By Rose Atkinson-Carter
Written a nonfiction book? Let’s talk about how you’re going to market it to your target audience so that it comes to their attention, clearly shows what it’s going to help them accomplish, and finally persuades them to pick up a copy.
Bear in mind that I’m not considering academic texts, memoirs, and reference books for this post. They demand a different approach in terms of how they’re marketed. Let’s get cracking!
The human mind processes pictures faster than words, and since it’s the first thing people see when they come across your work, the book cover design can either make or break that vital first impression.
As it turns out, people do ‘judge books by their covers’ after all—which is exactly why you need to ensure you have a good one ahead of your release.
An eye-catching, well-designed book cover is not only a way to grab the attention of your audience and get your nonfiction book noticed, but also a powerful marketing tool in itself, as it does a lot of the talking for you.
A good cover uses design to convey genre and topic to capture your intended audience, as readers often gravitate towards familiar visual cues. Therefore, having a cover that aligns with the conventions in your genre and looks credible will help the right readers and reviewers notice and connect with your book.
If, on the other hand, your nonfiction title about the fall of the Roman Empire ends up in the hands of a reader or reviewer that specializes in romance fiction, you risk not getting the feedback and exposure you want—which can be detrimental to your marketing efforts.
Moreover, paying attention to the overall quality of your cover will help build your author brand and credibility, which is key in the world of nonfiction.
A professionally designed book cover increases your overall chances of attracting readers because it indicates that what’s on the inside is of the same quality as what’s on the outside.
Do a shoddy job with the cover and readers might suspect the same is true for your research or reliability.
Nonfiction books generally help solve a problem. This could include ‘how to be more productive,’ ‘how to have a successful side-hustle,’ or even a ‘guide to backyard gardening.’
Knowing the problem your book addresses will make it much easier to market—you’re essentially telling your readers why they should buy it! If you market your book with a clear positioning (a target reader and their unique problem), you’re saying you wrote it with them in mind.
This makes them feel seen and understood, increasing the likelihood that they will give your book a shot.
It is also very possible (and highly likely) that there are other books out there that are trying to solve the same problem. This is where having a unique positioning will help your book stand out.
Don’t just help people increase productivity, help students increase productivity, don’t just tell people that you’ll teach them mindfulness in general, but that you have narrowed it down to 5 essential steps.
While narrowing down on your niche as far as possible may seem counterintuitive, focusing on one type of reader and displaying your unique method of solving their problem will help explain what your book does differently and why readers should invest in it.
Another question you should ask yourself before you start marketing your book is “Why should people take your advice?” While this may sound harsh, you need to be prepared to give people a reason to listen to you.
Nonfiction books are mostly written by authoritative figures on the subject, as their authority almost serves as a social license to voice their opinions.
This credibility could be as a result of having attained a certain celebrity status, such as Gordon Ramsay’s cookbook, Quick and Delicious, or the outcome of being extremely qualified in your subject matter, as with Instagrammer biochemist Jessie Inchauspé’s book on balancing blood sugar, Glucose Revolution.
Needless to say, it helps if you’ve solved for yourself whatever problem your book is solving! If you don’t have any relevant credentials yet, you can always use your personal experiences to show that you know what you’re talking about.
For instance, Tommy Tomlinson’s book on weight loss, The Elephant in the Room, earned a lot of credibility owing to the fact that he’d gone through a drastic weight loss journey himself. If he could successfully lose the weight, the logic goes, he might just know a thing or two about the matter.
At the end of the day, people want a solution to their problem. Therefore, showing that you’re sufficiently qualified to solve it gives them a reason to trust you and listen to you.
Promoting your book is all about visibility. This is where building a loyal fanbase and having an ‘online presence’ can be a game-changer.
While this may be overwhelming, you can simply start off by picking a social media platform and regularly posting content on it. This could be Instagram, TikTok or even Twitter (wherever your target audience is) — but should at the very least include an author website.
Having a digital presence makes it easier for people to find your book and keep track of your future releases. It also builds credibility and shows that you’re knowledgeable about your subject matter.
This is especially important if you’re going down the self-publishing route since your book hasn’t received a stamp of approval from a literary agent or major publisher.
You can constantly plug your book into all your content pieces, and also put the sales link on your Instagram bio or as a pinned tweet on Twitter.
For example, Nicole LePera (@the.holistic.psychologist on Instagram) has a massive following and regularly posts psychology-related content. People often find her content first and then consequently discover that she has written books too.
So, every time her reel or content piece goes viral, it attracts attention to her book. In this way, your books and your content can feed off each other, making it a win-win situation.
Alternatively, you could also write pieces for magazines that cover your domain of expertise (e.g. Elle for fashion), and establish yourself as a respected voice in the industry.
I hope that the above tips will help you start marketing your non-fiction book (and yourself). Remember, it’s a long-term game so don’t be discouraged if your book sales don’t instantly skyrocket. Just stay the course, keep doing the right things, and most importantly — keep writing!
Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, where she helps advise authors on all things publishing, from ISBNs and query letters to copyright and literary agents. She’s previously written for First Editing, Chris the Story Reading Ape, The Darling Axe, and more. She lives in London.
]]>As many have said before me, the author platform is a difficult concept to define, yet, arguably the most important, next to writing.
An author’s platform is, at its core, your ability to sell your written work and reach others, either by means of who you are or your reach.
The platform is the plan. It is the method by which you intend to communicate with your readers and fellow industry professionals.
When constructing your author platform, know that reaching readers is important, but connecting with other writers, authors, agents, promoters, and editors is important as well.
Like many things, when it comes to the writing and publishing industry, building your author platform is obscure, often only becoming clear after having immersed yourself and trying and failing.
Building, or acting with intention, when it comes to your writer's platform should be thought of only in conjunction with how you view your writing brand/identity.
The writing platform is the space you intend to occupy, the stage you want to perform on, and the location you want your readers to go to. Your author platform is broad, including your readers and fellow writers as well as your work.
Your writing platform is not a place to blast advertisements and self-promotion. Often this can be the killing blow when it comes to our authenticity.
There is a time and place for self-promotion, but the focus—especially in the beginning—should not be exclusively on blasting your audience with links and sales.
Instead, try promoting yourself, your writing, and your brand.
First things first, you should have two things.
The reason why both of these are key and why I am advocating for both (not one or the other) is that the two of them will feed into one another.
Both can serve the same purpose but should act as a way to drive traffic, potential readers, and fans to one another. When people find your author site, they should be encouraged to follow you on your social(s), and vice-versa.
There are many ways you can continue to grow your platform. The below recommendations do not cover everything but can give you an idea of what has worked for me and other writers.
These are mostly suggestions for how you can utilize your author website and social media platform(s).
1. Distribute your work and talk about topics related to your work.
Keep in mind your target audience here and try to imagine what they may want to read, know, or talk about in addition to your writing.
2. Similarly, start conversations around your work via blog posts, articles, newsletters, social media posts, videos, or podcasts.
The aim here is to start a conversation and foster a community for people who are interested in what you write.
3. Be authentic with your engagements and replies.
Once people start joining your community, the objective is to give them authenticity. People are smart and will be able to tell if you are just using them for views/reads/purchases.
4. While occupying online spaces, you will likely interact and come in contact with other writers.
Partnering with your colleagues and influencers can be a great way to broaden visibility and work on unique projects.
5. Think of creative ways to engage with your audience.
There is plenty of room for you to carve your own path.
Once you’ve established yourself on one social media platform or another, your job is to engage.
Authenticity is important here, as is understanding the mechanics of whatever platform you’ve decided on.
I have tried a fair bit of them, finding the best community that suits my style of engagement on both Medium and Twitter.
Depending on your creative threshold and willingness to work cross-platform, there is so much opportunity to connect.
Your author platform is a snowball that wants to become a snowman. You will need to roll it and continue to roll it to make it into something useful to you and your audience. It is a gradual process that should be tended to.
A large following on social media isn’t necessarily an “author platform,” because remember, your platform is merely a measure of your reach and ability to distribute your work.
Having an authentic presence on social media platforms, a community, and a network, however, is.
I should also say that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to building an author platform. You should consider your goals, your target audience, and the scope of your project/work.
...is finding what works for you. If your website can bring people in via a newsletter or if your Twitter has consistent engagement, that is great. If it is helping you reach your goal, even better.
Part of the process of building your platform is seeing what works for others, and work works for people whose career is similar to what you aspire for.
Learn from those around you and treat your author platform as an investment, because, well, it is.
No one builds a successful author platform overnight and, as stated earlier, there is no one-size-fits-all.
The one thing that is, however, consistent across all those that have had success in establishing a presence online, is that they have been consistent with their given platform and that they have engaged authentically.
Find what works for you. Find what you’re comfortable with. And find what feels most natural.
No snowman started as a snowman. They took time, an accumulation of effort, and thought-out preparation.
]]>By author Claire Bentley, @cbentleywriter
We see it all the time: the advice that "you must set writing goals in order to be a successful writer!"
There are plenty of articles that delve into the reasons why we "should" set writing goals, and some of them go into detail about how to break a large goal (e.g. writing a novel) into smaller, manageable chunks.
These strategies are certainly useful, and it is worth exploring and trying out different goal-setting methods, especially early on in your writing journey.
As a writer and editor, and as someone who practically inhales writing craft books, podcasts and videos, I wanted to explore the ways in which different types of writing goals work for different types of writers.
This article explores four overall "types" of writer when it comes to setting writing-related goals. For each one I give tips, tricks and strategies to help writers...
a) recognise if they fall into that specific category, and
b) use that as a basis for deciding the most effective goal-setting strategies for them.
If you can, try to identify which category (if any) you fall into. Work out what type of writing goal best motivates you. You may know this instinctively. Experimenting with different strategies will help you work out which type of goal best motivates you, and which ones frustrate, stifle or bore you.
Worders are best motivated by writing goals based on word count.
You may be this type of writer if you:
If you’re a Worder, then you’re in luck. Traditional goal-based writing advice tends to revolve around identifying a word count target for your prospective novel and then breaking that down into word count ‘milestones’ for each day or each week.
And let’s not forget that NaNoWriMo, one of the best-known writing challenges in the world, has a "success" goal based on word count.
Things to watch out for:
Goal-setting tips if you’re a Worder:
Timers are best motivated by writing goals based on time spent writing.
You may be this type of writer if you:
These are the writers frantically typing words onto their phone with one hand while they wait for their doctor’s appointment, possibly while wrestling a screaming toddler with their other hand. They make use of any snippet of time they can get. Timers are the ones who have an advantage over other types if they have children or have otherwise busy lives.
Things to watch out for:
Goal-setting tips if you’re a Timer:
Taskers are best motivated by writing goals based on tasks completed.
You may be this type of writer if you:
I fall into this category! I also have young children and a very hectic life, so being a Tasker is not always helpful in my case! However, I still manage to get lots of writing done.
If you have a disability or chronic illness, then being a Tasker may actually be beneficial. E.g. doing larger chunks of work on your "good" days and allowing yourself to rest on "bad" days. Taskers are more likely to get lots of writing done in one go rather than spreading the work across several days.
Things to watch out for:
Goal-setting tips if you’re a Tasker:
Drifters are best motivated by not setting writing goals at all.
You may be this type of writer if you:
Many writers (myself included) rely heavily on writing schedules and tend to recommend others do the same. However, there seems to be a category of writers who are abandoning writing schedules altogether, deciding instead to write when they are in the mood, rather than removing the enjoyment from it by forcing themselves to write when they don’t want to. A Drifter is likely to work in less frequent but longer writing sessions.
Things to watch out for:
Goal-setting tips if you’re a Drifter:
I have identified four general types of writers when it comes to setting effective writing goals.
Worders gain the greatest motivation from word count goals. Timers gain the greatest motivation from time-based goals and fit writing in wherever they can. Taskers are motivated by goals based on completion of discrete tasks. Finally, Drifters (for want of a better term!) gain the greatest motivation from not relying on writing goals, and instead writing whenever the mood strikes them.
There may be more types that I haven’t come across yet.
None of these types are better than another. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, knowing which category you fall into can help you set writing goals that motivate you and help you progress on your writing journey.
Just because someone else swears by word count targets or strict writing schedules doesn't necessarily mean either will work for you. There is no one right way—always do what works best for you.
Twitter: @cbentleywriter
Website: www.clairebentley.co.uk
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By Author A.C. Harvey, @ACHarvey_
The best advice I ever received about being a successful writer was “invest in yourself.” These words have guided me to publishing my first novel and now traversing the stormy waters of marketing.
Being an author is a unique career. You don’t get promotions. You don’t have job security. You don’t have a constant salary. You don’t have benefits. It’s scary and difficult. You work hard and long and sometimes you don’t even get the rewards.
So why do people do it?
Easy. We become authors because we love it. We love stories. We love creating worlds and characters that take us on journeys and change our lives. We love writing. And we love the thought of getting to share our creations with the world.
Unfortunately, the sharing part of the process is not as easy as our young, daydreaming selves once supposed. Writing, publishing, and marketing take a lot of work, time, and dedication.
In order to be a successful writer, you are going to have to treat it like any other career, or, better yet, treat it like a lifestyle. If you want a career as a writer, you have to live as if you already have one.
Here are my 8 Rules for leading the lifestyle of a successful writer.
This is your job. Assign yourself a number of hours, or a word/page count to write every day for X days a week. Only you can decide what this schedule will look like, and it may have to be flexible, but make sure you have one.
If you don’t make time to write, you won't have a product to sell.
In order to properly prioritize your writing, you have to change your mindset toward writing.
It’s not a hobby anymore, you have to be accountable to yourself to get your work done.
Listen to podcasts, read blogs (like this one, good job!), watch YouTube videos, attend classes and conferences. You will never reach a point in your writing career where you know everything.
While you’re learning, practice! Most of your time writing will be spent on the projects you plan to publish, but don’t neglect the work of honing your craft. Set time aside every week (or every day, even) to do writing exercises.
Here are some examples:
There are hundreds of exercises you can use to improve your writing technique. Find new ones often and you’ll see your work improve.
Along with practicing your writing skills, practice writing pitches and synopses. This will help prepare you for querying and will also help you while plotting your work.
Practice setting and sticking to goals. If you don’t set goals, how will you know when you’ve accomplished something? Set the bar high for yourself, but don’t set yourself up to fail.
One day you may have to write under strict deadlines with editors, so prepare now for that future. Share your goals with others, so they can help keep you accountable. Participating in events like NaNoWriMo can really help with this!
This is a group of people on your same writing and career level who can give you candid feedback and help edit your work. At the same time, you read and edit their work, gaining important critiquing practice as well as learning and growing from your peers.
Have a support group—people close to you who act as cheerleaders and who you can be accountable to. It is important to have people who will encourage you during the hard times and celebrate your victories when you finally achieve your goals. They will also help make sure you don’t give up when you feel like a failure, which, likely, you sometimes will.
While writing, as a published author or not, build yourself a platform and maintain it—marketing! Whether or not you think anyone is seeing it, you need to have a website and social media platforms dedicated to you and your work so people can see what you have to offer.
Post and update regularly, whether you have 5 followers or 5,000. Keep working to engage the public. Keep reminding the world you’re here. And try to have fun with it. I know it can feel like a burden sometimes, but try to find a platform that you enjoy spending time on. That makes all the difference when it comes to enjoying the process of creating content.
Connect and engage in the world of writers. There is such a loving and supportive community available to you. You never know who you’ll meet and how you can help each other out!
You can network in-person at conferences, and through social media and online events. Follow and support fellow writers by sharing posts and boosting their content—the more you do for others, the more they’ll do for you.
Whether you’re rich or poor, you can find it in your budget to invest in your writing. Save up money to go to conferences or take classes. It doesn’t need to be a big expensive thing. There are always local or state conferences to go to.
Invest in marketing strategies. It doesn’t need to be a lot, or frequent, but, every so often, spend $10 or more boosting one of your posts—something you think will hook viewers into wanting to follow you or check out your work.
If you are not working with an agent to publish a project, never give up trying to find one—or an editor if you don’t want an agent. Alternatively, research self-publishing and make a plan for how and where to publish, and how often.
If you’ve hit a dead end with either, post your work on a free website, and/or try submitting to websites, literary magazines, and contests for your work—most like poetry, short stories/flash fiction, or unpublished chapters. Any recognition or publication is great for your career!
Yes, it’s a job, and sometimes that makes it hard to love, but you started down this path because you have a passion for writing! Don’t let yourself forget it.
Continually do things that inspire and excite you, and get you pumped to write your own stuff. You need to be fueling the fire of your creativity in whatever way you can, as often as you can. Don’t let the work diminish the fun!
If you’re serious about a writing career, you have to have the mindset of a writing professional. Start setting aside time, money, and energy to dedicate to all the necessary elements.
No success comes without some kind of sacrifice. If you haven’t already started investing in your writing career, do it now! Get pumped, get planning, start saving, start creating, and start taking yourself seriously! You are a writer!
Now go show the world what you have to offer.
]]>By Author Callie Rowland, @_callierowland
When I started college three years ago, I was determined to write a novel before graduation. I didn’t need to be published. I didn’t need to find an agent. I just needed to prove to myself that I could write a book. Now, as a senior, I’m working on my third novel, have landed a job as a book editor, and have been in the querying trenches for just under a month.
Considering my initial goal, I’m incredibly proud of myself, but I’m hesitant to give writing advice, because the fact is, there isn’t a foolproof formula for writing a book—especially as a full-time college student with a part-time job. Finding a way to write around all the class assignments and work hours is a matter of trial and error, and you should do whatever works best for you. In the hope of helping my fellow collegiate plotters, over-writers, and perfectionists, these are the strategies I use.
In high school, my most common reason for not writing was that I “didn’t have time,” but ever since I started treating my writing like one of my college classes, I’ve invalidated that excuse.
At the start of each semester, I create a “syllabus” for what I want to accomplish. I break down my “assignments” week by week, then I pretend if I don’t complete them, I’ll fail the class.
This strategy requires a lot of imagination, and for some people, it might be too cutthroat, but it’s much easier for me to say “no” to watching a movie or hanging out with friends when I have schoolwork to do, so by making my writing part of my schoolwork, I instantly improve my time management.
Treating my writing like schoolwork only works because I keep my “syllabus” realistic. I’m a slow writer and a messy drafter, so telling myself I’m going to draft, revise, and line edit an entire novel during one semester is a waste of my time.
When I take into account all my school assignments, work responsibilities, and relaxation time, it’s nearly impossible for me to write more than 14,000 words per week.
When I first started using this strategy, I would set my weekly goal at a fatally optimistic 2,000 words per day, but that led to burnout, so now I’ve brought my daily goal down to a comfortable 1,500. If I manage extra, yay, I’m ahead in my coursework! If not, yay, I’m right on track!
Some weeks are busier than others, so even if I set realistic goals, staying on track requires planning ahead. For example, I know the week before winter break is going to be filled with final exams, so I won’t be able to write 14,000 words. Because of that, I set myself an extra 7,000 words the week prior to keep myself on track.
I understand this hyper-specific number game won’t work for everyone, but I never want to put pressure on myself to write over the holidays, so for me, the break-neck pace leading up to break is worth it.
If you decide to use this strategy, set whatever goals work for you, then plan ahead to meet them in whatever way works for you. The important thing isn’t that you’re “keeping up” with anyone else, but that you are consistently celebrating your personal victories.
Maintaining consistency is a lot easier for me when I set myself a specific place and time for writing. Just like sitting in a classroom (or at a desk in my bedroom, thanks to a certain worldwide pandemic) makes it easier to accomplish classwork every day, going to my favorite local coffee shop helps me get in the proper writing headspace.
It took me a few months to understand which times of day and what pace is most effective for me, so if you decide to try this strategy, remember to give yourself grace. Each day, write down the time you feel ready to write, then write down how long you’re able to write, and after a while, you’ll be able to utilize your natural creativity pattern to set up your routine.
Even when I set realistic goals, plan how to meet them, and set up a daily routine, I often convince myself that I won’t succeed. It doesn’t matter that I’ve already written two books that I'm currently querying, my brain is a masochistic engineer of its own anguish.
I still spend an inordinate amount of time worrying that I’ve wasted my college career on writing, when I should have been partying like a normal person. The fact is, writing is an incredibly brave, incredibly resilient act, and even though the physical action of putting words on the page is solitary, it is much easier to champion yourself when you have a community supporting you.
I’ve found my community on Twitter, but there are Facebook groups, blogs, and many other places where writers congregate online. It doesn’t matter where your community is, so long as you feel supported enough to keep going.
Even after college, I’ll likely keep going by using my “syllabus” strategy, because it works for me. By using this strategy, I’ve been able to draft each of my novels over the course of a school year and revise and edit them during the summer.
While you’re figuring out your own personal timeline, my best piece of advice is to listen to your gut. Set your small goals, celebrate your small victories, and eventually, you will achieve success, whatever your definition of success is.
