Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 208

"Do the costs to promote a book sometimes equal the advan...

"Do the costs to promote a book sometimes equal the advance you got for it, and does that make you question A) writing it or B) doing all that expensive promotion?"
This post is going to be super depressing, so let me launch right into it.
The question of promo hits home for me right now. I have just spent three weeks editing, every day, for as long as I can keep my eyes open, in order to meet my deadline, which has been extended to tonight, thank god. But I’m tearing my hair out, because the...

Cost Benefit Analysis, Otherwise known as Who Are You Kidding?

WHAT DOES THE ADVANCE BUY?


- by Susan Shea


I still recall the thrill of being able to say, "Yes, my publisher has agreed to an advance..." "Oh, look, my advance check has arrived. I must hurry to the bank..."

It sounded so professional, so financially satisfying. Only later would I figure out what a fool's game this turned out to be. Now, lots of writers get really good advances. Some break even, some actually make money. But for this then newcomer, the first advance was about how much it cost m...

Repeat Offenders: How to Catch Those Pesky Phrases

I covered repeat word usage in a guest post over at Killer Nashville back in May, yet from the perspective of a debut author who was getting the hang of his longform writing craft. My man Alex Segura, on the other hand, is not only prolific but acclaimed. I asked him to contribute to this week's question, partly because I trust he had the goods, but also to prove my friends are dope and we do dope sh*t.

Alex is a novelist and comic book writer who is the author of the Pete Fernandez Miami Myst...

That's Just Not Pretty

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Getting it right

by Dietrich Kalteis
"Do you ever find yourself over-using certain words in a first draft? What do you do to avoid or correct that?”
Initially I just want to get the idea of the story down. Characters are developing and ideas are taking shape. Early on I’m more concerned with the broader strokes, like the flow of the overall story than I am with over-using certain words.
Having said that, I try to avoid unnecessary description, adjectives, adverbs, run-ons, overused prepositions, and anything tha...

Get the first draft written. Worry about the overused words later.

By R.J. Harlick
Do you ever find yourself over-using certain words in a first draft? What do you do to avoid or correct that?
Ah, those niggly little comfort words. You know those feel good words that just seem to slip in as you plunk away on your story. There I’ve already used a couple.  Can you identify them? I use them a lot. Whoops. Another one. So it’s usually about now that I tell myself, it’s no big deal. I’ll get rid of them all in the next round of revisions. I just need to get th...

What is This Thing Supposed to Mean?

Little Helpers: Overused Words
Terry Shames here, with her guilty "secret words."
I suspect that everyone overuses words as much as I do, but I’ve often been curious if it’s the same words. Here are the words I have to look out for:
AboutJust (and sometimes it’s just about)I thinkDecidedA bitThe thing
The thing I notice about all these words is that they are hesitation words. Of course they have their uses in certain cases, but most of the time when I take them out, it makes the sentence stronge...

Let's Get Away From it All

You’ve won a month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat. Where would you go and why?

by Paul D. Marks

Well, it depends what you mean by “retreat.” When I was younger one of my dreams was to take a little boat up and down the Amazon. Go exploring by day, writing at night. Now that I’m older and more into the creature comforts that dream doesn’t quite have the allure it used to.

And like Susan, Hawaii sounds nice. But I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years. I even wanted to live there fo...

With thrips and ukuleles, please.

 You’ve won a month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat. Where would you go and why?
By Catriona.
I'm not much of a one for writing retreats. My ordinary life is more like a retreat than most retreats I've ever considered. I live in a house in the country. It's empty all day. A man who can cook comes in at six . . .
But in 2015 I did go on an accidental writing retreat for a week and I was at least three weeks off being sick of it when I had to leave.
The man who cooks was committed to a...

Ahoy mateys...by Cathy Ace

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