Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 95

Writing Conferences and Festivals

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve been to a variety of different conferences over the years and tried to get the most out of each experience. Sometimes I had a better time than others, but I invariably learned something.

Types of conferences:

In-person writing conferences are where I’m usually in my element. There I meet and talk with different writers, learn more about the craft, and hear more about the latest promo techniques.

Online writing conferences can also be incredibly useful. What’s more, you don’t even have to leave your house (which is wonderful! I’ve even been speaker at some of these events from the comfort of my own home).  My favorite is the Indie Author Fringe conference, which runs online at several points throughout the year.  This year it will be held March 18, June 3rd,  and October 14th.  The best part is that it’s free and has experts in a variety of different writing-related areas.  More information here and see the event archives here:

London Book Fair Fringe
Book Expo America Fringe
Frankfurt Book Fair Fringe

For the first time, I’m actually part of a reader-facing online mystery conference this week (which is why this topic was on my mind when I wrote the post).  It’s Mystery Thriller Week: If you’re a mystery writer or reader or are just interested in seeing how a fan festival could work online, take a look here. It’s designed to bring readers, book bloggers, and mystery writers together online.  I’ve got a few posts scheduled to run this week (they’ll show up in my Twitterific this Sunday), but here are a couple of links in advance:  My interview with Michelle Dragalin and   “Three Ways for Writers to Use Deadlines” (which will go live at noon EST today).  My books are also getting reviewed by different bloggers. This will be a yearly event, so if you’re a mystery writer, make a note to contact the organizers so that you can participate next year.

Book Festivals: The ones that probably make me the most uncomfortable are the ones that have me sitting at a table, hawking my books. I’m not much of a hawker. In fact, the last time I was at an event like this, I left my table and wandered around the building to see everyone else’s books and to meet other writers. Although I’m not really a shy person, I can be very shy around readers.  I know…leaving my table wasn’t the right way to sell books. Now I’m aware that this is not the kind of event I need to attend.  That’s also something important for writers to know–what is the type of conference or festival that’s more valuable for them?

That’s not to say that reader-facing events aren’t incredibly valuable. They can be. I think the most successful and rewarding ones, though, incorporate several different elements–speakers/panels of speakers, signings, and awards. For my genre, the Malice Domestic conference comes to mind.  That event combines all the above elements and the organizers even call it a ‘fun fan’ convention. Readers leave with lots of freebies and the writers all get buzz from the conference.

Here is a list from Sarah Nicolas at Book Riot of  US ‘reader audience festivals’ for 2017. 

Getting the most from a writing conference

Writing conferences can be exhausting, especially for introverts.  Carefully choose the sessions you want to attend and be sure to take notes.  Bring your laptop into the sessions to take notes (you won’t be the only one). Consider making arrangements with other attending writers before the conference so you’ll have someone to have lunch or drinks with (my temptation is always to retreat to my hotel room, but that’s not the best approach).  And remember to bring business cards with you, for staying in touch.

Getting the most from a ‘fan’ conference

As a past attendee at Malice Domestic, I know that readers are definitely expecting to bring home books and swag (and I will caution you that ‘swag’, judging from the laugh attacks my kids have had,  apparently means something different to US teenagers, so use the word with caution around that particular audience).

I gave away potholders with pigs on them at my last reader-facing conference,  since I had the Memphis BBQ series to promote at the time.  Swag is expensive, but I’ll admit I’m a lot more comfortable interacting with readers at conferences if I have something in my hands to give away.  So that’s my big piece of advice: have swag. Or really, even just candy. :)

My second bit of advice would be to have a ready response to the questions “what are your books about?” and “what are you working on now?”

More resources:

A post from writer Jeannie Lin on whether or not to have swag.

And a post from Robin Rivera on 7 Tips for Better Book Swag

Where to find conferences

Sometimes it’s best to start out small (and cheap) and then work your way up to a more expensive, bigger conference.  Here are listings of conferences of all sizes (some are online):

Insecure Writers Support Group (also includes retreats and seminars)

Shaw Guides 

AWP (which also has a way to filter your search)

Have you attended any conferences?  What type is your favorite? Any tips that I’ve missed?

Tips and Resources for Attending and Finding Writing Conferences:
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Photo credit: eltpics via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC

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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

Make Wise Investments In Your Author Business @cksyme

Rules for Writers @Janet_Reid

6 Easy Ways to Re-use Your Story Ideas @v3rbolatry

Creativity and Inspiration / Careers in Writing and Day Jobs

The Unpredictable Nature of a Writing Career @Ava_Jae

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Writing Goals: Are They Set Up for Us to Win?  @JamiGold

Jumpstarting our 2017 writing goals @Wordstrumpet

Writing Goals 2017: Schedule @GoIntoTheStory

7 Debut Novelists on Their 2017 Resolutions @knownemily

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Author and Reporter @TamaraLush Boards Amtrak for Continent-Wide Residency @Porter_Anderson

Top 10 Ways To Beat Insecurity (At Least Temporarily!) @10MinNovelists

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

How Writers Can Benefit from Zero-Base Strategies @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Writing Habits, Routines and Productivity @lornafaith

