Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 92

Amazon Author Insights

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Amazon Author Insights is a new author-facing  Tumblr site to help both new and established writers find writing-related resources and Amazon services for writers in one spot.

I was asked by Amazon to be a beta-tester for the site and to contribute some of its content (here are a couple of my posts on building an author platform and Kindle Instant Preview).

There are tabs for writers looking for information on writing, publishing, and marketing.

Amazon Tools and Services Page

One of the most helpful things about the site are the links to Amazon’s tools and services. I’ve always felt as if it was tricky to find everything Amazon offers all in one place (out of sight, out of mind for me.)

Although I’d heard about Amazon’s free screenwriting tool online, for instance, I’d never run across it, despite the time I spend on Amazon.  I think that’s because when I’m on Amazon, I’m either on Author Central or KDP bookshelf/reports and not searching the site.  I’m no screenwriter, but it was interesting to see they offered peer collaboration, auto-formatting (a nice plus), and the ability to submit finished scripts directly to Amazon Studios.  For scripts in the brainstorming stages, they also offer Amazon Storybuilder.

I wasn’t at all familiar with Comixology before spending time on the Amazon Author Insights site. If you draw as well as write (I wish I could!), you could submit your comic or graphic novel to be considered for publication.

You can propose your book to Amazon to be considered for translation via their AmazonCrossing site.

Fan fiction writers can self-publish their works through the site. 

And, of course, you can find links to CreateSpace, Goodreads, ACX and other Amazon sites on the page. 

Have you explored the different tools and services at Amazon? Or were you like me and unaware that some of them existed? Seen their new site?

The new Amazon Author Insights site (via @AmazonKindle ‏):
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3 Vital Elements of Craft: Subplots, Scenes and POV

by Hank Quense, @hanque99

Today, author Hank Quense offers tips on three vital elements of the writing craft: subplots, scenes, and POV. 

Integrating subplots naturally:

I’ve seen subplots mishandled many times.  When this happens, the subplots interfere with the main plot.

The trick is how you approach subplots.  They are by their nature “subordinate.”  Subplots have a defined space within the novel; they can’t just be thrown into the story any which way the author feels like it.  If you have more than one subplot you have to categorize them from most important to least important.  The subplots are then nested within the main story line.  Like this: after the characters are introduced and the plot problem recognized, a scene from Subplot A can be added.  After a number of scenes from the main plot and an occasional one from Subplot A, Subplot B is introduced.  More Main plot scenes are broken up by scenes from Subplots A and B.  Then Subplot C is begun.  Now the bulk of the story continues with the subplot scenes dropped in to break up the Main plot.

When the story approaches the climax, Subplot C is finished first.  The Main plot continues and Subplot B is closed out.  The Main plot moves closer to the climax and Subplot A is finished up.  Now the way is clear for the reader (and the author) to concentrate on the story’s climax.

It is not good form to have a subplot continue beyond the climactic scene from the main storyline.  Once the climax of the main plot is reached and the validation scene shown, the story is over.  The reader will no longer be interested in the outcome of a subplot.  This means the validation scene is the end of the story.  Don’t keep adding scenes from subplots.

Another caveat is this: If the story starts out with a scene or two from a subplot, the reader will get confused and assume the subplot is the main plot.

The most important elements of scene design:

Every scene should have four elements in it: setting, sensory information, a goal and an emotional arc.

The setting may not be needed if the scene occurs in a place that has already been described.  If the place is new to the reader than the setting should be described.  This is often done in the opening sentence or two using omniscient point-of-view.

Sensory information such as taste, smell or feel is optional, but include the roar of traffic or the smell of wood smoke can add details to the scene.

A scene goal is mandatory unless the scene characterizes a character.  The goal of the scene is to move the reader and the story closer to the story’s climax.  This goal doesn’t have to be reached in the scene.  It may take a number of scenes to reach the goal but each scene must advance the  story closer to the scene goal and the story’s climax.  If the scene doesn’t characterize someone or have a goal, then it’s just excess words and should be deleted or revised.

An emotional arc is mandatory in all scenes.  The main character in the scene has a starting emotional point.  By the end of the scene, that emotion must change.  It can be more positive or more negative, but it must change.  A scene with no emotional change isn’t a satisfactory read.

Why must their be an emotional arc?  To jerk the reader around.  Readers love to see emotional highs and lows and they appreciate being jerked around.  It’s what separates okay stories from great stories.

Choosing the POV for your story:

This is a personal decision every author has to make with each story.  I prefer third person limited.  I have written a few stories in first person, but it doesn’t feel natural to me.  Of course, omniscient point-of-view is the easiest one to use because you can’t make a POV violation like you can with third person limited or first person.  Omniscient is an obsolete way of writing an entire story, so a writer’s choice really comes down to third or first person.  I think the choice depends upon which one the writer is more comfortable with.  Fortunately, there are no wrong choices here.

How do you integrate subplots into your story or choose POV?  Have you checked your scenes to see if they have 4 major elements in them? 

Author @hanque99 on 3 vital elements of craft (via @MCBookTours ):
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        Creating Stories  concentrates on developing characters including such rarely discussed requirements such as a dominant reader emotion and the character’s biography.

