Jen's Writing Journey

Today, the roundup is late and short. The motherboard on my HP laptop died seven days after my warranty is up. So far, HP has not been particularly interested in helping me out with this problem, unless I pony up pretty much the cost of a replacement laptop for them to fix mine. I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to hear from one of the Quality Case Managers to discuss the issue further. But I digress from the real reason you are here. Let the links begin.

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Expectations of a Disgruntled Reader
With the number of books being published and the scarce resources of the average reader, we writers had best keep the readers’ needs at the forefront. Katie shares some reactions to recent books that could be instructive as we craft our own works.

Letters from the Query Wars
A set of query do’s this week.

Status Updates
More query do’s, this time focused on the request for an update on the status of your query.

Craft

I Am My Own Boss
Christi Craig discusses the things that keep her personally accountable, even though she is not writing under contract. What keeps you writing?

The Organized Writing Process Resource Post
Looking for tools to help you work through your writing process? Look no further, as Jessie Haynes provides the steps and some tools to help you.

Freelancing

Is the Business of Freelance Writing Too Bitter and Twisted?
This is a nice piece that addresses the grumbling of we writers who don’t like seeing the value of writing decline in the Internet world. It provides strategies for building a career.

5 Ways You Can Improve Cash Flow with Your Invoices
Freelancer Thursday Bram shares good tips on ensuring that your invoices are processed and paid in a timely manner.

Platform

Learning about Promotion
Tricia Schneider shares some good resources to help you promote yourself and your writing.

How Magazines Use Social Media to Boost Pass-aLong, Build Voice
PBS hosts this discussion of the ways magazines are making social media work for them. How can you adapt their methods to build your writing business?

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

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

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.

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

The Prosperous Writer E-Zine is Rocking It
New year, new methods. Platform guru Christina Katz has streamlined her online life and created a new electronic newsletter and blog to help her fellow writers. Add christinakatz.com to your blog reader, then visit the site to sign up for the electronic newsletter.

Literary Agents Get Personal on Agent’s Day Thread
Galley Cat talks a little about the #agentsday posts on Twitter.

Gail Carriger’s Query Letter
Agent Kristin shares the original query letter Gail Carriger submitted for her book Soulless, as well as her pitch to editors. What do you think about it? What lessons can you learn for your own queries?

A Writer’s Earnings
Writer Elle Scott discusses the idea that writer’s earn tons of money. She links to some specific author’s who have publicly reported their earnings.

Has Anyone Seen My Shotgun?
Moonrat shares a discussion about titles between an author, an editor, and a publisher. It does a good job of illuminating the relationship among all three.

Craft

Lost in Translation
Over at Pop Culture Divas, writer Morgan Karpiel shares some grocery and personal care items from Poland that U.S. consumers might find a little offputting. As we work on our stories, it is important for us to ensure that we lose as little in translation as possible, making sure the context works for the majority of our potential readers.

Tell Not Show
Elspeth Potter visits Victoria Janssen’s blog to discuss when you do need to “tell” instead of “show.” She also gives some ways to do that without being a boring exposition fairy.

Fiction

Of Avatars and Empathy
Kimberly Davis discusses the story-telling lessons to be learned form the movie Avatar.

Ask Daphne about Mary Sue
Have you heard a character described as a “Mary Sue” but aren’t quite sure what that means? Kate Schafer Testerman provides a good description.

Freelancing

Stop Making Excuses, Start Making Changes
Long-time freelancer Jennifer Mattern gives some advice on ramping up your freelancing business. It’s a timely post, as we are all looking toward the new year and what it will offer us.

What to Do when the Earth Shakes
Writer Sue Lick shows how you can use national and international stories to generate localized story ideas you can sell.

The Brand-New Work-at-Home Parent, or What the Heck Was I Thinking?
In another installment from All Freelance Writing, Rebecca Garland dispels some of the myths about how easy it is to juggle work and family commitments.

Freelance Writing: The Lazy Need Not Apply
Deb Ng shares the habits and aptitudes that can make a successful freelance writer.

Platform

So You’re Going to Be an Author: Three Book Publicity Bibles to Read ASAP
As part of her new Prosperous Writer persona, Christina Katz gives her three favorite platform-building and book publicity books. Give them a look.

The Key to Marketing Your Book: Time Well Spent
Agent Nathan Bransford gives some great tips for using your book marketing time wisely.

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

Digital ARCs Make Progress
Novelist L.J. Sellers looks at the move toward digital review copies. How will that affect writers.

