best Book Marketing Advice for Authors: The Best of 2017: @JaneFriedman

Is December Good for Releasing the 12th Book in a Series? A Workaround: via @elizabethscraig

Understanding ‘Also Boughts’: @DavidGaughran

5 Tips on When and Where to Promote Your Book: @tmccauley_nyc @LitReactor

Promo / Newsletters

Newsletters and Discoverability: @KristineRusch

Promo / Platforms

Author Platform Cheat Sheet: @LillianJaine

Promo / Pricing

How to Price Your EBook for More Consistent Sales: @Bookgal

Promo / Social Media Tips

How to Set Up Facebook Groups for Pages: @thekristihines

7 Ways Instagram helps authors find readers: @LakotaGrace

Creating a Social Media Calendar: @10MinNovelists

Promo / Websites

Five Useful Elements for Your Website:

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Agent Laurie McLean’s Publishing Predictions for 2018: @agentsavant @annerallen

“How is the political climate in the US affecting the sales of socially relevant books?” @Porter_Anderson @_secondstory

Publishing Wide: Selling Ebooks And Print Books Direct From Your Author Website: @thecreativepenn

The Audie Awards Finalists Are Announced, Amid Louder Competition for Audiobook Rights: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Interview With James Chao, Director, Taipei International Book Exhibition @Porter_Anderson

Industry Notes: In France, Arab Comics; In the US, Scholastic’s Nonfiction: @Porter_Anderson

Man Booker Prize for Fiction Pressured to “Reimpose a ‘Ban on American Writers’” @Porter_Anderson @ManBookerPrize

Italian Publishers and Frankfurter Buchmesse: Frankfurt Fellows Event: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

If, When, and How to Respond to Emails from Editors: @NathanielTower

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

How To Pitch A Series: @LH_Writes @WomenWriters

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

Submitting Your Novel: Key Tips for Success: @nownovel @rockingbooks

How to Stand Out in the Slush Pile 101: @SeptCFawkes

Publishing / Process / Formatting

Understanding Your Print Book Formatting Options: @MarcyKennedy

Publishing / Process / Legalities

Copyright Infringement By the Internet Archive (and What You Can Do About It): @victoriastrauss

3 quick thoughts about copyright: @austinkleon

Writing Craft / Beginnings

10 Easy Ways to Improve Your First Chapter Right Now: @repokempt

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

Keep Your Villain Coming at the Hero from all Directions: @SPressfield

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Do Your Characters Have the Right Flaws? @Janice_Hardy

How to Use Acting Techniques When Writing a Character’s Emotional Journey: @WarnerLoughlin

How to construct interesting and compelling characters for your stories: @SHalvatzis

Creating fully developed fictional characters (that are not secretly you): @SusanPerabo @TheWriterMag

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

10 Unlikable Literary Heroines That We Love to Hate: @rosmance

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Making Readers Care About Your Story: @Janice_Hardy

5 Reader Questions to Avoid: by Dawn Field @DIYMFA

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Action Beats: More than Dialogue Tag Surrogates: @KathySteinemann

Writing Craft / Diversity

Literary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing: @lithub

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Tips to Include Pets in Fiction: @SueColetta1

How to write an unreliable narrator: @ArlenePrunkl

How seriously should you take readability statistics? @pubcoach

Should I Use a Prologue for My Book? @MoonlightingWri

When A Character Does Something You Dislike: @AuthorSAT

Writing Craft / POV

Different Kinds of POV Slips and How to Avoid Them: @Ava_Jae

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Cases of Erroneous Use of Colons: @writing_tips

Exclamation Points in Fiction: @NovelEditor

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

5 Reasons You Need an In-Depth Critique: @katiemccoach

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

So You Want To Write About The Cold: @helpfulsnowman

Writing Craft / Tension

Suspense Writing: 5 Hacks to Improve Your Story: @aleshahomans

Writing Craft / Voice

Using Writing Vocabulary to Streamline Voice: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / World-Building

Conveying Worldbuilding Without Exposition: 4 Techniques: @DN_Bryn

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Therapist (Mental Health): @beccapuglisi

Uncategorized

8 Styles of Music to Listen to While Writing: @danasitar #TopTweets2017

The top writing links from last week are on Twitterific:
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Published on February 10, 2018 21:01

February 8, 2018

Five Useful Elements for Your Website

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Through the years, I’ve run across a lot of author websites. When I see something really useful, I’ll add it to my own. Here are five things that I’ve found worthwhile to add.

A book page for each book

This is important for SEO for your books. If you look up my books on Google, you get ‘rich results’ in the sidebar showing the cover, ratings, publication date, my name, etc. This wasn’t the case until I had a separate page on my site for each title (I also used some schema markup on book WordPress pages to help search engines read my page elements. More on how I did that here).

A coming soon page

A reader in suggested back in 2016 that I should create a ‘coming soon’ page on my site because she kept losing track of my releases and what series was launching a book next. I’ve made sure to keep it updated (which is, of course, the danger of having a page like that).

A nice link to add to the Coming Soon page (along with other pages on our site) is a link to our Amazon Author Central page with instructions to follow us there. I just put a simple: ” Follow me on Amazon for release updates” up.

A newsletter signup

This is a frequent reason that readers visit our website–to find ways to stay updated. The easiest, and best, way to gain subscribers for our newsletter is by listing the signup info several places on our website. The readers who subscribe on our sites are most likely to be our most dedicated readers…and the most important ones to contact when we have releases. You should also have your newsletter signup on your Facebook page, if you have one.

A printable book list/your books listed in order

This was another reader request. At first, I didn’t really see a point to listing them in order because they could all be read out of order. But there are some readers who really, really want to read books in order. You can upload a Word doc or PDF to your site. The important thing, again, is to remember to update it when new books are released.

I’ve made a point, since my books are available in print from both CreateSpace and Ingram, to list the ISBNs for the books so they can be printed and ordered by readers at their local bookstore, if they wish.

Contact information

I’m sure everyone is tired of me harping on this, ha! I must note this about every six months on this site. But the number of blogs and websites that I come across that don’t even have an author’s last name or email address is really amazing. Readers do want to contact us from time to time and so do others–maybe someone would like you to speak at a rotary club meeting or would like to get in touch with you about representing your fiction, etc.. It’s important to provide a way to connect.

Do you have any of these elements on your website? What have you found useful on your own site?

Five Useful Elements for Your Website
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Published on February 08, 2018 21:02

February 4, 2018

Preorders Revisited

Although I wasn’t impressed by my first preorder experiment, I’ve grown to accept preorders as a good way to make sure everything is in perfect order at the retailers on release day. I made changes in my pre-order strategy by including the pre-order on Amazon and by running the pre-order for a shorter period of time.

In December I ran a preorder for a completely different reason: I wanted to delay a release until January, after the holiday busyness had settled down for readers. The book was finished by mid-December, so I decided to try to generate income while I waited for a better launch time.

Of course, I always second-guess myself. Would January really be better for sales than December? January is when everyone’s credit card bills come in. But then I reminded myself that December hasn’t been, for me, a good time to release. Fewer people are buying for themselves in December and they don’t have as much time to read. And I’d hardly be tempting new readers with the 12th book in a series.

I had good results with the preorder this time. I started the pre-order on December 18 and the book released on January 9th. I set it up for preorder on all the different channels I could: KDP, Nook, Kobo, IngramSpark, Amazon, etc.

I set up the print edition on CreateSpace, but let it sit for a while after proofing it and before hitting ‘publish’. I wanted the print edition to be more of a simultaneous release with the digital release (mostly to avoid questions from readers as to why the book was available in print and not in ebook).

Although common advice is to set the preorder price lower than the price at release, I left it at $4.99, which is my usual release price (a pricing experiment at $5.99 on a release day last year did not go well).

I did end up having a glitch, and the preorder period gave me time to get it fixed. A lot of my readers prefer print, and the CreateSpace version wasn’t linking on the same product page as the Kindle version (although both were listed in my Amazon Author Central). I was able to contact customer service and have it fixed (in fewer than 10 hours after reaching out to them). It was a relief to have the problem taken care of before the launch.

As usual with a preorder, it was nice having the buy-links ready ahead of time. I put the links up on my website and added them to the newsletter draft I was writing for release day.

For whatever reason (maybe I’m simply wrong about December sales), the preorder sales were triple the number for my second-best performer. But I did do a couple of different things this time. I did some subtle pre-release promo by journaling the book as I wrote it (I’d pinned my journal at the top of my Facebook page). When the book became available for preorder, I pinned a different post, noting that fact.

I was a little worried that the higher than usual preorder sales would mean a dip in ordering at the launch, but that, fortunately wasn’t the case. Release day sales were even higher than the accumulated preorder sales.

Looking back over this post, I’m thinking this is something I’ll repeat again. I frequently have a book that’s ready to publish in December because I write 3 books a year. And I’ll continue with preorders since they afford me the opportunity to get my ducks in a row (via buy-links, fixing glitches, and tweaking my newsletter). Many readers have also told me on Facebook, in comments on previous posts, and via email that they like preorders because they can order the book when it’s on their mind. I think I’ll still keep the preorder period short…a month or less is time enough.

For more on best practices with preorders, check out two posts on the BookBub blog:

17 Ways to Sell Preorder Books by Diana Urban

Should You Make a Book Available for Preorder? 14 Authors Weigh In by Carlyn Robertson

Do you use preorders? How have they worked for you in the past?

Is December Good for Releasing the 12th Book in a Series? A Workaround:
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Published on February 04, 2018 21:02

February 3, 2018

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 43,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.