 Plots are also covered in depth and a number of graphics are included to illustrate complex points. Another topic discusses subplots and how to utilize them and how to nest them within the main plot.

 A separate chapter discusses the relationship between the plot and the emotional arcs.

Other topics covered are character arcs, scene design, point-of-view, writing voice.

About the Author:

Hank Quense writes humorous and satiric sci-fi and fantasy stories.

He also writes and lectures about fiction writing and self-publishing. He has published 19 books and 50 short stories along with dozens of articles. He often lectures on fiction writing and publishing and has a series of guides covering the basics on each subject. He is currently working on a third Moxie novel that takes place in the Camelot era.

He and his wife, Pat, usually vacation in another galaxy or parallel universe. They also time travel occasionally when Hank is searching for new story ideas.

You can connect with Hank on his Amazon Author Page.

You can check out the schedule and follow Hank’s tour by clicking HERE.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

This tour-wide giveaway is for five (5) eBooks of CREATING STORIES and three (3) print copies of the author’s MOXIE’S PROBLEM (U.S. entries only). The prizes are courtesy of the publisher. The giveaway will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, April 18.

To enter, click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Photo via Visual hunt

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 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 see the character and location name generators! 

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Jumpstart Your Writing Career in 2017: by Fae Rowen

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

How Being Bored Out of Your Mind Makes You More Creative: @pomeranian99 @WIRED

How to Use Uber to Improv Better Stories: @TheRyanMcRae

Writers: Discovering What You Love: @woodwardkaren

Love-Based Money and Mindset for Author Entrepreneurs: @MichelePW @lornafaith

Transforming the First Sentences of Famous Short Stories into Literary Star Charts: @rougeux @Lizstins

Dear Writer: Why You Need to Get Out into the World: @emi1y_morgan

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

How to End Every Day Feeling Accomplished: @MichaelHyatt

5 Strategies For When You Don’t Have Time For Your Dream: @10MinNovelists

5 Tips for Turning Your Day Job into a Secret Writing Office: @GiveMeYourTeeth @LitReactor

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Writing Roadblocks: How to Get Unstuck: @Lindasclare

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

A Challenge to Writers: The Balance Between Dreaming and Working: @AnnieNeugebauer

Putting the “Professional” in Professional Writer: @KelsieEngen

How to Write Better Faster (podcast): @cksyme

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

How to Keep Stress from Destroying Your Creativity: @colleen_m_story

5 Reasons Police Officers Make Great Writers: @claremackint0sh @SignatureReads

Thanking Influential Teachers: Cumberbatch Reads Camus’ Letter to His Elem. School Teacher: @openculture

Genres / Horror

Horror: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist: by Mac Childs

Genres / Miscellaneous

On Representation in RPGs: @booksofm @jimchines

Genres / Mystery

Writing the Crime Scene: Arson: @repokempt

English vs American Murder Mysteries: @woodwardkaren

DNA and Other Forensic Evidence: Reliable or Fallible? @debbimack @SueColetta1

Crime fiction set in NC: @mkinberg

Pedigreed families as elements in crime fiction: @mkinberg

How to write characters working in forensics: by Bad Forensic Fiction

Genres / Poetry

Poet Activists Throughout the Years: @My_poetic_side

Genres / Science Fiction

How To Become A Master of Writing Science Fiction: by Ryan Turpin @SciFi_Addicts

Genres / Young Adult

How to Write With a Teen Voice: @Janice_Hardy

Promo / Ads

3 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Ads: @LarryAlton3

Promo / Blogging

What use are blog analytics? They tell an interesting story: @sgc58

Promo / Miscellaneous

How to Use Fiverr to Create a Book Trailer: @ThereseWalsh

3 Skills Every Author Needs to Sell More Books: @cksyme

Should You Use Kindle Pre-order? @loishoffmanDE

7 Tips for Using Swag to Promote Your Book: @ceciliaedits

Planning the Perfect Release Marketing Tip Video Series: @JAHuss

Promo / Newsletters

3 Approaches to Email Marketing for a Book Launch: @bkmkting

5 Steps to Set Up Your Blog and Email List: @lornafaith

Promo / Social Media Tips

On Using Memes to Market Books: @RogerDColby

7 Ways To Get More Out Of Pinterest: @woodwardkaren

Promo / Speaking

5 Strategies for Dealing with Speaking Anxiety: @Exec_Speak @livequiet

Promo / Websites

10 Must-Know Website Tips & Tricks for Writers: @lwlindquist @tspoetry

10 Easy Steps for Creating an Awesome Website: @Bookgal @BwkrSelfPublish

Publishing / Miscellaneous

How to Email an Illustrator: @IllustrationAge

Why the Internet Didn’t Kill Zines: @jennydeluxe @nytimes

Advice on Writing a Novella Collection: @pattywrites on @NovelRocket

Publishing / News / Amazon

https://t.co/EHAmyYA10j will now come in Spanish, too: by Ben Rubin @PassiveVoiceBlg