Written by Author Callie Rowland]]>By author Rebecca F. Kenney, @rebeccafkenney1
Is there a TV show you watch whenever you’re feeling anxious? A food you like to eat when you’ve had a bad day? A certain song that always puts you in a better mood?
Sure there is. We’re all familiar with comfort shows, comfort food, comfort music. They’re familiar things we enjoy.
For a lot of people, that’s what a beloved trope is. It’s a recognized pattern, scenario, or character within a story. It’s familiar. It feels good.
There might be tropes you hate, too, just as there are foods that make your stomach churn or TV shows you just can’t stand.
Let’s look at some well-known tropes. Keep in mind these are examples, not an exhaustive list. There are plenty more besides what I’m including here.
In fantasy and science fiction, you’ll often find the “Chosen One” trope: one character who is destined to save the kingdom, the world, or the universe. One person with the power, skill, or some other quality necessary to take down the Big Evil.
In such stories you might also find the “wise old mentor” trope, or the “disillusioned, grouchy, retired-hero” trope. These characters often serve as a foil and a teacher to prepare the young “Chosen One” for their task.
As a writer of spicy romance, I’m particularly fond of certain tropes that appear in my genre; tropes like “only one bed” or “forced proximity,” where the couple have to share space and it leads to an admission of their true feelings—or something steamier. I love “only one horse,” too, and if you have recs for that I will gladly take them.
Another tried-and-true romance trope is “royalty and commoner,” “princess and stable boy/farm boy,” or however you want to phrase it. There’s also the “oh no, someone’s coming, let’s kiss so we don’t get caught but then oops it turns real and we have FEELINGS” trope—another favorite of mine.
“Enemies to lovers'' is my all-time favorite trope. It’s all about two people from wildly different backgrounds or points-of-view unlearning their prejudices about each other, listening, seeing things from a new perspective. Definitely something we could use more of in this world. Plus the whole “I like you but I shouldn’t” struggle the characters go through makes for some really delicious sexual and emotional tension.
A beloved trope you’ll see across all genres is “found family,” where a character who has been abused, abandoned, traumatized, or lonely finds a group of other damaged, messy characters—and eventually they all form a collective bond that’s deep, touching, and mutually supportive.
This particular trope has been especially dear to the hearts of queer writers and readers, who sometimes face rejection from blood relatives but find acceptance with close friends and the LGBTQA community. But the concept of a “found family” resonates with readers of all kinds, especially those with family-related trauma.
Some tropes are specific to genre, like horror, thriller, or mystery. How many other tropes can you name?
There’s been a lot of hate for tropes lately, countered by a wave of love for them by avid fans of fantasy and romance. But tropes aren’t limited to those two categories—they show up in every genre, in every work of fiction, sometimes without the author even realizing it.
Tropes aren’t good or bad. They’re simply tools in a storyteller’s hands. They aren’t the entire plot, but they can inspire a plot, or provide key turning points or atmospheric moments within the story.
You’ll hear some people say, “Tropes are fine, when they’re well-executed.”
There’s a problem with that statement—we don’t all agree on what “well-executed” means. Some of us love an easy-to-read story that hits all our favorite tropes, and we don’t mind if it’s not a high-brow piece of book-club-worthy fiction.
Some of us find literary, book-club fiction to be very, very dull and we’d rather not waste our precious spare minutes slogging through something we don’t enjoy. (By now you may have picked up on the fact that I’m very pro-trope.)
Other people only like tropes when they’re deeply subverted. I’ll be the first to say I love a good “twisted trope;” subversion of tropes is one way to make an overdone idea feel fresh and exciting. However, the very definition of “trope” assumes something familiar and recognizable.
Writers have to be careful not to upend too many “comfort tropes” so drastically that the reader comes away feeling unhappy and unsettled by the outcome. If a writer is going to market their book using beloved tropes, they should hint to readers that they plan to subvert those tropes—otherwise reader expectations won’t be met and bad reviews will follow.
That leads us right into the idea of tropes in marketing. Authors, whether indie/self-published or traditionally published, have to market their books. They have to talk about the books to readers who might be interested, and one of the primary ways to do that is through social media.
I have a brief background in marketing, so I look at tropes as firstly something I love and enjoy, but also as selling points. Tropes are a quick, easy way to tell someone what’s in the book and what they might like about it.
They’re particularly useful for grabbing reader attention on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, where the space or time to catch someone’s attention is extremely limited—280 characters or a handful of seconds.
Let’s say I’m promoting my fantasy romance “Healer to the Ash King.” Some tropes I typically use to catch readers’ attention are:
Those six tropes take just a few words each, but they tell you a lot about the book. None of them are unique within themselves, but put all together, with my own twist on each one, they create a story that feels fresh.
And the last one, “enemies with benefits,” is a twist on the usual “enemies to lovers” trope, indicating that the pair become intimate while they’re still antagonistic toward each other. And that element might pique the interest of some readers.
In the online book world, there have been two recent controversies regarding the use of tropes for marketing and writing.
The first involved an author who marketed their book using specific tropes, scenes, and bits of dialogue, and achieved dramatic success as a result. However, when the book came out, some readers were disappointed, not finding those same snippets and trope-y scenes they had expected.
Another author claimed that their agent gave them a handful of tropes, and they created a book from those. This led to some backlash by other writers who disliked the idea of the agent having such a strong influence. Some authors also disapproved of the author’s self-deprecating comments about their writing abilities.
There’s nuance in both these situations, but for the purposes of this article, let’s just look at these scenarios as they relate to tropes.
What we can learn from the first situation is this:
If you’re going to market your book as containing specific tropes, those tropes had better be present in the final text in some recognizable form, and they should give the reader the same vibes you used in your marketing materials (videos, reels, tweets, etc.)
The second situation is a bit more complex. As an agented author, I can tell you that authors definitely discuss plot ideas, tropes, and concepts with their agent or editor.
The agent or editor doesn’t give orders about what the author must write, but they definitely offer advice and strong suggestions. They know what’s marketable to the target audience, what fits with the vision for the series, and what works best for the author’s career and their position in the market.
Some writers hate that. They don’t like to conform to market trends; they want to be free to write anything. That’s fine—but if you want to make some money from your writing, it’s not necessarily the best approach.
Ideally, you’ll take the things you love to write and blend in the things your target audience is looking for. There’s a balance between creative autonomy and the awareness of what people actually want to read and will buy.
An agent suggesting tropes to an author isn’t a bad thing. It’s a conversation, after which the author is still responsible for writing the book on their own.
Can you create an entire book based on a handful of tropes? Yes and no.
If you stitch together a bunch of tropes with a flimsy thread of plot, you might still make some good money (more power to you), but you may also get some very unsatisfied readers.
It’s best to think of tropes as pieces of the overall framework of your plot. If you’re thinking, “I really love this trope and I want to write it,” then you can absolutely craft a plot to work with that trope or allow that scenario. But it has to feel natural and cohesive. And you need to be honing your craft assiduously even while you squeal about certain tropes.
If you’re a member of a marginalized community, you may face additional pushback about your use of tropes. That is absolutely wrong, on every level, but it happens.
Publishing isn’t generally kind to marginalized authors, and you might be told, directly or subtly, that there’s no more room for your book, even as white/cis/abled authors keep churning out trope-filled works.
That’s an important conversation that I, as a white, cisgender author, am not qualified to unpack. It’s an unjust reality that I hope is changing, and it’s the responsibility of authors like me to uplift marginalized writers and work toward that change.
I will say that the indie publishing space has become a welcome refuge for many authors who have felt excluded from traditional publishing for one reason or another. Even there, there’s work to be done; but indie books and self-published authors are gaining more respect among readers and more clout in the market.
They’re giving us the variety that we don’t always get from traditionally published books, and readers are saying “yes” with their dollars. Self-publishing is hard work, and it’s not the right solution for everyone, but as a self-published author myself, I can say that it’s a fun, rewarding space to be in. (Yes, I am both self-published and agented, but that’s a whole other post.)
No matter who you are, even if you do everything “right,” you’re still going to have naysayers who turn up their noses at your work. The elements some people rave about, others will hate. Some will think you handled the tropes perfectly, and they will be gloriously satisfied, while others sneer and call your work lazy or derivative.
Ultimately, if you’re taking your craft seriously, writing what you love, and keeping a weather eye on the market, you’re doing great. Keep those trope-filled stories coming, because to some of us, they’re like delicious, cheesy nachos—it’s impossible to devour just one.
“The Truth About Tropes” by Rebecca F. Kenney
Is there a TV show you watch whenever you’re feeling anxious? A food you like to eat when you’ve had a bad day? A certain song that always puts you in a better mood?
Sure there is. We’re all familiar with comfort shows, comfort food, comfort music. They’re familiar things we enjoy.
For a lot of people, that’s what a beloved trope is. It’s a recognized pattern, scenario, or character within a story. It’s familiar. It feels good.
There might be tropes you hate, too, just as there are foods that make your stomach churn or TV shows you just can’t stand.
Examples of Common Tropes
Let’s look at some well-known tropes. Keep in mind these are examples, not an exhaustive list. There are plenty more besides what I’m including here.
In fantasy and science fiction, you’ll often find the “Chosen One” trope: one character who is destined to save the kingdom, the world, or the universe. One person with the power, skill, or some other quality necessary to take down the Big Evil.
In such stories you might also find the “wise old mentor” trope, or the “disillusioned, grouchy, retired-hero” trope. These characters often serve as a foil and a teacher to prepare the young “Chosen One” for their task.
As a writer of spicy romance, I’m particularly fond of certain tropes that appear in my genre; tropes like “only one bed” or “forced proximity,” where the couple have to share space and it leads to an admission of their true feelings—or something steamier. I love “only one horse,” too, and if you have recs for that I will gladly take them.
Another tried-and-true romance trope is “royalty and commoner,” “princess and stable boy/farm boy,” or however you want to phrase it. There’s also the “oh no, someone’s coming, let’s kiss so we don’t get caught but then oops it turns real and we have FEELINGS” trope—another favorite of mine.
“Enemies to lovers'' is my all-time favorite trope. It’s all about two people from wildly different backgrounds or points-of-view unlearning their prejudices about each other, listening, seeing things from a new perspective. Definitely something we could use more of in this world. Plus the whole “I like you but I shouldn’t” struggle the characters go through makes for some really delicious sexual and emotional tension.
A beloved trope you’ll see across all genres is “found family,” where a character who has been abused, abandoned, traumatized, or lonely finds a group of other damaged, messy characters—and eventually they all form a collective bond that’s deep, touching, and mutually supportive. This particular trope has been especially dear to the hearts of queer writers and readers, who sometimes face rejection from blood relatives but find acceptance with close friends and the LGBTQA community. But the concept of a “found family” resonates with readers of all kinds, especially those with family-related trauma.
Some tropes are specific to genre, like horror, thriller, or mystery. How many other tropes can you name?
The Trope Dilemma
There’s been a lot of hate for tropes lately, countered by a wave of love for them by avid fans of fantasy and romance. But tropes aren’t limited to those two categories—they show up in every genre, in every work of fiction, sometimes without the author even realizing it.
Tropes aren’t good or bad. They’re simply tools in a storyteller’s hands. They aren’t the entire plot, but they can inspire a plot, or provide key turning points or atmospheric moments within the story.
You’ll hear some people say, “Tropes are fine, when they’re well-executed.”
There’s a problem with that statement—we don’t all agree on what “well-executed” means. Some of us love an easy-to-read story that hits all our favorite tropes, and we don’t mind if it’s not a high-brow piece of book-club-worthy fiction. Some of us find literary, book-club fiction to be very, very dull and we’d rather not waste our precious spare minutes slogging through something we don’t enjoy. (By now you may have picked up on the fact that I’m very pro-trope.)
Other people only like tropes when they’re deeply subverted. I’ll be the first to say I love a good “twisted trope;” subversion of tropes is one way to make an overdone idea feel fresh and exciting. However, the very definition of “trope” assumes something familiar and recognizable. Writers have to be careful not to upend too many “comfort tropes” so drastically that the reader comes away feeling unhappy and unsettled by the outcome. If a writer is going to market their book using beloved tropes, they should hint to readers that they plan to subvert those tropes—otherwise reader expectations won’t be met and bad reviews will follow.
Tropes in Marketing
That leads us right into the idea of tropes in marketing. Authors, whether indie/self-published or traditionally published, have to market their books. They have to talk about the books to readers who might be interested, and one of the primary ways to do that is through social media.
I have a brief background in marketing, so I look at tropes as firstly something I love and enjoy, but also as selling points. Tropes are a quick, easy way to tell someone what’s in the book and what they might like about it. They’re particularly useful for grabbing reader attention on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, where the space or time to catch someone’s attention is extremely limited—280 characters or a handful of seconds.
Let’s say I’m promoting my fantasy romance “Healer to the Ash King.” Some tropes I typically use to catch readers’ attention are:
-bride competition for the king’s hand
-fire vs water magic
-forced proximity
-undercover spy for the resistance
-king and commoner
-enemies with benefits
Those six tropes take just a few words each, but they tell you a lot about the book. None of them are unique within themselves, but put all together, with my own twist on each one, they create a story that feels fresh. And the last one, “enemies with benefits,” is a twist on the usual “enemies to lovers” trope, indicating that the pair become intimate while they’re still antagonistic toward each other. And that element might pique the interest of some readers.
Trope Controversies
In the online book world, there have been two recent controversies regarding the use of tropes for marketing and writing.
The first involved an author who marketed their book using specific tropes, scenes, and bits of dialogue, and achieved dramatic success as a result. However, when the book came out, some readers were disappointed, not finding those same snippets and trope-y scenes they had expected.
Another author claimed that their agent gave them a handful of tropes, and they created a book from those. This led to some backlash by other writers who disliked the idea of the agent having such a strong influence. Some authors also disapproved of the author’s self-deprecating comments about their writing abilities.
There’s nuance in both these situations, but for the purposes of this article, let’s just look at these scenarios as they relate to tropes.
What we can learn from the first situation is this: If you’re going to market your book as containing specific tropes, those tropes had better be present in the final text in some recognizable form, and they should give the reader the same vibes you used in your marketing materials (videos, reels, tweets, etc.)
The second situation is a bit more complex. As an agented author, I can tell you that authors definitely discuss plot ideas, tropes, and concepts with their agent or editor. The agent or editor doesn’t give orders about what the author must write, but they definitely offer advice and strong suggestions. They know what’s marketable to the target audience, what fits with the vision for the series, and what works best for the author’s career and their position in the market.
Some writers hate that. They don’t like to conform to market trends; they want to be free to write anything. That’s fine—but if you want to make some money from your writing, it’s not necessarily the best approach. Ideally, you’ll take the things you love to write and blend in the things your target audience is looking for. There’s a balance between creative autonomy and the awareness of what people actually want to read and will buy.
An agent suggesting tropes to an author isn’t a bad thing. It’s a conversation, after which the author is still responsible for writing the book on their own.
Can you create an entire book based on a handful of tropes? Yes and no.
If you stitch together a bunch of tropes with a flimsy thread of plot, you might still make some good money (more power to you), but you may also get some very unsatisfied readers.
It’s best to think of tropes as pieces of the overall framework of your plot. If you’re thinking, “I really love this trope and I want to write it,” then you can absolutely craft a plot to work with that trope or allow that scenario. But it has to feel natural and cohesive. And you need to be honing your craft assiduously even while you squeal about certain tropes.
Tropes and Marginalized Authors
If you’re a member of a marginalized community, you may face additional pushback about your use of tropes. That is absolutely wrong, on every level, but it happens. Publishing isn’t generally kind to marginalized authors, and you might be told, directly or subtly, that there’s no more room for your book, even as white/cis/abled authors keep churning out trope-filled works. That’s an important conversation that I, as a white, cisgender author, am not qualified to unpack. It’s an unjust reality that I hope is changing, and it’s the responsibility of authors like me to uplift marginalized writers and work toward that change.
I will say that the indie publishing space has become a welcome refuge for many authors who have felt excluded from traditional publishing for one reason or another. Even there, there’s work to be done; but indie books and self-published authors are gaining more respect among readers and more clout in the market. They’re giving us the variety that we don’t always get from traditionally published books, and readers are saying “yes” with their dollars. Self-publishing is hard work, and it’s not the right solution for everyone, but as a self-published author myself, I can say that it’s a fun, rewarding space to be in. (Yes, I am both self-published and agented, but that’s a whole other post.)
Final Thoughts: Is there a best practice when it comes to tropes?
No matter who you are, even if you do everything “right,” you’re still going to have naysayers who turn up their noses at your work. The elements some people rave about, others will hate. Some will think you handled the tropes perfectly, and they will be gloriously satisfied, while others sneer and call your work lazy or derivative.
Ultimately, if you’re taking your craft seriously, writing what you love, and keeping a weather eye on the market, you’re doing great. Keep those trope-filled stories coming, because to some of us, they’re like delicious, cheesy nachos—it’s impossible to devour just one.
“The Truth About Tropes” by Rebecca F. Kenney
Is there a TV show you watch whenever you’re feeling anxious? A food you like to eat when you’ve had a bad day? A certain song that always puts you in a better mood?
Sure there is. We’re all familiar with comfort shows, comfort food, comfort music. They’re familiar things we enjoy.
For a lot of people, that’s what a beloved trope is. It’s a recognized pattern, scenario, or character within a story. It’s familiar. It feels good.
There might be tropes you hate, too, just as there are foods that make your stomach churn or TV shows you just can’t stand.
Examples of Common Tropes
Let’s look at some well-known tropes. Keep in mind these are examples, not an exhaustive list. There are plenty more besides what I’m including here.
In fantasy and science fiction, you’ll often find the “Chosen One” trope: one character who is destined to save the kingdom, the world, or the universe. One person with the power, skill, or some other quality necessary to take down the Big Evil.
In such stories you might also find the “wise old mentor” trope, or the “disillusioned, grouchy, retired-hero” trope. These characters often serve as a foil and a teacher to prepare the young “Chosen One” for their task.
As a writer of spicy romance, I’m particularly fond of certain tropes that appear in my genre; tropes like “only one bed” or “forced proximity,” where the couple have to share space and it leads to an admission of their true feelings—or something steamier. I love “only one horse,” too, and if you have recs for that I will gladly take them.
Another tried-and-true romance trope is “royalty and commoner,” “princess and stable boy/farm boy,” or however you want to phrase it. There’s also the “oh no, someone’s coming, let’s kiss so we don’t get caught but then oops it turns real and we have FEELINGS” trope—another favorite of mine.
“Enemies to lovers'' is my all-time favorite trope. It’s all about two people from wildly different backgrounds or points-of-view unlearning their prejudices about each other, listening, seeing things from a new perspective. Definitely something we could use more of in this world. Plus the whole “I like you but I shouldn’t” struggle the characters go through makes for some really delicious sexual and emotional tension.
A beloved trope you’ll see across all genres is “found family,” where a character who has been abused, abandoned, traumatized, or lonely finds a group of other damaged, messy characters—and eventually they all form a collective bond that’s deep, touching, and mutually supportive. This particular trope has been especially dear to the hearts of queer writers and readers, who sometimes face rejection from blood relatives but find acceptance with close friends and the LGBTQA community. But the concept of a “found family” resonates with readers of all kinds, especially those with family-related trauma.
Some tropes are specific to genre, like horror, thriller, or mystery. How many other tropes can you name?
The Trope Dilemma
There’s been a lot of hate for tropes lately, countered by a wave of love for them by avid fans of fantasy and romance. But tropes aren’t limited to those two categories—they show up in every genre, in every work of fiction, sometimes without the author even realizing it.
Tropes aren’t good or bad. They’re simply tools in a storyteller’s hands. They aren’t the entire plot, but they can inspire a plot, or provide key turning points or atmospheric moments within the story.
You’ll hear some people say, “Tropes are fine, when they’re well-executed.”
There’s a problem with that statement—we don’t all agree on what “well-executed” means. Some of us love an easy-to-read story that hits all our favorite tropes, and we don’t mind if it’s not a high-brow piece of book-club-worthy fiction. Some of us find literary, book-club fiction to be very, very dull and we’d rather not waste our precious spare minutes slogging through something we don’t enjoy. (By now you may have picked up on the fact that I’m very pro-trope.)
Other people only like tropes when they’re deeply subverted. I’ll be the first to say I love a good “twisted trope;” subversion of tropes is one way to make an overdone idea feel fresh and exciting. However, the very definition of “trope” assumes something familiar and recognizable. Writers have to be careful not to upend too many “comfort tropes” so drastically that the reader comes away feeling unhappy and unsettled by the outcome. If a writer is going to market their book using beloved tropes, they should hint to readers that they plan to subvert those tropes—otherwise reader expectations won’t be met and bad reviews will follow.
Tropes in Marketing
That leads us right into the idea of tropes in marketing. Authors, whether indie/self-published or traditionally published, have to market their books. They have to talk about the books to readers who might be interested, and one of the primary ways to do that is through social media.
