Jen's Writing Journey

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

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.

Craft

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.

Fiction

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.

Freelancing

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.

Platform

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.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 14
• Writing Roundup, May 7

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

The Trillion Dollar Web Question
Mike Cane looks at the future of books. Will they live in the cloud? Will people pay for them? Will we need publishers?

Could Self-Publishing Digitally Backfire?
Author Shannon Stacey discusses her fears that an increase in self-publishing can hurt a writer’s career in the long run.

Amazon as a Book Publisher May Change the Game for the Industry
Another look at self-publishing, this time through an economic lens.

Non-traditional Publishing
A look at your different options for publishing your work.

The Konrath Effect: Will New Technology Ruin Talented Authors
Apparently, this week it is all Konrath, all the time. All of these pieces on self-publishing have been inspired by JA Konrath’s huge success with his Kindle releases. So, here’s another for you.

The Value of the Verbal Pitch
If you are trying to decide whether to attend a writer’s conference this year, read this post. Agent Rachelle Gardner discusses why a verbal pitch can be more successful than an email query.

How to Have a Successful Book Signing
Great, firsthand tips to help you plan your book signing or event.

Craft

How to Edit Your Writing: 5 Self-Editing Tips
Tips from writers to help you focus.

7 Easy to Miss and Fix Writing Mistakes
Writer Meryl K. Evans gives us another great post on self-editing.

Fiction

Sex Scenes in Novels
Are you comfortable writing about sex? If not, here are some ideas to help you move beyond your fear and free up your characters to get randy.

10 More Tips on How to Write a Novel
Good tips for beginners and seasoned writers from C. Patrick Schulz.

Author Glenn Taylor on Second Novels and the Writing Life
Why do you write? Is it to sell books? To tell stories?

Freelancing

The Care and Keeping of Long-Term Clients
A successful freelancer has a mix of one-off and returning clients. This post provides great tips to help you keep your long-term clients coming back for more.

Platform

The Smoking Social Media Gun: Intent
What are your goals when you enter the social media world? The right goals will help you turn your social media interactions organically into sales. The wrong goals will just turn potential readers/clients off.

Book Promotion Mistakes to Avoid
This post starts out with some honest mistakes authors can make with bookstores and builds up to some of the most amazing mistakes I have ever heard. Please don’t blame the post office if your books aren’t selling. They don’t care whether people read your truth about aliens or whatever else.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform
• Fun Stuff

The Business of Writing

Magazine Subscribers Still Attracted to Print, Poll
Current magazine subscribers aren’t quite ready to ditch the print versions. And they don’t think their favorite magazines care that much about what they want. Interesting results. What do they mean for we writers?

Google Believes Online Ads Could Be Worth More than Print Ads by 2012
This article has an interesting graph of the cost and revenue distribution for newspapers. Did newspapers make a huge mistake by eviscerating their news departments, thereby offering less content to sell ads around?

Prequeries & Followups
Follow the submission guidelines and do your research. Don’t send asinine letters asking for information you could find yourself. You know, act like the professional that you are.

Are You Really Going to Post That?
Another reminder of how to be professional online.

#158
This is a great paragraph-by-paragraph dissection of a query. Learn from it and use it to make your own queries better.

Is Traditional Publishing Dead?
Probably not. But it is in a period of transition that may be painful.

Craft

How Do You Reduce External Distractions to Sit Down and Write?
Tips from writers to help you focus.

Copy Edits
Elizabeth Moon, whose books I love, shares her experiences with good and bad copy editors.

Inaugural Page Critique
Nathan Bransford offers a critique of one page from a longer work.

Fiction

The Writer’s Bane: Describing a Character’s Physical Appearance
Great tips for making your descriptions not only a natural part of the narrative but also interesting to read.

But When Are You Going to Write Something Happy? And What’s Up with the Love Triangles?
Carrie Ryan responds to reader questions. Note to those of you who haven’t read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, it does contain some spoilers. I just finished Carrie Ryan’s second book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and I will be posting a review of it at Pop Culture Curmudgeon on Tuesday.