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Rights Watch: Books Headed to London Book Fair’s Rights Center: @Porter_Anderson

Amazon Publishing at London Book Fair: Literary, Suspense, Memoir: @Porter_Anderson

IPA’s Michiel Kolman on China: ‘A $10 Billion Concern’: @Porter_Anderson @michielams

Hay Festival plans a new children’s literature festival for October: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

3 Important Things To Know About Self-Publishing: @Laura_VAB @RMFWriters

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

How to Escape the Slush Pile by Brandon Taylor @ElectricLit

3 Questions to Ask Before a “Revise and Resubmit”: @besscozby

How to Stay Positive on Your Path to Getting a Book Published: @almccall @thewritelife

Publishing / Process / Legalities

Using Gucci and Other Trademarks in Your Writing: @HelenSedwick

Writing Craft / Beginnings

What’s most important at the story’s start: plot, characters, or world? by Plot Hotline

What “Starts with Action” Really Means: @angiehodapp

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

How To Make The Reader Trust Your Villain: @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

3 Character Development Questions for Writing About Jobs You’ve Never Done: @jeffelk

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Why Should Your Readers Care About Your Protagonist? 11 Questions to Find Out: @thewritingkylie

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

Creating Stunning Side Characters (and Why They Matter): @SeptCFawkes

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

What Bad Writing Looks Like and How to Fix It: @aliventures

Real Life Diagnostics: Does This Character Introduction Work? @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Diversity

Representation Matters: A Literary Call To Arms: @tinytempest

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

On Writing Flashbacks (video): @Ava_Jae

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Making Your Protagonist the Antagonist: Robert Siegel on The Founder: @CreativeScreen

“Comic books can teach writers how to tell a self-contained story within a larger arc.” @DrWarsh @ReedsyHQ

7 Exceptional Books to Read in Times of Grief: @rosmance @SignatureReads

5 Things Writers Can Learn From Reading Fairy Tales: @MihiBlue

Authors on Illness: 5 Books Destigmatizing Cancer: @lequincampe

9 Stories That Continue After the Adventure: by Stubby the Rocket @tordotcom

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Interview with an English Teacher: The Heroic in Literature: @annkroeker @tspoetry

The 4 Main Characters As Literary Devices: @Writers_Write

How To Strengthen The Theme Of Your Book During Edits: @StephMorrill

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Is Robert Frost’s advice to writers brilliant or disastrous? @emma_darwin

Author @barrylyga on writing in different genres and in darker themes: @TheIWSG

The Writer’s Guide to Time Travel: @amabaie

Writing Craft / POV

Writing in third person limited: @jasonbougger

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

12 Story Plot Twist Ideas: @ZoeMMcCarthy

4 Reasons Why Authors Shouldn’t Be Nice In Their Stories: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

Down the Research Rabbit Hole: @RobinStorey1

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Writing Tenses: 5 Tips to get Past, Present and Future Right: @nownovel

How Did English End Up With There/Their/They’re? @mental_floss @arikaokrent

The Oxford Comma: Great For Listing, Pontificating, And Winning Court Cases: @colintdwyer @NPR

3 Cases of Too Many Commas: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Kill Your Darlings: But First You Have to Find them: @RosanneBane

8 Tips for Seeing Your Novel with “Fresh Eyes”: @HarrietWriter @WomenWriters

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How to Hold an Excellent Critique Group Meeting: @Lindasclare

How to brief a Beta Reader for amazing results: @Belinda_Pollard

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

There are No Throwaway Details: @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Special Needs

4 Tips On Writing An Awesome Disabled Character: @Bang2write

Writing Craft / Synopses

Tackling the Dreaded Synopsis: @jkolin27 @OpAwesome6

Writing Craft / Tension

Ratcheting Up The Tension: by Shawn Coyne

How To Create Conflict Between Multiple Antagonists: by Hannah Collins @standoutbooks

Writing Tools / Apps

The search engine for writers: redesigned. Now search by category: @Hiveword

Using Scrivener with Story Genius: @Gwen_Hernandez

Writing Tools / Resources

Free Training on Book Promotion Strategies: Wed 3-15 at 3:00 PM ET: @ReedsyHQ

Free webinar on recording your own audiobooks: @JFbookman

From My Blog:

Twitterific Writing Links – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig A weekly roundup of the best writing links …

Getting Our Books into US and International Libraries – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve always fel…

Listing Your Books With Google Play – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Although I was late to sell my bo…

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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Listing Your Books With Google Play

Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Getting Our Books into US and International Libraries

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve always felt it was important to get my books in libraries. That’s not only because I like the idea of being discovered there (I’ll take readers however I can find them), but because libraries have always been a place where I felt recharged.

My trad-published books are in quite a few libraries (you can always see where your books are if you look on WorldCat) , but I really wanted my Myrtle series there.

Now when I look at WorldCat, I see my Myrtle Books in libraries scattered around the US.

Now that I’ve expanded my distribution through OverDrive (via the aggregator PublishDrive), my books are available in international libraries, too.

Are libraries using OverDrive? They certainly are in the US.  Last year, a record number of libraries surpassed one million downloads of ebooks and audiobooks with OverDrive.

