The Business of Writing

Is Your “But” Too Big?
No, that’s not misspelled, and it’s not a piece on the relative lack of exercise of the typical writer. Agent Nathan Bransford gives a motivating speech on pushing through your personal obstacles.

Amazon Offers Higher Royalty for Self-Published Ebooks
Publishers Weekly describes the new deal form Amazon.

10 Commandments for the Agent Hunt
How do you find an agent? Author Emily Bryan has some tips to help you prepare for a relationship with an agent and to find the right one.

An Ebook Launch from the Inside
Freelancer and blogger Thursday Bram shares the background on her new ebook Discover Your New Job Online. If you’ve been thinking about getting into the ebook game, this is a must-read post.

Special Focus on Piracy

Book piracy was a huge topic this week. Here are a few different perspectives on the issue.

• Aargh! Pirates, Tess Gerritsen
• On Piracy, Nicole Peeler
• Author Daniel Alarcón Investigates the Lucrative World of Book Piracy in Peru, Jason Boog

Craft

Can You Measure Good Writing?
Kate Monahan discusses how we can measure progress in our writing.

Settings: A Cheating Trick
Marie-Claude Bourque shares a shortcut (a much more positive term than a cheat) to envisioning your settings. You could adapt it for any item you need to describe.

A Time to Rewrite
Agent Jessica Faust gives some advice to help you decide which feedback you should follow and when you should revise your manuscript.

Fiction

How to Make a Book Trailer
Author Myrlin A. Hermes guests at Nathan Bransford’s blog to share his tips for making your book trailer.

The “What Not to Do” Primer
Author Jaci Burton uses the TV show 24 as an example of how not to create and populate your stories.

Revising from a Critique
So you’ve gotten your feedback from your critique partner, critique group, or even from a manuscript doctor. Now what? Becky Levine shares her tips for tackling the revision in this guest post at Jennifer R. Hubbard’s blog.

Freelancing

Huffington Post’s Traffic More Than Doubles Year over Year
The Huffington Post now averages nearly 10 million unique visitors each day. But, they do not pay their freelancers. Is that level of exposure worth it? These posters on Media Bistro are against writing for free. What do you think?

Media Is Not Objective
In this interesting post on the BlogWorld blog, we are reminded of our own inherent biases. I spent a lot of my time in journalism school learning how to work around those biases so as to be as objective as humanly possible, or at least not to enter into stories completely blinded by my own initial biases. How do you deal with your own subjectivity?

A Safer Way to Launch a Freelance Business
In an early episode of Friends, Chandler and Joey advised Rachel to quit her job at the coffee house so she would get “the fear.” “The fear” would be her impetus to find a job in fashion, her dream field. There is a lot to be said for necessity and its ability to motivate even the laziest writer. Here, Ed Gandia gives advice to those who want to build a freelance career while they still have the security of a regular paycheck.

Platform

Link Building Tactics for Freelance Writers
Jennifer Mattern gives some great advice on increasing your online profile.

What You Need Before You Query
Agent Janet Reid has a table that shows what you need to put into place before you send out your query, whether you are focusing on fiction, non-fiction, or memoir. It’s an awesome resource!

How to Tweet Like Amanda F. Palmer
A nice guide for tweeting like a pro for those of us who don’t get Twitter or understand how to use it to build our platforms.