Freelancing

Top 10 Blogs for Freelance Writers
Michelle Rafter has a great list of blogs here. There were some I have heard of, some I follow regularly, and some that were totally new to me but have now been added to my Google Reader.

The Secret to Landing Paid Writing Gigs
Great post with tips to help you sell your writing. Yes, querying is a numbers game, but there is no reason not to refine your technique to help improve your odds.

Platform

10 Tips to Getting Book Referrals
We know that the most powerful form of marketing is word-of-mouth marketing. Use these tips to harness that power for your book or your freelance business.

How to Find Your Blogging Voice: 8 Tips for Bloggers
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen gives some ideas to help you build the right voice for your blog. Her tips are based on her own experience learning and growing as a blogger.

What Should Fiction Writers Blog About?
So much of the platform discussion out there seems to be targeted to nonfiction writers. This post gives some ideas for how to build your platform as a fiction writer. One great example is Marta Acosta’s Vampire Wire blog. Acosta writes the hysterical Casa Dracula series, so a blog about vampires makes perfect sense for her.

5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog
This isn’t targeted toward writers, but the reasons to have a blog certainly apply.

Fun Stuff

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls
The Bronte sisters kick some publisher ass.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 7

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Is DRM More Costly Than Piracy?
An interesting look at a new way of providing ebooks to readers. Where do you stand on the piracy issue? Do you think DRM is the solution to piracy?

Micromagazines and the Future of Media
Seth Godin discusses the potential market for highly targeted, well designed epublications. Are you ready to start your own micromag?

Buyers of E-books Still Like Print Too, Survey Shows
What? People who like books are less interested in format than in content? Craziness! Seriously, though, I think print will go away eventually, but it will be a long time.

Are E-books and E-readers Really in Danger?
The iPad is being billed as the Kindle-killer by some. Will this happen?

Google Book Editions and a New World Order in Publishing
I talked on Wednesday about writing in the cloud. How about publishing in the cloud?

You’re Not Wasting My Time
Yes, agents complain a lot about mis-directed and bad queries, but they do need to see your dueries. Take the advice you read on agent blogs about researching the agent and preparing a proper query, then query. You’ll never get an agent if you don’t query them.

Example Book Proposal
Are you ready to write your book proposal, but not sure where to start? This is a guide to get you going. If you’re not ready, bookmark it so you can come back to it when you are ready. (And, maybe set a goal for when that will be.)

Craft

Handling Critiques Without Getting Defensive
It is such a challenge to hear criticism of your work, even when the goal is simply to give you the tools to make it even better. These tips can help you stay calm while you are in the situation.

An Interview with Christina Katz about Author Mama
This interview includes some great tips about how to reuse some of your leftover content from other projects. Do you have any leftovers that would make a good ebook offering?

Liven Up Your Stories with Interviews
You have amazing stories to tell and awesome ways to say everything. But, how much more powerful will your stories be if you include other voices? Cindy Hudson tells you how to find those voices.

Fiction

Marina’s Notes on Deborah Schneider’s Presentation on Writing Romance for Publication
I attended Deborah’s session on April 18, and it was great. Here are the official notes from the Northwest Author Series blog. Not a romance author? Skim the portions on specific romance sub-genres but take her advice on researching your market.

The Eloquent Narrator: On Nuance, Physicality, and Riffing
Are your metaphors strong? This post gives great examples of strong, emotional ways to use metaphor to paint a picture for the reader.

Freelancing

252 Free Things for Freelance Writers
Freebies!

How to Know If You Are Freelance Editor Material
Are you thinking about adding editing to your list of services? If so, look at this post to decide if that type of work is right for you.

Seven Easy Ways to Boost Your Energy
Do you struggle to keep your energy high during your work day? Or do you find it hard to keep focused on your freelance projects after coming home from the day job? These tips might help.