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / When to write

6 Ways to Squeeze More Hours Into Your Day @woodwardkaren

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

5 Ways to Spark Connections with Your Story @frenchphoenix

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

5 qualities of a brilliant story @Roz_Morris

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Image and Back-up Your Computer @WordDreams

Travel Tips for Writers @Victoria_Noe

When Writing Becomes Just Another Lifestyle Good (on MFA programs) @lithub

Writers: Judge Yourself By Your Own Standards @KateMColby

Highly Intelligent People Are Less Satisfied By Friendships @sarahshmee

10 Ways Art Can Improve Your Writing @OilandMarble

Detach Yourself From Everybody @SPressfield

10 Novels Perfect for Virtual Reality @SignatureReads

Why Won’t (Insert Name Here) Read My Book? @SheerHubris

Genres / Fantasy

Tips for Writing Magic Scenes @RayneHall

Genres / Horror

Horror and Social Conflict @FANGORIA

Genres / Literary Fiction

The Best Literary Fiction Blogs and Websites @JaneFriedman

Genres / Miscellaneous

The Science Fantasy Genre @HunterEmkay

5 Tips to Write Travel Stories @JSchedneck

Genres / Mystery

Crime fiction: When Characters are Pushed Too Far @mkinberg

Writing the Crime Scene @repokempt

Well-meaning advice in crime fiction @mkinberg

Genres / Non-Fiction

5 Tips To Rescue Your Failed Nonfiction Ebook @angee

Genres / Picture Books

Top 10 Trends in Reading and Book Apps for Children @elisayuste

Writing for Children @KarenCV

Genres / Poetry

51 Immigrant Poets @My_poetic_side

20 Best Tips for Poets @robertleebrewer

Genres / Romance

3 Essential Elements to Crafting Believable Romance @CSLakin

Genres / Science Fiction

5 Failed Animal Companions @mythcreants

Genres / Screenwriting

How to Begin Writing Your First Screenplay @woodwardkaren

Shaun Of The Dead Story Structure @ozzywood

Award-Winning Screenwriter on Challenges & Success in Screenwriting @flyingwrestler

Writing a Dramatic Script: 5 Key Techniques: by Scott McConnell

Genres / Short Stories

How to Use Short Stories to Improve Your Writing Career @crisfreese

Promo / Blogging

How to Write the First Paragraph of Your Blog Post @Margo_L_Dill

How to Quit the Struggle Scheduling Blog Posts @MarshaIngrao

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

The Fastest Way To Make All Your Descriptions Better @Chris_Kokoski

Promo / Book Reviews

4 Things You Should Know About Book Review Blogs @BritMcGinnis

Honesty, Likability and Book Reviews @MarinaSofia8

Promo / Miscellaneous

How Market a Creative Course @HelloMorganTimm

Hitting the Reboot Button @crazyauthorgirl

How To Take The Perfect Author Photo @standoutbooks

Book Marketing: How to Get Feedback @Jefficus

Plan Your Book Launch Around a Goal @cksyme

10 Tips To Up Your Book Marketing Skills Right Now @BadRedheadMedia

The right way to save your book’s Amazon sales page link @sandrabeckwith

Promo / Platforms

Building a Platform to Land a Book Deal @JaneFriedman

Platform Building-Is It Really Necessary? @wordsbyandylee

Promo / Social Media Tips

7-Step Checklist to Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile @SMExaminer

5 Reasons Why a Writer Should Stay On Social Media @mharoldpage

Facebook 101 for authors @sandrabeckwith

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Most Women In Publishing Don’t Have The Luxury Of Being Unlikable @EmilyGould

Freedom of Expression: Authors Guild Teams With LitNet in ‘Not Normal Times’ @Porter_Anderson

Anthologies: Great Opportunities for New Writers, But Beware Scams:  @annerallen

A Comparison of Audio Book Distributors– ACX, Author’s Republic and Scribl @TahliaNewland

The most important book elements for reader appeal @EvaNatiello

Publishing / News / Amazon

Is Amazon Exclusivity Right for You? @robkroese @JaneFriedman

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Canada’s Shelfie, formerly BitLit, Is Shutting Down Its Service @HudPeter @Porter_Anderson

@OpenRoadMedia Acquires Iconic Titles; De Gruyter Reorganizes Its Open Access Division @Porter_Anderson

‘@BookNet_Canada’s 2016 Snapshot @Porter_Anderson

Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report @Porter_Anderson

France, China, South Africa, Canada, USA Lead London Book Fair Intl. Award Shortlist @Porter_Anderson

Ukraine Enacts a Winter Ban on Book Imports From Russia @pubperspectives

Trade Show Notes:  LBF Hosts Fair Use Debate; BookExpo Announces Author-Speakers @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Pitches

Reach beyond tropes when pitching your book @JaneLebak

Publishing / Process / Book Design

A Complete Guide to 3D Book Covers @publishdrive

Book Cover Design: How self-publishing authors can do it best @ReedsyHQ

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Opening paragraphs don’t have to be exciting @TheAtlantic

