There is more to proofing a book than just reading the story. At some point in every writer’s career, you’ll be asked to proof a final version of your work. Sure, you’ll have various editors doing this, but you’ll need to be a part of it, too. After all, it’s […]
By Deborah L. Brewer Writers know it’s hard to materialize a phantasm into words that fully express all it means to us. It’s not merely clarifying our thoughts that proves difficult; it’s facing our feelings. The dream about being naked on a school bus and the story about the emperor’s […]
by Kim Olgren Why Enter a Writing Contest Humans have been creating contests since the dawn of time. Olympic athletes, your local sports teams, and every game show on TV are all forms of contests. However, the competitors in these contests all have one thing in common. Some kind of […]
By Donna Schlachter Reaching Readers without Leaving Your House Paid and Free Promotions Promotions—for most authors, mention that word, and they start rolling their eyes and backing away. Inherently, we don’t like promotions. It feels—well, like we’re trying to sell something that nobody wants. It makes us feel sleazy, like […]
By Trista Herring Baughman Hello, Dear Readers! Autumn has arrived, and once again, I’m cranking up the spooky tunes, baking my favorite Fall treats with the kids, and watching my favorite Spooky-season movies. Of course, all of this leads to telling scary stories. We read them (The Scariest Stories You’ve […]
Ahoy, scallywags—er, mateys! It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, savvy? A Bit o’ History In 1995, friends John Baur (AKA “Ol’ Chumbucket”) and Mark Summers (AKA “Cap’n Slappy”), decided to create this quirky, fun holiday dedicated to celebrating pirate culture. Ever since then on September 19 each year, everyone, […]
By: K.J. Scrim Do your characters seem to be missing that spark? Are they feeling flat as the paper they are being written on? Maybe you need to do an in-depth profile of that character. You already did one? You might consider refreshing it. Get into your character’s mind Character […]
An Interview by Deborah L. Brewer Fantasy Fiction explores magic and supernatural elements, set in imaginative worlds. When we think of Fantasy, series such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring and George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, naturally come to mind. But the Fantasy genre encompasses […]
By: Margena Holmes When I decided to write this blog I thought, “How can I—a person who doesn’t manage her time very well—write this?” Well, like a true writer, I researched! Writing—any kind of writing—takes up a lot of time with planning, writing, or editing. Some people have oodles of […]
by Trista Herring Baughman These days one needs a little more than pen and paper to get their stories out into the world and their readers’ hands. There are lots of great author tools out there, but I’ve found these five (which I’m about to discuss) are the minimal essentials […]
By Donna Schlachter Reaching Readers Without Leaving Your House Guest Blogging So far this year we’ve covered three topics related to Marketing for Introverts—Reaching readers without leaving your house. They are: Connecting with readers where they are (February); Facebook and other social media (April); and Newsletters (June). Hopefully, you’ve had […]
An Interview by Deborah L. Brewer What’s not to love about middle-grade books, so full of curiosity and can-do spirit? Writing for middle-grade readers is a great way to introduce children to a lifelong love of reading and a great market for book sales, too. In the United States, in […]
By Margena Holmes As an author, it’s not enough to just have a website for your books. To make your name and work known, you need to have a social media presence, too. But how does one do that? And with so many different ones, where do you start? Here […]
By Deborah Brewer What author’s work would you emulate? A simple copy work exercise could be your masterclass. Over the centuries, students of writing have hand-copied sales letters, poetry, scripture, legal documents, and even passages from scientific journals. Not to plagiarize, but to learn. Copying prose and poetry longhand is […]
By Trista Herring Baughman Many writers experience writer’s block, a feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward in their story. While some writers don’t believe it exists, others dread it and find it frustrating. The positive aspect is that regardless of whether it is real or perceived, it […]
by Jeff Schmoyer You may have heard the term “going wide” regarding self-publishing. This means making your title available in as many places as possible, rather than taking an easy (sort of) route and only publishing on Amazon. Amazon can get your masterpiece into the world in eBook, softback, and […]
By Deborah Courtney If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living. — Gail Sheehy Growth and change feel uncomfortable. Because of that most people avoid them. Like the plague. And they end up on a path that feels meaningless and repetitive. […]
by Trista Herring Baughman What is Mind Mapping? At some point in your school days, you learned about mind mapping. You might have tucked the knowledge away, back in the warehouse of your brain on a dusty shelf, or perhaps you still use it today. If it’s the former, let […]
By Donna Schlachter Reaching Readers without Leaving Your House Newsletters Back in the day, newsletters were printed, folded (or stuffed in an envelope), hand-addressed, and mailed to recipients. “Desktop Publishing” was a term bandied about when computers got involved, instead of mimeograph machines. And now, most newsletters are digital. Unless […]
By Deborah Brewer As writers, we dream of readers lost for hours in our carefully crafted story worlds. But if we don’t master the paragraph, we may lose our readers to confusion. Fine-tuning a paragraph can be frustrating work, but it’s the writer’s job to communicate clearly, not the reader’s […]
By Margena Holmes A writing coach friend of mine, Christine Whitmarsh, has a daily podcast called Your Daily Writing Habit, where she gives tips to follow to establish good writing habits. Her pillars that she focuses on are writing fundamentals, productivity, and mindset habits. In March 2022, I decided that […]
Hello, Dear Readers, Let me tell you about an amazing resource I stumbled across a while ago, but just really dove into: The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge. The challenge coaches authors on how to run Amazon Ads to make a profit. You learn by doing. This means you go […]
By Catherine Dilts Logline, pitch, blurb, synopsis. At some point, you will be required to develop short descriptions of your fiction work. You may find the differences confusing until you understand the purpose of each tool. LOGLINE Logline is also called the “elevator pitch,” or “hook.” It is the briefest […]
By: Margena Holmes In this day and age, there are many ways a writer can become a published author. There’s the traditional way of submitting your work to agents and publishers with no promise of getting accepted. There are independent publishers, where you submit your work and with it being […]
By Catherine Dilts My daughter and I embarked on a grand new adventure – collaborative writing. We’re finally digging into that crazy speculative fiction novel we’ve talked about for years. But this article isn’t about our writing project. It’s about our different approaches to attending PPWC 2023. This will be […]
