Traci M. Sanders's Blog, page 19

Tip #290: Engage your Twitter audience with a Q & A session

Here’s a quick tip to engage on Twitter and gain more followers. It’s somewhat of a Twitter game but it’s also an efficient way to network with like-minded people. Host a Q and A session [...]

Tip #289: Foreword Vs. Forward

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen these next two words mixed up, even in published novels! Many people confuse foreword and forward because they are spelled similarly and sound exactly alike, but [...]

Tip #288: How to write a query letter

Even self-published authors may encounter a time when they must write a query letter. Whether the author is a hybrid client (meaning one who has published traditionally but then releases other books through self-publishing), or [...]

Tip #287: Do authors need to blog?

Many authors, especially those new to publishing wonder: Do I need to blog? This and many other questions arise when authors start marketing their books. Do I need a social media account? Do I need [...]

Tip #286: Comparing your success to others’

One quick way to lose your motivation and zest as an author is to compare yourself to people who are more successful than you, especially celebrities. Authors don’t reach their goals all at the same [...]

Tip #285: Grisly Vs. Grizzly

Have you ever seen a phrase like: The victim’s mom fell to the floor crying when she saw the grizzly pictures of the accident scene.? I have.  Some people get the words grisly and grizzly [...]

Tip #284: Does my novel need a foreword?

In tip #80 of this segment, I spoke about the difference between prologues and epilogues, and whether or not novels even need to include them. Many authors like to cram a plethora of information in [...]

Tip #283: Whether (and “If”) Vs. Weather

Today’s tip is about a set of words that I’ve seen misused quite often, even in novels. There is a huge difference between whether and weather. (Another word I’ve seen used in the place of [...]

Tip #282: The Six Elements of Fiction

Today’s tip is short but important. Many authors make the mistake of starting the actual story too late in the book. They want to create a sense of tension or edge-of-the-seat reading so badly that [...]

Tip #281: Capitalizing seasons?

Many people think that just because seasons are the names of specific times (such as months of the year and days of the week), they should be capitalized. This is not true.  While we do [...]