Backlist Title Dilemma
How should authors deal with their less than stellar backlist releases? Shrug and hope their loyal readers see the progress they have made? Remove all poorly written pieces from circulation?

Seth’s Promotion
Bob Lefsetz distills Seth Godin’s book promotion wisdom into an instructive post.

Agents for Multiple Genres
Agent Jessica Faust responds to a blog reader question about whether a writer needs multiple agents for books in multiple genres: Don’t get ahead of yourself, and focus on one book at a time.

Gender Issues
The founders of Men with Pens admitted to being slightly less than masculine this week. Here are two interesting posts that share their different sides of the story.

• From a Man with a Pen to a Lady with a Laptop
• Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants

It is obvious that these two have some bad blood between them, and the back and forth is not that interesting. But, the exploration of gender and pay issues is fascinating. Does gender still matter? Or will good work win out no matter what?

Craft

5 Quick Tips for Clear, Effective Writing
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen provides good tips for writing and editing to create better prose.

7 Tips for Dealing with Distractions
Anne Wayman’s post is a nice follow-up to the article I included in last week’s roundup about technology tools to keep you focused. Sometimes, you need to make yourself focus rather than depend on emulation tools on your computer.

Portrait of a Multi-tasking Mind
I’m a multi-tasker from way back, and I know that it has had a negative effect on some of my work in the past. I have been trying to be more mindful and focus on one task at a time. This article gives me more impetus to keep that up.

Warrior Revisions Revisited
Jeff Posey shares the lessons he learned while editing the work he created during NaNoWriMo. How can we all apply these lessons to our own writing?

Fiction

It’s All in the Details
Elspeth Potter visit Victoria Janssen’s blog to talk about research and the level of details necessary to write a believable novel.

Can You Use Dialogue to Spark Your Stories?
What can you do if you’re feeling blocked? Robyn Campbell suggests listening to what people around you say and then letting your mind wander down dark and twisty paths of inspiration based on their words.

Conflict in Every Line
Author Camy Tang guests over at Seekerville, sharing tips for achieving the goal of conflict/tension in every sentence.

Freelancing

Magazines Get Ready for Tablets
Finally, old school publishers are learning that they need to adapt to the new technologies sooner rather than later. A few magazines are releasing iPhone versions, and more are planning for the future of tablets (maybe even that rumored Apple iTablet). How will that affect the work that we do as freelancers? We will need to keep in close contact with our editors to find out what they need, and we will have to keep reading these electronic magazines to see how story structure is changing.

5 Best Article Writing Posts
Freelance Writing Jobs posted a top 5 list that should provide some great ideas to we freelancers.

Platform

Promoting Your Book with Twitter
This week’s Writer’s Weekly included a nice marketing piece by Steff Green. She offers some great tips and warns against some of the obnoxious behaviors that make you lose followers faster than Typhoid Mary.

8 Tips on Creating an Army of People to Market Your Book
Tony Eldridge gives some great marketing tips in this post. He echoes some of the tips I heard from Caroline Miller’s speech at the Willamette Writers November meeting–sometimes you need to call in a little help from your friends/colleagues.

Free Selling Your Novel PDF
Bob Mayer has links to some great free downloads to help you better sell your work.

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

Should Publishers Delay E-book Releases?
This was big story this week, as publishers reported that they would try to save paper publishing by delaying important e-book releases. Agent Nathan Bransford explains the flaws in the logic and looks at the issue from the reader’s perspective.

Digital ARCs Make Progress
Novelist L.J. Sellers looks at the move toward digital review copies. How will that affect writers.

Backlist Title Dilemma
How should authors deal with their less than stellar backlist releases? Shrug and hope their loyal readers see the progress they have made? Remove all poorly written pieces from circulation?

Seth’s Promotion
Bob Lefsetz distills Seth Godin’s book promotion wisdom into an instructive post.

Craft

How to Turn Off the Internet While Writing on Your Computer
Have you struggled with the lure of Twitter, Facebook, and Google while you write? Other than turning off the wireless card or unplugging the Ethernet cable, how do you get down to writing rather than surfing? This post points you to some technology solutions that help you keep your focus.

Tips for Self-Editing Burnout
Editor Kathryn Craft provides solid advice to get you through your self-editing projects.

Fiction

The Written Word: Mining for Ideas
John Roundtree helps you mine your life for ideas.

Time, Dimension, Backstory, and Keeping Your Story Short
Kimberly Davis gives great advice to help you create fully developed characters without bogging the story down with backstory.