I have a brief background in marketing, so I look at tropes as firstly something I love and enjoy, but also as selling points. Tropes are a quick, easy way to tell someone what’s in the book and what they might like about it. They’re particularly useful for grabbing reader attention on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, where the space or time to catch someone’s attention is extremely limited—280 characters or a handful of seconds.
Let’s say I’m promoting my fantasy romance “Healer to the Ash King.” Some tropes I typically use to catch readers’ attention are:
-bride competition for the king’s hand
-fire vs water magic
-forced proximity
-undercover spy for the resistance
-king and commoner
-enemies with benefits
Those six tropes take just a few words each, but they tell you a lot about the book. None of them are unique within themselves, but put all together, with my own twist on each one, they create a story that feels fresh. And the last one, “enemies with benefits,” is a twist on the usual “enemies to lovers” trope, indicating that the pair become intimate while they’re still antagonistic toward each other. And that element might pique the interest of some readers.
Trope Controversies
In the online book world, there have been two recent controversies regarding the use of tropes for marketing and writing.
The first involved an author who marketed their book using specific tropes, scenes, and bits of dialogue, and achieved dramatic success as a result. However, when the book came out, some readers were disappointed, not finding those same snippets and trope-y scenes they had expected.
Another author claimed that their agent gave them a handful of tropes, and they created a book from those. This led to some backlash by other writers who disliked the idea of the agent having such a strong influence. Some authors also disapproved of the author’s self-deprecating comments about their writing abilities.
There’s nuance in both these situations, but for the purposes of this article, let’s just look at these scenarios as they relate to tropes.
What we can learn from the first situation is this: If you’re going to market your book as containing specific tropes, those tropes had better be present in the final text in some recognizable form, and they should give the reader the same vibes you used in your marketing materials (videos, reels, tweets, etc.)
The second situation is a bit more complex. As an agented author, I can tell you that authors definitely discuss plot ideas, tropes, and concepts with their agent or editor. The agent or editor doesn’t give orders about what the author must write, but they definitely offer advice and strong suggestions. They know what’s marketable to the target audience, what fits with the vision for the series, and what works best for the author’s career and their position in the market.
Some writers hate that. They don’t like to conform to market trends; they want to be free to write anything. That’s fine—but if you want to make some money from your writing, it’s not necessarily the best approach. Ideally, you’ll take the things you love to write and blend in the things your target audience is looking for. There’s a balance between creative autonomy and the awareness of what people actually want to read and will buy.
An agent suggesting tropes to an author isn’t a bad thing. It’s a conversation, after which the author is still responsible for writing the book on their own.
Can you create an entire book based on a handful of tropes? Yes and no.
If you stitch together a bunch of tropes with a flimsy thread of plot, you might still make some good money (more power to you), but you may also get some very unsatisfied readers.
It’s best to think of tropes as pieces of the overall framework of your plot. If you’re thinking, “I really love this trope and I want to write it,” then you can absolutely craft a plot to work with that trope or allow that scenario. But it has to feel natural and cohesive. And you need to be honing your craft assiduously even while you squeal about certain tropes.
Tropes and Marginalized Authors
If you’re a member of a marginalized community, you may face additional pushback about your use of tropes. That is absolutely wrong, on every level, but it happens. Publishing isn’t generally kind to marginalized authors, and you might be told, directly or subtly, that there’s no more room for your book, even as white/cis/abled authors keep churning out trope-filled works. That’s an important conversation that I, as a white, cisgender author, am not qualified to unpack. It’s an unjust reality that I hope is changing, and it’s the responsibility of authors like me to uplift marginalized writers and work toward that change.
I will say that the indie publishing space has become a welcome refuge for many authors who have felt excluded from traditional publishing for one reason or another. Even there, there’s work to be done; but indie books and self-published authors are gaining more respect among readers and more clout in the market. They’re giving us the variety that we don’t always get from traditionally published books, and readers are saying “yes” with their dollars. Self-publishing is hard work, and it’s not the right solution for everyone, but as a self-published author myself, I can say that it’s a fun, rewarding space to be in. (Yes, I am both self-published and agented, but that’s a whole other post.)
Final Thoughts: Is there a best practice when it comes to tropes?
No matter who you are, even if you do everything “right,” you’re still going to have naysayers who turn up their noses at your work. The elements some people rave about, others will hate. Some will think you handled the tropes perfectly, and they will be gloriously satisfied, while others sneer and call your work lazy or derivative.
Ultimately, if you’re taking your craft seriously, writing what you love, and keeping a weather eye on the market, you’re doing great. Keep those trope-filled stories coming, because to some of us, they’re like delicious, cheesy nachos—it’s impossible to devour just one.
]]>Publishing can be tough work—the competition is fierce. Here's how to design your book cover to maximize sales potential.
]]>By Author Matheus Mourao
Hey, aspiring authors, here are some interesting numbers:
No matter how great your novel, no matter how popular your genre, standing out from the crowd is becoming increasingly difficult. Technology allows us all to become a publishing house, equipped with AI-driven writing and editing, an abundance of page layout templates to choose from, and book cover design tools to experiment with.
According to a 2018 Author’s Guild survey:
We can’t all be J.K. Rowling or Stephen King! But what we can do is ensure that we capitalize on the tools available: write the best manuscript you can, employ professional editors (including developmental, editing and proofreaders) and work with a seasoned team for book cover design.
For many authors, your book cover is your most important marketing tool.
For nonfiction it’s a crucial starting point into book funnels for authors.
“Think of your front cover as the preview into your book. Just like a movie preview is there to help viewers decide if they want to shell out $20 to see a film, your front cover is what your reader is going to use to judge whether they want to invest their time and money into reading your story. This is your chance to hook them and get them intrigued enough to read your book.”
Solid book cover design is not subjective. There are proven design essentials created and tested over decades of book sales. Here are six crucial tips for awesome book covers:
A professional design team experienced in book cover design greatly increases the marketability of your book. You need great graphic designers, illustrators and photographers.
Your cover conveys genre and narrative. Your title is the first clue, but your imagery, colour choices and design utilize visual clues to strengthen the message.
“Strong cover design will catch a reader’s eye, capture their interest and communicate what the book is about. These are the things that inspire someone to buy your book.”
Book buyers scroll through retail and review sites and so should you. “No matter what product or service your business offers, it will always face competition. Understanding your competitors … is the key to success.” Writing is an art, but selling your book is business, never forget that, ever.
There's no right or wrong in the creative process. But, as Cover Kitchen says, "You don't want to pack 200 cool ideas into one book cover. That's why editing and perhaps ‘killing your darlings’ is an important step in the creative process… Try to keep the decorative elements down to just a few, or you risk weakening the main concept.”
Books are bought online with thumbnail-sized covers. It’s crucial that book buyers “can read the title and author name.” Titles must always be prominent, and subtitles too. You never want a potential buyer to have to search out your title!
Striking, high-resolution images and illustrations are important. Wow potential readers with strong imagery and powerful color choices that radiate theme and genre and personality!
Great books are collaborative efforts. No successful writer ever works alone, nor should you. Hire professional readers and editors and always work with the best book cover design team to grab eyeballs and clicks and drive sales!
]]>By Author Nat Lockett
It’s funny how, as artists who seek to tell imaginative stories that break the mold, writers long for a formula for success when it comes to the business side of things. I’m no exception to this. I wanted a checklist, an equation that would amount to something after all of the work had been added up.
If I just wrote the perfect book. If I just wrote the perfect query. If I just had a more impressive bio. If I just, just, just–
Each new just–and adjustment when that failed–brought hope, then disappointment, then a consuming tidal wave of helplessness and self-doubt. What if I’m just not good enough?
But good enough for what, exactly?
Recently, in an interview on Freakonomics Radio, Kevin Kelly, the executive editor of Wired Magazine discussed "103 Bits of Advice" he wishes he’d known, saying, “Maybe advice isn’t the right word. Maybe instead, ‘stuff that worked for me and might work for you.’”
Here are some of my favourites:
But this stood out most:
“The only productive way to answer ‘What should I do now?’ is to first tackle the question of ‘Who should I become?’”
When I was at the rock bottom of my querying journey, I wrote myself a letter from my future self, the writer and human I wanted to become. I’m still not fully her yet, but through that exercise I gained some of her wisdom and creative peace.
“You already are,” she told me. You already are a writer. You already are enough.
I learned then what I continue to teach the writers I have the honor of working with: the metrics by which we measure creative success are often beyond our control, based in luck, not labor. This becomes more and more true as the industry continues to shrink and shift.
You are not in control of publishing outcomes. But you are in control of you.
So how do you become the writer and human you want to be? How do you create a measurement of success that is as fulfilling and rewarding as your dream of seeing your book on a shelf?
Unfortunately, you’ll have to answer that yourself. But I’m going to take a page out of Kevin’s book, sharing 40-ish bits of “advice” I’ve learned along my path in hopes of helping you along yours. Take what you need, leave what you don’t.
1. Write
Whenever. Wherever. However. Every day? If you want to. But you have to write at least sometimes.
Idea generation like curating Spotify playlists and creating Pinterest boards for inspiration is a function of writing, but it will not finish a book.
So, write. The more you write, the more you’ll grow as a writer.
2. Explore ideas that scare you
Learn new things. Google your way on to an FBI watchlist.
3. Try different mediums
Like poetry or essays. This’ll develop your voice and could be the key to breaking out of a rut!
4. Don't be afraid to make a mistake
Drafting is as good a time as any to get things wrong. No lesson was ever learned without some missteps.
5. Don’t try to write like someone else
Yes, be inspired and learn from writing you love. But make room for your own voice.
6. Embrace doubt
Doubt is in the job description. Be wary of those who don’t have at least a little bit. Don’t let yours stop you from writing.
7. Heck, embrace all your emotions
Crying means you’re probably on to something. Look into places where you feel you’re running away from emotions and examine that. But also take care of yourself.
8. Don’t discount the importance of ergonomics
Let them scoff at your wrist braces and massive keyboard with split keys. NOT TODAY, carpal tunnel syndrome.
9. When you feel stuck or behind or unworthy, remember you already are a writer
Just by virtue of writing. If you need a little extra momentum, picture your future self–the author who has achieved what you want–and make a list of their habits. Pick one to start today.
10. Get fresh air and sunlight
I’m no stranger to becoming a cave dwelling creature mid draft or revision. You might not want to go for a walk, or stand up and stretch, or terrorize the townsfolk with your unsettling presence. But if you are able, you should.
11. Remember: writing and publishing are not the same thing
Separate the passion from the pragmatism, and you’ll be a much happier artist.
12. Know there is nothing wrong with your collection of unused pens and notebooks
You can tell your partner I said so.
1. Trim the fat
Your darlings don’t love you as much as you love them. Inspect everything. Trim what you can. Save what you cut in a separate document for later use, or bonus material when you become famous.
2. Editing and revising are not the same thing
Stop editing before you’ve revised–or worse, even written. Leave the language alone until you’ve got a strong skeleton or you’ll be cutting beautiful, useless lines.
3. Read the whole book
Don’t take any notes on the first read through, just absorb and experience as a reader would. Avoid the temptation to take shortcuts or start tearing things apart. If you won’t read your work, why should anyone else?
4. Collect feedback
Be specific about the kind of feedback you’re looking for. Ask specific questions. Collect feedback in one place; look for patterns; document your thoughts.
If you are marginalized and concerned about getting feedback from individuals who don’t share your identity on those elements of the text, specific questions are a great way to avoid comments that may inflict psychic damage.
1. Put your best foot forward
There is no such thing as a perfect query. Someone will ALWAYS find something to change. Do your research, edit it, send it out for feedback, edit it some more, but don’t obsess over it to the point of despair.
2. Don’t submit to agents you wouldn’t be happy to work with
Not all sales are created equal and looking at sales on Publisher’s Marketplace will help you determine if an agent or agency has the connections to sell your project.
3. Embrace your inner entrepreneur and artist
When the time comes to be both the creator and the entrepreneur, make separate time for both and supervise them whenever they are in the same room. The entrepreneur can be a real bully and the artist can be a bit of a baby.
4. Consider working with a new agent
New agents with good mentorship can be wonderful partners for writers who need or want more one on one attention.
5. Creating a separate inbox for querying is self care
Don’t use it to sign up for subscriptions or socials–then you’ll only get notifications when it matters and you won’t have to obsess with combing through every time.
6. Check. Your. Spam!
7. Cut to the chase
The agent probably doesn’t care that you read xyz on their MSWL. Get to the story and show them you’ve got what they’re looking for. The greatest personalization of all? Following their guidelines.You are not the exception to an anti-MSWL.
1. Agency is a business partnership. You are an equal investor. The manuscript wouldn’t exist without you. Don’t forget your value.
2. Stand up for yourself
Asking for accommodations can be scary, but forcing yourself to work in ways that you don’t will take more of a toll down the line–not just on your working relationship, but on your personal health.
If you are afraid to ask your agent questions or email them, you might not be ready to have one. Alternatively, if your agent has given you a reason to fear their responses, you shouldn’t trust them with your work or your career. Remember, you are equal investors and respect goes BOTH WAYS!
3. Create a revision plan
If you’re revising, your agent may not have time to read the manuscript as you go. Need some assurance that you’re headed in the right direction? Create a revision plan–include their big picture notes and how you plan to address them. Include any notes you may have too!
4. Cultivate the art of patience
Getting an agent is not the end of your days watching an empty inbox. Submission takes a long time for many writers.
5. Take breaks
It’s okay and even advisable to take a break during the querying and submission process if you need it. You are not broken or lazy if it feels like the words won’t budge. The more you try to force it or the more you allow guilt to take over your life, the longer it will take to refill your well.
1. Set boundaries
There are two kinds of boundaries. Both are equally important. 1) Set boundaries for yourself on social media: how much time will you spend? What spaces will you exist in? What is your exit strategy?
2) Set boundaries for the people you interact with. Don’t be afraid to use the block function when someone crosses a line you’ve drawn.
2. Be generous
Get involved. Offer help. Share resources.
3. Choose your platform
You don’t have to be on every platform, and in fact you shouldn’t. Be in spaces that grow you, where you can be collaborative and inspired and connected.
4. Don’t be a jerk.
Period.
Finally, a last piece of advice, or rather a reminder, for those who’ve made it this far:
All you have to do to be a successful writer is write. So, just write.
Natalie "Nat" Lockett is an author, essayist, podcaster, and editor/coach. Her podcast, Write Away with Nat & PJ has welcomed guests like Charlie Jane Anders, Erin A. Craig, Jeffrey Somers, and many more. Nat's work has been featured in Brevity Blog, Heart of the Story, Herstry, and Across the Margin. Her novel length fiction is represented by Tara Gonzalez at Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
Through her company Key Words Coaching & Consulting, Nat works with writers to tell their best stories and build their careers. She is a member of ACES the Society for Editing and the Editorial Freelancers Association. She is currently completing her practicum to be certified as a fiction and nonfiction book coach through Author Accelerator, a program that trains coaches to empower writers through every step of the writing and publishing process. In 2021, she created Rogue Mentor, a volunteer-run mentorship and community building program for writers.
Nat lives in Wyoming with her husband, a zoo of pets, and her beloved rock collection.
Twitter: nat_lockett
IG: nat_lockett
]]>We all want to create memorable characters that readers can't stop talking about. Here's how to create characters who linger.
]]>By Author Betsy St. Amant
I was on a road trip with my husband when we saw a Maserati parked in front of a nice restaurant. With stars in my eyes, I exclaimed, “That’s the car Morgan drives!”, to which my poor husband asked, “Who’s Morgan?”
“You know, Morgan…from Kristen Heitzmann’s book.” It was only in that moment that I remembered Morgan wasn’t real. But in so many ways, he is—and we all want to create characters that have readers talking about them in parking lots eighteen years after reading the novel, don’t we?
Here are 5 tips for creating characters who linger.
"No one is perfect, and no character should be either."
Readers want to see characters going through hardship and struggle and coming out stronger on the other side.
They want to see a hero or heroine or side character with a sense of humor like theirs, or sympathies and passions for different causes. They want to see what makes them hurt or laugh or get mad.
A character that is relatable and has the reader nodding their head while whispering, “me too,” is what the author should strive for with every book.
I typically write a strong character arc into my main hero and heroine, but even within that arc, I keep them true to their inner self—their morals, their backstory, their motivations.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a character suddenly doing something (especially something immoral or controversial) without a strong reason for doing so.
If your character thrives on truth, don’t have them flippantly tell a lie without showing how hard it is for them to do so. If your character is a neat freak, don’t have them suddenly start littering in a scene.
"Keep the characters consistent, even within their arc of personal growth and development."
I will forever associate Morgan with Maserati’s. He was just that type of character. It fit. It made sense. The two of them go together like PB&J, and nothing will ever separate that for me.
"Give your characters something special that readers can remember later."
Maybe your hero has a penchant for ice cream sandwiches. Maybe your heroine has a pet parrot that only knew one comedic phrase. Maybe your heroine’s BFF ran a special ministry that could resonate with readers. Whatever it is that makes your character unique, flesh it out and make it count.
But remember to work it into the plot. The reason Morgan and Maserati’s paired so well wasn’t the alliteration so much as it was that the car itself was such a great symbol for who Morgan was. Random quirks can be funny for the page, but to make them linger, it’s got to be connected to the story or the theme of your novel.
Even villains have back stories. The goal is for the reader to understand and commiserate, even if (or especially if!) the reader doesn’t agree on a moral level. The reader needs to root for them.
Think about Thanos in Marvel. He had a good reason (though we could all agree it was pretty jacked up!) to want to obliterate half the universe. To him, it made sense. He had a true motivation and drive to do the horrible thing he wanted to do.
"Your hero and heroine need the same type of motivation and drive behind their goals and dreams."
It’s probably on a smaller scale than taking over the world, but why do they want to open that food truck? Why do they want to save their mother’s bakery or go back to school or obtain that promotion?
Getting creative here can really help establish the character in the reader’s mind and make them linger.
One of the best parts about writing a novel is getting to be a different person! For an entire manuscript, we get to pretend to know what it would be like to live in the head of an artist or a horse-crazy rancher or a prima ballerina.
When you’re in Deep POV (point of view), it’s crucial to keep that distinctive voice true to your character, and not let your own voice or another character’s voice step in.
"What would your particular character notice about the room they’re in? Heads up—it might not be what you would naturally notice."
For example, my husband used to be an electrician, and for years we couldn’t go anywhere without him immediately analyzing the lighting of the restaurant we’d walked into. But a baker probably wouldn’t.
Just like if you’re in the POV of a hero, he’s not going to describe the heroine’s dress in fashion-savvy lingo or with women’s brand names attached. He’s going to think it’s white and her legs look good.
In that same vein, an art teacher or a makeup stylist would probably think of colours as hues of crimson, burnt orange, and periwinkle, while a lawyer or construction worker would be more likely to think “red” or “blue."
Keeping these nuances in mind when writing a POV scene can mean all the difference between creating a forgettable character, and creating one who lingers with a reader years later.
Betsy St. Amant Haddox is the author of over twenty romance novels and novellas. She resides in north Louisiana with her hubby, two daughters, an impressive stash of coffee mugs, and one furry Schnauzer-toddler. Betsy has a B.A. in Communications and a deep-rooted passion for the written word.
When she’s not composing her next book or trying to prove unicorns are real, Betsy can be found somewhere in the vicinity of an iced coffee. She writes frequently for iBelieve, a devotional site for women. Her latest novel, Tacos for Two, released October 2022 through Revell.
Facebook: Betsy St. Amant Haddox
Twitter: @betsystamant
Instagram: @betsystamanthaddox
]]>
By Author Polly Crosby
Finding an agent is perhaps the most exciting and nerve-wracking part of becoming an author. An agent is often the gateway to getting your book published, and it might even be the first time someone other than yourself has read your book!
Agents are a jack of all trades. They are primarily an incredible sales person with brilliant contacts in the publishing world, able to get your book into the hands of just the right people. But they are often very good editors too, ensuring your manuscript is absolutely perfect before they send it out to publishers.
They are knowledgeable about trends in publishing, about which editors and publishers would be a good fit for you. They might sell your novel to different territories around the world, not just in your own country, and not just in your language.
An agent will sing your praises, help you navigate the mad world of publishing whenever you feel out of your depth, and clink champagne glasses with you to celebrate your book coming out! In fact, I am still learning what an agent does, and I’ve been an author for four years!
A good partnership with a literary agent could potentially last a very long time, and therefore it's so important to choose the right one.
But before you become a published author, even the thought of finding an agent can feel quite daunting. Here are my top tips.
I know how excited I get when I’ve written my first few chapters. I want to shout about it! But if you send it out unfinished and the agent asks for your whole novel, you’ll be in a tricky situation.