Finding the Sweet Starting Spot for Your Story @beccapuglisi

Crafting a Powerful Set-Up @beccapuglisi

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

5 Reasons Your Antagonist Deserves To Win @Chris_Kokoski

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

The importance of character resolve @p2p_editor

Character Motivation Thesaurus Entry: Finding a Life-Long Partner @beccapuglisi

Creating Character Images That Work @DDFalvo

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

How to Fix Your Novel (If It’s Too Short, Slow-Paced, or Tells Not Shows) @mharoldpage

Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid @AJHumpage

Writing Craft / Devices / Repetition

How to Write More Meaningful Symbolism @millie_ho

Writing Craft / Dialogue

How to Write Dialogue in a Story @nownovel

Want Better Characters? Get Rid of the Dialogue @Janice_Hardy

Should Dialogue Stand Alone? @ProWritingAid

Writing Craft / Diversity

A resource for writers wanting to write books with more diverse characters: from Writing With Color

Writing Craft / Endings

Not all story endings are meant to satisfy @tobyshmoby

Writing Craft / Humor

Give Your Characters a Sense of Humor @RMFWriters

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

5 Recent Books That Can’t Stop Producing Alternate Timelines: by Stubby the Rocket

Want to be an artist? Watch ‘Groundhog Day’ @austinkleon

Screenwriting: Great Scene: “The Silence of the Lambs” @GoIntoTheStory

3 Ways Reading Will Make You a Better Writer @charityscraig

Using the Modern Love Podcast to Teach Narrative Writing @nytimes

6 Cinematic Techniques to Apply to Your Novel Right Now @CSLakin

“Things Learned From Watching ‘La La Land’ @GoIntoTheStory

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

How to Use Symbolism To Elevate Your Storytelling @AngelaAckerman

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

3 Word Documents That Will Help You Write Your Novel @BrynDonovan

What To Do When You Can’t Let Go Of The Story Of Your Heart @tessaemilyhall

Regional Cues & Clues to Enhance Your Story @TMRadcliffe

Killing Off Characters @SPressfield

What Will Help Me Write a Book? 7 Steps @nownovel

Depicting Child Characters @mythcreants

How to Choose a Book Idea @thecreativepenn

Writing Craft / POV

Multiple Main Characters in Your Story? 3 Tips @JerryBJenkins

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Video on Story Structure… and Why It May Not Be What You Think It Is @storyfix

Writing the Building Blocks of a Page-Turner @allisonmaruska

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Homophones: Affect vs Effect @WritingForward

Proof Reading: Catching Wrong-Word Errors @WritersDigest

A battle with grammar barbarians @pubcoach

Is using semi-colons pretentious? @emma_darwin

5 Cases of Insufficient Punctuation @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

12 Contemporary Writers on How They Revise @knownemily

Why we should put drafts aside for a time after finishing @Roz_Morris

How To Edit Your Book Using the Layers Process @SukhiJutla

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

When They Don’t Understand Your Stories @jameslrubart

Writing Craft / Series

When (And How) To Split Your Story Into A Series @kj_bags

Writing Craft / Tension

Using Characters’ Apology Language to Create and Resolve Tension @MarcyKennedy

Writing Tools / Apps

5 Ways to Organize Your Novel Using Scrivener @lornafaith

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

Apps, Tools & Plugins for Indie Authors @CaballoFrances

Writing Tools / Resources

100 Best Writing Websites @thewritelife

The 21 Best News Roundups for Self-Publishing Authors @ReedsyHQ

The top writing links of the week are on Twitterific:
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Top Time Savers for Writing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I rely on a lot of time savers to help me stay productive. I’ve spoken to writers before who’ve asked me how long I spend writing each day.  I usually spend no more than thirty minutes writing, but that thirty minutes is enough for me to publish 2-3 books a year and get a head start on another.

I think it’s because of those time saving tricks. Not everyone wants to be a faster writer or needs to be a faster writer.  If you’re someone who is already trying to increase your writing speed, here are the things that work for me. Some of them help me stay on track and fight distraction. Some of them are memory crutches that help cut my revision times dramatically. 

Here’s my most general tip, but probably the one that works the best: write the genre you know best.  I think at this point that I could write cozies in my sleep.  I know how they tick,: the pacing, the way the characters arc, how the mysteries come together to form a solution.

Second most general tip: write in series.  When you’ve gone through the investment of time and trouble creating a world and characters that live there, you may as well create more adventures for those characters in that world.  The time saving is huge.

My tips for each writing session:

Time your sessions and then take breaks. If you’re as easily distracted and restless as I am, try the Pomodoro method.  Actually, even if you’re not easily distracted, give it a go.  I keep reading more and more how important it is to keep moving and writing is incredibly sedentary. I adjust Pomodoro to fit my needs better: since my writing sessions are short, I’ll have a 15 minute writing session followed by a 5-7 minute break (usually I’ll do something active but productive and mindless during those few minutes…fold the laundry, empty or load the dishwasher, push the vacuum around).

