Kevis’s Comments (group member since Jul 22, 2009)

Kevis’s comments from the I'm Trying to Get a Book Published! group.

Here are a few books that I found immensely helpful in becoming a better writer. Not only do these books give great advice. They are also a lot of fun to read. I highly recommend that you guys check them out:

On Writing by Stephen King

Plot by Ansen Dibell

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk Jr.

When Words Collide A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style

The Writer's Journey Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas

Write Great Fiction Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell.

Story Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee.

Since the goal of every author is to improve their writing skills, I figured I'd start a thread to feature books that gives great advice on how to improve your writing. If you have a book on writing that you would like to share with the group please post it here.

Rita,

I've read Scrolls as well as the first chapter of the Daughter of the Goddess and enjoyed them immensely. I'm going to finish reading the rest of your stories tonight. But I'm curious. How does one go about getting your books? I've clicked on your GoodReads links, but nothing comes up.

One warning about writing queries. Every query that you submit to an agent or publisher should be personalized to the person you are submitting to. If your query reads like a form letter, you'll be hurting yourself. A point to remember is that editors and agents move around all the time. You don't want to submit your query to the same person the same way. There is always a chance that your work may be considered more than once by the same person even though your query has been submitted to a different address.

Kirilee Fey Hycanth wrote: "small?"

Kirilee,

I have a laundry list of advice to give you guys. Trust me, I'm holding back. ;)

You should always research the agent you want to submit your book to. Some literary agencies have more than one agent and you don't want to make the mistake of submitting your book to the wrong agent. You also have to make certain that you follow the submission requirements closely. If the agent requires that you send only the first 3 chapters of your book, you should never send more. Professionalism will take you far in the business. But you can't represent yourself as a professional if you don't do the research. Remember, knowledge is power.

Kirilee,

I've read your work. I left some comments for you on your thread.

Sagey,

You're next on my TBR list.

Kirilee,

I've read Fire Touched and although I see the potential, there are some things that don't work for me. I think my biggest problem is that after having read 5 chapters of your book I still don't know where the story is going. Although most authors think they have the full length of their novel to tell their story, the truth is a book has to grab the attention of the reader right away and hold it afterwards. You had me in the first chapter, but things started to get confusing with all the characters popping in or out without explaining what was going on. Be careful in trying to create suspense in your story at the expense of divulging important information. Every scene in your book should either advance the plot or reveal critical information of the characters or both.

My advice to you would be to reveal the overall plot of your story at an earlier point so that we know what the quest is. I'll give you an example. One of the things that makes The Lord of the Rings work is that readers know exactly what the story is about by the second chapter. Everything after chapter 2 reveals how Frodo goes about achieving his quest. If you really want to hold your readers attention, you need to tell them what the story is about from the outset of your story, not as it goes along. With that said, Kirilee is an interesting character and I am intrigued to find out more about her.

It doesn't matter how well you write or what genre of fiction you are writing. The main goal of any novelist should be to tell an interesting story. It's going to be quite difficult to do so if your characters are uninteresting.

One way to make your characters interesting is to make certain that they have a goal that they want to reach and have other characters conspire to keep them from achieving it. If a character wants something badly enough, they should be willing to fight, if not die for it. Of course, the goal also needs to be one that is not only worthwhile, but also attainable.

A perfect example of a great character is James Braddock in Cinderella Man. What makes Braddock such a convincing and interesting character is that he not only wants to become the boxing champion of the world. He is willing to pay the price to do so. Stepping into the ring with Max Baer is not a trivial event. Baer is a notorious killer in the ring and Braddock may very well lose his life in his attempt to become the champion. Braddock risks everything he has to achieve his goal. This is the crux of what makes an interesting character.

A good author knows that she has to take her readers on a journey with her characters to see what they are willing to do to achieve their goals and what price they have to pay to do so. The semantics of the genre of a story or if it is realistic or not is arbitrary. What's important is to craft a good story with interesting characters.