Freelancing

Why I Canceled My Subscription
Freelance writer Sue Lick canceled her newspaper subscription because it no longer meets her needs. She turns that small act into a lesson for writers in keeping audience needs at the forefront.

How to Write an Elevator Pitch for your Freelance Writing Business
Do you effectively sell your services? If not, this no-nonsense post can help you create an effective and brief sales pitch to use with potential clients.

Platform

Nine Things to Clarify about Your Platform (Part 2)
Platform master Christina Katz closes her short series on pulling together an effective platform. Read part 1 here, if you missed it.

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

What Can I Expect of My Agent?
Moonrat posts a nice description of what you can expect in your relationship with your agent. Read this post, then visit agent Kate Schafer Testerman’s blog for a follow-up and expansion on the ideas from an agent’s point of view.

Publishing Your Book: Is It Worth It? (Or, the Costs of Publishing)
Rebecca Emrich looks at the financial and emotional costs of publishing. We all pursue that goal with such determination, but it has some non-monetary costs that we don’t always anticipate.

Craft

How to Respond to a Manuscript Critique/Editorial Letter
Agent Nathan Bransford moves into the craft section this week as he gives solid tips to help you deal with feedback and criticism of your work. Remember that no matter how much you love your story or characters, you must also take a detached perspective and look at your work without emotion in the shoes of your ideal reader.

Hitchcock, The Birds, and Me
Writer Joanna D’Angelo discusses how a skilled storyteller can manipulate the audience into empathizing with even the least sympathetic character. How can you apply Hitchcock’s techniques to your own work?

What We Learn from Writing
Agent Rachelle Gardner opened up her blog to her writer followers. She asked what they had learned and experienced during NaNoWriMo. See what they said, then let me know if you agreed or if your experiences differed.

Tips to Maximize Research
Tricia Goyer gives some great tips to help you make the most of your research time. The more efficient your research time is, the more time you have for the actual writing, right?

Fiction

Interview with John Olson
Randy Ingermanson discusses the concept of “writing in the shadows” with John Olson. Olson provides some great advice that I know will help my fiction. How can you apply his lessons to your own projects?

Freelancing

Tough Mommies Work at Home
Do you dream of an easy life of working at home as a freelance writer? According to this post, easy may never be part of your vocabulary.

10 Ways Twitter Helps Me to Become a Better Freelance Writer
Is your social media a time waster or a skill builder? Deb Ng has some ideas to help you ensure that you build skills and your client base while you work online.

Platform

Upcoming Classes
Platform master Christina Katz is offering some courses that could help you build your writing business in the coming year.

Creative Ways to Use Your Email Signature
Do you build your platform constantly? If so, you probably already use your email signature to build new business or market your work. If not, Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen has some ideas to help you leverage that tool.

Related Posts:

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

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing

The Business of Writing

Firsts
What are your goals for your writing career? Aprilynne Pike discusses her goals, other possible goals as a writer, and the ways we can achieve these goals.

Choosing Your Genre
Agent Jessica Faust covers the issue of specializing in a genre. If you have ideas that span genres, how do you choose which to focus on? Faust suggests looking at your ideas and assessing which is strongest and which you can do your best work on.

This Rant Brought to You by the Letter Q for Query
Follow the submission guidelines for your chosen editor or agent. And use your query to discuss the work you are submitting and the important publishing credentials you bring to the table. Don’t criticize the guidelines or the processes. If you do these things, you’ll be one step ahead of the annoying people who don’t follow the rules.

Building a Writing Career
How badly do you want to be a writer? What will you do when you are hit with the notion that every word you’ve ever written stinks to high heaven? Rather than packing it in, Robyn decided to rededicated herself to her career.

Independents Plan Events for National Bookstore Day
Publishers Weekly pulled together a national celebration of bookstores as chains force independents out of business and Amazon forces all bricks and mortar stores into obsolesence.

Craft

Louisa Edwards: Guest Post
Novelist Louisa Edwards visits Victoria Janssen’s blog to discuss the importance of research and passion for your topic. If you don’t love your topic, how can you expect your readers to?

Writer Question: How Do I Cut Text from My Novel and Not Lose My Soul
Can you kill your darlings? No matter how hard it is, to be successful, you will probably have to cut some of your favorite lines, plots, and characters out of your work. Moonrat discusses the issues to keep in mind when you are confronted with the decision of what to cut and what to keep.