Write the book description first. I frequently write the book description as early as a year before writing the book.  One reason I do this is to stay ahead with my cover designer (I commission covers that far out so I can stay current on her calendar).  Another reason is that it’s easiest to have the whole, global point of your story before I get into it. When I write a book and get deep into the words, I can barely see the forest for the trees. Copywriting before writing helps take care of the promo writing, helps me promote the book on my site far before its written, and helps me stay on point when I actually start writing the book.

Think about the story before opening the laptop. As I’m getting ready and coming downstairs, I’m already putting myself back in the story world. I’m remembering what I wrote the previous day and where I wanted to go.  By the time I open my laptop, I’m ready to go.

Use mini-outlines to bookmark your spot.   But, on the days where I don’t even remember what I wrote the day before (sadly, these days happen all too often), I have mini-outlines to lead the way. At the end of each writing session, I write 1 sentence explaining where I left off and 1 sentence reminding myself what I want to accomplish in my next scene.  Don’t overthink this part–it can be really general.  Mine sound like “Myrtle finished talking to Suzy Suspect and is sitting at the diner with Sidekick Miles hashing out what they’ve learned so far.”

Write straight through without editing or inserting chapter breaks.  This doesn’t work for every writer, but it definitely works for me. If I edit as I go, it’s hard to get myself out of left-brained mode back into right-brained, creative mode. And thinking about chapter breaks or other bits of formatting works the same way.

When running behind, work at a place that has no wifi (harder and harder to do). This was easier to do even as few as four years ago. Now I have to actually pass by cows in my car to find a place that doesn’t have wifi floating around (I do live in a city, so your mileage may vary). Or, if you trust yourself, go to a public place and just don’t log into their wifi network.

When writing more than one series (and alternating writing books for them, as most of us do): when finishing a book in Series A, outline the next book in Series A before moving over to write a book in Series B.  I mentioned this recently, but it’s worth another mention. I save so much time doing this. My head is still in the same story world when I create the outline and it goes incredibly fast…usually several days for a thoughtful outline. I’m always dying to move on to the other series, but I’ve learned to just put myself on a leash. It’s worth it.

Use a series bible.  Got lots of details?  You may have more than you think. Unless you want your supporting character with the cat allergy ending up as a proud cat owner (yes, this has happened to me), mark the detail in a Word doc for future use.  It may not sound like much of a time saver, but you’ll not only check it again and again, you’ll save sooo much time in revision work.

Back up the book.  The importance of this can’t be overstated. If you spend 2 minutes a day backing up, you won’t have to spend 3-6 months rewriting the entire book from scratch. And 2 minutes is all it takes to pull it to a thumbdrive/USB (I have one on my keychain), upload it to Google Docs or One Drive, or even email it to yourself.

This is what works for me…what works for you?

Last week’s time savers were on social media. Read that post here.

Top time-saving tips for writing:
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Better Images for Social Media Sharing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

For a long time I was oddly resistant to rethinking the way I approached images on my blog.

I knew there was a better way than the method I was using, but I didn’t want to find the time to figure it all out. I also am terrible at design.  Additionally, I didn’t really see what the big deal was, although I kept reading that better use of images can help us in terms of sharing. Images can give a post more views, especially on platforms like Facebook.

I finally got the memo when Twitter suddenly got more visual.  I also noticed that when I’d share links on Twitter, if the image on the writer’s post was optimized, it would automatically share the image with the text of the tweet.

I have a feeling that my process here is slightly convoluted, but I’ll share it anyway, along with resources that I know of to make better blog (and other platform) images.

Finding an image:

There have been plenty of cases where bloggers have been the subjects of lawsuits for using images on their blogs. Using Creative Commons photos or images that you’ve purchased is vital.

Right now, I’m  hooked on Visual Hunt.  I can search a wide variety of permission-free images there and can copy-paste the attribution for the image easily.  I download the image to my computer.

Other places I’ve used in the past for permission-free images are MorgueFile and Death to the Stock Photo (which sends you ‘photo packs’ every month to download).  Frances Caballo shares other good ideas  in her post “Blogging Got You Down? Follow These 6 Steps.”

Designing the image (putting text on the image, etc.) 

Once I have my image, I open up Designfeed, the free design program I’m using now.  I also like Canva for creating images, but the thing I prefer about Designfeed is the fact that I can choose the size I’d like to download–and the app lists the sizes to make it easy: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Designfeed also has a free image search. The only thing I had reservations about was the fact that I had no idea who to attribute the images to or whether the images were genuinely copyright-free.  That’s why I take the extra step of using Visual Hunt. I upload the image to Designfeed, add my text, and download the resulting image in the size that’s best for the platform (I think the Facebook size works best for WordPress, fyi).

Compressing the finished product

Since the end product is a pretty large image, I compress it using the free tool compressor.io .  It doesn’t result in a lower-quality image or a smaller image,  but a much smaller file size in terms of kilobytes used. This helps keep my blog’s load time shorter.

Uploading to the blog/platform

Finally, I upload the image to WordPress, using the large size.  I make sure to give photo attribution at the bottom of the post.  When I load the image, I’m sure to include alt text to help visually impaired readers as well as for SEO purposes (more on alt text from Yoast and Google guru Matt Cutts).