It’s nice having them available internationally, too. Of course, just because they’re available overseas doesn’t mean things are taking off there. I’ve had 204 sales on OverDrive since late-November and 169 of those were in US libraries.

Mark Williams of the International Indie Author recommends that we take things a step farther and contact the libraries who have ordered our books to introduce ourselves and let them know that we have other books available.

OverDrive makes our books available in a variety of formats for readers, including Kindle, epub, and PDF.

Also worth a mention are the library platforms available through Smashwords. Unfortunately, I haven’t enjoyed the sales there that I have at OverDrive, but it’s another option for writers.  Smashwords distributes to Bibliotheca CloudLibrary, OverDrive (although self-published titles are segregated in the catalog, to my understanding, which is why I’m using PublishDrive), Baker & Taylor Axis 360, Gardners (or Askews & Holts and VLeBooks for academic libraries) and Odilo.

For many years, self-published writers have tried and failed to get their books into libraries. An important reason that this was difficult was because acquisition librarians must order books through their usual purchasing channels/vendors (they don’t ordinarily order directly from the publisher). Fortunately for us, OverDrive is one of these channels. Through these vendors, we can reach libraries in the US, Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom.

Have you tried OverDrive? Have you looked for your books on WorldCat?

Getting our books into libraries worldwide:
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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 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 see the character and location name generators! 

Business / Miscellaneous

The Benefits of Writing Your Own Weekly, Monthly, and Annual Reviews: @BelleBCooper

Streamlining Your Writing Business to Become a More Profitable Author: @GoblinWriter

Patricia Cornwell Tracks the Ripper: Powered by ‘Kindle in Motion’: @Porter_Anderson @1pcornwell

Should Writers Be Paid For Everything? @CallieOettinger @SPressfield

Combatting Counterfeit Print Textbooks @Porter_Anderson

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Turning 30, Hay Festival Announces Special Projects: @Porter_Anderson

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

A Notebook is a good place to have bad ideas: @austinkleon

Your Muse’s Secret Identity: @RuthanneReid

Creativity and Inspiration / Parenting and Writing

Overcoming Mom Guilt: Why 1 Writer Un-Quit: @AnnetteLyon

Creativity and Inspiration / Perfectionism

For better writing, release your perfectionism: @elainefbayless

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

Breaking a procrastination habit: @pubcoach

Productivity as a Way of Being: @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Treadmill Desks and Productivity for Writers: @abbiperets

How to Work with Your Personality to Make Writing Easier: @marciasmantras @colleen_m_story

What You Need to Know About Potential Laptop Dangers: @colleen_m_story

Self-Care When Life is Exhausting: @Ava_Jae

7 Ways To Support Your Local Library Right Now: @thebooksluts

How To Write When The World Is Overwhelming: @judyblackcloud

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Spaces

Do You Have the Writing Space You Need? @RosanneBane

Genres / Mystery

Alfred Hitchcock on Dead Bodies: @blankonblank

The ‘wrongly convicted person’ trope in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Crime Writing: 6 Tips: Crime Scene Investigation: @LeeLofland

Genres / Non-Fiction

Nonfiction scene-building secrets from the pros: @ryangvancleave

Genres / Poetry

9 Poets to Remember during Women’s History Month: @My_poetic_side @DanielleMohlman

Genres / Romance

Relationship Deal Breakers: What to Keep In Mind When Constructing Characters: @FionaQuinnBooks

Promo / Ads

Selling Books Through Social Media Vs. Selling Books Through Ads: @MarcyKennedy

7 Keys to Facebook Ad Success: @jonloomer

Promo / Back matter

Your Author Bio–Does it Help Sales or Stop them Dead? @annerallen

Promo / Connecting with Readers

3 Free Book-Marketing Tools to Discover Who Your Readers Are: @DaveChesson

Promo / Miscellaneous

7 Top Book Marketing Tips from DBW 2017: @DianaUrban

A 10-step book launch plan to outrank bestselling authors: @Creativindie

Promo / Social Media Tips

Why Facebook Needs to Create a Secret Profile Option for Authors: @cksyme

A revamped Evernote Mobile Helps Writers Be More Productive on the Go: @MichaelHyatt

Promo / Speaking

Expert tips for author school visits: @MelissaMHart

Promo / Websites

How to Promote Your Book on Your Website: @karinabilich

5 Basic Steps to Secure Your WordPress Website: @thDigitalReader

Publishing / Miscellaneous

10 Trends in Publishing for 2017: @WrittenWordM

2017 Writing Contests: Vetted and Curated by @ReedsyHQ

“Going Wide”: Gaining Traction on Kobo: @AngelaQuarles

Free Readings From Cambridge University Press for Intl Women’s Day: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

POD vs Offset Options for Authors @selfpubreview

Publishing / News / International Publishing

How to advertise your e-book deals and freebies on the German e-book market: @PubInGermany

Feminist Press: YZ Chin Named Louise Meriwether Prize Recipient: @Porter_Anderson @killerlibrarian

New Self-Publishing Platform, Type & Tell: Authors Keep 100 Percent of Royalties: @Porter_Anderson