3 Excuses That Are Keeping You from Building a Successful Freelance Writing Career
I know I am guilty of letting these excuses and negative beliefs derail my career growth. And that is one of the reasons I signed up for Christina Katz’s Pitching Practice class that starts next week. I’ll keep you up-to-date on how it goes for me.

Platform

13 Don’ts I Learned While Writing, Editing, and Promoting My Book
Marketing ideas to avoid when it is time to get your book out there.

Robust Marketing Plans Are on Multiple Fronts
Yes, you do need a marketing plan to get your book/writing business out there.

What Authors Always Need to Have on Hand to Market Their Books
This was a bit of an eye opener. Business cards and bookmarks, check. But I don’t always have a copy of my book to use as a potential conversation starter.

Managing Multiple Identities Online (Avoid)
What do you think about having multiple online identities? I do it, but it is a challenge.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 14

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Stop Being Afraid of Posting Your Work Online
Jane Friedman posts at Writer Unboxed about why you should share your writing online.

Be Slightly Afraid of Posting Your Work Online
And the response by Chuck Sambuchino. Where do you fall on the issue?

The Old Girls’ Club
Will the iPad topple the Kindle? I read my ebooks on my iPod In my day job (and previous day jobs I have held), there has been a distinct feeling that women are still striving to catch up with the men. How funny, then, to think that there is a business niche where the roles are reversed. Women writers, do you feel as if we exclude the dudes? And men, do you find it hard to break into a female field?

Making Money
Oh my! An agent who admits that her goal is to represent books that sell. We writers can remember that although we can write whatever we want, the books we send to agents and editors should be books that will sell.

On Rejection
A nice, measured post about why an agent might reject your query/proposal.

Creative Content Recycling: Are You Wasting Your Garbage?
What do you do with the research that just never makes it into your article or book? Do you scrap it, or do you try to turn it into other products? For freelancers, this could be another article. For novelists, it could be blog posts and articles you send to magazines to help build buzz for your book.

Best Resources for Successful Writers of the Future
Publishing is in a time of transition, and those of us who wish to be successful in the future need to get ready. Jane Friedman pulls together a great set of resources here.

Craft

What Is Self-Editing, and Why Should We Do It?
Author Jody Hedlund gives great tips on how to edit your own work. Self-editing is hard, because your brain fills in the gaps and fixes your errors, but it is an essential component of getting our work ready to be published.

We’ve Got Style
No, author L.J. Sellers isn’t talking about clothes and shoes. Instead, she is applying the guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style to numbers in fiction. If you aren’t familiar with the common style manuals (Chicago, AP, MLA), it wouldn’t be a bid idea to look through them to see what you can learn about spelling, grammar, proper names and trademarks, and so on. No one expects you to memorize the whole thing, but it is good to have a guideline to keep certain things consistent throughout your manuscript.

Fiction

7 Reasons Agents Stop Reading Your First Chapter
Great tips on what might be wrong with your novel. Assess your first chapter as if you were an agent or editor. Does it fall into any of these categories? If so, how can you fix it?

Troubles with Twist Endings
Does your story/book end with a twist? Did you set it up so that it is believable in your fictional world? If not, then you might want to do a round of revisions where you do set it up so that it will work for your readers.

Dialogue Tricks
Do your characters all sound the same? If so, do they speak like you? (I’ve definitely been guilty of this sin a time or two.) Victoria Janssen has tips to help you make your characters distinct. I think of it as creating a character as an actor. Look at their motivations, backgrounds, and personalities, then use those characteristics to create authentic dialogue.

Freelancing

How to Find Online Writing Markets and Write for the Web
Writing for the web can be a huge challenge for those of us trained in print. For example, the conventions for titles are vastly different. If you look at my early posts, I did the cutesy print title thing. But, I learned my lesson since then, and I now use titles that describe the material I’m posting. Anyway, this post gives you easy-to-follow tips to move into the online market, if you haven’t already.

Prospering from Personal Essays
Have you thought about writing essays for publication? Abigail Green guests at Christina Katz’s blog and discusses how to get your essays published.

Should You Tattle on a Bad Client?
I think no, at least not publicly. What would it take for you to burn a bridge with a client?