Fiction

Some Deep Point of View Tips
Novelist Camy Tang guests at The Seekers with specific examples of language and description that enliven your writing and put the reader there as a participant, not a viewer.

Creating a Plot
Taylor, over at Men with Pens, shares some great tips on creating a compelling plot.

Freelancing

The Great Debate: Flat Rates versus Hourly Rates
How do you structure your rates for freelance work? Buy the word? the hour? the project? Susan Johnson goes over the different things you need to keep in mind when you set your rates.

Watch for Signs of Trouble
Freelancer Sue Lick provides some warning signs that one of your regular clients might be in financial trouble. With the current economic situation, we will all have to protect ourselves in case our clients are unable to pay or on their way out of business.

Related Posts:

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

I missed my Wednesday post because I was down for the count with the regular-old flu.

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

The Business of Writing

Special Video Interview Series with Chris Anderson
Jeff Rivera got an exclusive video interview from Chris Anderson, proponent of the freemium model of book sales. He discusses marketing, sales, and the like.

• Part 1
• Part 2: Turning Exposure into Book Sales
• Part 3: What Does NOT Work in Book Marketing
• Part 4: How Novelists Can Sell More Books

Gender Matters
Novelist L.J. Sellers explores gender preferences among readers. Do you prefer male or female writers? Does genre affect your genre preferences?

Writer Inspiration: Jessa Slade
Do you have what it takes to make the transition from writer to author? As newly published urban fantasy author Jessa Slade tells us, it may not be as easy as we think. Turns out getting that first contract is only one hurdle you need to leap on your journey. Slade gives an inspirational and authentic look at her own journey.

This Week in Publishing
Agent Nathan Bransford does a nice job synthesizing all of the craziness with new e-readers, eviscerated book prices, and doom and gloom predictions. Do you think these are the end times for the novel? Or are we just transitioning into something new?

The Dreaded “R” Word
Over at Pop Culture Divas, Kelly Boyce shares her thoughts on rejection. She closes with some of the famous (and so, so wrong) rejections from literary history. Print this one out and keep it in your inspiration file.

Deadlines
Love them or hate them, deadlines are our reality. Agent Jessica Faust gives some good tips for ensuring that the deadlines you agree to will actually work for you.

In Defense of Print
J.A. Konrath looks at the arguments for and against e-books.

Craft

So Who Else Is Doing NaNo?
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? (This abbreviation always reminds me of what I would note in my unicorn diary if I missed a day of writing: Sorry. ForgTWri. Yes, I was 8 at the time.) Moonrat has poll about what you think you will get from the NaNoWriMo process. I see the process as similar to what you get from following the Book in a Month process: great experience writing a lot of words in a short amount of time, but probably not a salable novel. You’ll probably end with a really nice first draft that you can polish into a potentially salable novel.

Write What You Can Make up Entirely?
Novelist Rachel Vincent discusses the perils of writing realistic emotions/experiences that you haven’t lived. Do you prefer to ground yourself in realism, even when it involves experiences you have never and will never have? Or do you prefer stuff that is so fantastical that you can just make it all up?

Fiction

Ask Daphne! About My Query XXVIII
Agent Kate Schafer Testerman presents a sample query and her reactions and advice. What lesson did you learn from this post that you will use in your next query letter?

Avoiding On-the-Nose Writing
Author Mary Jo Rhodes discusses the perils of stereotypical characters and plots with specific examples of the cliched and the unexpected.

Freelancing

Free Webcast: How to Create a Freelance Writing Career
Mediabistro is offering a free webcast on freelancing. Sign up here.

20 Ways for Freelance Writers to Save Money
We writers are all lolling about eating bonbons and jetting off to Rome on a moment’s notice after we put in our half our of daily writing, right? Yeah. That is a nice dream. If you’re worried about making ends meet, Deb Ng has a roundup of money-saving tips for freelancers.

The Freelance Multiple Personality Disorder
Are freelancers just crazy people who have found a way to earn a living? Michelle Rafter looks at a typical work day and the myriad personalities she gos through.

Interview with Author Sara Morgan, “No Limits”
Have you read No Limits: How I Escaped the Clutches of Corporate America to Live the Self-Employed Life of My Dreams? If not, based on this interview, it sounds as if you should. Kristine Meldrum Denholm asks great questions, and Morgan gives great answers. Morgan serves as an example of what you can expect as a writer and what you should do to prepare yourself for the work involved in being an author.

Platform

Did You Write a Blog? The Times and Perils of Blogging
Rebecca Emrich discusses the issues you may encounter when blogging. So many bloggers start off great and then taper off. Did you have a blog? Did you keep it up? What did you struggle with? What would have made your blog seem successful and self-sustaining?

Death of the Book Review
Adam Penenberg discusses the ever-lessening role of book reviews in book sales. Do you read reviews? Do you have a plan for building buzz that doesn’t include book reviews?

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

Before You Sign That Publishing Contract
Diane Craver guests at Writers Weekly to remind us to take time to read our publisher contracts, assess the points, and decide whether the contract is really right before we sign.

It Takes All Kinds
Agent Rachelle Gardner tackles the demon of “if that book could get published, why can’t mine?” from an agent’s perspective. It is nice to know that it’s not just writers who have those thoughts, and it is nice to have an example of how to become more shall we say charitable in our thinking.

Readers Have Rights, Too
Author Courtney Milan discusses the ability to share digital books. Spurred by the New York Times article on e-book adoption, Milan looks at the level of sharing allowed with Kindle books and how that type of book sharing relates to piracy. (Hint: They are no relation.) Also read this related post on Emily Bryan’s blog.

15 Twitter Users Shaping the Future of Publishing
Here is a nice list of publishing people to follow on Twitter.

An Inspirational Story of Publishing Success: J.C. Hutchinson, Thriller Novelist
Have you heard of J.C. Hutchinson? He is one of the self-publishing to traditional publishing success stories. After countless rejections, rather than giving up, he released his book series as a podcast. Now, his books a re being released in print format. Would you take this route? Or would you move on to another story?

D Is for Digitize
Here is a compilation of information from the D Is for Digitize conference. You’ll find some interesting stuff, including video from the presentations.

Agents and the  Trust Factor
Maria Schneider discusses the different levels of the agent-author relationship and the importance of trustworthiness.

Craft

Indecision
What tool do you use for your writing? I have tried yWriter, but I keep going back to Word. DarcKnyt gives a nice roundup up the various writing-specfic software tools.

The 5W’s of Motivation
Rachel Zurakowski asks some guiding questions we can all use to keep our motivation up when we’re tired, blocked, or distracted.

Which Tense Is Best?
Agent Jessica Faust shares her thoughts on tense in writing. Is past truly the be all-end all?

Cake or Death for Writers
Mary Danielson has committed to a lot for the month of November. She has three Golden Heart entries, two of which are in need of serious polishing. But, she has a plan and a set of strategies for ensuring that she actually achieves her goals.

Fiction

Dispelling Popular Fallacy
Want a quick and dirty outline to follow for your next synopsis? Author Ann Aguirre has that.

First Chapter Misadventures
Author Rachel Vincent describes the novel openings that she later re-wrote. It is always nice to know that we aren’t the only ones who get it wrong on the first try. If you’ve read her books, you can compare her original versions to the final versions, which might be a nice exercise to help you get your first chapter into shape.

Freelancing

20 Things You Can Do today to Market Your Freelance Writing Services
Jennifer Mattern provides some great marketing tips that can help you get that next client.

Is Anyone Really Listening? Social Media Marketing
Ever wonder why you bother with blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook? Thursday Bram offers ideas and insight that will help you ensure that your social media isn’t time wasted.

Are You a Snotty Artist?
James, at Men with Pens, responds to the ever-present debate over freelance rates. He takes issue with the people who say that those who work for and those who offer low rates are devaluing the work we all do. It is tough. We all need to make a living, and I am a firm believer in refusing to work for rates that won’t allow me to do so. But I also accept that people do what they need to do to get buy. If a content mill is providing the pay and experience you need, who am I to judge you? If your budget wouldn’t allow you to hire me, should I call you out as an evil carpetbagger? Where do you fall on the issue?

Platform

The First 5 (Simple) Steps for Growing Readership on Your Blog
A lot of writers blog, but not all of us are effectively using our blogs to build our platform. Jane Friedman gives some great introductory tips to help you bring more readers in so they can find out just how much you have to offer.

Throwing the Baby Out: Or Why Social Networking Is Important and How to Keep It from Taking over Your Life
Writer Eliza discusses the right way to use social networking tools to build your online community. She also provides some great time management tips to keep from wasting an entire weekend tweeting. (Don’t think it can be done? It can. Believe me.)

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, September 11
• Writing Roundup, September 4
• Writing Roundup, August 28
• Writing Roundup, Aug. 14
• Writing Roundup, July 31