That’s how I do it.  How about you? What tools do you use to include images on your blog posts or social media? What’s your favorite place to find images?

How to Create Better Images for Social Media Sharing:
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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

Make Wise Investments In Your Author Business @cksyme

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Should You Attend Writers’ Conferences? @shanagalen @pronoun

Creativity and Inspiration / Careers in Writing and Day Jobs

Being a Sports Writer @delduduit

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

5 successful authors on daily word count goals @pintipdunn

7 Writing Resolutions to Finish Your Story this Year @nownovel

Writing Goals @JamiGold

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

How Writers Can Find Inspiration in Music: by Scott Preston

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

How Writers Can Benefit from Zero-Base Strategies @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Get Your Story in Hand Using Shorthand @CSLakin

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / When to write

2 Exercises to Maximize Your Creativity First Thing in the Morning @ToddBrison

How to Balance Your Job and Writing @_phoebe_quinn

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

7 Writing Session Savers for When It’s a Slog @Wordstrumpet

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

The Pareto principle in creative writing @Peter_Rey_

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

How to improve your the quality of your work @pubcoach

7 Ways Positive Thinking Can Help You Be a Better Writer @woodwardkaren

5 Steps to Writing a Bestseller @WritersDigest

5 qualities of a brilliant story @Roz_Morris

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Writer, Heal Thyself @womenonwriting

22 Ways To Speed Up Your Computer @WordDreams

Image and Back-up Your Computer @WordDreams

Genres / Miscellaneous

The Science Fantasy Genre @HunterEmkay

Genres / Literary Fiction

The Best Literary Fiction Blogs and Websites @JaneFriedman

Genres / Mystery

Auctions in crime fiction @mkinberg

Crime Writing @LeeLofland

Crime fiction @mkinberg

Genres / Picture Books

Top 10 Trends in Reading and Book Apps for Children @elisayuste

Genres / Poetry

4 Poetry Chapbook Strategies @WritersDigest

On the poetics of post-privacy @anne_boyer

Genres / Screenwriting

How to Begin Writing Your First Screenplay @woodwardkaren

Genres / Short Stories

10 Tips For Writing Short Stories That Sell @thecreativepenn

Promo / Miscellaneous

Amazon’s New Pre-Order Policies Give Authors More Flexibility @RJCrayton

Is Your Book Book Club Material? Ask A Book Club @WomenWriters

8 Book Marketing Mistakes Authors Need to Ban @ReedsyHQ

How Market a Creative Course @HelloMorganTimm

Hitting the Reboot Button @crazyauthorgirl

How To Take The Perfect Author Photo @standoutbooks

Promo / Ads

Using Amazon KDP Ads to Sell Your Ebook on Amazon @JaneFriedman

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Mind Map Your Way to the Perfect Book Title @Writerology

Promo / Book Reviews

Embrace Criticism, But Be True To Yourself @WomenWriters

Promo / Newsletters

Start Engaging Your Email List @cksyme

How to do a newsletter swap to reach more readers (and sell more books) @Creativindie

Promo / Social Media Tips

5 Social Media Resolutions to Grow Your Platform in 2017 @EJWenstrom

Instagram for Writers @thecreativepenn

7-Step Checklist to Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile @SMExaminer

Promo / Websites

How To Best Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO @BadRedheadMedia

Publishing / Miscellaneous

6 lessons from debuting a novel @Ava_Jae

6 skills for authors to hone @ShanDitty

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Industry Notes @Porter_Anderson

Frankfurt Book Fair Releases Facts and Figures from 2016 @Porter_Anderson

German Publishers Assocation Cheers EC Pressure on Amazon: @Porter_Anderson

Canada’s Shelfie, formerly BitLit, Is Shutting Down Its Service @HudPeter @Porter_Anderson

@OpenRoadMedia Acquires Iconic Titles; De Gruyter Reorganizes Its Open Access Division @Porter_Anderson

‘@BookNet_Canada’s 2016 Snapshot @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Process / Book Design

A Complete Guide to 3D Book Covers @publishdrive

Publishing / Process / ISBNs

Should you buy an ISBN? @Jason_Matthews

Publishing / Process / Translation

English-language writers who succeed abroad @richardlea

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

How to Use Internal Dialogue Effectively in Your Fiction @ESimsAuthor

Writing”street fighting”: from How to Fight Write

7 signs your writing is professional @pubcoach

Tips for Weaving Romance into Your Novel @CSLakin

How to avoid cliché by using clichés: by Scott Preston

3 Word Documents That Will Help You Write Your Novel @BrynDonovan

What To Do When You Can’t Let Go Of The Story Of Your Heart @tessaemilyhall

Writing Craft / Beginnings

First Chapters @annerallen

Opening paragraphs don’t have to be exciting @TheAtlantic

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Rival Archetypes for Your Novel @CSLakin