Next, put it in a drawer or hide it away on your computer and leave it for a few weeks, or better yet a few months. Time away from it will really help you see it properly. Bring it back out and run your eye over it again. Polish it even more. Now it’s time to start sending it out!
When looking for agents, I found the best way to find the right one for me was to look in novels that I compared my own story to. Read the acknowledgments at the back. Authors will always thank their agents if they've been helpful!
All agents require different things in that initial communication. Go to their website and have a look. Check if they are currently open to submissions—many agents only open for a few weeks in the year because they're very busy with their current clients.
The website will usually list what they need from you. It will probably consist of an opening letter (ie. a formal email), an extract from your novel, and a synopsis. Pay attention to what they ask for, and follow it to the letter.
If any of them ask for your full manuscript, then email the others to let them know. This should spur them into reading yours quicker, and hopefully ask to read the whole thing! Likewise, if any of them offer you representation, let the other agents know, too. And if you decide to sign with an agent, tell the others as a common courtesy.
Publishing is a strange business consisting of long periods of waiting punctuated by moments of great excitement, and this does not stop after you get an agent! While you are waiting to hear, get thinking about a new project.
As a full time writer, I often have three or four books on the go at once. For example, I’m currently polishing the third draft of one novel, having just finished the first draft of another, while I wait back for notes from my editor about my next novel to be published.
I hope this has gone some way to explaining the process. My one final tip would be to find some like-minded people, either in person or online. Join a writing group or find others in the same boat. It makes it much less lonely and much more fun when someone else is doing the same as you! And last but not least, good luck!
]]>Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
By Author Darcy Nybo
One of the hardest parts about being a writer is promoting yourself and your book. A few decades ago, that wasn’t a problem. You sent out query letters, landed an agent or a publisher and they looked after promotions. If you were lucky, you’d also get a nice advance to keep you going as you wrote your next book.
That’s no longer the case. Today’s agents and publishers want to know your marketing plan before they sign you. Here are some basic tips you can employ to help promote yourself and your book.
First things first, look at your finances and see how much wiggle room you have in your budget for promotion. Aim to set aside a minimum of $500 to get things moving. You’ll need this for website URL purchase, hosting and building of an author website.
You may also need money for postage (sending out copies of your book), bookmarks, and other giveaways. Some private bookstores will highlight your book for a fee—factor that in as well.
Reviews are a great way to help promote your book. Reviews can be posted on online platforms like Kobo or Amazon, and you can use them on your book cover, as well as in promotional material.
One easy way to get reviews is to find beta readers before your book is published. They’ll give you great feedback and may save you some heartache by pointing out what revisions need to be made.
Send out a press release to your local newspapers, magazines, television news programs, and radio stations.
A press release is a 1-2 page document that tells these media outlets about your book. It doesn't outline or summarize your entire story. Instead, it illustrates how the material in your book will connect to a particular group of people (your target market).
The idea is to give journalists a clear hook or catchy headline that will catch the attention of readers. It's up to you to find that angle.
If you're in Canada, consider also sending your press release to the University of Toronto Press, Quill and Quire Magazine. And if you're on the West coast, consider sending it to BCBookWorld in British Columbia.
Here are some ideas of materials you may want to make use of/create:
This only applies to self-publishing; however, it is important. This also goes back to budgeting for the book in general. If it costs you $8 to print each book, plus your editing and layout costs, find a figure that will help you get close to breaking even.
First books usually cost much more than subsequent books, because you, as a writer, have gotten better so there is less editing to do.
In general, new authors eBooks sell for around $2.99 each. Paperbacks range from $15.99 to $25.99 depending on country sold in, number of pages, and popularity of the genre.
There are several outlets online to help sell your book. Make sure you read the fine print on all of these sites with regards to exclusivity. Note that it is recommended to not pay for any major services until you have at least three books completed. Once a reader discovers you, they’ll want to read more of your work. It’s at that point that it makes sense to spend more on marketing.
This is the second hardest thing to write, according to most of the authors I’ve worked with. Summarizing their baby in 50-100 words is difficult.
Get your synopsis done as early as possible as this is the blurb you will use for promoting your book while it’s in progress, as well as what goes on the back cover and in the info section to entice readers to buy your book.
It also goes on your website with links that point to where to buy the book.
I’ve yet to meet a writer who likes to write about themselves. Be objective as possible and list things you yourself would like to know about an author. When did you start writing? Why? Do you have a unique story? What do you like doing for fun?
These types of things draw the reader in. It lets them get to know you a bit better, which in turn will help them decide if they want to read your book.
Last, but not least, never underestimate the power of word of mouth. In this day and age, word of mouth means more than someone telling another about your book. It involves your online community sharing your status updates, photos, etc. Stay active online to keep the interest alive, and your book sales will increase.
Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Darcy Nybo is a writing coach, writing instructor, newspaper, magazine and book editor. She has also written four children’s books, two short story collections and a novel. You can find her online here.
]]>By Author Jackary Salem, @jackary_salem
For most authors, the idea of having a brand at all is confusing. Brands are for companies, not people. You’re not even sure how to market your book, how are you supposed to market yourself? And, with that, how do you market yourself as an author before putting your work out?
The complicated, technical answer involves keeping a consistent posting schedule, interacting with others in a way that promotes the fact that you’re an author, and building a relationship with influencers who already have a rapport with your intended audience.
The simpler, more human answer is spelled out in three easy steps below.
Defining core values is the most useful thing any new author can do. When you start building your brand, reaching out to potential readers and promoting your work, you’ll inevitably run into the issue of ‘sellable versus honest.’
#Ownvoice flies off the digital shelves. Diversity is king. You’ll want to be perfect and have a handle on everything while retaining an air of relatability and realism. You’ll want everyone to love you.
But they won’t.
A new fad will come up that has nothing to do with anything you write. A question of opinions—political, writerly, moral, etc.—will arise, and the honest answer could lose you readers. Your response in these situations will depend entirely on your evaluation of core values.
Core values are what motivates you in life. They’re the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization. They’re your guiding light, telling you whether or not you’re on the right path, and they’re the essence of your ideals, which should show through in everything you do.
Most people have somewhere between three and seven core values, and they can range from religious faith to money to bodily health.
I struggled with building my brand for years, hating it every time someone told me to “be your best, most authentic self.” Then I took a look at my core values, and suddenly it made sense.
My primary value (the value I care about above all others) is honesty. I’d rather lose sales than lie or hide. My second-place value is quality. Getting stories out quickly will up visibility and sales, but if my work isn’t up to par, I’d rather take the hit.
Now, do I always feel this way? Absolutely not. People talk about the “right” way to do things being fast and friendly, and I get nervous. I read about what sells, look at my bank account, and reconsider.
But then I look back at my list of core values, and even when I’m feeling jittery and unsure, they ring true. It reminds me of what I believe, outside the hustle and bustle of chasing my dreams, and keeps me centered.
You’re more than a romance (fantasy, non-fiction, literary) author. You care about more than bringing across believable characters and making readers laugh. You don’t fit in a box. So take a look inside, figure out what your core values are, and build your brand around them.
There are guaranteed to be moments where you hate branding. You’ll create an amazing post that gets no engagement. You’ll come across posts where someone says something so incredibly off-base that the only way to describe it is wrong.
Your fingers will twitch with the urge to say something you’re guaranteed to regret. And in that moment, you’ll understand the need to be both a person and a corporation.
If you want to switch over to your personal account and spit vitriol, that’s on you. On your professional platform, however, you have to be an author first and an opinionated individual second. Avoid things that could be considered bad press, avoid a scandal, and remember that the internet is forever.
The moment of vindication that comes with starting a fight on Twitter isn’t worth the fallout. The political view that has nothing to do with your book(s) will isolate more people than it will attract.
And if you’re ever questioning whether to post or not to post, pretend you’re a much more official entity. How would you feel if a hospital, hotel, or even Walmart posted what you’re about to post? Would it be unprofessional? Biased? Would you be okay with it?
Your brand is based in your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, but you are not your brand, and your brand is not you. It’s not personal. It requires sincerity coupled with professionalism and emotional distance. It’s a job like any other, and the faster you treat it as such, the better you’ll do.
Sounds easy, right? You’ll do what you need to do, and if it makes you miserable, that’s because the task itself is miserable. Not your fault. Right?
Sort of right.
If you hate all social media, branding yourself on social media is going to suck. There’s no way around it. There is, however, a difference between an irritating task and a task you dread for hours in advance.
Most branding advice is going to be go wide (e.g., use as many applicable platforms as possible) and update consistently. For every platform other than Facebook, updating “consistently” is at least once a day.
For those of you who don’t find the idea of updating three-to-six platforms multiple times a day intimidating, you’re amazing. Kudos and bravo. Teach me your ways.
For those of you who can handle one to two platforms, two to three times a week, know that you aren’t alone. Keeping up with so many platforms can be overwhelming, and the most important thing for your brand will be taking note of and understanding your limits.
It’s better to have one stable, interactive platform than six platforms that update every six months.
If you love taking pictures but hate making videos, get on Instagram and forget about TikTok and YouTube. If you’re good at talking to people but stress over finding a photo worth sharing, dedicate yourself to Twitter and ditch out on Instagram.
Pick two or three platforms, and update four or five times a week. Set aside dedicated time for social media, and at all other points in time, let it rest. Take weekends off. Breathe.
Pursuing your dream can get messy. It can be irritating and require you to dabble in activities (e.g., marketing, promotion, and branding) you’d really rather have avoided. But it should never make you miserable.
The second a task gives you undue anxiety or ups your depression, take a step back. Figure out what it is that’s stressing you out, and look for ways around it.
It’s surprisingly easy to convince yourself that if you don’t execute certain parts of your dream in a certain manner, the dream will crash and burn. Like if you can’t handle all of these platforms, all the time, there’s no such thing as having an amazing debut.
That’s just not true.
There are a million or more solutions to every problem, and the best thing for your brand is going to be finding the path best-suited to you. Grant your mental health a place of importance. Give yourself a break. Don’t make yourself miserable.
If you’re ever unsure how to proceed with your author brand, refer back to your core values, stay true to yourself, and know that your dream is within reach. There is no right or wrong answer. There’s only you and your path to success. Go forth.
By Author G. F. Brynn
The first words ever written were pictures. That’s right, pictures. Why pictures? Because pictures, or illustrations, are not abstract representations of thoughts, as text is. They are mental realities.
The first simple pictographs and drawings were invented and then slowly evolved over the ages in order to satisfy ancient peoples’ need to express their thoughts and, by dint of drawing those illustrations, were also given clarity of thought as they created. Drawing and seeing their finished artwork further solidified their impressions of the landscape, the people and animals around them.
A picture is not only worth a thousand words, it is a method of providing our imagination with visual feedback.
If you are having a problem visualizing your current story, a few illustrations may be just what you need to better crystallize that story in your mind.
And, in the process, give yourself a healthy creative shift from text alone.
While I wrote and created my literary worlds and became more emboldened to expand them and add more characters, I knew that pictures in the story would keep younger minds like my children’s engaged better than words alone could.
So, something else began to evolve with the characters: my sketches. And as my sketches improved, so too did my imaginings of those characters and their situations. They became sharper, more exact.
I soon discovered that the more I sketched, the more enjoyable the writing became too and the more expansive the story became.
The story did not just become a project to be finished, it became a wonderful, colourful and unfolding mental movie replete with conversations which flowed, quite effortlessly—first from pen to paper and then to keyboard, and the illustrations flowed just as much.
When you are drawing the landscape of your story, you are, in effect, drawing yourself further into that world in a more enjoyable way than simply “writing” the scene can accomplish on its own.
That is why those directing movies like to have pictorial storyboards drawn up beforehand. With pictures set before them, a director can better visualize and explain each scene he or she is about to shoot as the filming progresses.
The only difference in writing (and drawing while writing) is that the scene and film you are shooting is the one in your mind, and the process of illustrating gives your imagination the same boost of clarity as it does for a film director.
As you begin to roughly sketch a villain or a hero in the guise in which you imagine them, you, quite literally, bring yourself face-to-face with them.
Every time you draw a sketch of a certain moment in your story, that point becomes frozen like a snapshot that can be revisited as the story grows and develops further. You will not need to consult notes so much as reference a picture, which is much more enjoyable.
Later, if you so desire, those collected, digital story-art illustrations can also be embedded into you book to enhance its appeal to the reader.
Can I write a good story? You bet. Can I draw? Kinda. Am I an artist? Not on your life, but that’s okay.
You don’t have to be an artistic genius to create decent story-art illustrations that enhance your imagination.
If you can draw a line, you can begin to draw sketches of the fictional world and characters you are creating, and make them look pretty good too, thanks to—you guessed it—an app. Two, to be exact. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
In my experience, an overhead story-map works wonders in helping visualize the landscape setting where the story takes place. A simple map with houses and surrounding roads and other geographic features is a great reference to have while writing about your characters’ movements. It helps ensure you're being consistent throughout your book.
If simple sketches kept in a sketch-pad are enough reference for you to satisfactorily complete your book, then you need not read further. However, if you would love to create digital illustrations with added colour and pop, read on!
Tip: To sketch on a tablet, add a matte screen protector. This will eliminate bothersome reflections and have a more natural feel with the stylus.
If you’re only interested in creating simple, digital, black-and-white sketches, I highly recommend the ‘Auotodesk Sketchbook’ app—either for iPad or Android tablets.
This app is easy to learn to use and has an ingenious feature which enables you to scan a sketch directly to the app so you can immediately begin shading and enhancing it with a stylus.
Separate digital ‘layers’ can be added so that mistakes can be corrected or erased with ease while the other layers are unaffected. A layer can also be duplicated which brings fainter pencil lines into sharper focus for tracing with a stylus.
Afterward, the original penciling can remain or be deleted for a cleaner image. A simple illustration can be drawn, imported to the app and greatly improved upon in just ten minutes or less before being shared or inserted into a doc.
For extra colours and texture effects, nothing beats ‘Procreate’ for iPad, in my opinion, so, after you have done everything you wish on Autodesk, import your illustration to Procreate.
There are a broad spectrum of “brush” types and textures to choose from which can be adjusted in size and opacity as you become more familiar with the app’s features.
Airbrushes for shading and 3-D effect; neon-bright luminance pens; glitter and crystal effects; smudging colours together; cloud, nebula and aurora-mist effects; charcoals and various pencilling styles—these are only a few examples of the artistic touches that one can employ at any desired degree to your original sketch for extra colour and eye-catching pop.
Once you become proficient enough at augmenting your simple sketches with these two apps, each illustration shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes from start to finish. Ten minutes for black-and-whites.
These digitized story-art illustrations can then be shared on social media platforms, as well, to invite further attention to your works which text alone cannot accomplish.
Illustrating your story allows you to immerse yourself in your story in a way that text alone cannot. As a result, you'll be able to better visualize its environment and find greater clarity in your story.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo credit: The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell, published by Hodder Children's Books
]]>By Author Rose Atkinson-Carter
Marketing is perhaps the most desired and dreaded skill among debut authors一one that’s essential to a book’s commercial success, but can be difficult to learn and execute.
Whether you’re self-publishing or working with a publishing company, to reach a wide audience you will need to learn a few marketing strategies. Not only that, you’ll have to find what works for your book and target market—and that takes time.
To help you speed things up a little, this article will delve into 5 marketing tips you can use to help you better market your book.
The cover of your book plays a huge role in marketing your book successfully. It’s the first thing people see about your book on Amazon, bookstores, social media banners, and everywhere else you’re going to place it.
A professionally designed cover makes the reader curious to have a look at the synopsis or flip open the book itself.
Besides being intriguing, a good cover should be readable and pertinent to the theme and genre of your book.
For example, if you’re writing non-fiction, a minimal design that spotlights the title and subtitle can be a good idea, whereas, if you’re writing fantasy, the cover should showcase details of the world the reader is about to step into, whether it is through images of the settings, important symbols, or characters themselves.
Publishers have a team of artists who will work on every title to make sure they get the right appearance. If you’re self-publishing, you might want to learn about book cover design and hire a professional to work with you on your cover.
As a debut author, you'll rapidly learn that you don’t have enough time to grow and maintain an online presence across all channels. The key is to pick and choose what you want to use, and one asset that is absolutely worth growing is an email list.
Unlike social profiles, which can be subject to algorithms and censorship, a newsletter is a direct channel of communication with your audience that you own and control.
It’s an intimate medium where you can build trust and connection over time.
If you’re starting out, you can grow your list of readers by creating a “reader magnet,” a free resource they can download if they join the list.
The resource should be valuable to your audience, so perhaps the first chapter of your new book, a short story that you’ve never shared before, or even a useful document like a self-publishing checklist for other debut authors.
(Authors can be fantastic and supportive readers because they understand your writerly struggles, so be open to marketing to them, too!)
Once you start growing your email list, aim to communicate regularly with your readers一ideally one to four times per month一and always try to provide value by sharing your thoughts or insights from the writing process.
It takes time to organically grow an audience of engaged readers, but in the long-term it pays off both on a personal level一as you’ll make new friends and connections一and financially, since you can drum up excitement and sell your books directly to your most passionate fans.
If you treat your readers as close friends and give more than you ask for, your email list will soon become your greatest marketing asset!
Readers' reviews vet the book quality for potential buyers and they’re a key element to successfully marketing your book. This is evermore important with online shopping, when users don’t browse shelves with little preconceived notions of the book, but get plenty of recommendations from platforms like Amazon and BookBub.
The best way to get book reviews before release day is to assemble a Street Team, a group of supporters that will give you feedback and review the book before the launch, and then help you promote it once it’s out.
To assemble a team of readers who can spread the word about your book, ask your close friends and family members, newsletters readers, or go wider by posting about it on social media and online communities who read your genre.
In order to safeguard your precious (and fragile) early-stage work, be selective about who you let in by ensuring they intentionally want to help you. When you manage to put together a group of 10-15 people, invite them to a private Facebook group, Slack, Discord, or any other community platform.
Your Street Team is already a special group—they get advanced reading copies (ARCs) before the world gets to see your book. But if you want to further show your appreciation, you can build your team earlier and treat them like your beta readers and even patrons.
Include them in the writing process by sharing character arcs or provisional outlines, asking for early feedback, and sharing some “behind the scenes” moments. If you do it right, your Street Team will not only help you promote your book, but will also keep you accountable throughout the writing process.
When the book is ready for distribution, send them an ebook or paperback copy and ask for an honest review. Finally, ask your team to share their reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and other retailers in order to build momentum during your book launch.
And, of course, whether the launch is successful or not, don’t forget to reward and celebrate them as much as possible. (Sharing early news about sequels and involving them in the process for future books is definitely an option!)
Amazon is most likely where you will make most of your book sales, so as a debut author you should learn the tricks of Amazon self-publishing.
Since Amazon promotes books that sell, you should optimize your Amazon book page to generate as many conversions as possible when people land on it. If your book converts well Amazon will start to recommend it to “the right readers,” doing the marketing for you!
Besides having a great book cover, the most important thing to optimize your book page is the description. If you check some books on Amazon you’ll see that the first sentence is usually a great review that leverages social proof and makes the user click to ‘Read more’ of the description itself.
If you’re writing fiction, you should then have a snappy blurb that teases interesting characters or conflicts. For non-fiction books, make sure to point out a few powerful questions that you’re answering in the book.
Moreover, when you upload your book through Kindle Direct Publishing make sure to pick the right categories and keywords by mixing general topics (i.e. Romance) with niche ones (i.e. New Adult & College) to maximize your discoverability.
Finally, remember that Amazon gives you more visibility in the first month after release day, so make sure you optimize your book page before the launch!
BookBub is a daily newsletter that sends book deals to millions of readers, featuring books from both indie authors and traditionally published ones. If you have some budget to invest in marketing, it’s one of your best bets to make it count!
If you manage to get Featured Deal, you can substantially drive sales, grow your reader base, and improve your sales rank on retailing platforms like Amazon or Kobo. However, since there are so many positive effects, most authors will submit their books to BookBub, meaning it’s increasingly difficult to secure a spot.
To maximize your chances of success, give your book a professional cover that fits into your category’s trend, a great blurb, and a competitive number of reviews. It also helps to make the book available for purchase worldwide, especially if you want an international deal.
Do not lose hope if your book is not accepted the first time, you can always apply again or submit other books later on. There are also less competitive options to market your work on BookBub, like the weekly New Releases for Less newsletter, BookBub Ads, or creating your author profile where people can follow you and receive email notifications about your new books.
If you’re really out of luck, you can always try other book discovery services like Book Raid or The Fussy Librarian.
It can be scary to enter the world of marketing as a debut author, but worry not: if you follow these 5 tips and continue to learn as you apply new marketing strategies, you will be able to promote your book much more effectively and enjoy some well-deserved literary success!
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors with some of the world’s best editors, designers, marketers, ghostwriters, and translators. She lives in London.
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There is something innate within all aspiring writers and novelists who feel unable to say "I’m a writer" until something is published. The fact is, if you’re writing, you’re already a writer.