Sam Coates Wins First Deborah Rogers Foundation Bursary: @Coatessr @Porter_Anderson

Open for Nominations, IPA’s 2017 Prix Voltaire Is Attracting Many Asian Submissions: @Porter_Anderson

Nielsen’s BookInsights and London Book Fair’s Quantum: Collaborative Conferencing @Porter_Anderson

Frankfurt Book Fair’s Fellowship Program Is Open for 2017 Applications: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

Hearing “No” From Agents and Pubs Can Lead to “Yes”: by Mya Kay Douglas

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

The Year 1 Writer Gave Up Submitting to Literary Magazines: @AnnetteGendler @WomenWriters

Publishing / Process / Author Assistants

How Hiring an Author Assistant Can Boost Book Sales: @AuthorRx

Publishing / Process / Distribution

Checking up on book distributors: @HollowLandsBook

Publishing / Process / Formatting

Styling Priorities: CSS for Ebooks: by David Kudler @JFbookman

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Story Beginnings: Creating the Right First Impression: @shaila_writes

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

5 ways to know your character better: @LisaEBetz

6 Ways to Get Into Your Character’s Head: @BookishSarahFox

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

How to Write Compelling Feelings in Fiction Narrative: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

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

How to Keep Readers Happy When Your Character’s Unlikeable: by Holly Brown @WriterUnboxed

How to Write First-Person Internalization: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Tips: 7 Steps to Stop Overwriting: @bookishcharlie @thecreativepenn

Passive Voice: It’s Easy to Fix with This Writing Tip: @kwidenhouse

Are you undermining the reader-protagonist relationship with your writing? @Kid_Lit

Why ‘Less Is More’ in Your Story: @patverducci

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Spelling Accents in Fiction: @NovelEditor

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

Tips for Better Backstory: @LisaCron

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

5 Tips For Writing Vivid Fiction From Edgar Allan Poe: @Writers_Write

5 Space Stations at the Edge of Space and Time: @nataliezutter

5 Great Books Featuring Mentally Ill Mothers: by Jennie Yabroff @SignatureReads

7 Tips from Edgar Allan Poe on Writing Vivid Stories and Poems: @jdmagness @openculture

Great Scene: “This is Spinal Tap”: @GoIntoTheStory

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

4 Strategies to Make it Through the Dreaded Middle of Your Story: @Magic_Violinist

6 Steps to a Subversive Surprise: by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

How to Liven Up Your Mentor Character: by Savannah Grace @GoTeenWriters

There are No Throwaway Details: @p2p_editor

Writing and the Power of Association: by Nils Odlund

Investigative Journalists Are Storytellers, Too: @amzoltai

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Naming

Naming Characters: 5 Steps to find Character Names: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Outlining

5 New ideas for outlining stories: by 1000 Story Ideas

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

The Most Important Question in Storytelling: “Why?” @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

Getting the most from your research photography: @SusanSpann

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Punctuation Quiz: Appositives: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Simplify Your Writing: Avoid These 44 Overused Words & Phrases: @Writers_Write

How to Straighten Your Story’s Spine: @HeatherJacksonW

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

4 Truths to Change Your Perspective on the Writer/Editor Relationship: @jessicastrawser

Writing Craft / Scenes / Conflict

Creating Realistic Fight Scenes: @AJHumpage

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Story Setting: Real vs. Fictional: @ZoeMMcCarthy

Description: Finding the Write Balance: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Special Needs

Wheelchair Users in Fiction: Examining the Single Narrative: @PunkinOnWheels

Writing, brotherhood, and the narrative of autism: @mattmastricova @ElectricLit

Writing Craft / Tension

4 Types of Tension to Use in Your Story: @ceciliaedits

From My Blog and Uncategorized

Twitterific Writing Links – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig A weekly roundup of the best writing links …

Gaining Newsletter Subscribers With Instafreebie – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig  I’ve been using Ins…

Agents who charge for query and page evaluations are behaving unethically: @Janet_Reid

Selling to Readers on Etsy – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve always heard that smart writers think…

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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Selling to Readers on Etsy

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve always heard that smart writers think beyond the story in terms of book marketing. Publishing expert Richard Nash has called it the”commodification of the book” as cited in this interview with Jane Friedman.  He mentions methods of connecting with super fans in the post. But I was always more interested in the personalization of books (signed copies, personal inscriptions) or maybe book-related merchandise.

In a recent Facebook post, Mark Williams of The International Indie Author mentioned selling on e-commerce site Etsy.  I had never in a million years considered making my books available on Etsy. Etsy is the site where I buy crafts and jewelry for my daughter or sister or other family member. And yet…I know writing is a craft. Somehow it just didn’t connect with me that I could set up a shop there.

Things to consider: 

There are points to consider when you’re listing your book.

For one, you can go the non-personalized path and choose to list digital copies of your books–they will deliver those.

But to me it makes much more sense to list printed books that can be signed and/or personalized.  You could also create a bundle for a special rate.

When considering pricing, you need to factor in your own costs.   How close are you to the post office? How much will shipping materials cost you? How much do the books cost you to receive from CreateSpace (including shipping).