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

The Importance of The Unlikable Heroine: by Clare Legrand

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

5 Things an Author Did Wrong In Her (First) Novel @GillianMAuthor

Writing Craft / Dialogue

How to Write Dialogue in a Story @nownovel

Writing Craft / Diversity

What Counts As Transgender Literature? @GabbyBellot @lithub

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

Why Backstory Is Better Than Flashback @JerryBJenkins

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

8 Novels and Stories Inspired by Real Works of Art @TobiasCarroll

5 Recent Books That Can’t Stop Producing Alternate Timelines: by Stubby the Rocket

Want to be an artist? Watch ‘Groundhog Day’ @austinkleon

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

Literary Style in Storytelling @WritingForward

Writing Craft / Pacing

6 Quick Tips For Writing Gripping Scenes @WritersEdit

Writing Craft / POV

Choosing Your Story’s Perspective @mythcreants

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Hitting Your Novel’s Milestones @Lindasclare

How A Timeline Helps You Plot A Novel @Writers_Write

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

5 Cases of a Missing Hyphen @writing_tips

Homophones @WritingForward

Proof Reading @WritersDigest

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

How to choose beta readers @Peter_Rey_

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Top 10 Ways To Describe An Object In Your Novel And Why It Matters @10MinNovelists

Story Vision vs. Reader Experience @Lindasclare

Writing Tools / Resources

Writing and Publishing Resources from @ReedsyHQ

The top writing links of the week are on Twitterific:
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Top Time Savers for Social Media and Blogging

 

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The biggest complaint I hear from writers is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all that we need to do.

Tasks facing writers include reading publishing-related news, doing research, promoting, updating websites and social media…on top of working on our books.

And most everyone is doing the above in addition to a day job, parenting, or caregiving.

It’s a lot, for sure.  The only thing that I can recommend is that we save time where we can.

With that in mind, I’m sharing my own biggest ways of saving time.  With these methods I give myself more time to do…whatever.  It could be more time to write, more time to do housework/cook/run errands, more time to spend with my family.

I started to include all of my tips in one post, but realized it was far too long for a post. I’ve divided them up by category: social media and blogging, writing, book production, and general tips.  I’ll run this series on Fridays for the next month.

Social Media

It’s commonly referred to as a time suck and it certainly can be. For this reason, I keep myself off of social media as much as I can. If I spent as much time on Twitter as I appear to, I’d never get anything done.

I schedule social media shares. There’s a whole line of thought against doing this that revolves around the fact that this is a less-authentic approach to social media.  I get that, but I only think it’s applicable if you’re spamming everyone with your book release. I’m sharing helpful information and resources for writers, and at 12-15 shares a day, I’d rather not pop on Twitter each time I do so.

My favorite tool is Hootsuite for wrangling social media.  I use the pro version, but only because I use their bulk upload feature.  The free version works well. You can schedule shares for the week on nearly every social media platform you’d like (Instagram is oddly resistant to this, but there are other ways to schedule to Instagram).

You can also configure Hootsuite to track certain keywords for you (helpful if you’re researching a book or trying to learn a new promo approach).  You click “add a stream” and then click the “keyword” tab to set this up.

Twitter lists: This one is platform specific. I think a lot of people miss the point about Twitter and come away feeling frustrated. It’s most helpful purpose is as a means to share information.  And you can configure it to share what you find most helpful by using Twitter lists.

Click on your profile picture, then click ‘lists.’  In the sidebar on the right, you’ll see ‘create new list.’ Then you can add people or organizations that you follow.

Instead of looking at your home screen for Twitter, go to your lists to monitor what you’ve found to be your most helpful follows.  I have one that’s for writers and industry pros who post interesting information. I have several lists that I subscribe to that originated with others (this is a nice shortcut–just subscribe to some other writer’s list).  I also have a private one that helps me follow events at my child’s high school. You never have to go to your crazy, spammy, headache-inducing home screen again, if you don’t want to.

Sharing blog posts: I automatically share my blog posts on both Twitter and Facebook.  For Facebook, I use the “Facebook Auto Publish” plugin for WordPress and for Twitter, I use Hootsuite.  Otherwise, I tend to forget to share my posts to a wider audience.

Writing blog posts:  I found that I don’t really have the time to sit down at the computer and think up a blog post the day before running it.  The brainstorming just eats up too much of my time.  I’ve found that it’s better if I take a longer period of time and carefully plan my posts for at least the next month (the schedule can always be altered for guest posts or for a post that’s more time-sensitive).

Reading blog posts:

I curate links for writers, so I read a lot of blogs. But you may find an RSS reader helpful for many reasons–maybe you want an organized format to follow publishing news or writing craft news or even to get recipes from cooking blogs. An RSS feed reader (I use Feedly) helps with this.

Feedly is free to use and you can divide your feeds by category (writing related, publishing related, publishing news…and even personal: parenting blogs, recipe blogs, etc.) . To add a specific blog to your feed reader, you can either add content from inside the feed reader (by web address or keyword) or you can add it by clicking on the RSS feed button on the blog you’re interested in adding (for instance, I’ve got the orange RSS feed button as the first button on my ‘subscribe’ section on the top right sidebar on this page). It’s a helpful way to visit blogs of writers you follow as well as an organized and quick way to access information and resources.