Battling that inner imposter is a daily struggle for most of us. It seems so hard to attribute that job title to yourself because it makes you feel vulnerable, perhaps even arrogant, and invites immediate judgement.
You can’t go around saying you’re a brain surgeon and then start operating on people, but writing is different. Writing rarely—unless you’re incredibly fortunate—becomes your day job for many years. But it is the most wonderful, Herculean achievement not only to be able to write, but to finish a novel.
Ahead of my debut being published on June 9th, I am often asked what advice I would give to others embarking on the writing journey. My pearls of wisdom are borne of my own experience and from the established authors who have generously dispensed their own precious knowledge. But it is different for everybody and there are no hard and fast rules.
My first tip is simply...
Easy to say, hard to do when the blank page is glowing brightly at you, burning holes in your retina. But once you start with an idea or a story, you’ve taken your first steps into a brave new world. If you carve out dedicated time daily, you will slowly but surely find a rhythm that suits you.
I set my alarm early and write for a couple of hours in the weekday mornings (almost) without fail, then tinker at my leisure at the weekends. I need that kind of structure, otherwise I will procrastinate, stare at the colour of the walls and create a mood board to redecorate the house instead.
Many people say you have to get X amount of words down per day, but for me it depends on my mood or where I am in my draft. If I’m at a dramatic or climactic part of the novel, I will keep going until my day job starts and then pick up when I’ve clocked off. On those particular days, the word count can be numbers I long for on the trickier days.
The point is to write something each day and you will make progress without addling your brain and burning out.
Other mornings, I re-read what I’ve done the day before or write character notes, plot ideas and think about the full arc of the story over endless pots of coffee.
Which brings me onto my next tip...
I am not a natural plotter much to my husband’s bafflement. He is a journalist and writer and cannot put pen to paper before having the whole thing mapped out.
When I was writing One Last Letter From Greece, I didn’t have an agent until I was three quarters of the way through my first draft, so I could merrily amble along where my characters led me, freely enjoying the story-telling process.
There were several moments, though, when I was stuck with the story because I hadn’t plotted where it was headed, which led to much angst-ridden wrangling and heated, exasperated conversations with my husband. It was almost tempting to give up. I got there eventually but it may have been the long way around, although I have no personal benchmark…yet.
Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
However, writing book two, which is part of my publishing contract, in order to save myself as much pain as possible, I had a beginning, middle and end before I started. But the 20,000 word wall is real for both books I’ve written.
To help, I started to plot five chapters ahead as I went along, keeping in mind the arc of the story. I found that saved me a world of agony.
That’s not to say I didn’t deviate from my best laid plan, but it gave me a structure which I respond well to.
The other colossal difference with book two is the added pressure of a publisher’s deadline, which is as motivating as it is terrifying.
You are not alone. Social media has a bad reputation and rightly so in many cases, but the writing community, especially on Twitter, is spectacular. It is filled with writers at various stages of their process and many established authors are happy to dispense brilliant advice to their readers and hopeful writers.
Agents and publishers often hold hashtag question sessions too, which can be helpful if you don’t know where to start with finding a home for your work.
The battle with imposter syndrome is real.
One of my friends who has sold millions of children’s books internationally still has it 24 novels in. When I was panicking about whether I could write a second novel, she said to me, “Now you’re in my world. Before I start my next book, I always work out how I can pay back the advance if it doesn’t go well. It happens every time, get used to it!” It brings a little comfort to know everyone endures such self-doubt.
A further nugget from another novelist chum who is writing her tenth, is to keep a writing journal, so you can remind yourself that you will get through it. I mentioned the 20k word wall, which can be 30k for some.
Then the halfway point panic, Is there enough story here to write the same amount again? And all those other pesky questions that plague your mind each time you start a new draft. It's likely you’ve experienced them before. With this journal you have a readymade reference point of reassurance. This is a brilliant idea and one I plan to adopt for book three… when I get through book two!
Wherever you write, whether it’s at home, a communal public place or even the beach, have a mood board, a play list or a candle to create your scribbling sanctuary wherever you roam. Fill a notebook with photos and quotes, taking it everywhere you go. Make it the bible for your book, so that when you open it, you are instantly immersed in the setting for your story.
I compile mood boards, collages of pictures that put me straight into the world I am creating.
I work from home anyway and my little home office is divided in two. Half is taken up with files and grown-up spreadsheets pinned to a cork board for my actual job, and the other is strewn with evocative pictures, post it notes and photographs of trips to Greece that inspire me. I can turn away from the serious part of the room, light a candle and transport myself to the little Greek village where my next book is set.
The old adage of "write what you know" is true but writing what you feel is critical.
Our responses to stories are similar to our responses to music: entirely subjective. Not everyone loves to read everything Margaret Atwood writes nor can listen to Leonard Cohen for hours.
That said, you want to have an emotional reaction from your reader. Whether it’s tears, joy or laughter, the goal is for your story to linger in the mind and that comes from emotion and feelings.
Bring your characters to three-dimensional life, bother your friends for their own experiences, call out on Twitter for anecdotes and take those morsels to weave into your story for authenticity.
Find your voice, a point of view and write those stories floating around your mind that are burning to get out. Believe you will find the agent and publisher who will champion your writing, having as much faith in you as you would wish to have in yourself.
It doesn’t make the feeling of being an imposter disappear, but it does give you the confidence to move forward through the exhausting and thrilling process of writing a novel.
No part of writing fiction is easy, nor is it quick, but the rollercoaster journey is unique to the individual. The only universal part is querying for an agent and being out on submission—those are both equally gut-wrenching and anxiety provoking. I refreshed my emails so many times I’m certain I got repetitive strain injury!
But the more you write, the better you become at honing your craft—at least that’s the hope. And what are we writers without hope, right?
Emma Cowell is the author of One Last Letter From Greece, to be published by Harper Collins, Avon on June 9th 2022 in e-book and paperback in all English speaking territories, except the US. In the US, One Last Letter From Greece will be published in e-book format on June 9th, and in paperback on November 22nd.
Connect with Emma Cowell on social media and on her website.
]]>Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
By Author Emily Holewczynski, @emilyholi13
So you want to create children’s books? Great! All you need are some silly words and a few pictures. How hard can it be, right? Wrong! If you’ve ever written a children’s book, you know that these stories are complex and layered—and it takes time to get them right.
But writing stories is just the beginning.
After you have your stories in hand, how do officially enter the intimidating arena of children’s literature, affectionately known as “kid lit”?
Below are 5 ways you can get your foot in the door.
Twitter is a great place to start. The kid lit community on Twitter is active and thriving, with new virtual meetings and groups being formed every day.
Not only can you “meet” and interact with fellow kid lit creators (and kid lit agents/editors, whose connections will become very valuable down the line!), you can also use Twitter to stay informed about current kid lit events—book releases, promotions, giveaways, courses, etc.
Plus, writing tweets is an art form in and of itself—a great challenge in self-editing, and reducing your word count!
Some great kid lit Twitter accounts to follow:
@PenguinRandom: Penguin Random House
@FeiwelFriends: A Children’s imprint of MacMillan publishing
@SCBWI: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Entering kid lit contests is a fun and exciting way to sharpen your kid lit writing skills. Most contests are themed, allowing entrants to explore new and interesting subgenres of kid lit. Winners receive bragging rights (great for your resume/Twitter bio) and otherwise out-of-reach prizes, such as chats with agents/editors and exclusive submission opportunities!
Contests are also a great way to meet and interact with other kid litters. Twitter is a good place to discover/research kid lit contests. Another option is to research favorite/popular kid lit authors’/illustrators’ blogs, and subscribe to those blogs for updates. Creators are constantly publicizing contests to stir up excitement for their fellow kid-litters!
Some fun kid lit contests to consider entering:
PB Party: Typically in February, PB Party is hosted by author Mindy Alyse Weiss and allows kid lit authors to submit a polished picture book manuscript portfolio to an exclusive board of agents with the goal of possible representation.
Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 Precious Words: Typically in March, this contest challenges writers to create a unique story with a beginning, middle, and end, using only fifty words.
Rate Your Story Summer Contest: Typically in August, this contest allows authors to submit manuscripts in the fiction, non-fiction, and young adult novel categories with the possibility of winning exclusive editorial/agent feedback and other prizes.
Kid lit mentorships allow applicants to work one-on-one (or in small groups) with established kid lit authors/illustrators to polish previously work-shopped manuscripts or picture book dummies.
This focused/uninterrupted time with industry professionals is invaluable to burgeoning kid lit creators! Mentorships are offered on a rolling basis, but generally tend to be seasonal (spring/summer and fall/winter).
Twitter is a good place to watch for mentorship application announcements, but general research will do the trick, too.
Some excellent kid lit mentorships to consider applying for:
Rogue Mentorship: Rogue Mentor is a volunteer-run program that provides flexible mentorship opportunities for kid lit (and adult) writers. These mentorships are assigned on a rolling basis and mentors are constantly changing, making this an excellent and dynamic program!
Write Mentorship: Write Mentor offers a comprehensive summer mentorship program that includes a full manuscript developmental edit as well as access to an agent showcase, if the mentee chooses to participate at the end of the program.
PB Chat Mentorship: PB Chat Mentorships also take place in the summer, with the goal of helping/educating writers and illustrators on their path to traditional publication of their picture books.
There are so many online communities dedicated to the development and promotion of kid lit! Serious authors should consider joining SCBWI first—the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is filled with incredible resources for kid lit lovers, as well as access to unique courses, critique groups, and organized events.
There are dozens of other online communities dedicated to perfecting the kid lit craft—do a little research, and choose the one that is right for you!
Some fun kid lit online communities to consider joining:
SCBWI: A must for all aspiring children’s authors/illustrators. This long-standing organization has every resource a kid lit creator could ask for, and so much more!
12x12 Picture Book Challenge: 12x12 is a year-long writing challenge with the goal of helping members complete12 picture book drafts. Members of the 12x12 community receive exclusive access to kid lit webinars, member critiques, and other awesome resources.
Storytellers Academy: This online writing community of children's book writers and illustrators is dedicated to crafting amazing stories. Membership to this community includes mini-classes, guides/checklists/workbooks, workshops, agent/editor events, and more.
When you feel like you’re ready—P.S., “ready” means that you have at least three polished picture book manuscripts/dummies that have been critiqued and peer-reviewed, and query letters to accompany each story—then, query on!
It can be scary to jump into the unknown world of querying, but sometimes, just going for it is best! If you find yourself swimming in a pool of rejections right away, take heart—all kid lit writers get rejected.
This might be a sign that a little more revision in necessary before querying further. Or not! Utilize the resources above and make the best decision for yourself. Above all, believe in yourself and push on.
Some querying resources to bookmark:
QueryTracker: This online database of literary agents is regularly updated to reflect which genres and which agents are/are not currently accepting queries. You can filter your search by genre type, which is helpful for kid lit-focused queries. This is a great way to track requests sent and a good jumping off point for researching compatible agents!
MSWL: Agents regularly update their specific literary preferences on this Official Manuscript Wishlist. The information that these agents provide is extremely helpful in deciding who to query, how to query them, and what relevant/specific information to include in your query letter!
Twitter: Many agents/editors take directly to Twitter when announcing a query-status change. Follow favorite literary agents and watch closely for these types of announcements!
Photo by Rendy Novantino on Unsplash
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A lot can be said about online learning. Though it can never exactly match up to in-person classes, it’s what helped the world’s students continue their education these past two years. Yet online education impacted them in other ways, as well. Most significantly, the Toronto Star reports that online learning reduces kids’ attention spans.
This is important news if you write stories for kids. It means you have to make your work even more engaging to grab and keep their focus on the page. But how exactly does one go about making kids’ stories more engaging? We list a few handy tips you can try.
All great kids’ stories rest on a solid foundation: they speak to the right audience. Different age groups respond best to stories structured in a particular way. This usually depends on the average reading level for their age, which in turn is based on brain development and how much they can comprehend at that point in time.
The age group you choose to write for will determine how simple or intricate your story should be—and cater to the interests and engagement levels of your intended readers.
For example, toddlers are more likely to be drawn in (no pun intended) by colourful, illustrated picture books. Kids aged 6-9 are better equipped to tackle chapter books, while those aged 5-8 may prefer easy-to-read books that fall into the gap between picture and chapter books.
And as exemplified by the wildly-popular and successful young adult or YA genre—now boosted globally thanks to a realm of TikTok referred to as BookTok—readers in the 12-18 age group love immersing themselves in stories with more complex plots and themes.
One of the best ways to grab a kid’s attention is by introducing familiar elements to your story. Classic tales usually form the basis of students’ literacy, in large part because of school curricula, and many tales are universal in their appeal across countries and cultures.
Africa- and India-based school network Bridge International Academies, which provides its students with accessible digital versions of stories ranging from The Princess and the Pea to Treasure Island, exemplifies this.
Taking inspiration from these stories’ themes, plots, and even character traits can help your audience feel like reading your story is sort of like coming home—comfortable and familiar.
One way you can tackle this is by providing a fresh take on already-famous works. The Enola Holmes series is a good example: the titular character is revealed to be the younger sister of famed detective Sherlock Holmes.
Kids have wild imaginations, so yours should be the same.
Unique and memorable worlds and characters encourage your readers to let their minds run free as they read.
These will also stick firmly in their memory, which is great for engagement. Alice’s Wonderland, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and The Land of Oz are just some great examples of worlds that drew you in as a kid and that you now look back fondly upon as an adult.
Meanwhile, the characters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are out of this world: chewing gum champion Violet, spoiled rich kid Veruca, food-lover Augustus, and video game enthusiast Mike. All had major character flaws compared to Charlie, which served to make the story both memorable and relatable to kids.
You can also make characters that readers can see themselves in. Phùng Nguyên Quang’s My First Day is one such title that pays homage to Vietnamese kids and how, like all other kids, they can make simple tasks like walking to school a wonderful adventure.
In How To Hook Your Readers, we mentioned how crucial it is to use language that makes readers feel like your equal and not your inferior. Using language that mirrors their own makes your story easier for kids to keep reading.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’s use of repetitive language is a favorite of young kids who are still establishing their speaking skills and building up their vocabularies. Conversely, you can use more complex phrasing with older audiences. The Kite Runner, which is recommended for kids in 9th grade and higher, contains sentences like this:
"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”
One important thing to remember: write in a straightforward manner. Tangential writing in adult-oriented works can add color to your story, but it might make kids restless. This is important if you want to engage younger readers.
Writing engagingly for kids can be tricky. By calling out your own kid-at-heart and taking notes from the greats, you’ll be well on your way to creating your own great story. For more tips do check out our other articles on So You Want to Write.
Jennifer Birch is a freelance writer who specializes in pieces relating to literature. With a strong affinity for kids and books alike, she enjoys writing about ways to merge the two.
Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo by Catherine Hammond on Unsplash
]]>By Author Ivan Serrano
Writer’s block. Every writer fears it, and every writer will inevitably have to face it. The dreaded feeling that nothing you put on paper is good enough. The anxiety you feel when faced with writer’s block is enough to trap you in a loop of struggling to figure out what to write and then deciding what you’ve written isn’t good enough and starting over.
Writer’s block is stressful, scary, and frustrating. Fortunately though, writer’s block isn’t permanent and there are ways it can be dealt with. This article will cover some of the common causes of writer’s block as well as how to break it.
Before we can break through our writer’s block, we need to know what is causing it. The three most common causes of writer’s block are timing, fear, and perfectionism.
If you ever feel that your ideas just need a bit more time in the oven before they are ready to be put to paper, then timing is likely what is causing your writer’s block. This can be especially frustrating when your writing must be complete by an upcoming deadline.
Though you may not feel completely happy with any of the ideas floating around in your head, the truth of the matter is that even half-baked ideas can lead to fantastic writing.
Fear is another common reason for writer’s block. Writers can often struggle with the same fear that artists deal with concerning their work. It can be intimidating to throw something you created into the public eye where it can be viewed and critiqued by anyone who comes across it.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
In many ways, it can feel like people are critiquing you as a person, which is scary. This fear can cause us to freeze up, even if we’re confident in what we’ve written.
Writer’s block can also be caused by the desire to have what we write be perfect. Many writers are perfectionists that will scrutinize every last sentence they write until they are happy with the final product. This is a good quality to have in most situations, but it can also place undue pressure on a writer’s shoulders.
Remember, not everything you write will be perfect, and that’s just fine. You can always revisit something you’ve written at a later point and refine it, but what’s important is that you get your ideas on paper.
Now that we know some of the most common causes of writer’s block, let’s take a look at some ways to overcome it.
The environment you write in has a huge impact on your creativity and productivity. You should have a workspace dedicated solely to writing. This is important because your brain associates activities with the settings they are typically done in. For instance, working from your bed can be difficult because your brain recognizes it as the place where you sleep or relax.
Once you have chosen a dedicated writing space, you can begin making it feel comfortable. All that is important is that you feel your workspace is conducive to writing. What that means is entirely up to you though.
If you work best from a personal office where you can lock the door and remove all distractions, then do that. If you feel motivated by background music and aren’t bothered by the constant noise of a coffee shop, then write there.
The characters you create are arguably the most important element of your writing. They are what bring life to your story and make your writing relatable. They are also one of the most complex elements of any story, making them difficult to write about sometimes. In fact, writing character descriptions is one of the most common situations for a writer to feel stuck.
Instead of creating characters as the story progresses, consider creating them beforehand. Make a list of characters you may want to include in the story before even considering how they will interact.
For each character write out a description that includes what their names are, what they look like, what they wear, and even what their basic personality traits are.
When you’re done, what you’ll have is a cheat sheet that you can refer to as your story unfolds. This way you can focus all of your creative energy on how these characters interact rather than their appearance.
Writing is a skill, and just like any other skill, the only way to become better at it is to practice, practice, practice. Make a habit of going to your writing space every day and writing something—anything. This practice is recommended by nearly every training consultancy that deals with writing.
Consider setting a daily writing goal to reach every time you sit down to write.
This could mean reaching a daily word count or simply writing for a certain amount of time every day. Adhering to a writing routine will slowly help you discover ways to keep writing, even if it’s difficult.
If you’re struggling with deciding what to write about, then consider finding a writing prompt from someone else. A simple Google search will give you hundreds of writing prompts covering dozens of topics. This is a good start, but a lot of the prompts you find might be pretty basic or vague.
The subreddit r/WritingPrompts has over 15 million users that share their original writing prompts. You can also share what you wrote for the prompt in the comments alongside other Redditors.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
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By Author Abigail Geiger
Should I tell you a secret?
Finishing novels gets easier.
Crazy, right? Many established authors and experienced writers will try to tell you differently, but that’s because they’ve forgotten that first project. The one that they slogged through, that never had an end in sight, that had them questioning their ability to even finish this ridiculous monstrosity, because, obviously, they’d never done it before.
Finishing novels gets easier.
Honestly? Even finishing that second novel is easier. Once you’ve got one under your belt, suddenly you have a misplaced, wildly disproportionate confidence in yourself. You’ve tackled 90,000 words before. Who’s to say you can’t do it again?
Every story is different, every book needs another approach, but the courage and tenacity to finish a project is a skill that is strengthened with practice. For those of you who are struggling with that first win—or who need a boost to continue after years of finishing projects—here are my top ten tips for finishing your novel.
Writing 10,000 words in one coffee-induced, adrenaline-pumped, burn-through-or-die session is great. Writing 1,000 words a day with a consistent routine is better.
10,000 words won’t finish your book for you, especially if you burn yourself out and don’t write again for six months. Books are finished through consistent, focused effort—although the burn sessions do feel more exciting.
New ideas are the number one killer of novels. One minute you’re slogging your way through the ‘messy middle,’ the next you’re chasing after a shiny new idea with cooperative characters, no major plot holes, and a world that doesn’t make you want to bang your head against the desk until you pass out.
I’ll let you in on a secret though.
That shiny new idea will have plot holes. And a messy middle. And stubborn, bull-headed characters that refuse to be anything but flat and uninteresting.
Every story has its problems, and working through the next idea will be just as frustrating as this one. Quitting in the middle because of plot holes becomes a habit that you will find hard to break later on.
Where is this story taking you? Do you have an end in mind? Do you know what your mid-point is? Where the third act starts?
I am not a huge fan of outlining in the first draft—usually I like to see where the story takes me and work on structure later—but there are four things I always like to know before I leap into actually writing.
The beginning, the event that marks the first quarter, the event that marks the midpoint, the third quarter, and the climax. Where we start the story, what happens as a result of that, and how it ends.
When I first started—seriously —writing, I knew one thing for certain. I was going to be the best of the best. I wasn’t going to just be a writer. I was going to be one of the writers. I was going to be so good that nobody could ignore me.
Was it completely arrogant and farfetched to think I could make it that far?
Probably.
Did it give me a vision that kept me writing, which eventually landed me a job in the industry?
Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Absolutely.