Kirilee,

I'm gonna warn you. We haven't even scratched the surface of what you have to do to sell your book. That's why I'm dispensing my advice in small doses. Otherwise, everyone's heads would be hurting.

Kirilee,

I'm reading your story right now. I'll let you know when I'm done. Hang in there! ;)

I'd like to add that there are many unconventional ways to promote your books. One of the most simple and effective ways to get people interested in your books is to give away bookmarks. In fact, you can even leave bookmarks at your local library for library patrons (one of the best ways to promote your book in my opinion).

The reason why bookmarks are so effective in promoting your books is because it is a constant reminder to a potential reader that your book is available. Also, people love to get free stuff and it will leave a good impression about you and your book to a potential reader to give them a free bookmark.

For the record, bookmarks aren't that expensive to produce. There are several online print shops that will produce bookmarks for you at a reasonable price. Most of these online print shops will give you a discount for purchasing bookmarks in bulk quantity. I advise everyone with a book to have bookmarks created for their books and to give them away to everyone you know and meet. Here's the link to one custom print shop that creates bookmarks:

http://www.printplace.com/printing/cu...

Another way to promote your books is to have merchandise created that you can give away as prizes or gifts to readers. I recently created an online store featuring merchandise based off of my novels. Over the next few months, I plan to give away lots of free merchandise to people who read my books as well as potential readers. I've already gotten a lot of interest for my books by giving away free merchandise.

Just so you guys can see what I am talking about, here's a sneak peek at my merchandise store:

http://www.zazzle.com/Zaragos

To further harp upon my earlier point, I advise anyone looking for an agent to visit their local bookstore (Borders, barnesandnoble, etc.) and check out Writers Digest Guide to Literary Agents. There is no better resource available to aspiring authors to find an agent. Trust me, as soon as you hold this book in your hands, you'll wonder why no one ever told you about it before. ;)

Kenzie,

Lyssa is right. The easiest way to get published is to land an agent to represent your work. Your options are limited when you submit manuscripts on your own. Worse, you only have one shot to get your work accepted with a particular publisher. Every rejection letter you receive means you can never submit your work to that publisher again.

On the other hand, literary agents know the market better than you and work closely with publishers to help them find new books. While your manuscripts or query letters wait in a tumbling pile of book submissions to be read, agents have fancy lunches with the editors of publishing houses to discuss the manuscripts of authors they represent. To put it simply, if you know someone who knows someone with the power to get your book published, your chances of getting a book deal are greatly increased.

Hi Aly,

I checked out your writing. Well done! It's amazing that you can write so well at such a young age. I can only imagine what your work is going to be like in a few years. You should be proud of yourself. I will be keeping an eye on you to see what you do next!

To me the main requirement of any good piece of fiction is to create interesting characters. If your characters are intriguing then you've already won half of the battle in telling a good story. Books with characters that aren't engaging loses the reader right out of the gate.

Jessie,

I'll be sure to get in touch with you soon about reading my book. Should be a lot of fun!

Jessie,

I really enjoyed listening to "Get up and go" and "The Dog's Party." I also sampled a few of the other readings such as "Inner Strength" and "What Heaven Means to Me". They were all terrifically read, especially with the different accents.

Incidentally, I started listening to the audio CD for Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince a few days ago and your style of reading reminds me of Jim Dale's narration. I always enjoy listening to people who can make words sing. I would love to hear what my book sounds like if you read it.

Lyssa,

I know what you mean. That's why I like Getting Your Book Published For Dummies. It goes through educating you about the entire process of publishing from the publisher's end as well as what you need to know to give your novels the best chance to be published. There are captions throughout the book that explains technical words used in the publishing world that you need to know. There are charts and illustrations to help you visualize the publishing process as well as a number of helpful links included in the book about finding a publisher or literary agent for your book. The title of the book may sound silly, but there is nothing funny about the information contained within. Definitely a must have for someone who is just starting to learn about publishing. ;)

Jessie,

You have a wonderful voice. As soon as I heard you speak the first line of the poem I listened to I was impressed. I will defintely get in touch with you about reading one of my books.