How do you save time on social media or as a blogger? What have I missed?

Top time-savers for social media and blogging
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Tracking Our Books’ Distributors

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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

Freelance writers @jessicahische

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

Colombia’s Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias Opens This Week @cfuenteslaroche

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Top 10 Mistakes Derailing Your Goals [Podcast] @MichaelHyatt

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

9 Simple Activities To Inspire Your Writing: by Emma Johnson

Read More Fiction (A New Year’s Resolution for Writers) @Roz_Morris

3 Ways a Writer Inadvertently Limited Her Writing @rsmollisonread

3 Writing Prompts to Tap Into Your Creative Well @write_practice

Creativity and Inspiration / Motivation

When you’re your own boss, you’re in charge of your own morale @StephMorrill

Creativity and Inspiration / Perfectionism

A Tip to Sneak Past Perfection @WritetoDone

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Using Habits,Triggers & Rewards To Build a Daily Writing Practice @SukhiJutla

Writing when it’s hectic @WendyENThomas

6 Words Every Writer Should Avoid @RJThesman

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / When to write

8 Writerly Routines @j_r_fahy_tweets

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Finding Your Story, or How to Get out of the Dark Wood When You’re Lost @KAMcCleary

3 Quick Tips to Start Writing Again @LisaTener

How to Avoid the Post-Writing-Challenge Slump @NinaAmir

Exploit Your Vulnerabilities to Finally Complete Your Book @jan_ohara

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

3 Ways to Improve Your Writer’s Focus and Get More Done @colleen_m_story

5 Strategies to Help Writers Get the Writing Done @JennyBravoBooks

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

“The Tragedy I See At Starbucks Every Day” @storyfix

How to improve your the quality of your work @pubcoach

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Writing as Aggression @lithub by Emily Temple

Why Books Have Margins (And So Should You) @JanalynVoigt

Reading and Writing in the Age of Social Media @MTW_2017

Your Never Ending Writing Improvement Program @jamesscottbell

12 New Year’s Resolutions for Introverts @livequiet

9 Questions Writers Love to be Asked @AnnieNeugebauer

Why Your Chair Makes a Difference @SeanPlatt

Genres / Miscellaneous

Include Romance In Your Book or Screenplay @patverducci

Genres / Historical

Writing Historical Fiction @GoTeenWriters

Genres / Memoir

Writing Memoir? Think Outside the Book @annerallen

Genres / Middle-Grade

The Difference Between Young Adult and Middle Grade @RuthanneReid

Genres / Mystery

Crime Writing @LeeLofland

Genres / Picture Books

The Dos and Don’ts of Writing for Children @RMFWriters

Genres / Poetry

How Do We Pay the Poets? @amandanadelberg

How to Keep Poetry Alive @tspoetry

4 Poetry Chapbook Strategies @WritersDigest

Genres / Romance

Romance Writing @jcharroway

Romance Sub-genres @RMFWriters

Promo / Miscellaneous

Top 10 Ways Marketing Your Books Is Like Exploring A Jungle @10MinNovelists

Author Promo Tips with @Mark_Gottlieb from @Trident_Media @TheIWSG

Book Marketing @cksyme

Promo / Blogging

3 Tips to Title Your Blog Post and Draw Readers In @Margo_L_Dill

Improving Your Writing with an SEO Plugin @MarshaIngrao

4 Ways to Choose a Blog Topic Your Readers Will Love @woodwardkaren

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Mind Map Your Way to the Perfect Book Title @Writerology

Promo / Book Reviews

How the NY Times Book Review Works @lithub

The Zen of Accepting Bad Reviews @Artzicarol

How Book Reviewing Can Influence Writing @WomenWriters

Promo / Newsletters

Email Marketing 101 for Authors @timgrahl

Promo / Podcasts

The Ultimate Guide to Podcasting for Authors and Creatives @audracasino

Publishing / Miscellaneous

6 lessons from debuting a novel @Ava_Jae

6 skills for authors to hone @ShanDitty

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Cambridge University Press @Porter_Anderson

Industry Changes @Porter_Anderson

A Spanish-Language Social Network for Book Fans @pubperspectives

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing @ReedsyHQ

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

Author Michael Alvear with 4 ways to be resilient in the face of rejection:

Publishing / Process / Translation

On Translating Kafka’s Biography @DennisAbrams2

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

4 reasons to use a time warp in your story @Chris_Kokoski

The Best Place In Your Novel To Put Your Personal Beliefs @Chris_Kokoski

Are Paper Notebooks Better for Creative Writing and Brainstorming? @WritingForward

3 Ways to Make Your Writing Come Alive @Janice_Hardy

How to Create Cause and Effect in Stories @plotwhisperer

How to Use Internal Dialogue Effectively in Your Fiction @ESimsAuthor

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Real Life Diagnostics @Janice_Hardy

On meeting characters and making impressions @DamonSuede

How To Hook Your Readers From The Start @DionneMcCulloch

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Five Characters Who Endure Too Much Degradation @mythcreants

