Improving Your Writing Skills & Marketing

Bookpleasures' is excited to bring you some excellent articles on how to improve your writing skills and other topics related to writing. Check these out. I am sure you will find them very useful.

    (Page 1 of 2)   
    « Prev
      
    1
      2  Next »

    Are you an aspiring author looking to turn your manuscript into a polished masterpiece? In this article, we will explore the crucial steps of the revision process, from self-editing to seeking feedback and collaborating with professional editors.

    Writing a book is an incredible accomplishment, but the real magic happens during revision. During this phase, you will transform your rough draft into a polished masterpiece that captivates readers and stands the test of time. So let's dive in and discover how to take your writing to the next level.


    4 Common Writing Mistakes Freelance Writers Make

    Entering a freelance writing career can feel scary and exciting. Instead of taking orders from an employer, you’ll now be responsible for building a client database, growing your income, and setting your working hours. However, freelancing can be challenging when kickstarting your career.

    The quality of work will determine the number of clients you secure, your rate of pay, and your reputation. To enjoy a reliable, healthy income, you must eliminate errors and bad habits to improve the quality of your work. Learn about the four common writing mistakes freelance writers make.


    Virtual Assistants are fantastic help for those who need assistance promoting, writing, and even editing their book. This is especially true for those Virtual Assistants that specialize in book marketing. 
    So many first-time authors think that once their book is done and it lands on Amazon their work is over.  But that’s just the beginning. 

    You’ve landed the radio interview and it’s time to get ready to actually do it. Now what? As a book marketing expert and book publicist, I have booked my clients on thousands of radio interviews. Here’s a list of tips I give to my clients prior to their interviews. Keep this helpful list of interview tips nearby and you’ll be glad you did!


    How to Market a Book with a Virtual Event


    When it comes to learning how to market a book, a lot has changed recently in terms of author events and book signings. We’re all having to get used to virtual events, camera lenses, and planning around kids and spouses being home.

    When it comes to learning how to market a book, a lot has changed recently in terms of author events and book signings. We’re all having to get used to virtual events, camera lenses, and planning around kids and spouses being home.

    If you’re like most authors, you’ve probably had events get canceled or postponed. This can be troublesome for people who are attempting to market their book. Everything from author signings to writer’s conferences has been pushed off till the Fall or, in some cases, have been pulled altogether. So what’s an eager author to do?


    A major challenge of writing historical fiction is getting the zeitgeist right. Getting the zeitgeist right is one of the most powerful things you can do as a writer to set your book apart and goes far beyond placating the fact-checking history buffs (love you folks). 



    Have you ever wanted to write a children's book? Or share your personal story/struggle that you think will help with the world. I am here to encourage you to write your story and get your message out there. If I did it, so can you!

    Making Your Reviews into Workhorses  Excerpted (and adapted) from the third book in Carolyn’s multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, 
    How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career.


    Authors: Angela Ackermanand Becca Puglisi

    Publisher: Writers Helping Writers

    ISBN: 978-0-9992963-5-6


    Some Sage Advice From a Seasoned Writer

     


    Gina Burgess has seen dozens of small publishers come and go since 2010, not to mention those vanity presses that have closed their doors. If you've been an author trying to get your book published, you have probably noticed the new publishers in Writer's Digest and watched them disappear. Maybe you have even been burned by your publisher closing its doors with your book behind the doors.


    Gini Graham Scott Contributes Here Sage Advice Concerning Choosing Your Publishing Platform To Bookpleasures.com

    Gini Graham Scott, Author of 150+ Books Contributes Her Sage Advice Concerning Deciding How To Publish Your Book

    Gini Graham Scott, Author of 150+ Books Contributes Her Sage Advice Concerning Preparing Your Manuscript For Publication

    Best Selling Author, Susan May Warren Contributes Her Sage Advice As To How To Write A Character Readers Fall In Love With

    Marsha Friedman provides us with some great tips as to how to get your book reviewed
     

    Aspen Bassett Contributes Her Thoughts On How To Find Your Next Favorite Book

    Tanya Hall, CEO of Greenlead Book Group Contributes Sound Advice to Authors. Check out this interesting article.

    Insights, Facts, & Numbers From An Amazon Top Reviewer.  Originally published on Gisela Hausmann's Straightforward Blog. Reprinted with permission

    Hi, folks! My name's Dane Cobain and I'm an indie author, and today I'm here to talk to you about something that's close to my heart. You see, one of the good things about the internet is that it's now easier than ever for writers to release their books and to get them out into the waiting hands of their readers, and that's a good thing.

    Marsha Friedman Discusses How To Squeeze The Most Out Of  Every Print Appearance 

    For most of history, writers have been able to hide behind their words and only be judged on their merit and talent rather than impressions and appearances. Classic works such as “Jane Eyre” have only been able to rise to the top thanks to this possibly for anonymity.

    Today, however, things are very different. If you don’t have a website, Twitter account and group of fans that have formed a small community, then some will say you haven’t even begun to “make it” as a writer. Now, an author’s online presence is almost equally as important as the very words they commit to the page.


    I have an idea for a story that begins with the death of an aged town eccentric who was known to be wealthy, but never used a bank. For years people have told stories of him roaming his eight weedy acres during the night, carrying a shovel, and burying ‘things’ here and there and then shuffling through the darkness back to his gone-to-seed home.


    When talking about the craft of writing I’ve found that most of the ground has been covered extensively. With the hundreds of workshops and writing schools that proliferate the known universe just about every aspect of writing has been talked about and analyzed. The basic elements of story, plot, theme, style are now commonly referred to when discussing everything from writing for the screen, a web series, fiction, TV and theater.




    Author & Journalist Mary Louis Kelley Discusses The Topic Concerning Book Tours and Their Value



    There are a lot of articles across the interweb (and if it's on your computer, it must be true!) about which is better – traditional publishing or epublishing.

    Oddly, they seem to come down across party lines: people who are traditionally published, or who work for large publishing houses, tend to say that trad-pub is the way to go; people who have their work primarily on Kindles and Nooks and iPads and Smashwords scream about the future of epub and the death of print.

    Michaelbrent Collings Discusses How To Deal With Bad Reviews

    Does writer’s block exist? For more than 60% of writers it does, according to our survey at Stop Procrastinating, the productivity website and website blocker. But as with most conditions there’s a spectrum where some writers may find it difficult to write for a few hours or days and all they need is to adjust their way of thinking, while for other writers the problem may have set in for longer.



    Long ago, when I was taking my first uncertain steps as a writer, a successful and much older novelist told me, by way of instruction, “Fiction is shorthand.” I didn’t quite grasp her meaning, but over time the truth of this beautiful reduction became clearer and clearer to me, until I had embraced it as gospel.

    Want to Sell Books? SKIP the Book Store! How to Get a Sales Force of 65,000 Reps to Sell Your Book Contributed To Bookpleasures.com By Scott Lorenz



    You probably don’t think about editors when you first sit down to write. You’re driven by the strength of an idea, you’re in love with words and ideas, eager to see them pour from your keyboard or pencil tip. You may be immobilized, intimidated by a blank page or screen. Either way, you begin to write your story or make your claim and you may realize that you already have an editor — perhaps more than one — perching on your shoulder.

    There are several good reasons why writers should invest the time and effort required to attend writers’ conferences.

    Fan Fiction is a great way for aspiring authors to hone their craft. Amanda Hocking started out writing fan fiction and she was signed to a multimillion dollar book deal. Fifty Shades of Grey author E. L. James started writing fan fiction after she finished reading the Twilight saga, and hasn't stopped since. Here's a list of 21 Fan Fiction sites for authors to consider.

    Once you've got a venue figured out, and know what sort of event you're going to host, it's time to start promoting it to your fans and readers! You want to use all of your channels of communication to talk about the event.

    Signings and author appearances, while a great way to connect with and build your audience, can be hard to set up. Many authors in town will want to read at the Barnes and Noble, or the quirky indie store, and their calendars will fill up months in advance. So, hosting your own events, at a coffee shop or someone's apartment, can be worthwhile, especially at the beginning of your writing career.

    This isn't going to be another screed about losing personal connections because we're all online. It's totally possible to make valuable friendships and work relationships in both arenas, and most of us do that. This column will be one of two pieces that focuses on how and where to go to find people in person who might be interested in your book and how to make the most of those relationships.

    As a writer, one of the biggest limitations you face is time—or rather, the lack of it. It’s rare to find a writer, especially of fiction, who has all the time he or she wants to work. That means that an efficient writer has a huge advantage over those who wind up frittering away their writing time.

    Now that you have your story line or plot for your novel, you need to people it with characters to make it more interesting to readers.  

    Here are some things to think about when naming your characters. 

    Blurb marketing is the art of crafting a brief message and communicating that message to a large targeted audience quickly. The message can be an announcement of a launch, re-launch, promotion, special offer or any form of communication directly to an audience. Blurbs are a marketing tool that have been used and perfected by major publishers and bestselling authors for years.


    In the American classic film Field of Dreams, the spirits urge Kevin Costner's character, "if you build it, they will come." Many emerging, and established, authors soon find, though, that it takes more to generate interest in their books online than simply creating a book, being ready to answer questions about it, and building a web and social media presence. Often, with so many new, quality titles available, writers need to go out and participate with their audience, where their readers are already gathering. 

    Tips On Developing Creative Content for Social Media Updates



    Warren Adler Shares His Views On Writing Sex Scenes for the Non-Genre Novelist

    JoAnne Myers Points Out the Pros and Cons About Self-Publishing

    JoAnne Myers Gives Us Some Excellent Tips On Writing Mystery

    Author JoAnne Myers offers some useful tips on writing true crime

    As a book publicist I am here to inform you that yes, they absolutely do matter! In fact, one of my clients won the prestigious Los Angeles Book Festival award. That then led to a flurry of media interest, which subsequently led to a major New York agent deciding to represent the book and pitch it to all the major publishing houses. Deals are in the offing. This author, needless to say, is happy he decided to enter.

