I’m going to be taking a summer break from blogging.
Now, I’m sure I won’t be able to stay away all summer, so subscribe to my email feed to keep up-to-date with any posts.
And follow me on Twitter. I’ll be tweeting the links I would typically save for my weekly writing roundup. (You can also check out which tweets I added to my favorites list.)
This way, you won’t miss out on anything!
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One of the nice things about a blog is that it keeps your site content fresh, which helps with search engine rankings. But, because we sometimes get so focused on blogging, we can forget to freshen our website.
Today’s challenge to you is to inventory your site.
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Kindle and Nook Start Price War on E-reader Market
E-reader vendors appear to be dropping their prices to get more people interested in buying potentially high-priced content. This is certainly a valid business model, as I am reminded every time I buy refills for my Schick Silk Effects razor.
Better Readability Today Won’t Save E-readers Tomorrow
Are e-readers just a passing fad, a step on our way to the real future of books?
Agents Won’t Survive Just By Charging a Higher Commission
What will it take to ensure that we authors and our agents can continue to make a living as publishing evolves?
Fewer Editors Expect Salary Cuts in 2010
So, things aren’t getting any better, but at least they aren’t getting worse?
A Few Things the Salty Ones Taught Me
Writing lessons learned over a career.
Declaration of Rights: The Author Lays His Cards on the Table
An informative look at book contracts.
Alphabet Soup
Think everything will be rosy when you get the contract? This post by Susan Orlean might make you think twice.
Why the First Page of Your Manuscript Is So Dang Important
A reminder from moonrat that yours is not the only manuscript a prospective agent or editor is reading. In fact, it isn’t even one of 100 in most cases. So, you best make it amazing. (Remember how each college professor acted as if theirs was the only class you were taking? And how mad you got when everything was due at the same time?)
A Response to Garrison Keillor’s Position That When Everyone’s a Writer, No One Is
Do you think the rise in self-publishing hurts your credibility as a writer?
When Anyone Can Be a Published Author
Or does self-publishing hurt mainly the reader, who now has to wade through crap to find the few gems in the book world?
The 5 Stages of Querying
Querying = grief, apparently. This is a nice look at the feelings we writers can fall prey to during the query process. And if I learned one thing in my pitching practice, it is that we can’t let rejections get us down. Everyone gets rejected, and getting depressed is not going to help you write solid queries that sell your project.
Re-write Wednesday: Telling Yourself to Show
Show, don’t tell. We’ve all heard that advice, and we’ve applied it to some extent. Personally, I tell a lot during my first drafts, then revise to show. This post gives tips for making sure you revise with an eye for showing.
Tips for Backing Up Your Manuscript
You know how important I think backups are. After all, I lost my entire nonfiction manuscript and had to rewrite it from scratch. I use Google Docs and emailing copies to myself as my main backup tools, but there are tips in this post that will work for everyone. And, I will continue to wax poetic about Google Docs. They aren’t paying me, but if they wanted to….
Taking Suggestions
It can be hard to shift gears and take suggestions from our valuable critique partners/editors/agents, but this post reminds us why it can be a good idea. And, I’m trying to figure out how to better incorporate the police into my WIP, so it is an interesting and timely post.
Gaiman’s Choice: Shouldn’t Good Writing Tell a Story, Too?
How important is plot in creating a good story?
On Placing That Pesky Story Question
How far can you get into your novel before your readers know the central question? Randy Ingermanson gives his thoughts on the issue in response to a reader question.
The Background Hum: Ian McEwan’s Art of Unease
This nice profile of Ian McEwan in the New Yorker gives some insight into his creative process.
How to Strengthen Your Story with Symbolism
A nice instructive video on the use of symbolism. When I was in high school, I was of the firm belief that authors didn’t consciously use symbolism anywhere near as often as we were expected to find it in our reading. Now I know that it may be conscious, but likely not in the first draft. And sometimes it is completely intuitive.
Agent Michael Larsen Talks 12 Ways to Excite Pros about Your Novel
A short and sweet list of things to address in your query.
What Is Outsourcing, and Does It Embarrass You?
Do you take on projects as a subcontractor? Do you hire other writers as subcontractors?
How to Find Freelance Jobs Through Effective Forum Networking
A great way to get past the job boards and find freelance work.
How to Beef Up Your Freelancing Skills
As an independent contractor, you are now responsible for your own professional development. This post has a nice set of free and paid opportunities.
A Simple Blogging Formula
I know that daily blogging is important for driving search traffic and repeat visits, but I struggle to maintain a balance between blogging and my other writing work. This formula might be the key. I guess you’ll have to keep coming back to find out if I start doing the daily thing.
How to Keep Inspired When Blogging Gets Tough
A nice complement to Chris Brogan’s piece. Most of us who don’t blog daily have made that choice because of burnout.
The Internet Counts
A reminder to be careful what you post online but also to take joy in the vast marketing possibilities of the Internet.
One Reader at a Time
L.J. Sellers has a great perspective on building her platform and marketing her books. If you look at it as finding an audience, it can seem overwhelming. But, if you work to get one reader at a time, the tasks seem possible.
→ 1 CommentTags: backups·craft·fiction·freelancing·platform·the business of writing·writing roundup
I just turned in my final assignment in my Pitching Practice class. As part of our weekly check-in, I thought about what I had learned in the course and what I still need to work on. This bit of self-reflection sent me down a path where I assessed the writing lessons I have learned.
I’ve learned a lot from the books I have read and the classes I have taken. One example stuck out. Back in college, all pre-journalism majors dreaded J201: Information Gathering. We heard the horror stories of the 100-page paper we would have to write for the course lovingly dubbed Info Hell. But the course was required for entrance into the journalism program, so we all did it. And it was a crazy paper.
It was actually 120 pages:
I realized yesterday morning that it was a drawn-out query process, and the lessons I learned in Christina Katz’s class built on what I learned from that paper. Of course, with the changes in teaching staff that have occurred since I was in college, the class sounds much easier–fewer annotated sources, fewer completed pages, less hell. I am sure that it still teaches the lessons it needs to teach, but it isn’t the same bonding experience we early 90s UO journalism majors remember. No matter how little we knew each other or which track we took through the program after our pre-major core, we all knew that we belonged because we made it through Info Hell.
It was nice to be able to see how all of the work I have done over these years is coming together. I’ve got a couple great pitches ready to send out, some good pitches ready to be revised, and some good ideas that could develop into great articles.
What about you? How have you seen your lessons build on each other? How has specific training helped you make important connections that have furthered your career? And what do you still need to work on?
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5 Lies Unpublished Writers Tell Themselves (And the Truths That Can Get You Published)
A great list of the little things we sometimes tell ourselves to shift focus away from the truth: Sometimes, we are unpublished because our work isn’t to the level it needs to be. It is so much more pleasant to think someone is out to get you than to think that you need to spend more time honing your craft before your work is ready to send out. Remember, though, each rejection is a lesson that you can use to make your writing better. It is not a personal attack or a tool of a deep-seated vendetta.
A Reformed Publishing Industry. What Does It Look Like?
An interesting look at a different way of doing publishing.
Writing Query Letters
A short piece about query letters from one of my Pitching Practice classmates.
10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know
Kind of a “what I wish I’d know when I was just starting” post. Great things to remember as we write.
When Knowing How Doesn’t Matter
Do you ever wonder if sometimes it is better to just fly blind into a task rather than figuring out how to do it right? This post gives you some tips on how to harness the power of not knowing.
Ask a Lawyer: Should I Copyright My Title?
Great legal tips for authors.
Get More Done: Easy Tools for Greater Efficiency
Time management tools you may not have thought of. (See more on the importance of time management under freelancing.)
A Good Query Letter
Janet Reid shares a great letter and describes what makes it great. An excellent learning tool!
A 6 Month Weigh-In of Your Annual Writing Goals
Do you cringe at the thought of revisiting your goals? Well, you’re not going to achieve them by ignoring them, so take Suzannah’s advice and look back to see how much progress you’ve made and where you need to devote more attention.
What Is Your Vision?
A nice look at what is important to you as a writer. What is your vision?
Write, All Right?
A good reminder that we sometimes use other obligations (researching, mentoring fellow writers, revisions, etc.) to procrastinate.
Shut Up and Write: A Master’s Thesis
Another anti-procrastination post.
Read. It. Aloud.
How do you make sure your words (which look fabulous on the page, thank you very much) actually work? Try reading them aloud, especially if you are working on your dialogue. Perhaps I will use this tip with my little one after he is born. He won’t understand the words yet, I’ll be stimulating his mind by reading to him, and I’ll get some possible revisions for my WIP.
Page Critique Monday
How can you use this critique by agent Nathan Bransford to make your WIP better?
Writing Fiction in First Person
No matter how hard we try, sometimes a story simply needs to be told from the first person perspective. Here are some specific tips to help you do it right, especially if you are used to writing in third-person POV exclusively. It may help to apply these lessons during the revision phase so that you don’t get bogged down in rules while capturing your first draft.
How Do You Style a Character’s Thoughts in Writing
I’ve heard so many different methods for styling thoughts. Like the peson who submitted the question, I am not sure about italics, because it can look messy. Now, I’ll do whatever my publisher asks me to do, when it comes to following their house style–don’t get me wrong. How do you handle thoughts?
Freelance Writers, Be Careful Out There
We all spend quite a bit of time reading other writers’ blogs to learn more about our craft, our business, and everything else under the sun. But, it is important to remember that the thing that sets blogs apart from other forms of publishing is the lack of a filter. I can say whatever I want, and the only one making sure I’m not full of crap is me. There is no editor, advisory board, or great writing collective making sure the advice I give is worth anything. I hope that if I am full of it, you will let me know. Anyway, this post makes a good point about how to critically assess the content of any information you find on the Internet, whether it relates to writing or to anything else.
5 Things You Need to Know about Ghostwriting
Have you thought about adding ghostwriting to the list of services you offer? This is a good description of what ghostwriting is.
Why Time Management Is So Important for Freelance Writers
Um. So you will meet your deadlines and get paid? Yes, there is more to it than that.
On Tour with Best-Selling Suspense Writer M.J. Rose
A nice profile of Rose, including a bit about her struggle to get her books placed in bookstores (and in the right section).
It’s All about the Networking
Why you simply have to get out there and make a name for yourself and tips to help you do it.
One Reader at a Time
L.J. Sellers has a great perspective on building her platform and marketing her books. If you look at it as finding an audience, it can seem overwhelming. But, if you work to get one reader at a time, the tasks seem possible.
→ 2 CommentsTags: craft·fiction·freelancing·platform·the business of writing·writing roundup
What did you imagine when you decided to become a writer?
I didn’t think it was all lolling about eating bonbons while the words flowed steadily from you, but I will admit to a few misconceptions. For one thing, I don’t get to sit in a cozy, romantic garret composing epistles in longhand, like Jo March. And, I’m not writing on a manual typewriter I’m lugging with me on my world travels, as I always envision Hemingway doing.
Instead, it is a careful balancing act, ensuring that writing doesn’t encroach on the day job or family obligations, but still striving to get in your daily writing. It is a frustrating exercise in rejection and fear. And it is often a life of stolen moments in the early morning or the middle of the night, frantic scribblings on notepads at the red lights, and obsessive backups of your computer files.
How does your writing life compare to what you thought it would be?
→ 3 CommentsTags: writers life
A Rant about Goals
We all hear a lot of rules about goals: they need to be SMART, they should only apply to things within your control. Author Courtney Milan argues for shooting for the moon when you make your goals. You may end up disappointed, but you may just achieve your goals.
Writer and Writing Coach Tiffany Colter, Part 1
The first in a three-part interview series with Writing Career Coach Tiffany Colter. She provides her path to a writing career. How can you follow in her footsteps while ensuring that the process takes the best advantage of your strengths?
50 Simple Rules for Making It as a Writer
We all know it isn’t really simple–otherwise we’d all be wildly successful already. But these tips from Harvey Rachlin provide good advice for all of us to follow.
Fresh Hell
This piece from the New Yorker looks at why young readers are drawn to dystopian novels. Use the methods to decide how to reach your own readers.
Organizing Your Agent Hunt
A nice process to help you through the process of researching and querying agents.
Be Extraordinary
Tips to take your writing from great to amazing.
Where Did the Day, Week, and Month Go?
Practical ideas to help you fit writing in to your uber-busy life.
Introducing Schott’s Daily Lexeme
This is a very cool tool! You’ll kick butt at Balderdash after reading all of these unfamiliar words.
Creative Ways to Add Dialogue to One-Person Scenes
Dialogue is a great tool to help you show rather than tell. But, how can you effectively use it in scenes with only one character? He can’t talk to himself all the time, can he?
Shoring Up the Sagging Middle
I know I struggle with the middle–I always have. In fact, the bad grades I got on high school fiction because of the sagging middles turned me off writing fiction for years. I’m going to put these tips into play immediately.
5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan
Use these tips to ensure that you are using the right tools and targeting the right people.
6 Reasons to Blog Your Book: Edwin Crozier
Some interesting arguments for providing your book on your blog at no charge. Be careful with this and make sure it is the right choice for you and your book.
Why You Shouldn’t Blog
Is a blog the right choice for you and your brand? Not if you can’t keep it up. Read this article, then decide whether you should spend your platform-building time on blogging.
→ 3 CommentsTags: craft·fiction·platform·the business of writing·writing roundup
Will They Ever Pay? Sorry, Probably Not
A look at the possibility of users paying for online content. I think there are some things people are willing to pay for, and some they are not. It’s not a simple yes or no question that applies to every possible form of content.
Yes, I Have a Policy for That. How about You?
Another reminder that we need to run our writing business as if they were, you know, businesses. You need policies to guide in making tough decisions or explaining those decisions to others.
What Agents Don’t Want in a Query Letter
A very specific list of query-letter don’t’s.
To Catch a Content Thief
Tips to help you find unauthorized uses of your work on the web.
You Have to Believe
Agent Rachelle Gardner gives a great, inspiring reminder to focus on our dreams and possibilities when we start to lose motivation.
Agents and Bookstore Turn to Publishing
Author L.J. Sellers discusses the move toward more publishing options for mid-list authors.
Experiments in Delinkification
How do you feel about hyperlinks? Are they distractions or an essential element of web texts?
A Closet of One’s Own
What sort of creative space do you need to be able to effectively write?
Interviews: Or Going the Extra Mile to Research Your Novel
Yes, a lot of what you write will come from your head or research you do online or at the library. But, you will likely find that talking to an expert will give you insight you just can’t get anywhere else. The tips for finding subjects and preparing for interviews are useful for any type of writer.
The Evolution of Ideas
How does an idea transform into a finished piece?
5 Elements That Make Fantasy Fiction Feel Real
Great advice to help you build a world that works, no matter how far-fetched some of the elements may be.
On Creating Evil in a Novel
So you need a little evil. And you want it to be so evil that you would say it was the fruits of the devil. (Bonus points if you catch my movie reference here.) Use the ideas here at Randy Ingermanson’s blog to help you achieve that goal.
Ask Me Anything: Academic Samples
It’s the Catch-22 of the freelance world. You need clips to get jobs, but you need jobs to get clips. Thursday Bram offers her advice on using academic writing samples to showcase your writing ability. In a nutshell, they might not be your best bet. Christina Katz discusses methods of getting writing jobs to build your clip files in her book Writer Mama. (Yes, this is an affiliate link.)
Reusing Research: Making Your Work Twice as Useful
What do you do with your research once you finish writing an article? You could try reusing it to write further articles for other publications.
Emergency Planning for Freelance Writers
A good primer on business continuity planning for freelance writers.
How to Throw an Awesome Book Launch
Once you’ve finished and polished your novel, landed and agent and a deal, you’ll want to plan for your book launch. Use these guidelines to make it a great event.
The Hidden Costs of Social Networking
Some great suggestions to move you from social media use to active marketing of your brand and your books/writing.
What Do I Deserve as an Author?
A look at the value you need to provide in marketing your book/writing and what you should expect to receive.
40 Twitter Uses for Writers
After you do your traditional marketing, as suggested by Chip MacGregor, here are ways you can ensure that your social media time is effective.
An Author’s Plan for Social Media
More on effective uses of social media.
Smart Ways to Promote Your Business on Twitter
Apparently, this is a big week for platform/marketing articles. This one from the New York Times gives general tips for promoting a business on Twitter.
→ 1 CommentTags: craft·fiction·freelancing·platform·the business of writing·writing roundup
This week, Christina Katz discusses commitment and how it actually frees writers to make choices that will further their careers.
I know that I have struggled in the past to be committed to this career choice. And I spent a lot of my uncommitted time feeling guilty because I wasn’t writing. Turns out that guilt is not the best motivator for me. I just retreat farther and farther from the thing making me guilty, which means I ended up not writing at all for four months. And I didn’t allow myself to do anything fun, because I was supposed to be writing, not having fun. So I didn’t even get to enjoy it.