Have a vision. Know where you want to go, why you want to go there, and what’s waiting at the end for you.
Without a real purpose, it’s far too easy to justify not bothering with your story this week, or this month, or this year.
Word count goals. Chapter goals. Page goals. Time goals. Something that will result in you reaching a milestone and getting a little rush of endorphins. Something that reminds you that this book is not endless, you are making progress, and the end will come.
Eventually.
Writing a book is a bit like climbing a mountain. (Which I can say from experience, because I have climbed a total of two actual real life mountains and am obviously an expert.) If you only focus on the end result, it becomes overwhelming. Sometimes, you need a few wins along the way.
This is an important one, and one I’ve only recently begun to acknowledge. I can write 4,000 plus words in a day if I really, really push. Maybe even 5,000.
But, the next day—and probably the day after too—I will be fried. I will get very little—or nothing—done. I have used up my creative energy and pushed myself past the place where I was able to recover easily.
However, if I write 1,500 to 3,000 words, it becomes a rhythm. I can do it five days a week, and they’ll probably be significantly better words than if I forced myself over my limit.
Sprinting is all very well. But if you’re writing a book, you’re in for the long haul. You’ve signed up for the marathon, and you need to pace yourself. Know your limits and stick to them.
This is a ‘before-you-start’ kind of tip, but I think it’s worth mentioning anyway. Not every story is a novel. Not every idea is worth writing. Generally, I like my stories to simmer in the back of my mind for a good long time before I write them, although I have been persuaded otherwise a time or two.
I always pay for it with mountains of revisions.
Typically, before you start, it's smart to take a few minutes to vet your idea to make sure it has the staying power to make it to a full novel.
Do you have a protagonist? Is there a conflict that can’t be resolved with a simple conversation or a few pages of strongly worded reprimands? Does your protagonist have a driving need, something that will get them through two hundred plus pages of action and dialogue?
Do you have a world you actually like and want to write in? Do you have a climax? An antagonist? A problem to solve?
If you take the time to answer these questions before you start, you may head off a few of the duds that will wind up tucked in a drawer somewhere, never again to see the light of day.
I have to remind myself of this particular tip every time I sit down with a new story. Don’t write to finish. Write to enjoy. You’ve got a long road ahead of you, and if you only care about the last chapter, you’ll never reach it.
Let it be the most terrible, awful, tumbled-over mess of wooden, uninteresting words that you have ever written or read in your entire life. Let it be full of cliches and stilted dialogue and plot holes and characters that are basically just paper dolls with fancy hats.
It only needs to be written.
A full novel with 90,000 horrible, awkward words will teach you so much more than one chapter filled with elegant prose, a dynamic character, and perfect metaphors. Quit tweaking that first sentence and write the next chapter.
You can rewrite later.
I promise.
Writing a novel takes a long time. Building a career as a writer takes even longer. It takes persistence and patience and the ability to be the most bull-headed kind of person that you can imagine.
I like to tell people that my best trait as a writer is my obsessive stubbornness. It takes an enormous amount of effort to convince me to walk away from a project, because if I started it, by golly, I am going to finish it.
Again, writing a novel takes a long time. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, or a 30 day challenge—although a few people will probably be annoyed with me for saying so—or a quick weekend project.
It’s a long, slow discovery. An adventure, with time to hone your craft as a writer and time to explore your world as a creator.
Don’t rush it. Settle in with some tea, light a candle, and let the journey from the first page to the last shape who you are as a writer.
]]>Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
By Author Elana Mugdan
If you’re an author in the query trenches, chances are you’ve been through the ringer this past year. Querying has never been a picnic, and the pandemic has exacerbated the problems with the process.
Compound the inherent difficulties of querying with the challenging state of the world, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. With rejections and terrible news piling up around us, how can we protect and preserve our mental health?
Below are some tips that have helped keep me sane (mostly) while in the query trenches.
Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? After all, if you take breaks, how will you finish all the work you need to do?
That’s a toxic mindset. We’ve been trained to think that we must be productive every second of every day, but you can’t be productive if you’re exhausted. If you keep querying in spite of it making you miserable, you might be doing more harm than good.
Take a breath, step back, and give yourself time to recuperate your energies. You’ll return to the process refreshed and ready to rock!
Writing is a solitary process, but querying doesn’t have to be. If you’re feeling lonely or dejected, it might be a good idea to seek out others in the same phase of the journey. Twitter, Facebook, and Discord all have thriving writing communities, and finding a group of query buddies can make all the difference.
Whether you’re looking for folks who can help you navigate the daunting task of finding agents, or whether you just want to commiserate with others who know the struggle, writing support groups can help you survive your low days.
While being part of the writing community is an amazing experience, it can also, at times, feel overwhelming. There’s pressure to always put on a happy face, to share good news and sweep failures under the rug.
When your timeline is filled with the cherry-picked highlights of everyone’s journeys, it can make you feel like you’re falling behind. Sometimes you might even feel a twinge of jealousy when someone announces a book deal or a contest win.
We all have these thoughts at some point. It doesn’t make you a terrible person — it makes you human. Give yourself a break, and allow yourself to feel your feelings instead of trying to bottle everything up. Write something cathartic, vent to a friend, or treat yourself to ice cream.
If seeing others’ highlight reels (and comparing them to your behind-the-scenes footage) is making you anxious, then it might be time to…
Stepping away from your social accounts could give you the hard reset you’ve been looking for. Being offline for a month, a week, or even a day can help you regain a healthier mindset.
It has other benefits, too — taking a hiatus from Twitter or TikTok can free up hours previously spent doomscrolling, allowing you to relax. Or, if you’re like me and you’re allergic to relaxing, it can free you up to be productive, instead.
Again, this might seem counterintuitive, but it helped me find my peace. My querying journey was particularly disheartening, because I wrote an #ownvoices story that no one in publishing wanted to touch with a twenty foot pole. I beat myself up in every imaginable way, from thinking I was a terrible writer to questioning the validity of my identity.
Ultimately, I had to remind myself that publishing is a business. Publishers exist to make money, and in an uncertain economy, they don’t want to take risks. Agents exist to sell books, and they can only do that if they feel like they’re capable of selling what you’ve written. Even if an agent loves your story, sometimes they know they wouldn’t be its best champion.
Rejections aren’t a reflection of your writing ability — more importantly, they are not a reflection of your self-worth. Publishing is a subjective industry, and in the end, it’s the business side that counts more than the artistic side.
Don’t let rejections kill your love of writing. And even if things seem bleak, please don’t give up on your story. Your “yes” is coming sooner than you think!
Elena Mugdan is the bestselling author of The Shadow War Saga. Her next book Dragon Empress will be published May 2022. Connect with her on Twitter @dragonspleen.
Want advanced tips for boosting creative confidence, reducing distractions, and overcoming writer's block? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo by Christian Erfurt on Unsplash
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By Author Julee Balko
Whether you’re thinking about self-publishing or working with a publisher – indie, hybrid or traditional – the next step you encounter after publication is likely to be a tough one: Marketing.
Yep, you need to tell people about your novel. Lots of people. In many places. And often. Keeping up that momentum can tire out even the most caffeinated writer.
That’s why it’s good to start thinking about marketing even as you’re still polishing up your manuscript. Here are some useful tips to keep in mind for each marketing stage:
When you finish your novel, screaming loudly about it will come easily. After all, you just accomplished a huge goal and you’ll want to let every human you know hear about it.
Go ahead, tell your family, friends, and even that ex you want to make regret dumping you. In the excitement phase, you should push your personal and professional network to the limits.
Here’s a rubric I used: Is the person breathing? If so, then tell them about your novel.
I’m not saying you are going to spam people every day with novel news. I’m just saying that your network is a powerful and easy way to get the word out. So why not encourage them to help spread your book news?
Start thinking now about all the people who can lend you support once your book gets published. Make a list. Seriously, write names down and what social media platform they are on. You’ll want to have support on every platform.
BIG AWKWARD HINT: When the time comes, you will literally need to ask people to share your posts. This is important. And this is the part that can feel icky: YOU NEED TO BE DIRECT.
As a writer, I’d rather stay home with my dog than look people in the eye, so this was hard for me at first. But I realized if I didn’t say, “Hey can you share this post about my novel,” people would just like it and move on.
So yes, I’m encouraging you to use your grandma to the fullest. Especially if she’s on Facebook and in a book club. (For the record, I did a lot of book clubs through friends and family.)
If you’re thinking, how many social platforms do I really need to be on? The simple answer is: As many as you feel comfortable with. But the real answer is: Many.
Depending on what platform you are using, you’ll have to tailor your messaging accordingly. And don’t discount professional sites like LinkedIn.
While this is a tricky platform to get right if you have a job unrelated to writing, you can always post while giving some love to your daytime job. I’m a freelance writer by day, so I knew I needed to assure my regular clients that my novel was an exciting extension of what I do, and that I’d still be available for them.
And while initially I was a bit hesitant about sharing on LinkedIn, I knew my professional network was very different from my other social platforms. Sharing turned out to be good for extending book sales and even inspired a few older clients to reach back out for freelance writing.
Releasing a book will be a flood of feelings and marketing efforts. It will also feel like being pulled in 300 directions all at once. But any weariness will be a good sign that you are on the right marketing track.
A writer recently reach out to me during her debut week and said, “Am I supposed to feel this emotionally exhausted?” Yes.
During your first push of marketing, your book should be as many places as you can be. And this means going beyond social posts, reviews, blogs, giveaways. It means stepping away from the comfort of writing and embracing the awkwardness of…talking.
Speaking engagements for many writers are hard. (Yeah, I just raised my hand.) But we all need to do it. Podcasts, IG live, book signings, reading, booktok, book club author meet and greets – wherever you can share your story. You’ll want to do it.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
If you found writing the synopsis of your book difficult, explaining it can be more daunting. So, start practicing. Rando asks you at a party what your book is about? Great. Tell them.
The more you explain it, the easier it becomes. And don’t worry, once your book gets published, you can ask for podcast questions beforehand so you can feel smooth at the start.
Practice talking about your novel to your dog. Dogs don’t judge. Cats might.
Besides pushing yourself to uncomfortable limits and filling up your calendar, why else is this stage so tiring?
Every week you should be doing something to promote your book.
And that means supporting those endeavours with content. And if you’re an indie author like me, that means budgeting time to plan ahead, since I work full time too.
For instance, doing a takeover for an online Facebook book club is fun and an amazing way to talk directly with readers, but it also means creating engaging posts and marketing materials to go with them.
You should learn a site like Canva, where you can whip up some posts with your book or your gorgeous face on it, but you should also know a site like Unsplash where you can grab imagery related to your book that’s free to use. I like free. Free works well with my budget.
Start playing and getting comfortable with sites like this now. You will need to create endless content and imagery for your book. Begin highlighting key calendar dates your book might correspond to.
For example, my novel features a scientist who studies breast cancer so I knew I’d want posts during breast cancer awareness month. My book talks about grief, so grief awareness day is also important.
When you start to feel like even you are tired of seeing your book, that means you’re doing a great job. Now will come the most important part – learning. (If you score a big fancy well-established publisher you maybe be able to skip this part. Also, let’s be friends.)
Your sales data on Amazon will become your compass. You can check it to see if there are any spikes in your sales that correspond with your efforts. It was really easy for me to see when I ran my bookbub promo, since I saw a huge lift in eBook sales. I could see that when I did a blog tour, there was a solid increase in sales.
But strategy isn’t just about sales. It’s also about engagement.
What posts are doing well? Did certain images get more shares? Your social channels will also give you instant feedback on what messaging is working. Pay attention. Write it down. You will forget.
As an author who funds her own marketing efforts, I have a small wallet. So, I like to learn what’s worth it and what isn’t. I also like to share what works with other authors; we’re all in this together, you know.
Speaking of other authors, do you have any that you are jealous of? Perfect. Pay attention to what they’re doing. Your jealousy can lead you to sales.
Write down any award, article, reviewer, blog, podcast, whatever they are doing that you want to do. Then you’ll have a list that you know you want to do too. I learned about a lot of opportunities this way! Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to your nemesis and ask them specifically about something.
When I saw a recent debut author’s book being shared EVERYWHERE in places I was very jealous of, I wrote them. And asked for their secret. Turns out their secret was a publicist. And I now have their name, which I’m considering using for my next novel.
Why?
Because the one thing I learned most during all these stages of marketing is that you can never have too much coffee, or too much support.
Julee Balko is a freelance writer, advertising guru, and recent debut author of the novel: The Things We Keep. You can learn more about her by visiting her website here, and you can purchase her novel here. Julee just finished her second novel, The Me List, and is looking for a literary agent and publisher who loves women’s fiction and rescue dogs as much as she does.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash
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There is an abundance of information in books and online about how to research for a novel. Many writing books only discuss the topic peripherally, in sections focusing on character, theme, setting, or viewpoint. There are mentions of research in chapters examining the craft of writing, or planning.
Research, it is claimed, is a poor substitute for what you have experienced yourself. Online sources indicate how to keep notes, 5 steps to research, 7 steps or 7 tips, 21 steps, 9 key strategies, or other such itemized approaches.
But this article is about the process of research through direct and indirect experience, a case study with a focus on indirect experience.
So, what is direct and indirect experience, anyway?
Direct experience is life experience. You have gone places and done things in your life, and this is researching your topic through direct experience. If you have direct experience, how do you begin transcribing those experiences and making them interesting, coherent, and structured enough for a novel?
Indirect experience can be studying life during a specific time in history where direct experience is not possible. So, in that case, what do you do? Where do you start?
To take your memories and create the basis for a novel, you can begin by looking at your own unique past.
Novels created from direct experience can be very unique.
I lived and worked in Ecuador, South America for a year. This formed the basis of my first two novels, Poor Man’s Galapagos, and Abundance of the Infinite.
In Poor Man’s Galapagos, Tómas Harvey is an irrigation engineering student living on a small, impoverished island in Ecuador. His father is a renowned British travel writer who has travelled to many of the places I have visited. Many of the characters are conglomerations of people I knew there.
I was once locked in the university where I worked, along with students who were protesting against the president of the country. Tear gas bombs were being tossed inside by an armoured military vehicle. Burning tires lined the streets to prevent entry into the small town of Portoviejo. This forms the opening for my novel.
Abundance of the Infinite is about a psychologist who travels from Toronto to a small coastal fishing town in Ecuador. It is a story about the blurred line between lucid dreams and reality in a place so utterly foreign as the tropical rainforest through which I, and the main character, travelled.
Even with direct experience, some research is still required. This leads in to the next section…
In my latest novel, Intervals of Hope, the main character Nicholas lives with his mother and brother in London, England between the world wars. His father served with the First Battalion, First Canadian Regiment in the trenches of the Great War, and worked in the coal mines of South Leeds. This may seem, at first glance, like daunting research.
In beginning this research, I had the looming question later posed to me in the book launch. How many other books are out there set in the same time and place, and what makes mine different? So these are questions you should keep in mind.
As I answered in my book launch, there were some crime novels that took place in England between the wars, and some mass-market type books with scenes in that time period such as Ken Follett's Fall of Giants and Winter of the World. These were published within the last decade or so. A London Family Between the Wars, published in 1940, was written as a memoir but had a lot of interesting details.
So, I didn’t find a lot of interesting literary fiction set between the wars that explored the fascist movement in Britain at the time, the conditions leading England to war, the stories of the coal miners (although George Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier was appealing), as well as the reality of those who chose to escape their countries in a time of war, and the homing call for them to return and fight.
A key to the uniqueness of Intervals of Hope is the examination of the father-son relationship during that tumultuous time, given that the main character’s father was a WWI veteran, and the novel’s examination of the effect his father’s legacy had on his son as WWII loomed and ultimately took shape.
As the novel starts in London, England between the wars, that's where I started my research. I read books such as the history of London (which was long and quite dry, highly recommended for insomniacs) and In the News, a book of newspaper clippings from 1930-1939. And George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier about life in the coal mines of South Leeds.
A 1930s scrapbook showed common household items and magazines of the time. And Inside Europe by John Gunther, the October 1938 edition. That is a rare book, published just before WWII broke out, so it showed what the state of Europe was at that time without any skewed historical lens.
So, where does your novel start? Perhaps your non-fiction research can start there.
Look for unconventional books, rare books that can help you put a unique spin on the world you are attempting to create.
But what of fictional influences? I read other books of fiction before and during the writing of the novel, and these are listed below.
What fiction has influenced you to write the novel you are working on? Re-reading them might provide some fresh insights and inspiration, and infuse your book with renewed vitality.
Timothy Findley's The Wars. This was an interesting literary novel exploring the effects that WWI had on an empathetic main character. I once met with a publisher who said that Intervals of Hope shouldn't be published because The Wars was done so well. I disagree with his assessment, as under that presumption all writers should put their pens down based on the excellence of what's been done before.
Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road. Joseph drew upon family stories from his grandfather and uncle, who served as soldiers during WWI. For Intervals of Hope, I was provided with eighty-five letters, which were sent home during WWI by my great-grandfather. These letters were discovered in a family attic, and form part of the novel.
Ken Follett's Fall of Giants and Winter of the World. This is a mass-market, sprawling epic focused on an assortment of characters in WWI and WWII. With the epic scope, the inner life of the characters was not explored in great detail, which is what I was after in my novel. However, these books provided interesting aspects of these times.
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Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Robert Jordan was an explosives expert with a mission to destroy a bridge in the Spanish Civil War. Pablo, the anti-fascist guerilla leader, and his wife Pilar are excellent secondary characters. A real inspiration.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. A very funny book set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of a bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him.
Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry about Henry Smart in the Irish Rebellion, which was quite comical at times. Well written, lively, not one I would have sought out but a reading suggestion from the publisher as I was engaging in rewrites. This is a real study in unique and bold characterization.
Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage was published thirty years after the American Civil War had ended, by a man who was born after the war. It was acclaimed for its realism by veterans of the war. So maybe you are attempting something similar with your novel, and it may be worth a read.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, about WWI from the German perspective. The idealism of youth turns sour from what they see and experience. Another story similar to The Wars, exploring the effect of war on the individual.
There was also a book on Canadians who deserted the battlefields during WWI, which I found interesting and which forms part of the conflict that two of the characters face in the novel.
So, that was my reading list. What is yours? Think about allocating space on your bookshelf for a reading list pertaining to your current novel. Refer to your books from time to time. Seek inspiration from them when needed. Immerse yourself in the world you are attempting to create.
Reading for research and inspiration is essential, to which any author can attest. Read what has been done before. Learn why it is considered great.
But what else gives authenticity and life to your novel?
In the course of writing Intervals of Hope, I wanted to get some details right. So, I contacted a man named George Sharp who lived in London, England between the wars. I was able to read his story online, and ask him questions about his life at that time.
Unlike the novel’s main character, George was a police officer. But he provided a lot of good input, clarifications, and details, and he seemed interested in sharing his memories and experience.
A key element of the novel is the father-son relationship. But originally, the father was not fully formed. He was a stale character, lacking any substance that would make for conflict between him and his son.
But then, I read about a man named Gordon Schottlander in a local newspaper. Gordon was a veteran of WWII who lived in London, England between the wars, and his father was a soldier in WWI. This paralleled the novel’s main character. So, I reached out to Gordon and he graciously agreed to be interviewed for the book. We had many wonderful conversations that I will always remember.
He attended the book launch. He read the book, and enjoyed it. There will be an interview with him and the publisher online, which is scheduled for early next month. Gordon was highly-trained as a British Commando, a special operations force formed by Churchill to engage in secretive and dangerous missions.
He was a commissioned officer who stormed the beaches on D-Day. He is an amazing and humble man and it's been a blessing to know him. And a lot of his story comes through in the book.
Gordon sharing his experiences with me enriched the novel in countless ways: his wartime experiences, living in London in the 1930s, and Gordon's relationship with his father. This is part of what provides the book with authenticity and makes it unique.
Look for opportunities that you may have to interview those who have lived the life of your characters, or can provide you with unique perspectives that will enrich your novel and bring it to life.
When searching for historical documents, look to libraries and public archives. Seek them out within your own family.
Look to others you know, or individuals you can contact about your subject. Pursue opportunities to obtain unknown historical documents.
While writing Intervals of Hope, I learned that eighty-five letters sent home during WWI by my great-grandfather, Wilfrid Littlejohn, had been discovered in a family attic. Wilfrid was in E Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade and was one of the first Canadians to be sent overseas and among the last to return. He was one of 70 out of 1000 men in his regiment to have survived.
The letters were sent home to Wilfrid's parents, his brother, and his aunt from the trenches, hospitals and camps. Some sections of the letters were scribbled over by censors who would review the letters prior to sending them.
Letters were censored during WWI to prevent the enemy from obtaining secret information about upcoming battles, numbers of troops in specific locations, etc. so I had to surmise what might be in those sections.
