Back when I started thinking of self-publishing, one of the first things I researched was cover artists. In my usual over-thinking/over-analyzing way, I uber-researched the cover artist landscape to track down cover artists and design trends. And I figured some of what I learned might be helpful to others.
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A common suggestion for how to attract readers is “offer a freebie.” However, there are risks to that strategy that we should be aware of before we can make an informed decision.
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For many writers, the point of writing is to connect with others through our words. Because of that desire, it’s hard to ignore feedback, and during editing, we don’t want to ignore suggestions. But what about after we publish? Should we read reviews of our published work?
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We often have too much to do and not enough time, so it’s normal to need help sometimes. Yet many of us struggle with asking for help. We might find it difficult to trust someone else, might not want to be a burden, or might feel like a failure for not being able to do it all. But we all will need help occasionally–like with guest posts. *smile*
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In writing, it’s difficult to balance “not enough” and “too much.” Not enough flaws can make our characters flat, and too many flaws can make our characters unlikable. Some genres can get away with unlikable characters, but for those stories that can’t, here are 3 1/2 tips to fix the problem.
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An interesting conversation grew out of Misti Wolanski’s guest post earlier this week. She mentioned that sometimes readers enjoy finding typos. Let’s take a closer look at what that means for readers and for us as authors? Should we leave typos in our work? What say you…
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My Elements of a Scene Checklist helps us identify whether a scene is truly necessary and contributing to our story by making sure it fulfills a story purpose. The same judgment criteria can apply to subplots as well. Let’s take a look at how can we make sure our tangents and subplots are adding to the story and not acting as a distraction.
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I think it’s safe to say that we often doubt ourselves as authors. If we’re not careful, that self-doubt can affect our business decisions. Sometimes we even reject ourselves to prevent rejection from others.
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If we write genre fiction, we might bemoan the lack of respect, but the same lack of respect occurs at the reader level too. Readers of science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, young adult, and romance have also been looked down on. Many outsiders have attempted to make readers ashamed of their reading choices by judging by subjective measures.
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Even though I don’t want my blog to turn into “all self-publishing tips all the time,” I also want to share my indie publishing insights and advice. My friend Janice Hardy came up with the perfect solution: joining the Indie Author Series at Fiction University, where I’m writing a series digging into some of our options for indie publishing.
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