The Business of Writing

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.

Craft

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.

Fiction

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.

Freelancing

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.

Platform

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.

The Business of Writing

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?

Craft

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.

Fiction

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?

Freelancing

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.

Platform

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.

The Business of Writing

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.

Craft

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.

Fiction

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.

Platform

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.

The Business of Writing

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.

Craft

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.

Fiction

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.

Freelancing

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.

Platform

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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?