    Writing a how-to business book or CEO memoir has become a recognized tool for business professionals marketing and branding themselves and their companies. It helps them establish their expertise while sharing useful information appreciated by readers. Plus, it can introduce them to a vast new audience of potential customers.


    One of the best parts about writing in the Young Adult genre is it allows writers to create characters that inspire, well, young adults. In fact, it should be expected that if you write in the Young Adult genre, at some point a young adult is going to pick up your book and be inspired by your characters

    Success leaves clues.  If you seek the tools for writing a New York Times self-help best seller, look no further than a new NYT best seller, called, appropriately enough, The Tools.

    Phil Stutz and Barry Michels are Los Angeles therapists who have written an outstanding book encapsulating their approach to guiding their patients to successful living.  The book is a tutorial for people who want a better life.  It’s also a tutorial on how to organize and write a great book.  So let’s take a look at the tools Stutz and Michels use that you can put to work in your book.


    The value of information, when provided to others, is that it is acted upon. If the government learns of a terrorist plot, it takes action to foil it. If a doctor receives lab results of a patient indicating pre-diabetes exists, he seeks to treat the patient. If a parent learns her child is struggling with her class work, she talks to the school and seeks a solution.  But what about when book readers are given the facts, statistics, and cogent arguments of experts for the resolution of a major issue, such as curbing alcohol addiction, improving our diet, or decreasing gun violence? Once, as a reader, you take in this information, what can -- and should – you do as a result?

    Are you the type of person who writes a sentence and then spends 10 minutes thinking about it? "Is that the best word?" you wonder. "Does this flow from the previous sentence?" "Is that pronoun in the right place?"


    It seems so…unliterary.  But publishing houses despise authors and are doing everything they can to make their lives miserable.  Here’s why.


    New Year’s will be here before you know it. Find a way to commit to your progress as a writer. Make it personal, but make it meaningful as well.


    Do you ever struggle with writer’s block? Here are 10 ways to tame that monster!



    Are you a victim? Do you feel as though life has been unfair to you and if you could only write about, let the world know how tough things have been for you, the story would be a best seller? Some writers look at memoir this way – a chance to tell all about the abuse they have suffered. All you have to do is look at the shelves of memoirs at your local bookstore to see they are chock full of terrible stories – abusive childhoods; terrible marriages and/or divorces; sex, drugs, and rock and roll experiences that didn’t turn out well; catastrophic health nightmares, to name a few. It’s time someone tell the truth about that scumbag spouse, those uncaring doctors, that vicious teacher from 8th grade.

                               

                                                                                            

    John S. Rizzo & V. Michael Santoro

    Imagine Amazon sending you business leads regularly and even paying you to do so. Why would they do it?




    Starting a critiquing group? New to critiquing? When people are just learning how to critique, I don’t throw a long list of items for them to consider. I start them off gently, a little at a time. We begin with listening to the author read his or her poem, story, etc. While they listen, they take pen to paper and note what they liked about the following items – by jotting down a word or two about each

    If your writing is blocked or too slow, even though you've scheduled lots of writing time for yourself, then try something different. Tell yourself that you are allowed to write for only "x" number of minutes per day or per week. (You, of course, get to decide what X represents, but make it slightly smaller than you think reasonable.)


    We face a clean sheet of paper (or computer screen) and begin our stories and poems – starting tabula rasa. But are we really? Is it a clean slate in front of us? Are our characters pure before we bring them into being? And what about the plot of our stories or point of our poems? Do they just pop out of the ethereal ether? What is the role of the muse if not to bestow upon us eureka experiences to write about?


    Lilly Ledbetter’s Memoir and Everyday Language


    If you’re reading this column, you’re likely already a fan of the Internet. But do you use it to full advantage for all your wordsmithing? Here are a few sites I highly recommend:



    You think it’s tough to find time to write? You haven’t met Melissa Fay Greene, author of numerous books: Praying for Sheetrock, Finalist for the 1991 National Book Award and a New York Times Notable book; The Temple Bombing; There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children and her latest, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.


    A good title not only draws readers in, but it can also be the actual start of the piece you are writing or can allude to some crucial meaning hidden in the writing. A good title is as important as your opening line, paragraph, or page – it should catch the attention of the reader as well as providing some insight as to what is coming.




    If you are a Jewish author or specialize in writing about Jewish issues, you should consider reviewing this list of book fairs in the Jewish community. Book fairs are excellent places for authors to interact with the public as well as network with book industry leaders, publicists, and book editors.

    In 2010 book publishing changed forever when Apple launched the iPad, a digital reading device that officially heralded the dismantling of the big publisher model that has been dominant for more than sixty years. A new bench mark was created and a universal platform has been established that allows every writer, publisher and business to profit without having to rely on a major publishing company Welcome to the new world of electronic publishing! Here are the three major trends in book publishing today.


    Will all of these specific tips work for you? Maybe, maybe not. But invest an hour or two in getting your hard drive better organized and I guarantee you'll see your productivity soar.




    In a rut with your writing? Bored with your sentences, your descriptions, your characters? Is your writing starting to feel contrived? It may be times to shake things up.


    It is, of course, possible for a self-published book to "breakthrough" to the fame and fortune category but by and large the self-published author's success will be measured by what can best be described as, "circles of interest," those networks of various dimensions made up of people who share the author's interests and appreciate his or her talents.




    For years people have been asking me how studios, producers, film executives and actors make their decisions on picking books to adapt to theatrical movies and television.

    Being a writer means you are insecure – it goes with the territory.  Yet, that’s not the full story.  As writers, we also have enough ego to think we can write something others will not only read, but also often pay to read.  That’s chutzpa.


    Here’s a question I get at least a hundred times a year. Why is writing so damn tough?


    We worry that, if we follow our own path, our work will never be published. But authentic voices and writing always get noticed. It helps our work distinguish itself from the rest of the slush pile that fills editors’ desks. Give them something different, something alive that comes from deep inside you. Do it well and you will certainly get noticed.

    I’m more inclined to agree with Stephen King who said, “Talent is cheaper than table salt.” He continued: “What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Hard work is what I want to talk about today. Many people seem to think that writers are always "born" rather than "made." No way!


    We often shy away from our dark side, scared that if we create characters who are unseemly, cruel, and vicious, we may be giving something of ourselves away. Acknowledging through our characters our own shadowy fantasies leave us feeling naked on the page – even if what we write is beyond our own believes or desires. But it is by acknowledging both sides of our personalities – our friendly natured, kind side and our deeper, brooding, harsh side – that help us develop not just multi-dimensional and believable characters, but also more intriguing stories

    Apple is a category killer in computers, mobile phones, tablets and is playing an increasingly important role in publishing and selling ebooks on iTunes for the iPhone and iPad. We can all learn a lot from Apple so when their ‘Genius Manual’ was revealed recently, I found ways the info contained was applicable to authors.

    As a reader, I often enjoy when an author has provide the details I need to make a leap into the unknown, a leap that takes me into another realm. This leap often comes at the end of a story, where the character is brought to the point of more than one possibility, but the reader is left not knowing what, if any, choice or action was made.


    The advantage of scouring your writing for these phrases is simple. If you focus on a few phrases -- with the passion and precision a 16-year-old girl might devote to applying her lipstick -- your brain will start to become attuned to other unnecessary words. It's been said it takes 21 days to form a habit. I don't know about that, but I do know if you work on ridding your text of a few common needless phrases, you're likely to develop the habit of eliminating all needless words.


    Don’t take anything personally. Nothings others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” - Don Miguel Ruiz


    Critiquing is part of the process that makes us better writers. It’s a great way to learn where you have lost your readers or bored them, where you have problems with how time works in your story, or what doesn’t ring true with your characters.


    When you're undertaking a big writing project – such as a book – or even a medium-sized project, like an essay, it's easy to get overwhelmed. The usual advice, which I'm sure you've heard several million times before, is to break the work into small, manageable chunks.

    How well do you capture specific folks in your characters? It’s easy to fall into stereotypes – the country woman, the Bible-thumping preacher, the heart-of-gold hooker, the self-absorbed businessman. But our characters are not stereotypes – they need to be living, breathing individuals. To do that, you need to capture the specifics that transcend stereotypes.


    I was listening to an interview with Nancy Packer, author and former director of Stanford University’s creative writing program. (For those of you with access to iTunes, you can find the interview under the podcast How I Write – Feb. 4, 2011.) She talked about how often writers come up with a great idea to write about, but when they look more closely, all they really have is an anecdote. It’s not really a story.

    So what is the difference?


    Mark Twain once famously said: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter -- ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

    How many times have your read a story or book and you just don’t get or don’t care for the character.  It doesn’t feel good when the protagonist is triumphant in the end or the bad guy has to pay for his sins.  That’s because the character isn’t well drawn, isn’t multi-dimensional – and he/she is like that because the writer never goes deep into the nitty gritty of who this person is.


    Is your story predictable?   Are you characters molded too tightly?  Is the ending expected? Is the conflict easily solved?  Is your language everyday verbiage?  Shake it up.

    I don’t know about you, but I’m glad there’s someone out there who can still laugh about grammar!

    Leonardo Di Vinci’s search for beauty led him to explore ugliness in many forms.
    His sketches of battles, grotesques, and deluges often appear next to
    sublime evocations of flowers and beautiful youths.”
    – How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci


    Does the fear of perfection keep you from writing? I mean, why even try if you can’t be the next William Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, or Isabelle Allende? Why should you even think you have a story to tell in comparison to their stories, and really, what is your little talent compared to theirs?


    I recommend authors look into hiring a book shepherd for a current or upcoming writing and publishing project. A book shepherd is someone whose expertise in books and publishing will help you throughout the entire book process. From cover art, editing, dealing with Amazon to locating a printer, a book shepherd will assist you from start to finish.

    Negative thoughts will not only hurt your writing; they'll also make writing slower and more painful. Don't let the devil get away with it. Fight back.



    The more you know, the easier the writing will be and the more your writing will come alive.


    There’s no clear boundary between experience and imagination. Who knows what glimpses of reality we pick up unconsciously, telepathically.” -- Normal Mailer


    In a dark and gloomy pit, deep in the bowels of the earth, a large and strongly muscled man rolls a heavy boulder up a steep hill. The task takes him the entire day. But when he gets to the top, ooophhhh, the stone escapes his grasp and rolls right back down to the bottom. So the next day he must begin all over again.



    Reading exposes us to all types of characters and ideas we might never encounter in real life.

    The first part of this article defined pace and gave some tips on how to speed up or slow down the pace of your story. Here are some more tips.

    Like many ex-journalists, I pride myself in being skeptical. But I also have a Pollyanna streak that leads me to believe that being kind is one of the keys to success. A recent York University study found that people who performed small acts of kindness — every day for five to 15 minutes for a week — increased their happiness and self-esteem.


    Time, in fiction, is anything but a mirror of reality. Think about it. You can have a short story where time is moving from tonight to tomorrow morning or, more dramatically, from the present back several years to the past or forward to the present. Yet, if the story is written well, the reader easily buys into time and its passage.


    American journalist Gene Fowler spoke for many of us when he sized up the challenge of writing by saying it was easy – “you just stare at a piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

    When I have a hard time understanding a piece of writing, I often discover the author is dipsy-doodling in "height." He or she is going from big ideas to small without giving me enough warning.

    As the publishing industry gathers in New York for its annual trade show, BookExpo America, they’re discussing everything except the one piece of information authors crave:  how many books they actually sell.

    The more adept you become critiquing other people’s writing, the more adept you become at critiquing your own – your skills will grow over time.

    Book fairs and festivals offer authors an excellent place to interact with fellow authors and publishers, network with book industry leaders, locate the help you need, such as a publicist or book editor, and learn what’s new in the marketplace. Here is a list of 20 book fairs and events that are worthy of your attendance.



    Everyone touts critiquing groups as a great way to get feedback for your writing. That’s debatable and depends on the dynamics of the group. On the other hand, what is perhaps the most advantageous reason for participating in critiquing groups is that they allow serious writers an excellent way to strengthen their skills even more by giving feedback, rather than getting it.


    Is Your Writing Clear Enough That People Can Understand What You Are Trying To Say?

    Whatever your character is doing or wherever he is going, you need to be able to supply the details of the chore or place.

    A lot of new writers believe that as long as they are writing fiction, they really don’t need to do any research. And while, on first blush, that may seem to be the case, experienced writers know that almost any story they write will require research. The main reason? To make their writing resonate with readers by being authentic.


    I know the feeling. You really, really, really don't want to write. You're blocked. You've hit the wall. The words just won't come. You're bereft of inspiration.


    Incorporate your life with your writing, and not to put “writer” over in a column separate from all the other parts of you

    Your job is to frequently surprise you readers with the words you use and their juxtaposition.

    I recently started and finished a tiresome editing project that had been hanging over my head for about two months. In my defense, I can say the delay was the result of some holidays and also some excruciating back pain. But, if I was honest, I'd also have to admit I was, well, procrastinating.

    I think poetry may be our best ally for connecting with the earth, with our roots, with our spiritual nature. Mystics for generations have used poetry as a way to convey their oneness with everything – a state of being that all say is so very hard to describe. We don’t have to have undergone an enlightenment experience, however, to struggle with how to put into words the wonderment, the awe, we feel about our lives and this world.


    When it comes to promoting a book there is the obvious metric of sales.  But what’s not obvious is how many book sales the PR campaign generated.  Did the story in the Wall Street Journal move books or was it something else?  Often there is a delay in gathering complete sales numbers so it’s hard to tell cause and effect.  Further, if one were to build their brand with a PR campaign, long-term residuals are likely even though they don’t appear in the immediate balance sheet. 

    It is difficult to predict too far into the future, given the industry is subject to changes in technology.  It didn’t used to be that way.  Books are now becoming commoditized products that will depend on technology on all aspects—to research, write, and edit books; to sell them; and to market, promote, and advertise them.  So the book publishing industry will sink or sail based on the path technology leads it.



    Your character enters the dark room, hearing the ticking of the bomb, ready to explode. But as we place our characters into the major conflict of the story, how do we blend the mini-conflicts? Who set the bomb could be one question. What prompted the character to a life of danger, or are more than two factions fighting, could be other questions.