Setting up the shop: 

It’s pretty easy to set up a shop there. If you’re familiar with any social media platform at all, the process at Etsy will seem fairly intuitive. I set mine up in probably 30 minutes and I’ve no talent in the design arena. (You can see my shop here, if you’re looking for an example).

You set up a header at the top of the page, an avatar for your shop, and upload your (‘owner”) profile.

You pay attention to keywords that will help your shop get discovered.

You can copy/paste your About page to Etsy and add pictures of you at work writing, at events, etc.

You list where you can be found around the web.

You can upload videos to the site.

Etsy helps with calculating shipping and your shop policy/return policy.

I’d recommend taking each of your books, in the packaging you plan on using, to the post office to weigh each one to make sure Etsy’s shipping calculator is accurate for readers.

Fees for Selling on Etsy

You can find a listing of all their fees here. Basically, it’s 20 cents a month for each item you list and then 3.5% of the selling price of whatever we sell. That commission they take is pretty small, compared to Amazon, for instance.  Here is Etsy’s Seller Policy.

Unfortunately, as of the writing of this post, I haven’t yet made any sales. But I haven’t promoted my shop there, either. I plan on listing the link on my website and social media when I get the chance.

Do you sell autographed books or merchandise to readers? Are you on Etsy?

Photo credit: indrarado via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

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Gaining Newsletter Subscribers With Instafreebie

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 

I’ve been using InstaFreebie since July of last year, but my use was limited to a convenient method of distributing free ebooks to readers or reviewers (and having InstaFreebie’s support to assist readers with any problems).

A short while afterward, I started using InstaFreebie as part of organized multi-author giveaways (there was an author assistant for a group of cozy writers who set it up).  I was in a couple of those and my mailing list grew to the point where I needed to get a paid account with MailChimp.

After reading numerous posts on how InstaFreebie was helpful, long-term, for growing a newsletter list, I decided to alter my approach on the account. I’m not one of those who likes to send out lots of emails to my newsletter list, so I decided to use InstaFreebie as more of a discovery tool. (And I’d like to note that I’m not affiliated with InstaFreebie in any way.)

I started their 30-day free trial, integrated InstaFreebie to my MailChimp list (they provide directions on how to do this).  Then I promptly forgot about it.

Despite forgetting about it, I was steadily making gains to my list.  I logged into InstaFreebie shortly before the end of my free trial for a totally different reason (to send a free book to a reader who was having technical issues with my newsletter signup) and discovered to my surprise that I had gained 82 new subscribers without having promoted the giveaway whatsoever. Or even remembering that I had a giveaway to begin with.

Pros that I found:

Crossover between series.  I deliberately picked a book from my quilting mystery series since I wanted to grow the crossover from my Myrtle series to my quilting series. Previously I’d noticed readers were loyal to my Myrtle series and reluctant to try something new. I’ll do the same for my Myrtle series next.

Better than running ads. Advertising on Facebook is complex and, for best results, requires lots of checkins and tweaking. Here I just left a giveaway completely open and gained new subscribers daily.

My unsubscribes and bounces were low.  I had no unsubscribes, even though I happened to have a release come out during the free trial period and sent an email out regarding it.

I didn’t have to bug anyone on my list. Writers frequently fuss at me over this one, but I simply hate sending newsletters. I really, really do. I try to limit sending newsletters to my releases (which are several times a year).

All of the above findings were great. However! This is not the best way to utilize InstaFreebie.  The site is more likely to feature you/your giveaways if they see you’re tagging them on social media, for instance.  As I will do when I tweet this post. And those multi-author giveaways/cross promotions can result in hundreds of additional names on your list instead of daily small gains. But for the purposes of this post and any other reluctant newsletter-senders, I’d like to point out that we can use InstaFreebie completely passively, too. Is this a best practice? No. Does it still work? It has for me so far.

Pricing

If you want to use InstaFreebie as I originally did (as a tool to distribute free books to readers and reviewers…with support), you could just use the free plan.

If you’re wanting to use the site to increase the number of your newsletter subscribers, you will need a paid plan.  I’d recommend trying it for 30 days free and see what you think. Then you can upgrade or pass.

Here are the details of the various pricing plans available.  Right now, I’m on the plus plan, but I have a reminder on my calendar to check back and see if the subscriber numbers are worth it.

How do you gain newsletter subscribers? Have you tried InstaFreebie?