What Is Your Character’s Cornerstone? @knitteditor

Writing Craft / Diversity

Rosarium’s Faces of Diverse Publishing @RosariumBill

What Counts As Transgender Literature? @GabbyBellot @lithub

Writing Craft / Drafts

The Secret to Writing a Usable Draft @JeffGoins

What a Novel Looks Like Before It’s a Novel @lithub

Writing Craft / Endings

How to Write Effective Endings @pronoun

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

What ‘Westworld’ Can Teach Us About Writers @LitReactor

8 Books About First Contacts and Alien Encounters @TobiasCarroll

Story Structure Case Study of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” @kylieday0

Checklist Road Test @CockeyedCaravan

How To Write Like Leonardo da Vinci @rxena77

How We Write About Work, Then and Now @lithub

5 Times We Earthlings Messed Up a Fantasy World @tordotcom

Writing Craft / POV

Writing Dual Narratives @ClaireFuller2

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

3 Reasons to Write Your Story as Roman à Clef @McgannKellie

Plot Your Novel with Drama, Depth and Heart [Podcast] @lornafaith @Roz_Morris

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

25 Words That Are Their Own Opposites @WordSnooper

Writing Craft / Revision

10 Sentence-Level Mistakes to Watch Out for When Editing Your Fiction @aliventures

Editing Your Zero Draft @woodwardkaren

Storyboarding – Not Just for Plotting Anymore @joanswan

5 Things to Consider During the Revision Process @LoucindaMcGary

100 Editing and Proofreading Tips for Writers: from Expert Editor

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

When to Ignore Negative Feedback @tonya_writes

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

How to Describe Setting (Without Putting Your Reader to Sleep) @JerryBJenkins

Writing Craft / Tension

Creating Conflict in Novels @kayelleallen

A Surefire Way to Add Conflict to Your Story @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Tropes

Tropes in Literature: Conveniently an Orphan: by Melinda Brasher

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

How To Be A Smart Author in 2017 @sacha_black

Writing Tools / Apps

Scrivener and The Book Architecture Method @Book_Arch

Writing Tools / Resources

Free writing manual from @BubbleCow @GarySmailes

From My Blog

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

Process @elizabethscraig Some of my more po…

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Process: Finishing One Book While Starting Another

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Some of my more popular posts have to do with something pretty ordinary and (unfortunately) boring … process.

Everyone’s process for writing and publishing books is different. Maybe that’s why we’re curious about what works for other writers.  I know I like reading those types of posts, too.  I never know when there’s something that might be helpful to try or something that I could work into my own writing process.

Keeping all of that in mind, I thought I’d share my own process for finishing a book and starting another book. It’s fresh in my mind because that’s been my last couple of weeks (some of this I touched on in last Friday’s post).

The process for the book that’s releasing

While the book is in edits, I start loading the book and the book’s metadata up on distributor and retail sites (which can be, if you use a lot of distributors, something of a tedious process).

I draft a newsletter to announce the upcoming release.

I make sure the book is linked to the rest of the series on Amazon and other retail sites.

I update my website, LinkedIn, and Goodreads.

The process for the next book in that series

Whatever book I’ve just finished, I start immediately outlining the next book in that same series.  I’ve found this is a big time-saver for me because my head is still in the series. It takes a lot less time to create situations for the characters to respond to, etc. 

The outline is nothing fancy. This is my template for it:

Title

Back Cover Copy

Victim #1

Weapon Used

Suspects

Second Murder Method

Victim #2

Killer(s)

Red Herrings (false leads)

Subplots/series memes to work in

After 1st murder: Interviews

Suspect 1 interviewed…suspect points to ____, suspect’s alibi: _____, suspect’s lie____, suspect’s truth____

(rest of interviews of 4-5 suspects, same set-up)

After 2nd murder: interviews:

(Same set-up as before, with added opportunity to defend/explain any false alibis from 1st murder)

Moment of danger:

Clues that pointed to killer:

As you can imagine, filling out something like this is less daunting than a blow-by-blow outline. And yet this was acceptable to Penguin back in the day, too, so there was enough meat there, too to satisfy their requirements (their review of my outlines was in my contracts).

I write the back cover copy for the book I’m outlining.  As you can imagine, it’s fairly vague, but with cozy mysteries, this is not a problem.

I commission a cover during this time from my cover designer. Not only have I learned that it’s best to get covers early, it helps me to visualize the project and stay on track better.

I register the ISBNs for print, Kindle, and epub versions on Bowker for the project (which will, technically, be completed after I write a book in the other series I work on).

I upload the new cover and cover copy to my website on the ‘Coming Soon‘ page.

Once I’m finished with the outline, I move right on to write the next book (which, in my case, is always with the other series I’m writing–the one I’d have already outlined after finishing a story in that series). This may sound more confusing than it actually is.

What’s your process like with finishing a project and starting another? Mine is pretty rushed with not much room for celebration (the downside), although it’s easy enough to be automatic by now.  Do you have more of a time buffer?  What works best for you?

Finishing one project while starting another: the process:
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Publishing’s Dirty Little Secret: The Rejections Never Stop

Elizabeth Spann Craig.