Jami Gold

What Are You Looking for in an Agent?

May 17, 2012 Writing Stuff
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*Shh*  Be very, very quiet.  We’re hunting agents.  (Sorry, with that picture, I couldn’t resist the Bugs Bunny reference. *smile*) Many—if not most—writers want to find an agent at some point in their writing career.  Even in this age of self-publishing, writers still want agents to help them with foreign rights, career advice, access to tricky [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, contracts, editing, genre, Jami Gold, paranormal author, self-publishing, social media, traditional publishing

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Random Act of Kindness Blitz and a Giveaway!

May 15, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Did you see all the posts and tweets yesterday about the Random Acts of Kindness Blitz? (#RAOKBlitz on Twitter)  Two very generous authors, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, of The Bookshelf Muse blog wanted to kick off the release of their book, The Emotion Thesaurus, in a unique way. Just like how The Emotion Thesaurus helps [...]

Tagged as: blogging, book giveaway, dreams, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, paranormal author, Tech Guy, Thesis theme

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Are Ebooks Ever Done?

May 10, 2012 Random Musings
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In the world of traditional publishing, if errors make it through the editing process for a book, authors (and their readers) are stuck.  A lucky few authors are able to get egregious mistakes like wrong character names or missing paragraphs fixed in later print runs, but most of time, errors remain in the text forever. [...]

Tagged as: ebooks, Jami Gold, paranormal author, perfectionism, professionalism, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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Does Every Scene Need a Goal?

May 8, 2012 Writing Stuff
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I love when I make my readers think.  Even better is when they turn around and make me think even deeper about an issue.  *smile* Yesterday, K.J. Pugh blogged about my last post (where I talked about cliffhangers and hooks) and brought up the issue of sequels I briefly mentioned.  No, we’re not talking about book [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, cause and effect, Dwight Swain, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, page turning stories, paranormal author, scenes and sequels, tension

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Cliffhangers: Not Just for the End of a Book

May 3, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Pitches, queries, back cover copy, and full-length stories all have writing techniques in common.  For one thing, they all need a strong opening. We talk about that being a “hook,” something that grabs the reader and pulls them forward to the next line, paragraph, and page. A similar approach works within our stories too.  We might [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, page turning stories, paranormal author, tension, Terri Brisbin, workshops

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What’s the Hardest “First Step” You’ve Taken?

May 1, 2012 Random Musings
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As I write this post (late) Monday night, I just returned home after the regional writing conference, Desert Dreams.  I had a great time, met wonderful people, attended thought-provoking workshops, and pitched for the first time (and the second time and the third time). I think the pitches went well.  I got requests and I [...]

Tagged as: agents, conferences, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, paranormal author, pitching, Rachel Graves, risk, RWA, self-doubt

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Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy — Guest: Roz Morris

April 26, 2012 Writing Stuff
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I’m excited to share today’s guest post by author Roz Morris.  After ghostwriting many bestselling books, Roz recently self-published My Memories of a Future Life, her first novel under her own name. Roz’s decision to self-publish came about partly because this novel doesn’t fit into normal genre boxes.  However, even as a self-published author, she still [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, feedback, genre, guest blogs, Jami Gold, paranormal author, pitching, queries, Roz Morris, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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Why Does Feedback Hurt So Much?

April 24, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Several people I know are going through revisions right now based on feedback they received from beta readers, agents, or editors.  Every one of them is dealing with the “I suck” issue along with that. Yes, sometimes feedback can be a bit too mean or blunt, but that’s not the problem here.  No matter how [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, critique partners/groups, feedback, Jami Gold, paranormal author, perfectionism, risk, self-doubt

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What Does “Writing Is Subjective” Mean?

April 19, 2012 Writing Stuff
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If you’ve sent out queries, you’ve probably received rejections.  They usually say things along the line of: “This is just my opinion and others may feel differently.” “Just because I wasn’t drawn in doesn’t mean others won’t love it.” “Publishing is a subjective business and another agent would be better suited to your work.” We can’t fault those who [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, beta reader, branding, feedback, Jami Gold, listening to characters, muse, paranormal author, professionalism, queries

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What Stories *Won’t* You Write?

April 17, 2012 Writing Stuff
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In my last post, we talked about voice and how we tend to write the same types of characters, premises, and themes over and over.  That’s not a bad thing.  Those stories resonate with us as writers. Similarly, there are stories we would never write.  Stories might be so against our internal grain that if an idea along [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, genre, Jami Gold, muse, paranormal author, premise, romance novels, strong characters, theme

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