Platform

How Freelancers Are Using Social Media for Real Results
Good ideas to increase your social media presence and the benefits you receive from it.

The 5 Old Blogging Rules Killing Your Readership
Lisa Barrone gives us permission not to post every day!

Does Your Time Spent Online Help Book Sales?
Startling statistics that show the importance of spending time online (wisely) to build your personal brand.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 14

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Can I Get a Ruling: Do You Think the Query Process Works?
Agent Nathan Bransford opened up a very interesting discussion with this quick poll.

Freelance Writers: Your Performance Review
Don’t cringe. Yes, performance reviews can be time-consuming and unpleasant in the 9-5 world. But, they also provide guidance and feedback that can help you perform better. How can you assess your own performance as a writer? This piece focuses on the needs of freelance writers, but I think all of us could probably benefit from some self-assessment.

Publish or Perish
Will the iPad topple the Kindle? I read my ebooks on my iPod Touch because I like having all of the different format options available through the different ereader apps. If iPad offers that same functionality at an easier-to-read size, then, yeah, it probably will kill the stand-alone readers. Will the iPad save the book industry? Well, personally, I don’t believe the book industry is dying. It’s changing, and it is afraid of the changes.

Interview with Karen McQuestion
J.A. Konrath talks to an author who started selling books on Kindle from scratch after not succeeding through traditional publishing channels. She sells more books on Kindle than Konrath does, by the way.

Agent Advice: Kelly Mortimer of the Mortimer Literacy Agency
I love these Q&A pieces that give you insight into why a particular agent makes particular choices. Is Kelly potentially the right agent for you?

Craft

Structure Girl! A Superhero for Writers
How much do you follow structure when you are drafting? Carolyn McCray suggests that following a standard structure can help you be more efficient and enjoy the process of writing more.

Fiction

How the Future of Story Telling and Writing Is Like Bedtime
Interesting look at ht changing world of fiction. How will you adapt to a world where there are fewer passive narratives and more interactive storytelling?

Research Versus the Demands of the Publishing Market
Research is essential for producing believable fiction, especially is you are writing about a time or place you’ve never been to. But, how much time can you spend on research when you are under contract?

Forget Alpha/Beta. Write Interesting Men.
A nice reminder not to worry so much about the conventions and the names of the archetypes. Write believable, rich, complex characters.

Genre, Genre … What’s a Writer to Do?
Can (or should) you span genres in your writing? Or should you specialize? This is something freelance writers have to deal with a lot. Specializing in freelancing could mean higher paychecks, but generalizing can mean more options for finding work. How does genre specialization affect fiction writers?

Freelancing

8 Ways to Build a Better Freelance Writing Career
A good reminder that the content you provide is the most important thing in your career. Provide good content in a reasonable time frame, and clients and editors will want to work with you again. And, you will have great clips to help you get new clients and editors on board.

Freelance Writing for the Web: A Change Is Gonna Come, Are You Ready?
Carson Brackney forecasts the future needs for clients who hire web writers. His advice is to study your current clients, think about what they need and why they hired you, and focus on providing a good product.

5 Ways to Improve Yourself and Your Business
Quick and easy tips to help you be a better writer.

Platform

Author Abiola Adams on How Writers Can Build a Platform
This author took a very strong role in building her platform and ensuring that her book was marketed to the right people in the right way so it wouldn’t get pigeonholed into niches where it didn’t really fit.

Two Questions to Answer for Your Bestseller
Al Lautenslager gives tips to help you market your book using a reader-centric perspective.

How to Be a Multimedia Author and Stand Out from the Crowd
Great ideas for making your marketing more interactive. I know I never thought about doing multimedia marketing tools when I was first promoting my book. Perhaps I will have to record a reading and post it on You Tube or something.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition

One day until my birthday. Yay! My new laptop was an early birthday present, so I’m not expecting a gift extravaganza, but I plan to have a fun day anyway.

