Picking Editors: What Kind Do We Need?
What type of editors are most important for our success? Let’s take a closer look at the types of editing and when we might (or might not) need that type of editing.
Pin ItAsk Jami: Can We Use Beat Sheets with Multiple POVs?
Stories with multiple major characters—with their own point-of-view (POV) scenes—can make story structure complicated. Do we have to make beat sheets for each character? As a romance author, I write with multiple POVs all the time, so let’s see if we can figure out how to make beat sheets work in those situations.
Pin ItSelf-Publishing: Prioritizing Fast, Cheap, and Good
All writers, especially those who self-publish, have to decide: Are we writing and publishing just for ourselves? Or to get customers (readers)? Depending on our answers, we can prioritize “fast, cheap, or good.”
Pin ItHow to Be a Better Hooker (in Writing!) — Guest: Mary Buckham
One of the ways we create compelling writing is by creating a need within our readers to keep turning pages. So a common piece of advice is to create hooks—phrases, sentences, ideas, questions, etc.—to fuel that need within readers. Today, Mary Buckham’s here to touch on the 9 types of hooks and to answer frequent questions about hooks.
Pin ItMarketing 101: Creating a Strategy — Guest: Jennifer Fusco
Whether we want to push our publishers to live up to their marketing promises, hire a marketing team, or do all of our promotion on our own, the best way to make sure things work out the way we want is to be informed. To help educate us, Jennifer Fusco, author and marketing expert, gives a rundown on the basic marketing strategies.
Pin ItShould We Only “Write What We Know”? — Guest: S.P. Sipal
One truism in writing that’s often repeated is “write what you know.” But that advice can be harmful—at least for fiction writing. I much prefer the advice: Write what you want to learn about. Being open to learning new things for our writing can enrich our lives—and be fun!
Pin ItUsing Examples to Learn Beat Sheets
One technique for drafting or editing our stories into shape is using beat sheets, but it can be tricky to understand how to use them. Here’s a round-up beat sheet and story structure resources that might help us understand beat sheets.
Pin ItHow to Punch Up a Blurb or Query — Guest: Julie Glover
No matter how we publish, we have to come up with a great book description. Queries and blurbs have always been my weak point, so I asked my editors at each stage of the editing process for help. Julie Glover’s here today with tips for how to go from good to great.
Pin ItThe Perils of a “Dead” Genre
It’s been almost a week since my release of Unintended Guardian, and I’ve been getting lots of questions about how I made my decisions for what to do with my books. Let’s start at the beginning: How did I decide on my publishing path? For that, we have to go back to when I first started on my writing career path.
Pin ItWhat Scares You about Writing or Publishing?
Many large, life-changing events can scare us—even terrify us. We might think, “It’s a good thing I didn’t know how hard it would be, or I might not have done it.” Sometimes writing or publishing can be terrifying, yet we have to move past our fears.
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