But I’m back on the wagon now.
I re-committed to my fiction writing by taking a short story class earlier this year. That class ended with a short story that is in consideration by seven literary journals. (Yes, I believe in simultaneous submission, and I sought out journals that were respected, printed my genre, and allowed simultaneous submissions. As soon as it is accepted by one, I will alert the others so they do not waste their time reviewing it further. That’s just common courtesy.)
The course I took is now available as a self-study course. I recommend it, but I also advise you to make sure you keep up with the writing habits Geoff and Steve teach. The class will only help you if you open it, use it, and stay on track–you know, commit.
I re-committed to my non-fiction writing by signing up for Katz’s Pitching Practice class, which I am halfway through. Three weeks in, and I already feel more confident writing query letters, and I think I have come up with some solid ideas I can sell. Pitching Practice doesn’t come up as often as Katz’s other classes, so when you see it, sign up.
What does commitment mean to you as a writer? What have you done to commit to writing as a career and a lifestyle?
→ 2 CommentsTags: christina katz·the prosperous writer·writing life
Linked In for Writers 101
A great post on Kristine Meldrum Denholm’s blog with specific ideas of how to use Linked In to increase your profile as a writer. Are any of you using Linked In? Do you have any other tips?
E-book Sales Jumped 252% in the First Quarter, AAP Reports
Yeah, these ebook things will probably never catch on.
New Media, Old Media
Results of a Pew Research study comparing the differences between hot topics in new media and traditional media. Do the differences prove that traditional media ignores the stories people actually care about? Is our system of gatekeepers flawed? I think the decisions about which stories are covered are affected too much by the need for ratings/readers rather than a need to serve the public good and create an informed populace. Also read “Journalists Won’t Report News Unless It Can Drive Page Views.”
How to Cope
Some ways to help you deal when you don’t feel like you can deal anymore.
Criticism Is Never Personal
A good reminder that criticism is not of YOU but of an action or circumstance. Remember that when someone offers you some feedback.
Courage
Bob Mayer discusses the fears we writers have and the courage we need to continue writing in the face of them.
Getting to Write
We know that we need to write everyday. We know that the more we write, the better we will write. But how do we make the time to do it? How do we juggle our myriad responsibilities so that we can write? For one thing, you have to love it. (Personally, I love writing more than housework, yard work, or cooking, but not more than sleeping or cuddling with my dog.)
The Importance of a Critique Group
Why you need a group of writers to review your work.
Writing Gone Rogue: 7 Writing Rules to Break on the Web
I love when writers are given a little latitude to make their work their own, whether it fits into the established rules or not.
How to Write Dialect
I’ve mentioned before that when I’m doing my revisions on my WIP, I need to make the characters sound more distinct. So, I love that I keep finding tips to help me do that.
How to Write a 250-Word Summary
Writing a short summary can help you clarify your vision for your book and guide your revisions. Plus, it can help you formulate a great query once you are ready for that step. This post will help you create that summary.
Oregonian Reporter Fired after Diane Downs Story Appears in Glamour
This is a good reminder for those of us who balance a freelance career with a day job: follow the rules of your employer while you further your own business.
Writing for Online Magazines: How to Find Work on the Web
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen answers reader questions about how to find writing gigs with online magazines.
Write and Sell Fillers to Fill Your Wallet
Looking for some quick writing gigs? Try your hand at fillers. This piece by Oregon writer Melissa Hart gives you some good advice on how to get started, including finding ideas in some unexpected places. As a side note, fillers are also recommended by Christina Katz in Writer Mama. They are a great way to break into a new market or publication at low risk to the editor. Well-crafted shorts can lead to feature assignments in the future.
5 Simple Steps to Getting Your Business on Twitter
A great step-by-step piece to get you started on Twitter. One of the best tips is taking care to use your one bio link wisely.
10 Ways to Build Social Media Clout
Once you’re on Twitter, you need to increase your profile so that you can leverage the relationships to help sell your writing. These tips will help you do that.
7 Tips on Book Publicity
Apparently, this is the week for numbered lists. Use these tips to build your marketing plan.
→ 1 CommentTags: craft·fear·fiction·freelancing·platform·the business of writing·writing roundup
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