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing

The Business of Writing

Ted Koppel Assesses the Media Landscape
Ted Koppel is not pleased with the state of broadcast news. He feels that people are too busy looking for the things they want to hear and the ideas they agree with to truly become informed. And, the news organizations, as for-profit entities, are playing to what we want, not what we need. Cue quavering old-codger voice. Remember when the news component of the broadcast stations was funded by the entertainment, rather than treated as a profit center. It was part of the educational programming TV stations had to offer to keep their charters, and that programming was sacrosanct. But we can bemoan the state of affairs until we turn blue. Instead, what can we do to fix the problem?

British Prime Minister Criticizes Newspaper Pay Walls
What do you think about charging for news. Should the news be free to all as an educational tool, or do newspapers need to charge for their service?

How to Sell More Books on Amazon by Increasing Your Book’s Visibility
Good marketing tips.

The Future of Content: Protection In in the Business Model, Not the Technology
Gerd Leonhard provides a nice look at why DRM doesn’t work and forecasts the future of content delivery. He focuses mainly on music, but you can see how the model might work for books and periodicals, too.

Feds Raise Questions about Big Media’s Piracy Claims
How much does piracy hurt content creators? The Government Accounting Office can’t figure it out. This story explores the effects of piracy on the creative industries.

What Authors Need to Know about Bookstore Visibility
This Q&A with a bookseller turned agent gives great insight into the importance of bookstore placement and how it is determined.

Craft

Experience Makes Perfect
Singer and writer Vanessa looks at the importance of practice and experience creating your art.

10 Common Writing Errors
C. Patrick Schulze provides a list of common writing mistakes made by novices, some of the usual suspects and some new ones, and solutions for fixing them.

Fiction

World Building, Part 4: Government
The conclusion in a nice series on world building. Also read Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Dictating, Writing, Hiking
Is dictation the way for you to capture your first drafts?

Freelancing

Where I Hunt for Freelance Writing Jobs
A nice list of job boards and resources to help you keep your income flowing.

How to Find Work without Using the Freelance Job Boards
And more job-hunting resources when you need to move beyond the job boards.

Working from Home: 5 Tips for Being Super-Productive
Choosing to be your own boss and to work from your home office can be the most rewarding choice you make. But it can also be a huge mistake, if you don’t keep yourself disciplined and productive.

Elance Introduces Work View, Ticks Off Freelancers
Elance has joined oDesk (and probably some other freelance bid sites) in allowing clients to remotely monitor their freelancers’ work. Some freelancers are okay with this, saying they have nothing to hide, while others find this to be a serious violation of privacy and of the spirit of an independent contractor relationship.

11 Tips to Earn More Money Freelancing
Yes, please. These are targeted toward freelance designers, but again, it is easy to see how to apply them (and the thinking behind them) to your writing career.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 14

I’m back.

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Harnessing the Power of Social Networks for Journalism
How do you interact with potential sources? Do you mine them for the direction of your story, or do you use them to fill in the quote holes? This piece gives a good rationale for the former method and discusses how social media can help you broaden your story.

How I Got My Agent: Richard L. Mabry
I always love to read the stories of how an author got published or found an agent. It helps renew me when I’m feeling down.

Women and Romance Novels
An interesting look at readers of romance from a writer of romance. How can you use your readers’ expectations to make your writing better?

Romance Author Sold 85m Books Worldwide, Yet Has Never Seen Anybody Reading Them
What is the event that will let you know you have made it? Will it be landing an agent? Landing a book deal? Or, much like the singer who goes crazy the first time she hears her song on the radio, will it be when you see someone reading YOUR BOOK on the bus, subway, or park bench? What if you sell books like mad, but you never get to see someone reading them in public?

Publishers + Ebooks = Epic Fail
JA Konrath doesn’t pull any punches, which is one of the reasons I enjoy reading his blog. He discusses the need to seriously strategize for ebooks.

Love Is Like a Bottle of Query
A discussion of query letters and personal ads. Would you date your story based on how you are describing it?

Slaying the Query Monster
A nice synopsis of what goes into a good query letter. All of the usual suspects are there, of course (agent/editor’s name spelled correctly, etc.), but of particular use is the description of what to include in oyur synopsis paragraph.

Craft

Sue Grafton’s Advice for Writers: Put in the Time
Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that 10,000 hours of focused practice is essential for building talent in your chosen field. Novelist Sue Grafton gives her thoughts on the importance of paying your dues as an aspiring writer.

5 Signs of Bad Writing: How to Recognize Your Poorly Written Work
I know, every work that flows out of your fingers is golden, and no signs of logic flaws are ever present. But, the rest of us usually need at least one round of self-editing to get our work publisher-ready. Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen shares some of the keys to look for when self-editing.

A Lovely Little Book about Claiming the Physical and Emotional Space You Need to Write
Christina Katz reviews A Writer’s Space by Eric Maisel. It sounds like a good resource.

Fiction

How to Write a Book Series
Do you dream of writing a successful series that keeps readers coming back for more and more adventures of your characters? These tips can help you keep your series on track.

Free Critique Per Week: Avoid Cliche Scenes
A nice critique that might help you as you outline, draft, and edit your work.

Freelancing

When to Send the Quote. When to Follow Up.
Over at the Wealthy Freelancer, Steve Slaunwhite suggests that you respond to a request for a quote the same day. It shows you’re interested in the job, and it allows you to continue the conversation with the potential client while he/she is still excited about the project.

Fair Use Legal Lingo You Can Understand
Some nice guidelines for fair use in journalistic works. I also wrote a guide on fair use for educators a few years back that you might find useful.

4 Smart Tips for Studying a Magazine
Use this advice next time you are preparing to pitch a magazine. It will save you a lot of time while giving you the information you need.

Platform

Podcasting for Authors
So, you’re on Facebook and Twitter. You blog and have a good website. What else can you do to increase awareness of you and your brand? Try podcasting.

Are You a Literary Force to Be Recognized?
A little platform tough love from Christina Katz. She includes some examples of writers who get it and who are working on getting it. How can you adapt their processes to your own platform?

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 14

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Prospering in the Gig Economy: Simple Habits for Writers That Pay Off Quickly
Christina Katz has a quick list of tasks you can do on a regular basis to help yourself keep on task, allocate your resources effectively, and become more properous.

All about Sequels
How many times have you read the nth book in a series and thought, “I am not having fun reading this, but I have to finish the series. I’ve already invested so much time into this world and these characters.” Agent Nathan Bransford discusses the disease acute sequelitis, in which an author can no longer work on new stories and new worlds because they are too tied to the series they have already invested in. Of course, when a writer loses passion and focus, the readers lose out.

Jamie Novak on Organization
Professional organizer Jamie Novak gives tips for turning clutter into cash–and what writer doesn’t need an influx of extra cash every now and then?

How Are Multiple Book Deal Advances Divided Up?
Moonrat shares the typical details of payment on a multiple book contract.

Craft

Where Do You Write?
Julie Jordan poses an interesting question: Where do you write? I do a lot of my writing in the living room or in my office downstairs. The living room is easy and ensures that everything I need is in close reach. The office is great for uninterrupted stretches of writing. I find that the easiest cure for writer’s block is shifting your environment, so when the living room isn’t working, I head down to the office, and vice versa.

Selecting the Tense for Your Story
In your initial drafts, just write the story. Don’t worry about past, present, pluperfect, or anything else. But, when you are editing that draft, think about what tense is appropriate, then use the guidelines here to make sure it is consistent throughout.

Fiction

The Idea Tree
Where do your ideas come from? Personally, I have found that having ideas isn’t the problem–shutting off the flow of ideas once I enter into idea-generation mode is!

No Checklists Here!
Lauren Dane reminds us of the importance of treating each story as its own beast. Not all stories need to hit all genre tropes.

Freelancing

Seven Reasons Not to Meet with Prospective Clients
Who would have thought of advising a freelancer not to meet with clients and potential clients? This post does that, with solid logic behind the reasons. If you can’t wow potential clients in person, but you can over the phone or on email, do what works for you.