When I received the letters, they were digitized and arranged chronologically. So, I read through and then transcribed them. When looking at what to include in the novel, I went through what effect certain letters would be on the main character at specific points in his life, knowing what was happening in his country in the 1930s in England, and what was occurring in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan.
Seek out opportunities to find such documents to be utilized within your novel, or as reference or research material. Such documents can prove to be invaluable.
Travel can not only add realism to your novel through details, but it can also inspire you to get to the business of writing!
I travelled to London England many times and went around the city as the main character would have, visiting most of the places he frequented in the book. I took notes as I walked around, carefully documenting my surroundings and how these may have been perceived by the characters in the novel.
This helped inspire the story by allowing me to experience part of the life of the main character, and others.
Good research lends credibility to your work, and gives the reader the feeling of direct experience. Imagine your readers feeling that they have lived the life of your characters as they read your book, and have therefore had a direct experience. What about that for a goal?
As a last word, given direct or indirect experience, you will still need to:
Now, get that novel going!
]]>Want to write better short stories? Sign up for a 1-on-1 consultation with our short story expert, Author Tevis Shkodra.
So you’ve finally finished that manuscript and ready to start querying. For writers, the querying process is like a personal Everest. How does a writer conquer the proverbial slush pile, the numerous literary agencies and agents to choose from and get their manuscript to stand out?
There is no easy way up that mountain, but what you can do is prepare for the tough climb ahead. We’ve compiled a list of resources every querying writer should check out. Read on to find out what you need to know to get your submission in the best shape possible.
How to sift through all the agents and literary agencies out there? Manuscript Wish List is a comprehensive searchable database of literary agents and editors who advertise the types of manuscripts they’re looking for.
You can find out more about agents or editors by doing a search using a number of criteria, such as genre, agent / editor name, or keywords. Each agent and editor has a full profile with details about the kinds of manuscripts they represent, what they like and don’t like.
Before sending off that query letter, make sure you have all the information to keep you safe. Since 1998, Writer Beware tracks, exposes and raises awareness on schemes, scams and questionable practices in the publishing industry so that writers can protect themselves.
They maintain a database of questionable literary agents, publishers, independent editors, writers’ services, contests, publicity services and more. They also offer a free research service for writers with questions about agents, publishers and more.
Similar to Writer Beware, Preditors and Editors provides advice and warnings on editors and agencies, giving information on scams, controversies or legitimacy of an agency or individual.
The website is currently down as they transition to take on new staff and volunteers. In the meantime, they’re mostly active on Facebook, and working toward publishing a guide on navigating the writing world.
Unsure about a literary agency or agent? Absolute Write is a community that hosts forums for writers to discuss all sorts of topics. But the most useful forums are the threads about specific agents / agencies. You can find out what other writers are saying or have experienced with a certain agency by doing a simple search.
With 20 years in the publishing business, Jane Friedman’s award-winning blog is a great resource for writers in different stages of their careers. Not sure how to start writing the dreaded query letter? Friedman has provided a step-by-step guide on the elements of a query letter, including the red flags to watch out for and a submissions strategy.
To find out what works or doesn’t work in a query letter, who better to hear it from than a literary agent? Query Shark is run by a literary agent that critiques actual query letters readers have sent. It has posts dating back to 2004, so there’s no shortage of examples to learn from.
QueryConnection is a community for writers to connect with other writers and share their submission and publication materials for critique. From time to time, they host editor critiques and members get a chance to ask questions to mentors and genre moderators who are established writers themselves.
Query Tracker helps writers keep track of their queries. You can easily see and record how many queries you’ve sent and to whom, who has responded, rejected or accepted your query. But the most useful feature is probably the aggregated data Query Tracker has collected on each agent, based on the members’ experience on the site.
For example, you’d be able to see how many queries an agent has received, how quickly they respond, if they’ve accepted or rejected a query, what kind of manuscripts they’ve accepted or rejected and how they’ve rejected a query (a form rejection or a more personalized rejection).
Publishers Marketplace is largely driven by the Publisher’s Lunch newsletter, a daily dossier for publishing professionals. Publisher’s Marketplace publishes deals, dealmakers and sales insights. It also has a directory of agency information not found anywhere else.
More examples of successful query letters to give you an idea of how to write yours.
Though not technically a query letter, synopses are sometimes a part of the querying process. Writer Charlotte Dillon has gathered a few synopses from willing authors who successfully landed a deal with their synopses.
Yours truly, So You Want to Write has written a comprehensive guide for all stages of the querying process, from the research phase through to what to do after you land an agent, and of course, how to write a query letter.
]]>No manuscript should be sent out to query without a thorough revision. But sometimes hiring an editor is beyond our budget. Here's how to self-edit.
]]>If you’re reading this and you know it, clap your hands.
It is irrelevant whether you clapped. What matters is that you read the instructions—the marks on a page—and understood them. Isn’t language incredible? The knowledge conveyed in our words can transcend time and place (cue the head spin)!
If language is an evolution of our consciousness, the practice of writing is revolutionary. This assessment is not hyperbolic rhetoric; writers literally change language by exploring and informing the meaning of experience through metaphor.
But writers do not exist in a vacuum; communication requires connection. Writers reflect the world and are informed by it at the same time—no matter if that world begins at their own front door or in a galaxy far, far away.
Whether it is the first or the final draft, sharing our thoughts takes work—and a lot of rewriting!
An editor is a critical asset to a writer during the revision stages. Working with an editor saves you time (you want to write, right?) and helps improve your story—a win-win!
With more writers trying the self-publishing and indie publisher routes, collaborating with an editor is a good move for authors who are more concerned with telling a delightful story than with the commas incorrectly left in their wake. A determined editor will not rest until that copy is swept clean!
But an editor provides more than grammar checks.
There is flow to a story that exceeds the most advanced grammar app, and a professional editor will catch the errors, notice the omissions, and point out the opportunities for character development and plot twists that cannot be programmed into an algorithm. Our shared humanity is what makes the writer-editor pairing so powerful!
Given that editing a book requires resources, what can an author do to save money and time when preparing to publish?
Answer: Pre-clean your pages by learning how an editor thinks!
Informed by my experiences editing both fiction and non-fiction, I know three ways to improve your manuscript—and your literary reputation: remain attentive, stay consistent, and be intentional. Read on below to learn how I apply these principles to cut through what does not serve the story.
One way to improve a draft is to read and write with focused concentration. A responsible writer is an observant writer.
Use attention as a tool.
The mind’s ability to remember and imagine is a gift that writers can cultivate. Literature is a medium in which the famous doors of perception are cleansed (a la William Blake), and a writer’s options—the viewpoints—appear as infinite. Pushing the limits of infinity is where writers—and rock stars—can get into trouble.
Using attention as a tool gives a writer more options; your story can shift focus—it can zoom in, or zoom out. Is your omniscient narrator opening the scope for a panoramic viewpoint, or do you prefer to get all up in the protagonist's face? Would a shift in perspective or a greater magnification level help the reader better understand the protagonist’s struggle or the villain’s hang-up?
If so, be nimble and change things up; try something new. Consider a different point of view.
Beware the Head Hop
The power to be mobile within a story may lead to confused writing.
For example, while editing a 90,000-word novel, I noticed my client was shifting the point of view (POV) between several characters without warning, which is tricky in a fast-paced courtroom setting! By reworking those chapters to keep the POV with one character during each scene, the story became easier to follow.
Head hopping will give a reader whiplash. Do not do it unless you have an excellent reason for it. If you must head hop, avoid doing it within the same scene.
Editor’s Pro Tip: To check for head hops, use attention as a tool. This requires reviewing whether the narrative is possible for that character. For example, is this chapter from Fritzl-Roo’s POV? If so, Fritzl-Roo is not privy to what his buddy Thor is thinking. Unless he is an actual mind reader, Fritzl-Roo will not know what is in another character’s head!
Another way to improve a story is to make it logical. Do you want to break the rules? Sure, go ahead, but keep your unruliness consistent. A responsible writer is a reliable writer.
Consistency creates its own logic.
If you want to be a rebel, it is best to have a cause—and not deviate from it one hundred pages in! An editor will know if a writer is ignorant or intentional about the errors found in their copy. To decide whether rule breaking works for you, check your goals and check your style guide.
Goals and Guides
What is your publishing goal? Do you want to self-publish and flex the creative license, or do you plan to query literary agents? If you want to submit to traditional publishers or a magazine contest with rules and regulations, it is prudent to follow their submission guidelines.
It is also important to understand that guidelines, including the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), are living maps—the borders are not written in indelible ink. The rules are recommendations, and—as in life—nothing is immune to change.
Our evolving vocabularies reflect this dynamic state of being. Subsequently, no matter what publishing path is chosen, using consistency as a lens to edit will help reduce distractions to the reading experience.
When reviewing a client’s work, I create a style guide to keep the punctuation and spelling preferences consistent. For example, have you ever insisted upon using a variant spelling of a word (e.g., grey) over the standard usage (i.e., gray)? Do you have strong feelings about the serial comma?
Want to improve your book to boost your chances of becoming a published author? Book a Manuscript Review with Professional Editor Kerry Ambrose.
You may get pushback from your editor or publisher if you veer from the standard form, but it is a writer’s right to resist the rules trying to confine their writing; novels are experimental, right?
As for that serial comma, while it is not wrong to omit the punctuation (notably in British English), it is a writer’s duty to assess whether clarity is being sacrificed for a grammar preference.
If the goal of writing is to connect with a reader’s mind, the goal of editing is to cut the static on the line!
The Chicago Manual of Style Online notes: “There are times when using the comma (or omitting it) results in ambiguity, which is why it’s best to stay flexible.”
Staying flexible is sage advice! It is also good for a writer’s body! But some writers are stubborn—consistently stubborn. If being a rebel is your destiny, be ready to defend your choices. A style guide such as CMOS is a helpful reference source.
Beware Inauthenticity
Readers can more easily suspend judgment if the story remains authentic to its characters and setting.
For example, to enhance the credibility of a 75,000-word book involving an international crime syndicate, I flagged the inconsistencies that happened as the protagonist crossed political and identity boundaries.
In addition to correcting measurements of size, weight, distance, and speed (US Americans do not use the metric system!), I checked how salutations (e.g., madame, madam, and ma’am) and other cultural nuances differ based on the country setting (e.g., France, England, US, or the Caribbean).
There are so many ways that committing to authenticity can enhance a story! And yes, this also applies if your fictional main character is a supernatural being in a mythical world—a world with its own rules of physics, language, and customs.
By staying consistent, the lie will be logical, and a logical lie is believable.
Excuse the Machiavellian tone of that idea.
Editor’s Pro Tip: Enhance consistency in a text by getting to know Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage—especially if you wish to target US audiences and publishers. Merriam-Webster lists the common US English spellings of a word, and it also identifies a word’s variant spellings. CMOS states that it “normally opts for” the first spelling listed in Merriam-Webster.
The examples below show the different spelling and grammar:
An editor is a writer’s ally in sorting through the chaos of linguistics!
Writers will want to stay consistent in their writing so that their story comes across as authentic.
If you want to impress your future readers, do not insult who they are. “Do no harm” is a famous principal in medicine, but it also applies to artists. A responsible writer is an informed writer.
To reduce harm, question your intention.
Paying attention (Tip #1) and staying consistent (Tip #2) will help inform a writer’s decisions when telling their story. Although language is not as dangerous as a jaguar biting your jugular, words—written and spoken—can have very real impacts on your reader; this includes spiking cortisol levels, jumpstarting tears, eliciting belly laughs, and pulling heartstrings.
You can help reduce unintentional harm by being conscientious about the words you use. You can also reduce harm by challenging language conventions. Remember, writing is a revolutionary act.
Does this mean an artist should self-censor to spare their audience from emotional anguish? Or, conversely, can compassion and common decency be sidelined in a work of literature—for the art’s sake? That may depend on the aims of the artist and the work. A writer is in dialogue with their reader, so intention matters.
Beware Unconscious Biases
Writing reflects the writer and their world. If you are not being inclusive in your writing practice, why not? While a writer is not beholden to political correctness, checking your choices for insensitivity cannot hurt.
For example, if you insist on highlighting a character’s sexual orientation or other social identity, does the selected detail have a purpose in pushing the storyline?
Is your story perpetuating or undermining stereotypes about a people or place? Are you writing from your own experience, or are you writing on auto-pilot—without questioning your constructed worldview?
Feeling concerned—or hearing an editor’s concerns—about contentious content may signal the need to revise the scene, empower the character, or change the chapter’s POV to better serve the story.
One of my author clients recently did this by updating outdated clichés and revising a character’s backstory to disconnect it from an employment trope tied to gender, race, and class.
Those kinds of revisions are worth the effort. Why risk losing future sales because you insisted on using exclusionary language or stereotypes in your book? The way you write may show your unconscious biases.
Editor’s Pro Tip: Continue learning. In addition to attending webinars and lectures led by writers, editors, agents, and publishing experts with diverse lived experiences, check out emerging inclusive language tools to help identify terms, phrases, and titles that may be outdated in a progressive, pluralistic society.
Being inclusive is not a trend.
The Associated Press Stylebook, for example, updated its guide in 2017 to include the use of “they” as a nonbinary singular pronoun.
Words are a writer’s tools, so it is imperative to keep yours from getting rusty. For example, if you are writing about a specific place or time, using gendered terms (e.g., mailman and waitress) may apply to the setting; otherwise, choose gender-neutral job titles (e.g., mail carrier and server). Eliminating biased language is one way to reduce harm.
A writer is defined by their words, so it is critical to stay informed and be intentional about your choices.
As an editor, I recommend applying the following three tips to get a book ready for publication.
Tip #1 Stay aware. Use attention as a tool.
Tip #2 Be consistent. Commit to a story’s logic.
Tip #3 Question intention. Revise divisive language to reduce harm.
A responsible writer is observant, reliable, and informed.
A knowledgeable editor can help a writer avoid head hops, inauthenticity, and biased language.
Writing takes time, and rewriting takes even longer. These three tips will enhance the editing process and improve your writing practice. By reviewing and revising with these principles in mind, your final draft and your future readers will benefit.
Kerry Ambrose is a professional editor, and she started Ambrose Revisions, a book editing services business, during the pandemic.
Living in Toronto, Canada, Kerry is a former US Peace Corps volunteer and proud dual citizen; she has a BA degree in philosophy and an MA degree in social justice, and she knows a good degree about cooking through trial and error.
As a SYWW writer-coaching program alum, Kerry is thrilled to partner with So You Want to Write? Inc. as their In-House Editor.
]]>Want to improve your book to boost your chances of becoming a published author? Book a Manuscript Review with Professional Editor Kerry Ambrose.
By Author Georgi Todorov
Freelancers are in a unique position to both rejoice over the satisfaction they get from their work while simultaneously suffering mental health consequences as a result of that same work.
It's a sort of balancing act that over 1 billion people around the world have to do every day.
If you’re already a freelancer or considering freelancing part-time, it’s time to prepare for the emotional challenges this type of work can have on your mental health.
For many people, working for yourself is the best thing that ever happened. It offers a lot of benefits: you have full autonomy to manage your work hours, location independence, you can’t be pressured into taking on clients who aren’t right for you, and you have the freedom to say no when a client isn’t worth your time.
The downside of freelancing is that you don't have a company to lean on for social interaction and stability. You'll feel intense pressure when you have deadlines, find it difficult to detach from work, may suffer from imposter syndrome, be acutely aware of what needs to get done next - even when you're not working.
Freelance journalist Thea De Gallier perfectly summarises it with the following quote:
“I’d been so seduced by the millennial, Instagram-ideal of freelancing that I hadn’t considered the negatives: sporadic and unpredictable income, a big reduction in human contact, and over-reliance on the internet to cultivate relationships and find work.”
One of the most unfortunate things about poor mental health is that it’s inevitable if not taken care of.
Put yourself first. Acting early is always the best choice. Get routine physical checkups and make sure your mental health needs are well taken care of before they become a problem.
Working as a freelancer means you have more flexibility than typical office workers, but how often do you take advantage of that freedom? Whether or not you struggle with mental health, it is wise to think about where there’s flexibility and plan accordingly. Make a list and prioritize, then create your schedule accordingly.
In an interview, author Chris Brogan explained that he only books his days at an hourly rate of 60% capacity. This ensures space for difficult days and helps him avoid getting too far behind on work.
If you put too much on your plate, you are at risk of burning out.
You can't always be in a good mental place and constantly make 100% efficient performance levels. If something has made you uncomfortable or upset, then even if it's small at the moment, it will have an impact on your mental state quickly.
The best thing about being the one in control of your own schedule is that you can choose when to schedule clients. You may either give them a project timeline tailored to their needs or put them on a waiting list if you’re too busy at any given time.
Working from home can be a solitary experience. No matter how well you manage to do on your own, it can be difficult to stay healthy mentally without the support of others.
Fascinating as it may sound, many people can get by with only a few close connections with friends and family members. If you need more support, however, you’re going to have to work harder at finding them on your own.
When you work in an office, social interaction is often a given. You might greet your neighbour on the way out of the house; stop and chat with one of your co-workers for coffee from time to time, or have a quick lunchtime conversation with the receptionist. All these small exchanges will keep you feeling connected in no time at all.
It may take some time to get into the swing of making friends. Collaborate on a goal outside of work with people who are enthusiastic about it, so that you have someone in your life and don't need to feel like you're being left behind later down the road. Volunteer in your community, get involved in hobbies or clubs and don't forget about regular brunch meetings.
You might need reinforcements from an outside source. If you feel that a trained professional could be of service, contact them for help. These options may be free or reasonably affordable in most places around the world.
When you need mental health support to cope with your new isolated lifestyle, a therapist is an enormous help. Thanks to social isolation, symptoms of loneliness and depression may surface which makes it hard for you to manage everyday life. A therapist can teach you how to address these emotions and get on the right track again.
Research shows that too much time spent looking at screens has negative effects. In particular, it can cause increased stress and anxiety. This is due to a few reasons:
i. High levels of distraction
In a recent survey by the American company MarketWatch, adults reported that they spent an average of 11 hours every day on electronics. Smartphones were used most often by younger people aged 18-34 while things such as live TV had greater use in older brackets.
Devices can be a huge distraction if they are relied upon too heavily. Constantly moving from one task to the next leaves you with more noise in your head, making it difficult to focus and remember things.
ii. Sleep difficulties
Gazing at screens near bedtime can interfere with sleep quality, even if you’re able to fall asleep quickly. Even if it’s easy to fall asleep, you may not sleep as well. This can lead to waking up feeling like you didn't get a full night's rest even after sleeping for 8 hours.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
iii. Social media overload
Being constantly connected to social media can lead to feelings of inadequacy. As you look at the "perfect" pictures of other people's lives and businesses, it is easy to start comparing them to your own life. Social media is harmful to mental health. More time spent consuming content equals higher rates of depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation.
iv. Workaholism
Freelancers often find it difficult to break free of technology dependence. Working as a self-employed individual puts constant pressure on you to be available 24/7. And when you combine that with all the virtual socializing, there is no time available to decompress from the digital world.
Your stress levels are sure to rise if you keep this up!
Put down the devices. Spending more time on your phone, TV, and other electronics will not give you a happy life. Make more time for doing things that really matter to you outside of your technology by putting them away.
Some people believe that hustle culture is a really positive thing. These individuals might be able to live well and work hard under these circumstances. If you are this type of person, or if what you are doing is an integral part of your goals, it’s the right thing to do.
However, for most freelance workers, hustle culture is more damaging than beneficial.
In order to perform well and have a successful career, it’s not necessary to constantly work. A more sustainable way is actually better for the long term and less likely to burn out an individual's energy levels.
It is difficult to get back to your “old self” when you hit burnout. To avoid this, work hard within your limits.
Think about what your priorities are. What obligations do you have outside of work? How much time off should you be taking for yourself in order to feel refreshed after a rough day? What forms the backbone of your life and defines who you are as a person? What are some long-term goals that will make a meaningful difference for you?
Find the answer to these questions and develop your own work habits that suit you.
Claiming that you have to work all day every day in order to do well is a lie. This is a lie perpetuated by the entrepreneurial culture. The truth is that, while fulfilling full-time jobs are hard work and an important part of life for many people, it isn’t necessary to do this constantly in order to be successful.
There are many great entrepreneurs who managed to get rich while working part-time without ever going into an office Monday through Friday 9 am until 5 pm.
Don't try to do too much at once. The most sustainable work builds up from smaller milestones. Working sustainably means working in a way so that you can build lasting success, progressing gradually instead of striving for quick explosive results.
Stress is one of many unavoidable aspects of life, and the key to managing it is finding its origins.
What makes you feel stressed when you’re at work? It’s not enough to say that “work, in general, stresses me out.” You need to break it down and understand which parts of your day cause stress
Before you can identify your stressors, it’s helpful to know about the categories of stress. There are two ways to categorize stress: acute and chronic.
i. Acute Stress
Acute stress is a short-term form of stress, resulting from an event like...
This form of stress typically passes once the situation has resolved. For example, you might experience a tooth-grindingly frustrating commute to work only for the stress to dissipate as soon as you arrive at your desk.
ii. Chronic stress
Chronic stress is the result of prolonged exposure to unsettling events or mental activity. Acute stressors can cause chronic stress if they become frequent. Other common causes of chronic stress include...
Chronic stress can lead to both physical and mental harm. As the amount of stress you experience on a regular basis increases over time, your symptoms become more apparent, making it harder for you to function.
Stress Management
It is impossible to live without stress. While you cannot make many of your stresses disappear, you can limit their exposure.
The first step in reducing your stress is identifying the source. When you feel stressed, answer a series of questions to identify what is causing the stress and how it can be reduced.
It's important to identify what causes you stress. Once you know the source, it's easier to make changes in your life so that you can reduce or avoid stress altogether.
When you become more aware of what stresses you out, and consider the amount of control you have over that stressor, then it becomes easier to reduce your stress levels with small, targeted changes.
Your workspace is an integral part of your daily routine.
If the physical space you're working in isn't conducive to productivity, it's going to be difficult for you to get anything done. One of the most important parts of creating a healthy working environment is managing the physical space in which you work.
A study found that the more things you have visible around you, whether it be piles of paper or an unfinished project, the more likely you are to be distracted. The distraction rate is mostly triggered by emotions such as wanting to finish a book, do dishes right away, or something else requiring action.
Take time to clear your desk and clean your workspace in order to reduce stress. In addition to the physical benefits of decluttering and organizing, you’ll also find that it increases your productivity. One source of distraction is a messy workplace – cleaning up eliminates that problem while supporting your mental health.
Clear offices and clutter-free desks won’t magically alleviate your stress. However, it will minimize the chance for distractions by reducing external stimuli.
Working from home is fantastic. The first week is liberating. But then you do it for another week and then another, and the realization descends that you're always in your house on nearly every hour of each day to work.
After a while, the restless feeling you start to feel becomes overwhelming. You can no longer concentrate on one thing for long periods of time, your energy levels may be low, and it can become difficult to focus on tasks.
Simply changing your environment to somewhere new can help keep you engaged with work and even boost your productivity. Try to work outside of your home every other day, or at the very least work somewhere else once per week.
The benefits of getting out from your workspace on a weekly basis are extensive. Not only does this break up the monotony, but it also keeps you in tune with the world outside of work.
Freelancing can be a difficult career choice on both the mental and physical levels. It’s important that you anticipate these challenges ahead of time and plan accordingly.
Freelancing doesn’t have to take a toll on your mental health. It's not inevitable. Take the time to prepare and get ahead of any challenges you're likely to face as a freelancer.
Georgi Todorov is the founder of ThriveMyWay, a place for online entrepreneurs, bloggers, SEO specialists, and freelancers to find success in their own way.
LinkedIn: Georgi Todorov
Twitter: @GeorgiTodorovBG
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
]]>The number one concern I hear from indie authors is book sales and marketing. I understand. It’s a struggle.
This is my observation from chatting with others. Authors are spending so much time trying to be relevant on every social platform there is. And, occasionally, they're even throwing money into advertising on these platforms with the hopes of making sales. I know. I’ve been there.
And all of it barely makes a difference.
WHY? Because this isn’t marketing. (Don’t beat up the messenger, please.) You might have 15,000 followers, but how many are looking to buy books?
Do you want to be a social media influencer or a bookseller? As far as I’m concerned, this is social media, just one aspect of playing in the market. But it is not bookselling marketing.
Social media is where you can go to connect with other authors and industry professionals, pass around amusing memes, and promote your brand. Along the way, you will sell some books on social media.
There are many differences between indie authors and big presses, biggest being money and resources. But the presses know bookselling technique.
I can tell you that good bookselling technique is completely accessible because it centers around making connections, not paying to magnify your voice in a void.
From my perspective, you build a marketing strategy on a foundation of connections. Too often, indie authors make social media the foundation. Authors tell me about all the social media they use. When I ask what else they do to market, often it’s nothing. Creating content to shout at peers just creates burn out.
It’s not targeting your audience, and it exhausts your creative ability. You spend less time writing and more time pushing your creativity to somehow attract people to who you are online. You go from trying to sell your book to selling yourself.
What about spending that time connecting with book readers? They hang out at libraries, bookstores and book expos. They look for possible reading material from podcasts and articles in local newspapers.
This media isn’t screaming into a void. When you connect with that library, store, podcast and they share with their audience (the real readers, not your author peers!) and now people are hearing about your story and trusting these leads when they say, “buy this book.”
If you’ve never tried making such connections, I strongly urge you to give it a shot. It’s the game changer. This starts with a proper press kit and knocking on all the doors you can find.
Talk to libraries, stores, bloggers, podcasters, universities—anywhere you can possibly appear, create an event, stock books, talk to readers, and get others to talk about your work with people who look to them for books.
The worst anyone can do is decline your inquiry. Fine, you’re not out anything but an email. Send another somewhere else. The chance of a yes and an amazing partnership is worth the effort. And this foundation you’re building is for your career, not just a single book.
Lockdowns have made the foot work harder for making local, in person connections. But they’ve also opened the door for more online opportunities. Develop a newsletter and build up an email list of readers. For my next book release, I’ve compiled a list of almost 1,000 readers.
THIS is marketing that supports a career.
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By Author Susan E. Wadds
Few writers get through life without excruciating moments of staring at a bouncing cursor, or writing paragraphs only to obliterate them with paper-shredding pen scratches.
The answer to writer's block is simple. Natalie Goldberg said to just about anyone who struggled, “Write anyway.”
So simple. And yet maybe not what you want to hear. Don't worry, though most writing advice does boil down to this deceptively simple instruction, I'm not going to leave you there (yet).
To write, one only needs a scrap of paper, a restaurant napkin, the back of a hand. But for those who endeavour to write meaningfully, it can cost hours of sleep, bits of hair, the loss of a social life, not to mention the crippling belief that one is an imposter.
But don’t let that stop you. Writing confidently takes practice.
Pay attention. Take risks. Listen. Read. Get uncomfortable. Stare off into the distance. Write crap. Tell the truth. Write more crap. Write with no pants on. Write with a wide-open heart. With your heart in a fist. Write with closed eyes. Open them and keep your hand on the rudder while you steer into the fierce winds of fear and doubt.
Write scared. Write pissed off. Write when you don’t care. Write when you do.
But what do you do when you still can’t? When you hit a wall you're unable to write through? A wall scrawled with graffiti saying It’s all crap, who cares. Or, Why bother?
I could tell you to persevere, to push beyond that imaginary wall, and bravely keep writing, keep trying to tell the truth and that you may just come to a shimmering pot of pure gold.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
And that might work. Sometimes it works for me. But here are some other tips and tricks that may suit you better.
1. Take a Break
Sometimes you might need to just take a nap, have a shower, or go outside and take several long, deep breaths.
2. Make a Writing Date With A Friend
A simple date to write with a friend, online or in person, could be the thing to nudge the muse. Accountability helps, trust me. A word of caution though, especially if you’ve been demoralized by criticism: choose your writing partner(s) with care.
When you give feedback, make sure to note what is working, the strengths in a piece. Criticism is constructive, but we need encouragement, too. We are far more likely to keep writing if we believe our work has some merit.
So often in my workshops, writers show up exhausted, drained, or blocked, certain they have nothing to offer. But they’ve shown up and that’s the key. Because what happens after a few writing prompts and timed writing heats is nothing short of miraculous.
Poems have been birthed, essays unearthed, and stories revealed that take away the breath. Without exception, at least one writer will comment something to the effect of, “I didn’t think I could write anything worthwhile today, but I’m so pleased with what I’ve accomplished.”
Making a date with at least one other writer is a great way to get rolling again. Using a wide open prompt can help get the pen moving—something simple such as using a word like wind, skin, hide, or wonder works to spark the imagination without restricting it.
3. Take a Workshop or Enrol in a Course
If you’re still stuck, attend a workshop or take a course.
There are many marvellous teachers who’ve developed methods to help the writer drop down into what Jack Grapes calls the Deep Voice, what Barbara Turner-Vesselago of Freefall Writing calls writing “fearward,” and what Pat Schneider of AWA refers to as one’s original or authentic voice.
Out-of-the-box facilitators who help the writer come in “slant” as Emily Dickenson once wrote can help bypass constraints that cut off one’s authentic voice.
Innovative methods offer fresh perspectives and novel entry points for your work, bumping you out of familiar patterns that may have shut you down.
For me, it’s been those visionary facilitators who hold a safe space that have enabled me to chip off what’s superfluous, clear away the ‘shoulds’ of how to write, and given me a path into what is truly mine. They’ve held out a hand as I descend into vulnerable, risky, sometimes dangerous writing.
So, what do we do when the voice that tells us we’re an imposter, who tells us It’s all crap, Who cares, or Why bother is louder than the click of keys or scratch of pen?
Are you ready for the short answer now?
Take a nap.
Breathe.
Write with a friend.
Read a book.
Take a workshop.
Go for a walk.
And…
Write anyway.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash]]>Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
By Author Jennifer Caston
It's easy to get bogged down in writing and face the dreaded block when you must generate articles regularly. There are many ways to approach content creation, but it doesn't have to be a nightmare.
Don't give up.
If you've ever questioned how to produce a blog article that people want to read, this article is for you. Let's get started now.
A great blog post is both entertaining and instructional. Answering a reader's query or helping them overcome a problem is the purpose of blogs, but answering someone's inquiries isn't enough. You must find a way to do so in an engaging manner. Providing concrete examples and tactical tools are good ways to peak interest.
1. Always Write a Unique introduction
To begin, you must capture the reader's interest. After only a few lines or perhaps a few phrases, the reader will quit reading if your introduction is not compelling.
You can achieve this in numerous ways, including telling a tale, making a joke, or being empathic.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
In the following paragraphs, explain your article and help the reader.
That way, you may entice the reader to keep reading by showing how the content will benefit their career or personal life.
2. Paraphrase EfficientlySometimes we have to cite existing information in our blog posts. To re-package existing content, you have to brainstorm.
Or, you can use paraphrasing tools like paraphraser.io to do so more efficiently. This tool will assist you in developing unique and entertaining content in a couple of seconds by using robust AI algorithms.
The tone of the content produced by these tools is authentic—it maintains the readability channel.
3. Always Write in the Active Voice
Reading a statement written in the active voice is easier for the reader. There is a distinct difference between a passive and an active voice when writing a sentence.
When you use the passive voice, you risk confusing your readers. Using the active voice allows you to speak directly to your audience, which increases the impact of your writing.
4. Write in Short Paragraphs
For blog posts, format is critical. Reading a post that consists of one, extremely long paragraph is the worst.
To increase the likelihood that your blog post will be read, do anything you can to make it easier on the user's eyes.
The usage of shorter phrases might also assist your viewers in navigating your text. To keep readers interested, we usually suggest using subheadings to break up long text passages.
An excellent technique to keep your audience interested in what you're saying is to use bullet points.
Like subheadings, their appeal lies in them making the post quick to scan. Here are a few strategies we've found supportive in creating bullet points that get read:
Editing a blog post can often be more complicated than writing one.
Many individuals wrongly believe that editing is merely removing phrases that don't make sense or correcting grammatical mistakes.
When it comes to editing, it's about seeing the entire work and being prepared to sacrifice words to achieve harmony.
You can ask someone to look at your content and point out mistakes. For novice or unskilled bloggers, this is essential.
Giving your work to someone else to take a look at is not a sign of weakness or failure. It's a show of dedication. You're committed to making your work the best it can be.
Blogging is one of those jobs that appears simple until you have to put in the time to accomplish it.
The good thing is that it becomes easier with practice, and with enough time and effort, you'll be blogging like an expert in no time.
Write to me in the comments if I missed anything important or if you have any queries regarding the process of creating a blog post.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
]]>By Author Abigail Geiger
Let’s be honest here, shall we?
I sat down to write this article and immediately reached to pull up Facebook. Or Twitter. My blog, an online comic, Youtube. Literally anything that would keep me from actually having to start writing.
Never mind that it’s my job, never mind that it’s what I love to do or what I intend to spend the majority of my adult life doing. Starting—especially at the beginning of the day when I know I have a full schedule ahead of me—is hard. It’s uncomfortable. And frankly? I’d rather squeeze in a few minutes before that day starts to scroll something mindless and possibly entertaining.
Unfortunately, those few minutes can turn into a few hours, or a few days, and that article, novel, new idea, or character sketch begins to wither away to dust.
As someone who battles—and mostly conquers—procrastination nearly every day without fail, here are my top ten tips for giving it a good kick in the face.
Light a candle. Fill your water bottle, because hydration is the key to success. I’m not lying. Close your blinds, or open your window. Have something that you do every time you sit down to signal your brain that it is now ‘The Time to be Creative.’
Personally? I pray and invite the Master Storyteller to come and help me with my project. It always gets me on track.
What are you working on? Are you drafting an article? Writing dialogue? Sketching a character? Only having a vague idea that you want to ‘write’ today will quickly derail your productivity if you sit down and don’t know where to start.
So take a moment to brainstorm and establish the top three tasks that you want to accomplish before the end of your writing time. Be specific. ‘Write today’ is not a doable task. ‘Write 500 words today on X project’ is a doable task.
Water, tea, chocolates, carrot sticks, chips. Whatever floats your boat. Keep your snacks and your drinks nearby. And while you’re at it? Refill your supply of pens and keep a notebook handy.
If you need a certain book for reference, have that within reach. Keep your kitty treats in a drawer so when that tiny monster comes over wanting an offering from his most humble servant, you don’t have to get up and go looking.
I keep mine plugged in on the counter. All the way across the room from my desk. It’s much easier to resist Pinterest when you have to get up, dislodge your purring companion, and go allllll the way across the room just to procrastinate.
This is a tip that you will see in every single article about procrastination on the planet. Know why?
Because sites like Instagram and Pinterest are specifically designed to distract you, pull you in, and prolong that ‘quick glance’ to a twenty-minute scroll.
It’s not worth it. Ditch the wifi. Research can—and should—be done in designated chunks of time, not whenever a questions arises. As important as research is, it’s also a good excuse for procrastination if it’s not scheduled and purposeful.
Occasionally, procrastination is connected to something deeper. Take a moment and dig into that feeling of resistance.
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Are you stuck? Have you reached a place in your novel or article that feels like a dead end? Is the character you’re working with being forced into something they would never do?
Procrastination can be a sign that your ‘Writer’s Intuition’ knows something is off and is trying to let you know.
Quick, drop and give me fifty pushups!
I’m kidding.
Still, a quick warmup before you start your day can get things flowing. Doodle a bit. Write some juicy dialogue from a scene you’ll never use. Write a hundred words based on a prompt you loved. Throw together a quick poem if that inspires you.
Getting words onto the page, even if they’re not useable for your current project, can make the rest of your day much easier.
I started this article off with a sentence I was sure was wrong. The idea that I had didn’t take shape the way I wanted it to, and it would have been easy to waste the hour I had on a first sentence that I liked.
I didn’t.
After years of beginnings, I’ve discovered that the first sentence is the hardest. Once that stubborn cork is out of the bottleneck, the rest can begin to flow. Waiting for the ‘perfect sentence’ or the right words often results in a very long wait, or a day that never gets off the ground at all.
Going back later to rewrite a less-than-perfect beginning is much easier than staring at a blank page until your writing time has run out and you have a tension headache from grinding your teeth. Who knows? Sometimes you’ll go back to the beginning later and discover it doesn’t need quite the number of changes you expected.
Starting your day can be intimidating when you have hundreds—or thousands—of words you need to write, projects to finish and send off, or an endless number of chapters that you can’t wait to finish. If your goals are too high, especially in the first hour of your day, it can feel like a deadlock right from the beginning.
Dividing your tasks into manageable chunks, especially in the first part of the day, can trigger the release of dopamine—a ‘feel-good’ chemical that is released when your brain is expecting a reward.
Aim first for a hundred words, or a character sketch, or the outline of that article you’ve been meaning to write for months but haven’t. Look at the day—or whatever time you have as a writer—as a series of small, manageable chunks that will add up over the day, instead of an enormous mountain that has to be climbed right now or you’ve failed.
This particular tip is last for a reason. Willpower is finite resource, and expecting to be able to dip into it every time you sit down to write—and continue to use it throughout your day—is unrealistic. You will run out long before you’ve finished your project or reached the word count you were hoping for, and will wind up disappointed in yourself and your writing.
Routines, habits, rituals, and tricks like those above will help to conserve this limited resource, but in the end, we all have to use it eventually.
Sometimes, writing really is all heart and no ‘inspiration’.
I firmly believe that inspiration hits when you’re in the chair and three hundred words into whatever project you’re working on, and not a minute before.
As lovely as it is to feel the whisper of that magical muse, chasing after it—or worse, waiting for it—will leave you a very discouraged and unproductive writer.
So, bite the bullet and get your butt in the chair. Good luck!
Want advanced tips for reducing distractions, overcoming writer's block, and boosting creative confidence? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Writing Coach Lyndsay Carder.
Photo by Mrika Selimi on Unsplash
]]>By Author Joe Garecht
Most writers don’t think of themselves as businesspeople. They are focused on their craft, and rightfully so. Whether they’re writing a fantasy novel, a how-to guide, or a series of short stories, most authors are focused on producing the best work possible for their audiences.
That being said, writers need to eat, and thus they need to earn as much income as possible from their writing. While most authors assume that the best way to make more money is to write another book or article, I have found that there are lots of strategies for leveraging the work you have already done in order to earn far more income without writing another book.
In this article, I’m going to show you five additional ways to earn income from your writing by leveraging your current body of work:
The simplest strategy for earning more from your current body of work is to ensure that you are selling your work across every possible medium. This means selling your writing as e-books, printed books, and audiobooks on every platform that is available to you.
Of course, if you have a traditionally published book, your ability to sell across different mediums and platforms will be restricted by your publishing agreement. However, if you are self-published, you can use online tools to quickly and effectively prepare your work for sale on multiple platforms in short order.
Podcasts are currently one of the most popular methods for consuming content, and your experience as an author puts you in a great position to launch one this year.
If you are a non-fiction author, you can launch a podcast in your area of expertise to teach, educate, and inform. If you are a fiction author, you can launch a podcast to tell stories and entertain your audience.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
In either case, you don’t need to do all the work: you can bring guests on for most or all of your episodes to help keep the conversation going.
The way to make money with a podcast is by selling advertising. Once you start producing episodes and building an audience, you’ll be able to sign with an advertising platform or to reach out to sponsors directly to sell advertising space on your show.
Another great way to generate additional income is to build an online course. This is particularly well-suited to non-fiction authors, but some fiction authors can use it as well to teach their unique spin on the writing craft.
Many authors in niches as diverse as arts and crafts, business, finance, parenting, and other areas have successfully created online courses that sell for anywhere from $20 to $250 or more per attendee.
Building an online course is easy, thanks to technology. Platforms such as Teachable and Udemy make creating, posting, and selling an online course quick and simple. If you’d like to learn more about how to use this strategy, be sure to read How to Create a Bestselling Online Course.
Have you ever considered selling real-world (non-digital) products related to your writing? For fiction authors, this strategy could be as simple as selling hats or t-shirts branded with your book’s title, characters, or catchphrases.
Authors of “how to” books and articles, on the other hand, can create products that help their readers accomplish the goals and projects laid out in their writings.
For example, a cookbook author could create a line of high-end knives or cookware. A business author could create an exclusive business wall calendar with quotes from her book.
The author of a book on coaching youth baseball could create a branded batting gloves or practice baseballs that help coaches implement the tips laid out in his coaching guide.
Another way for authors to create additional income is to create a paid newsletter on a platform such as Substack. This will require the author to commit to writing on a regular (usually weekly) basis, but the length of the newsletters you send out will generally be much, much shorter and quicker to produce than your normal short stories or books.
Paid newsletters can be used by authors in any niche (including both non-fiction and fiction writers).
Best of all, if you outline your newsletter topics ahead of time, you can arrange it so that after a year of producing weekly newsletters, you can compile the newsletters into one mid-sized book that is ready to sell.
It can be hard to make a good living as a writer, but it doesn’t need to be. My number one piece of advice for you is to think like a businessperson – you’ve got a great product to sell, which is your knowledge and creativity, packaged into your writing.
Now, think about how to leverage your writing and your unique skills to create value in other ways and across different platforms. In under a year, you can use some of the strategies above to create growing and sustainable income streams that will allow you to enjoy the fruits of your labor like never before.
Want to learn how to become a freelance writer? Book a 1-on-1 consultation with Freelance Writer Mike Pietrzak.
Joe Garecht is the founder of Go Beyond Clients, where he helps freelancers build more income. He is a serial entrepreneur and freelance writer who has authored several books on non-profit fundraising and running for political office.
Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash
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