Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Links of Interest


THE CHAMELEON CHARACTER:



THE PLOT TWIST:



THE AUTHOR BIO:



BOOK DISTRIBUTION, AUTHOR-SERVICES COMPANIES:



PLOTTING WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, PART 1:



LEARNING TO KEEP A DISTANCE FROM OUR BOOKS:



AUTHORS PROMOTING AS A TEAM:



TAG WORD RULES CHANGING FOR BOOKS ON AMAZON AND HOW THIS COULD BE A PROBLEM FOR YOU:



ROYALTY STATEMENTS, PART 2:



IS THERE TOO MUCH VERTICAL SPACE IN YOUR NOVEL?



MANAGING FEEDBACK IN WORKSHOPS OR CRITIQUE GROUPS:



PROMOTION USING PINTEREST:



REMINDING READERS OF MINOR CHARACTERS AND OTHER THINGS:



Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers and have a lovely weekend to everyone else!

Monday, November 25, 2013

The Hero's Goal, Its Cost, and His Motivation


Have you ever started a novel where the main character decides to face an impossible task and an implacable enemy with the odds so far in favor of the bad guys that success, let alone survival, is minimal at best?

Sounds like a great novel, doesn't it?

Here are two novels I read where the main character deals with that impossible situation. In one novel, the hero must save his young daughter from a very ugly death. In the second, the heroine must find out the truth about the death of a young woman she's never met, and the outcome appears to have no real value to her. She's not even working for money.

I zipped through the first novel like a speed-reading lunatic to find out how the hero managed to save his little girl. The second novel I very nearly tossed away after the first few chapters because I hate stupid and suicidal main characters who have no real reason to go forward in an impossible situation, but I persevered out of curiosity and a fondness for dissecting author mistakes.

After over half the novel, the author of the second novel finally lets the reader know why the heroine has continued forward in the investigation, but by then, the damage has been done to the novel and the reader's reactions to the heroine. The reader also realizes that the author has cheated by withholding vital information which an author who is fair would not. 

At this point, the odds of the reader picking up the next book by this author are slimmer than the original chance of the hero's survival.

As an author, you must balance goal, cost, and motivation. If the goal and the probable cost for the main character is great, the character must have motivation that equals both.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Links of Interest


FORENSIC SCIENTIST ON MENTAL ILLNESS AND MASS SHOOTING: (VIDEO)



HAVING A FACEBOOK LAUNCH PARTY:



FREE BOOK PROMOTION SITES:



FOR SELF-PUBS, ENHANCING YOUR BOOK HEADLINE & DESCRIPTION:



HOW TO HANDLE INTERNAL TRANSITIONS:



BOOK FESTIVALS THAT ARE REALLY SCAMS:



INNER CONFLICT:



MAKING GOODREADS WORK FOR  YOU:



SUBMITTING YOUR BOOK TO NOOK PRESS:



RESEARCH RESOURCES FOR MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE WRITERS:



WHAT TO AVOID WHEN DESIGNING YOUR COVER:



PROMOTING WITH PINTEREST:



CREATING YOUR BOOK COVER FROM SCRATCH:


NINE WAYS TO CREATE GREAT CHARACTERS:



FREE PROMOTION TOOLS FOR WRITERS:



DIRECT SALE OF EBOOKS EXPLAINED:



DON’T STOP TO GIVE EACH CHARACTER’S BACKGROUND:



DEVELOPING CHARACTERS:



TENSION VERSUS CONFLICT:



MAKING YOUR STORY STAND OUT:



THE PERFECT SIZES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGES YOU CREATE:



HOW TO SHOW PASSING TIME:



THE BASICS OF CHARACTER AND PLOT IN A MYSTERY:



USING QUOTATION MARKS WITH OTHER PUNCTUATION: 



USING GOOGLE + WITH YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM:



WHEN YOU SHOULD SAY NO TO A CONTRACT:



Monday, November 18, 2013

The Emotional Content of Story


If you aren't happy with the emotional content of your story, you may want to look at the central story idea. Do your character/characters have a real emotional reason to be doing what they are doing?

Their hunt for the lost treasure should be as much about their emotional reason for needing the treasure as it is about simple greed. That emotional reason should be important enough to make the reader want them to succeed as much as they do.

Maybe the main character is after a magical sword which is the only weapon that will kill the dragon currently ravaging his homeland, and he doesn't really care about other treasure and the life of drunken decadence and dancing girls it promises the other characters.

Maybe the other characters have laughed at him, but they've admired him and gradually they have been drawn into his quest for the sword, and in the end, they'll choose to get the sword with him and lose the other treasure.

Maybe the one who laughed the hardest and made the main character's life hell along the journey will be the one to sacrifice himself so that the hero can rescue a homeland the scoffer has never had, but now wishes to have with his whole heart.

Now that's a story that will grab your reader where a simple quest for gold will not.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Links of Interest


HOW WRITERS CAN USE TWITTER:



AUTHOR WILLS, CHOOSING YOUR HEIRS:



DESCRIBING EMOTIONS:



A LIST OF PLOT POINTS FOR STORIES WITH ACTION:



WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU NEED MORE PLOT DETAILS:



AUTHOR TWITTER MISTAKES:



MARKET NEWS, SF/FANTASY PUBLISHER:



EXTREME OPPOSITES DON’T ATTRACT, ROMANTIC COUPLES:



WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR STORY STALLS:



UNDERSTANDING BOOK DISTRIBUTION, DIGITAL



DEVELOPING YOUR PROTAGONIST:



WHAT TO PRICE AN EBOOK:



COMMON PROBLEMS WITH BEGINNINGS:



WHAT IS HEADHOPPING AND HOW TO AVOID IT:



MISTAKES AUTHORS MAKE CONNECTING WITH READERS:



USING GOODREADS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS:



SHOWING A CRIMINAL THROUGH HIS PERSONAL SPACE:



DO YOU NEED A BUSINESS LICENSE TO SELF-PUBLISH?



USING METHOD ACTING TECHNIQUES IN YOUR WRITING:



DESCRIBING YOUR CHARACTER IN FIRST PERSON:



THE SUBSCRIPTION MODEL FOR PUBLISHING, OYSTER AND SCRIBD:



HOW TO SPOT A GOOD EDITOR:



10 LINKS TO NANO WRITE HELP:



TIGHTEN THE TENSION IN YOUR NOVEL:



Monday, November 11, 2013

Should eBooks Be Resold Like Used Paper Books?


The Department of Commerce is asking for comments about Digital First Sale and the possible changes to copyright law that would allow an ebook to be resold.  


If you’d like to comment, hurry because the deadline is November 13th.

Here’s my letter.

The biggest problem with the resale of “used” e-books is e-book piracy.  Some think that cheaper books mean less reason to pirate books and that’s true to a certain extent, but used e-books also mean that authors and publishers will no longer be able to prove that an online copy has been stolen.

Right now, publishers and authors license their books to specific resellers/distributors like Amazon Kindle, B&N’s Nook, and Smashwords.  If a book is available at any other site, the publisher and author know instantly that that book is pirated, and they help the authorities take these sites down.  

These sites are fairly common, and some look like legitimate book-selling sites so the consumer is no wiser that they are buying stolen books.  Some of these sites actually sell the books, others are scams which steal credit card information and install viruses on the victim’s computer.  

If e-books are sold used, the scam sites will be able to fly under the legal radar.

Pirate sites will claim that their books are being given away for free by legal owners so they can continue their dispersal of illegal copies.  

If e-books are sold used and a site or individual can sell thousands of copies of the same ebook by saying that they are selling one used, there will be no way for the author/publisher to prove this.  This will essentially make book theft a crime that can’t be punished.

Even readers who want to do the right things by buying legally won’t be able to tell who is a legitimate reseller and who isn’t.  

Readers looking for bargains will buy illegal books instead of legal ones, the profit margin for authors and publishers which is small now will plummet to the point that publishing will no longer be profitable for anyone, and those who make the money will have done nothing to create books.  

Allowing the sale of used e-books will destroy all value to copyright.

Marilynn Byerly, Author