Using InstaFreebie to Gain Newsletter Subscribers:
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Photo via VisualHunt.com

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 39,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Business / Miscellaneous

Why You Should Track Your Book Sales + Free Sales Tracker Template: by Fix My Story

The Unpredictable Nature of a Writing Career @Ava_Jae

Writing Income: What 1 Writer Made in 2016: @KameronHurley

6 Basic Tech Skills Every Author Must Learn: @carlaking

Make Art and Make Money at the Same Time: @monicaleonelle @lornafaith

Writer Finances Versus The Paycheck World: @KristineRusch

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

3 Ways to Keep Writing Resolutions: by Kirsti Call @WritersRumpus

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Creating Playlists for Your Writing: @FinishedPages

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Quotes

5 Rules for a Successful Writing Life from Maya Angelou: @JennyHansenCA

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Common Creative Roadblocks for Empaths: @CreativeKatrina

5 Helpful Tools To Combat Writer’s Block: by Jamie Rotante @AmReadingDotCom

Are There Story Elements You Avoid Writing? @JamiGold

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

3 Tips To Counter Procrastination In Writing: @rsmollisonread

3 Reasons To Write Every Day: @Mad_Hat_Writer

The Benefits of Writing Rituals: @Mad_Hat_Writer

The blank page: conquering your fears: @Roz_Morris

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Write it Forward: 5 Ways to Stay Positive: @AJBanner1 @WomenWriters

What Your Font Choice Says About You: @paperblanks

11 words whose meanings have completely changed over time: @sesquiotic @TheWeek

Stress or Burnout? How They’re Different and Why You Need to Know: @RuthHarrisBooks

The Peculiar Pain of Data Loss: @MarchMcCarron

Stephen King on putting writing in perspective: @zenpencils

Genres / Fantasy

For Fantasy Writers: Top 10 Books To Improve Your Writing: by Aaron Miles

Potions, Alchemy, & Apothecaries: Inspirations from the Real World: @NicolaAlter

Genres / Memoir

5 Lessons to Be Learned While Writing a Memoir: @sheilakohler

When memoir becomes a different book: @Belinda_Pollard

Genres / Miscellaneous

5 Things Learned When Switching Genres: @KMWeiland

Genres / Mystery

How to Write Better Villains: 5 Ways to Get Into the Mind of a Psychopath: @peterjamesuk

Crime Writing: What Happens to the Body After Death? @SueColetta1

Crime fiction: when minding your own business can still get you into trouble: @mkinberg

Genres / Picture Books

The Top 10 Myths About Writing Children’s Books: @HighlightsFound

Genres / Romance

Making A Case for Romance: @LovettRomance

In fiction, “I love you” has to come in subtext, not text: @SPressfield

Genres / Screenwriting

Screenwriting: Set Pieces: Spin the plot: @GoIntoTheStory

Script Analysis: “Arrival”: Scene By Scene Breakdown: @GoIntoTheStory

Genres / Short Stories

Are short stories ever considered by agents? @Janet_Reid

Promo / Blogging

4 Content Syndication Strategies for Bloggers: @WordStream

5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones: @annerallen

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Writing an Effective Book Description: @woodwardkaren

Profanity in a book title? by Jeff Wheeland @ReedsyHQ

Promo / Book Reviews

Moving Past A Negative Review: @Bookgal

10 Times Book Reviewers Totally Got It Wrong: by Kathy Gates @AmReadingDotCom

Promo / Connecting with Readers

Using Pew Research Stats to Find Your Readers Online: @CaballoFrances

+127 of Best Book Promotion Sites and Submission Tools: Free and Paid @DaveChesson

Promo / Miscellaneous

Book Promotion: Do This, Not That: @NewShelvesBooks

Lessons From a Debut Novelist’s 1st Year of Book Marketing: @EmilyWenstrom

The Art of the Media Pitch for Indie Authors: @Bookgal

How to Set Clear Goals and Objectives for Your Book Launch: @bkmkting

Why Your Book Marketing Is Not Working (podcast): @cksyme

What’s Your Story About? A Way to Quickly Explain: @SharonKurtzman1

Author Tip Sheet: The Whys and Hows: @karinabilich

Promo / Newsletters

Why You Should Use Both Autoresponders and a Broadcast: @SeanPlatt

Promo / Platforms

5 Tips for Building Your Author Brand: by S.C. Sharman @mythicscribes

Promo / Social Media Tips

Extend Your Blog’s Reach with Instagram: @sarahblackstock @postaday

5 Mistakes Authors Make on Social Media: by Michael Cristiano

A roundup of writers’ opinions whether to be political on social media: @dsantat @leewind

Twitter for Writers & Editors: @Belinda_Pollard

Promo / Speaking

How to Create a Speaker One-Sheet: @loishoffmanDE

Promo / Websites

Your Author Page: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself: @karinabilich

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Andy Weir’s (@andyweirauthor) ‘The Martian’ Gets Classroom-Friendly Makeover: @xanalter @nytimes

DRM (Digital Rights Management): What You Need to Know: by Xavier Davis @BookWorksNYC

Libraries and Bookstores Are Getting Into Indie Publishing: @rcutlerSpark

Publishing / News / International Publishing

‘Immediate Release’ of Authors, Journalists: Petition Delivered to German Government: @Porter_Anderson

Rights Watch: An Israeli Agency’s Bologna Picks for Young Readers:                                         @Porter_Anderson

Publishing Startups: BuzzTrace Looks To Track Authors’ Social Networking: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

When to include “why I wrote this book” in a query: @Janet_Reid

Publishing / Process / Book Design

Anatomy of a book cover: @KarlaLant @99designs

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

When your agent wants to charge you a fee: @JaneLebak

Writing Craft / Beginnings

2 Tips For Introducing Your Protagonist: @KathrynR47

Writing Craft / Characters / Arc

How to Write Character Arcs: @KMWeiland

Unpacking the “Character-Driven” Story—How to Make Your Story Sizzle: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