Types of Companies That Need Freelance Writers
Are you looking for new clients or looking to broaden your reach? This post at Freelance Writing Jobs could give you some ideas for new companies to approach.

Platform

Final Lessons Learned from One of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters
Dan Kennedy gives tips on how to apply tried-and-true marketing techniques to online media. This is part three in a series. Read parts one and two, if you missed them.

Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For?
Joel Friedlander gives a nice pep talk on how easy it can be to begin building your platform–and how important it is.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 14

Whew. This has been a week of technology troubles for me, but my laptop is on the mend. So, I’m back with some of the great writing posts from around the blogosphere. (It pains me to use such a cliched word, but I don’t know of any word to describe the internet or the blog space that isn’t cliched.)

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Feminist Critique of Romance: UR Doin It Wrong
Racy Romance Reviews takes a look at feminist thought on romance novels. In essence, the idea that romance novels are inherently anti-feminist is based on outdated books and a lack of primary research. This is an interesting post that not only provides insight into the current state of the romance genre but also gives a good example of how to do research.

Your Turn: What Prosperity Means to Four Writers
Christina Katz opens her forum up to writers to discuss their personal definitions of prosperity. Carol Alexander, Lydia Sharp, Julie Achterhoff, and Dionne Obesso give their ideas of a prosperous writing life. This was a timely post for me, as I have been examining my own ideas of prosperity and how to bring it into my life. What does prosperity mean to you?

How to Find an Agent for Your Nonfiction Book
I spend a lot of time here focusing on fiction, even though my published work has been mainly nonfiction. Here is some advice for those of us looking to land an agent to represent our nonfiction work.

Musicblogocide 2010 and eBooks
Google unceremoniously removed many music blogs for copyright violations. Galleycat gives some of the background and begins to ask the question of how Google’s decision to remove these blogs will affect the future of blogs that focus on ebooks and vooks.

Long Time No See by Deborah Schneider
Deborah Schneider gives an interesting look into the work (and time) it took for her to publish her first book. How long will you stick it out before you give up the writing game?

When Do You Give Up?
Another look at this tough question from agent Kate Shafer Testerman.

How the iPad Might Bring Us Back to Our Print Roots
Giovanni Calabro looks at how the book and magazine publishing components of the iPad might breathe new life into the publishing industry.

Craft

Easy Editing Tips
L.J. Sellers gives some good ideas to get you started on self-editing your work.

Clear-Cut Rules for Hyphens
Are you a hyphen pro? If not, here is a post that will teach you what you need to know.

Fiction

How Setting Influences Your Characters
C. Patrick Shulz gives tips to use your setting to develop your characters into the multi-dimensional, complex individuals they need to be.

How to Write about a Real Location when You Haven’t Been There
Want to include an authentic picture of a real-life setting in your work? Joanna Penn can help.

Freelancing

When Bells Ring Almost Too Much, It’s Time to Triage
How do you handle it when you have too much work and/or too much personal life? Anne Wayman suggests you take a triage approach to your multiple priorities so that each gets the attention it needs at the time it needs.

Cut This Story
Web writers have one thing right for our current time and attention span: they know how to write short, scannable text that can be easily digested by readers. Print journalists can learn lessons from their web-writing counterparts and create stories that are more useful to readers. Michael Kinsley gives specific examples to help you.

Platform

You Tell Me: Can Authors Balance Publicity and Privacy in the Internet Era?
Agent Nathan Bransford asks an interesting question in this post. Will we ever have another J.D. Salinger, or has the Internet and the new requirements that authors do a large portion of their own marketing removed the possibility of being “just an author”?

Surprise! Branding Is Not Always about Your Book
Carolyn Howard-Johnson gives some tips on branding for authors.

How to Leverage Twitter When You Have Little Time
Saving time on Twitter gives us more time for writing, right?

Tips for Getting Visitors to Your Web Site
Want more potential readers to visit your web site? Here are four tips that might help.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition