risk

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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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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Exploiting Our Brand: Is There a “Right” Way?

March 29, 2012 Random Musings
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Our brand is the impression others have of us.  So we all have a brand, whether we know it or not.  Hopefully, we’re building a brand that reflects who we really are, in a way that shows us at our best (however we each define “best”). Once we have a brand, we might wonder what [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, fan fiction, genre, Jami Gold, paranormal author, premise, risk, social media

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Is Taking the Hard Road a “Waste”?

March 15, 2012 Writing Stuff
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My post about the ethics of fan fiction went viral this week, spreading beyond even the Twilight fandom.  From a post on mediabistro/GalleyCat to mentions at Dear Author, Jezebel, The Paris Review, and AbsoluteWrite, people have been discussing ethics in regards to writing and the publishing industry. I don’t bring that up to brag but to [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, dreams, ethics, fan fiction, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, self-doubt

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Goodbye, Google Friend Connect–Now What?

February 28, 2012 Random Musings
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We’ve all seen the Google Friend Connect (GFC) widgets on websites and blogs we visit.  Some sites have asked us to join GFC to qualify for a contest or giveaway.  On our own blogs, we enjoy seeing the avatars of our readers (and the numbers of our “members” go up). However, Google is retiring GFC [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, mobile website, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, social media, Tech Guy, website

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Do You Call Yourself a Writer or an Author?

January 24, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Recently, the Awesome-Dipped-in-Glitter (TM) Kristen Lamb pointed out that “aspiring is for pansies.”  We are not aspiring writers. Aspiring: to have a plan, desire, or hope for something. Writer: a person who writes. If we put those together, that means an aspiring writer is a person who plans, desires, or hopes to write, but doesn’t actually [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, authors, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, self-doubt, self-publishing, website

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How Tightly Do You Control Your Blog?

January 12, 2012 Random Musings
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We’re in the middle of the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session with Entangled Publishing.  If you have a 10-60K word story with strong romantic elements, check out that post for details on how to pitch to six(!) editors. During the pitch session, I’ve had to lock down comments to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, website

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How to Keep Readers on Your Side

December 8, 2011 Writing Stuff
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We’re all being told that we need to have a platform, that we need to grow our platform, and that we need to use our platform.  Gah!  Does anyone else want to throttle the word “platform” after hearing it for the fifty-bajillionth time? The word diminishes the meaning of what a platform really is.  Our [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, blogging, branding, guest blogs, Harry Potter, Jami Gold, paranormal author, risk

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The Insanity Behind the Pressure to Have “Numbers”

October 20, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Confession:  I broke one of the unwritten rules of the Writer Code. I ranted.  In public.  On an agent’s blog. And yet I’m still here to tell to the tale.  In fact, the agent responded to my comment and then—in a show of fantastic grace—emailed me to make sure I didn’t take offense.  We ended [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, authors, blogging, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, Jami's rants, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, risk, self-publishing, social media, traditional publishing, Twitter

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How Do You Stretch Yourself?

September 13, 2011 Writing Stuff
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With any job or activity, if we want to get better, we have to stretch ourselves.  Athletes strive to move faster or stronger.  Musicians aim to complete a harder, more intricate piece of music.  And writers… How do writers stretch themselves? We can collect feedback on our writing from beta readers, contest judges, and critique [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, genre, grammar, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, muse, paranormal author, point-of-view, risk, story seed

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