How to Find Your Character’s Voice: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

3 Simple Ways to Create Memorable Lead Characters: @JerryBJenkins

Creating An Unforgettable Protagonist: @Writers_Write

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

4 Core Components of an Awesome Sidekick Character: @RobinRWrites

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

5 Common Mistakes 1 Editor Sees: @ceciliaedits

10 Things Which Most Often Go Wrong With Beginners’ Fiction: @emma_darwin

How to show not tell in fiction: @jasonbougger

Writing Craft / Endings

Letting Your Story End at the End: @DiannaLGunn

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

16 Tempestuous Tales of Weather Magic: by Stubby the Rocket @tordotcom

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Creating breaks in the action can make your story: @willvanstonejr

4 Ways A Twist Ending Can Ruin Your Story: @InkyBites

Do you really need 10,000 hours to be a good writer? @pubcoach

Working through a novel, problem by problem: by Shawn Coyne

10 Essential Tips to Improve Your Writing Style: @hodgeswriter

How James Patterson learned to become a better writer: @rxena77

How To Write An Epic Battle Scene by Hannah Collins @standoutbooks

Ten Rules of Writing: @amitavakumar

Writing Craft / Plot Holes

How to Fill Plot Holes in Your Novel: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Deepen Your Story With Character Misdirection: @KMWeiland

5 Plot Points to Help Finish the First Draft: @cstevenmanley

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

How To Research Your Novel … And When To Stop: @thecreativepenn

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Story Beats

A Pre-Writing Exercise: Blocking out the Scene: @MarchMcCarron

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

3 Examples of Misplaced Modifiers: @writing_tips

5 More Sentences Rendered More Concise: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

4 rounds of editing: @LoriRobinett

Editing Tips: Top 3 Scene Issues: @NaomiLHughes

6 Easy Ways to Clean Up Your Own Manuscript: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

Making the Most of Beta Readers: @markcoker

3 Reasons to Find and Join a Local Writer’s Group: @terrywhalin

If You Can’t Find Beta Readers: @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Scenes

Figure Out What’s Working in Your Scene, and What Isn’t: @Astrohaus

Writing Craft / Series / Series Bible

How to Create A Series Bible for Your Fiction: @lornafaith

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Describing Your Character: How To Make Each Detail Count: @AngelaAckerman

Writing Tools / Resources

Why You Should Read About Writing: @KelsieEngen

6 Inspirational and Informative Writing Podcasts: @woodwardkaren

From My Blog

Twitterific Writing Links – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig A weekly roundup of the best writing links …

Why I’m Turning Trad-Pub Deals Down – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve been asked by writers and ot…

Gathering Sales Data with Book Report – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve recently been hearing a lo…

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Gathering Sales Data with Book Report

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve recently been hearing a lot about a tool called ‘Book Report.’ It is a bookmarklet that you add to your browser (it’s easy to install) that interprets sales data for Amazon. Since I’m always looking for a better way for data to make sense to me (I was an English major), I decided to give it a go last week. Especially since they had a free trial.

I was pleased with the information I was able to pull with Book Report (and I’ve no association/affiliation with the product).

Helpful Uses for the Tool:

Sales trends. Are sales trending up or down the last couple of months? The last year?

Easily see which series is selling best.  Wondering if you should drop a series?  This tool can give you a closer look at how an overall series is doing (and which books in the series are doing best).

Historical sales.  You can see your sales from the very beginning, which is very nice–mine reached back to 2011. This can be very gratifying, especially if you’ve been in the business for a while and you feel as if you’re not sure if you can justify the time you spend writing.  You can also found how much money a particular title has made since being published.

Quickly see which books are lagging and might need a boost via sales or ads. I was surprised to see that books that have historically been high-performers had dropped off. Although I could find this information on KDP,  the visual approach on Book Report (especially with the larger number of titles I have) makes it easier for me to digest.

What it doesn’t do:

It doesn’t analyze your sales at other distributors/retailers, so be prepared to get a recap of Amazon.

Security

They have put some thought into security and don’t ask for your password for Amazon.  They encrypt your sales data. You don’t have to set up a login or password for Book Report. You don’t have to give them a credit card number for your free trial. Here is a link to their privacy policy.

Pricing (direct from their site).

Free for everyone for the first two weeks. See how much you can learn from your data.

Free for everyone earning less than $1000/month on KDP.

$10/month if you’re finished your trial and you earned more than $1000 last month. 

It’s that simple. We also won’t ask you any unnecessary questions at checkout – like your real name or your address – because we respect your privacy.

I also saw that high-earners could purchase annual subscriptions for $100, a discounted rate from the monthly.

For more information on the bookmarklet, click here (and then click ‘learn more’ under the blue ‘Get Book Report Now’ button)

Have you tried Book Report yet? How does data play a role in your writing?

A closer look at Book Report for getting sales data:
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Photo via Visualhunt.com

 

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