    Inspiration for writing can manifest itself in myriad ways. It is important therefore to pay attention to the tenor and tone of your writing. Your personality will shine through.

    Writing is a little bit like giving directions. As the writer, you know the landscape. You’ve had the benefit of doing the research, conducting the interviews, pondering the material and then, actually writing it.



    We talk a lot about narrators in our prose, but did you know your poem has a narrator as well? While perhaps hidden, someone is the speaker behind the poem. Who is it? What is her/his mood? How does he/she speak?





    The publishing industry is fraught with scams. There are publishing houses that claim to be traditional but aren’t. There are companies that have hidden fees or make promises off paper that they never intend to follow through on. Sabrina Sumsion has compiled a list of questions to ask publishers and the answers you want to receive.

    The craft of writing is a blessed one. The ability to freely express thoughts milling round our heads into a coherent essay is something exciting, challenging, liberating and highly fulfilling.

    Metrophobia is the fear of poetry. Many people believe poetry is only for extraordinarily gifted writers, for special occasions, for the intellectuals. But poetry is about life, about our daily existence – how we love, die, grieve, celebrate, and find meaning.


    "Why should I want to write quickly?" That gauntlet, thrown down by a colleague recently, caused me to sit back -- rather like an astronaut pressed into the chair by G-forces. But for me, the only force was astonishment.



    Probably one of the biggest mistakes writers make is not going deep enough. They just skim through the scene, the emotion, the scenery, the problem, or the resolution.



    Nancy Hatch Woodward Discusses What Is Freedom In Our Writing?

    Nadia Janice Brown Sums Up How To Move Your Book Forward

    There is a notion in Buddhism that the more restrictions a person has in her life, the more freedom she is able to enjoy. The idea behind it is that if you know and accept what must be done, you don’t have to spend time considering options.

    This week's column is about mistakes and I am supremely well qualified to write it. I'm the idiot who once let an email subject line read, "Why you should ignore your grammer checker."



    Have you ever encountered a four-year-old who hasn't eaten enough? It's not pretty. It almost always involves a tantrum with screaming and tears -- and maybe even kicking and punching. But offer some apple juice, fishy crackers and a cheese string and, voila, the problem is usually solved.


    Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules,making mistakes, and having fun.” -- Mary Lou Cook





    Nancy Harch Woodward tells her classes they can find sources for their stories in their own lives and in the lives of others. But that will only take them so far. As John Irving says, “A writer uses what experience he or she has. It’s the translating, though, that makes the difference.”

    Last night, in my “Creative Writing for Absolute Beginners” class, a participant asked about the art and craft of writing. He wasn’t certain whether he had the talent (art) to be a good writer, but he was in the class to learn the how-tos (craft) of writing. I’m glad he asked that question, because I hear this debate a lot when it comes to creative writing – that the really good writers have a special talent most of us are not born with.


    What happens to you when you've written an article, chapter or report and it feels wrong or "off"?


    Anyone who believes you can't change history
    has never tried to write his memoirs.
    ---David Ben-Gurion.


    People frequently ask me how many times they should rewrite. I try to dodge this question because, in truth, there is no easy answer. Pieces of writing are like snowflakes; each is unique. There are, however, some questions you can ask yourself for guidance


    Nancy Hatch Woodward Contributes Her Thoughts On Being A Writer

    Additional ways to strengthen you dialogue

    Daphne Gray-Grant Contributes Her Thoughts Concerning Three Writing Resolutions For 2012


    Oh, Yeah, Well”

    Tips on Dialogue

    You can’t blame yourself for what the characters say.”

    -- Truman Capote


    Words are the tools of our trade. Just like a carpenter, we need to make certain our tools are in good working order, which means they need to be sharply honed, well-oiled, and solid. It’s so easy to get lazy with the words we use – using hackneyed expressions, clichés, or boring, ordinary words.



    Daphne Gray-Grant Contributes Her Thoughts On How To Being Your Sentences In A Winning Way

    Nancy Hatch Woodward Shares His New Year's Resolutions

    Do what you feel in your heart to be right –
    for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned
    if you do, and damned if you don’t.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.

    Daphne Gray-Grant Thoughts On "Darling" Writing

    Writers today have many options and choices – self publish or traditional publish; e-book only or printed book only -- or both; what should be available for free and how much should you charge for your content?  As authors, you then must decide how you will promote, market and advertise your book.  What is your budget, in time and money?  Who will you hire, to do what?  What will you do on your own?



    None of us likes criticism, but as writers, we put ourselves out there into the world to be criticized. I think it is even harder for creative writers than others. As a freelance writer, I’m comfortable going back and forth with executives (who may or may not know anything about writing well) and editors (who often know a whole lot) to come up with the final draft. That’s just part of the business. But when it’s my short stories or poems, I’m a bit more sensitive. After all, creative writing contains more of me than my articles and corporate work does.


    Memoirists do not have perfect memories, but they do know how to mine for them. None of us can remember every detail of any event we’ve experienced, especially if it happened several years before or back in our childhoods. And that knowledge – knowing we don’t remember everything – often stops us in our tracks when we want to write about the past.





    Amanda Hocking, as I’m sure you know, is a best-selling e-author on Amazon.com. Since uploading her first e-book in the spring of 2010, she has grossed about $2 million. She’s got 10 novels under her belt, all of which fall into the paranormal-romance category. The prominent entertainment company, Media Rights Capital, optioned her four-book vampire series “Trylle”.


    Poetry surrounds our lives. You may not think this is true, and certainly we don’t have a culture of poetry the way many other countries do, but still we are exposed to poetry in all sorts of wonderful ways. Of course, we hear them in song lyrics, but we also find poems


     Nancy Hatch Woodward Offers Once Again Useful Writing Tips

    Who is your audience? I don’t mean who is going to buy your book, though that crowd is undoubtedly your final audience and their needs certainly need to be considered at some point. That’s especially true with nonfiction – are they war buffs, diabetic patients, young mothers, career-minded executives, or lay scientists? But let me talk about audience for fiction. I know Janet Evanovich keeps fans in mind when crafting her stories for them. But I want to venture even further into the process and talk about the audience in your head when you are actually in the middle of writing (not editing). Who are you seeing in your mind’s eye as your reader?




    David Meerman Scott Comments About the Usefulness of Kindle Fire


    Nancy Hatch Woodward Offers Advice Concerning Grammar

    The Three Jewels of Writing

    The stories and poems we write matter. Stories help us share our humanity with each other.


    Perhaps the number one tool for writers is the journal – not the type where you record what you did for the day and how you felt about it, though that kind can be helpful. No, I’m talking about writing journals. Notebooks if you prefer. They can be spiral bound, composition style, loose sheets gathered in a three-prong folder, leather bound, lined, graphed, blank, whatever. Find the ones you love. My favorite are the environmentally friendly, cardboard, spiral bound, 8” x 11” ones I buy at Stables that cost less than $3. I like them because I don’t feel that I my writing has to be remarkable or exquisite, the way I do when writing in journals that are hard covered and cost a pretty penny.



    You’ve heard the advice about how essential it is to your writing to find your own voice, but when it comes to fiction, it’s more important to find your characters’ voices. How your characters speak and what they say can often provide your readers with more insight into your protagonist and antagonist than a physical description does.

    Jerry D. Simmons Contributes His Thoughts On Creating Content

    Marsha Friedman Offers Advice As To Give A Great Print Media Interview


    Author Pamela Bitterman Discusses the Craft of Writing


    Scott Lorenz of President of Westwind Communications Discusses Why Book Awards Matter

    Scott Lorenz Discusses How To Use Facebook To Market Your Book



    Tany Sousanna of The The Soussana Group, freePRcoach.com discusses Why An Author Needs A Publicist in Today's Market Where the Name of the Game in Publishing is Getting the ‘Word’ Out Think P  R – Generating a BUZZ – on Your Book!


     



    Peter Winick, a content strategy consultant and book marketer working exclusively with non-fiction authors and thought leaders globally discusses Monetizing Your Platform Strategically – Go Beyond the Book 



    Margaret Brownley, Author of Twenty- Five Novels Presents Questions To Ask When Starting A Novel



    The Following Webinar Was Contributed By Writer's Digest

    Writer with a Day Job: Creating Balance between Your Work and Your Writing Life

    For most writers, the day job—with the salary and the health insurance that often goes with it—is as much part of the writing life as our words on the page. Sure, we all dream of quitting our day jobs and writing “full time,” but the fact of the matter is, with the exception of a few best-selling or celebrity authors, most writers work a day (or night) job. And you know what? Having a day job to support your writing can be a good thing, so long as you’re willing to reconsider how you think about your job and it’s relation to your writerly aspirations. After all, your day job offers you a pre-structured schedule and the worry-free finances you need to actually get do your writing—and that’s just the beginning.
    Writer with a Day Job: Creating Balance between Your Work and Your Writing Life looks at ways in which we can fit regular writing into our busy days. As parents and/or as 9–5 workers, the days seem already packed. But The Writer’s Guide to Beating the Daily Grind will help you to re-examine your schedule to find an optimal and regular writing slot—a time that works best for you.

    The webinar covers:

    • Attitude adjustment, including the act of regarding yourself as a writer and according your writing due significance in the competing demands and the ""bucket list"" of your life.

    • Scheduling: Find the time. From sun up to bedtime, there has to be 10 minutes in there someplace!

    • Morning writing: What works. What doesn't work.

    • Nighttime writing: What works. What doesn't work.

    • On the commute or on your lunch hour: How to set yourself up for timed writing 

    • Writing at the doctor's office or in other unexpected places: How to get the most from those incidental moments throughout your day.

    CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE WEBINAR


    Philip Yaffe Contributes His Thoughts Concerning Resurrecting the Bullet Point:The Return of an Old and Valued Friend

    The winter and spring seasons are great times of the year for book fairs and festivals. Authors can combine a little travel with a little book marketing and book promotion. Book fairs are wonderful places to interact with fellow authors, publishers, network with book industry leaders, locate a book publicist or book editor, and learn what’s new in the marketplace.Scott Lorenz has provided us with some excellent suggestions.


     

    Scott Lorenz explores several reasons to rename a book such as adding a subtitle to be friendlier to search engines. Another important reason is to get a new copyright date because many book critics will not review an old book and reviewers often define an “old” book as one with a copyright of more than a year old.


    There’s an endless supply of marketing ideas and suggestions for promoting your book. Some of them work and others, not so much. No matter what marketing strategy you choose to implement, the success of your endeavor boils down to execution. Without proper execution, many wonderful ideas end up dead in the water. Keep this in mind before your jump head first into the marketing ideas below. Careful planning can transform these tips into amazing marketing techniques that have the potential to catapult your book sales.



    Tom Von Deck author of author of Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course: for Beginning and Advanced Students of Meditation and Yoga has some interesting comments concerning meditation and book marketing.






    The 3 P’s of Promotion: Pursuit, Perseverance, Patience

    Nina Amir Discusses Building Author Platfor by Pitching Yourself to the Media

    Nina Amir discusses the quickest and easiest way to write a book blog

    Nina Amir shares her thoughts with author Jane Atkinson on how to turn a writer into a speaker

    Nathan Segal, Author of Secrets of Profitable Freelance Writing Discusses 4 Fast Methods of Finding Freelance Writing Work

    Nathan Segal, Author of Profitable Freelance Writing Discusses How Magazines Pay for Your Work



    Nathan Segal, Author of Secrets of Profitable Freelance Writing Discusses How To Find Paying Magazines With Keyword Research


    Nathan Segal Author of Secrets of Profitable Freelance Writing Discusses The Right Tools For Your Freelance Writing

    Nathan Segal Discusses 5 Strategies For Success As A Freelance Writer


    Nathan Segal Discusses The Value of an Editor

    Jo-Anne Vandermeulen contributes her valuable thoughts concerning book marketing to Bookpleasures.com

    Jerry D. Simmons Discusses the future of print books in this excellent article



    How to Give a Great Print Media Interview: Five Tips You Don't Want To Miss Contributed to Bookpleasures.com by Marsha Friedman
    CEO EMSI Public Relations



    Authors of cook books have an advantage over traditional authors because they can employ a TV appearance to increase book sales. One of the best ways for cookbook authors to get this extra exposure is to demonstrate their capabilities by showcasing recipes and talent on an in-studio cooking segment on television



    If you want them to read, teach them to write



    Aggie Villanueva Discusses Six Useful Twitter Apps



    Aggie Villanueva Discusses How To Analyze Your Twitter Effectiveness




    Aggie Villanueva Discusses What You Should Expect From A Book Publicist?


    Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm with a special knack for working with authors and entrepreneurs to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more.

    Scott has graciously provided Bookpleasures.com with a list of these Book Fairs and Book Festivals that authors and book lovers should attend





    An interesting commentary from Philip A. Yaffe, author of The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional




    The purpose of expository (non-fiction) writing is to inform or instruct, not to show off your literary prowess. The fact is, the better you write, the less people are likely to notice. And this is how it should be. The reader’s full attention should be on what you are saying, not how you are saying it.

    Philip Yaffe contributes some great tips on writing

    Writer & Author Phillip A. Yaffe comments on the purpose of punctuation



    Award-Winning Author Sandra Dallas Comments On Where Do You Get Your Ideas


    Writing is easy--as long as you don’t have a life. 


    The Universe works in mysterious ways -- most often in ways we cannot even perceive. I recently received notice that I had written award winning fiction. The funny thing of it is I used to think that in order for me to have the house of my dreams -- I would have to be living my dream life -- that of being a best-selling author.

    Many people you hear from these days will loudly and stridently say You Must Have A Web site if you want to promote and sell your books And, to a degree this is true

    Conversations are happening online in real time and now these conversations are being tracked, measured and searched. By becoming part of the community and paying attention to the dialogue around you, I believe your marketing efforts will benefit greatly this year and in the years to come

    Don’t let one editor’s, one reviewer’s, one reader’s opinion of your work cause you to throw in the towel, though. If all else fails, will your writing to the college or high school you attended, and some future generation will discover your unappreciated genius

    For all the fancy new technology mediums we’ve developed over the past century, writing remains the core skill that feeds all other forms of communication, the bedrock upon all other communication is constructed Radio executives will argue the spoken word and sound effects cannot be beat

    (Page 1 of 2)   
    « Prev
      
    1
      2  Next »
    No popular authors found.

    Most Popular Reviews & Interviews

    No popular articles found.