Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Links of Interest


EDITING AND SPOTTING A BAD EDITOR:



THE KIRTSAENG VERSUS JOHN WILEY AND SONS COURT CASE ON COPYRIGHTED BOOKS SHIPPED INTO THE US AT CHEAPER PRICES THAN ON US VERSIONS VERDICT EXPLAINED:





PROS AND CONS OF BEING A PLOT PANTSTER:



TELL YOUR READER ONLY WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS:



SIMON AND SCHUSTER TO SHARE PIRACY NUMBERS WITH THEIR AUTHORS:



FIGURING OUT AMAZON SALES NUMBERS USING BOOK RANKINGS:



PROMOTION THAT WORKS:



CONTRACT LANGUAGE, RECORDING RIGHTS:



EPUBLISHER TO BE WARY OF:



WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR EBOOK ISN’T SELLING:



MAKING A LIVING AS A WRITER, PART 2:



WORKING WITH A GRAPHIC ARTIST:



YOGA FOR THE HANDS, GREAT TO GIVE STRENGTH FOR THOSE OF US WHO DO A LOT OF TYPING:



CONTRACT TERMS, LIFE OF COPYRIGHT:



WRITING A THRILLER:



THE THREE COMMANDMENTS OF WRITING:



SETTING IN RELATIONSHIP TO STORY:



WHAT MAKES A HERO:



ADAPTING YOUR NOVEL AS A SCREENPLAY:



SELF-PUBBED AUTHORS SHARE WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED, PART 11:



FANTASY WORLD FOOD:



BASICS OF CREATING SETTING:



WHEN TO START OR STOP WRITING A SERIES:

THE EDITORIAL PROCESS, BEYOND THE EDITORIAL LETTER:



89 BOOK MARKETING IDEAS:



6 THINGS READERS WANT AT AUTHOR WEBSITES:



MAKING THE VILLAIN TOO POWERFUL:



USING DIALECT IN YOUR WRITING:



KILLING OFF A CHARACTER:



BRUSH UP YOUR GRAMMAR, THAT, WHICH, AND WHO:



Monday, March 25, 2013

Go For the Specific


To give the reader the right image of what is happening, you should always be specific.  This is particularly important in the first description of a person, place, or thing.  

Look at the sentences below, and the introduction of the heroine’s dog, Digby.


Eager for their run, Digby whined and tugged on her leash.  

Jane laughed and began to jog down the greenway that ran behind her apartment.  

The dog kept pace until they reached the wooden bridge across the creek, then the golden retriever jerked to a halt and growled.  

Sentence one is fine.  “whined” and “leash” tell the reader that Digby is a dog, however, the reader has no sense of what the dog looks like.  It could be a poodle or a Great Dane.

Sentence two is okay if bland.

Sentence three, however, starts with the general term “dog” which still doesn’t give the reader a clue about the dog.  Not until the end of this sentence  does the reader learn that the dog is a golden retriever.  By this time, the specific jars the reader who may have already visualized the dog or has decided the dog isn’t important because of the vague description.

How could these sentence be improved?

Eager for their run, Jane’s golden retriever Digby whined and tugged on her leash.

Jane laughed and began to jog down the greenway that ran behind her apartment.  

The dog kept pace until they reached the wooden bridge across the creek then jerked to a halt and growled.  


The reader instantly knows Jane’s dog is a golden retriever so the writer can now use more general terms like dog.  

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Links of Interest


MARKET NEWS, MAINLY ROMANCE:



PINTEREST ANAYLTICS TOOL FOR JUDGING TRAFFIC:



ADDING HUMOR TO DARK MOMENTS:  



CHARACTER BACKSTORY, WHY YOUR CHARACTER SHOULDN’T SEEM AMNESIAC:



BESTSELLING SELF-PUB ON HIS BEST PROMOTION TOOLS:



WHOSE POINT OF VIEW SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?



CONTRACT TERMS, SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS:



LOOKING FOR A CRITIQUE GROUP?



WRITING TENSE ACTION SCENES:



SEVEN TYPES OF NARRATIVE CONFLICT:



WRITING ADVICE FROM BESTSELLING SELF-PUB AUTHOR:



FIVE TRENDS IN PUBLISHING:



WHAT SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS  HAVE LEARNED, PART 10:



CREATING EMOTIONAL DEPTH IN CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:



WHEN CHARACTERS GO THEIR OWN WAY:



HOW TO WRITE A CHARACTER’S GRIEF:



HOW TO SELL EBOOKS BY A VERY SUCCESSFUL WRITER:



YOUR AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE:



DESCRIBING CHARACTER REACTIONS:



FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPS:



ISBNs FOR SELF-PUBS:



SOME EBOOK COVER DESIGNS, AND WHY SOME DO OR DON’T WORK:



CONTRACT TERMS, TRANSLATION RIGHTS:



BOOK KEEPING TIPS FOR WRITERS:




MAKING THE AMATEUR SLEUTH’S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MURDER WORK:



TWITTER FOR BEGINNERS:



QUESTIONS TO ASK AS YOU LOOK GENERALLY AT YOUR NOVEL:



US BOOKSTORE CHAINS LOST 13% OF THEIR SALES TO OTHERS LAST YEAR:



CREATING STRESS BEHAVIOR IN CHARACTERS:



CREATING MEMORABLE SECONDARY CHARACTERS:



SEVEN TOOLS TO USE WITH PINTEREST:



KILLING OFF A GOOD CHARACTER:



ENDINGS:



HOW TO ADD A “SEND TO KINDLE” BUTTON ON A WEBSITE PAGE:



9 COMMON PROBLEMS IN WRITING A MYSTERY AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM:



WHAT AUTHORS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DESIGNING EBOOKS:



TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK A CHARACTER TO SEE IF THEY SHOULD STAY IN THE STORY:



FREE SOFTWARE, APPLICATIONS, ETC., USEFUL TO AUTHORS:



SINGLE TITLES:



ANATOMY OF A FREE EBOOK PROMOTION:

http://www.publetariat.com/sell/readin’-o’-green-anatomy-free-book-promotion


GOODREAD ADS, PRO OR CON?: