I title today’s video “Leave it to the proofreader to find the ONE mistake in your entire masterpiece.”
HAHA!
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Develop Your Book’s Concept by Brain Dumping and Mind Mapping
One of the first challenges many first-time authors face when it comes to beginning or completing a manuscript is getting their content clear and organized. Specifically, authors aren’t always able to clearly articulate their main idea–the thesis of their book–or illuminate the supporting evidence for their claim in the following chapters. Without taking the time to truly develop their …
Rejected Books
With all the discussion about marketing platforms, some authors think the only thing standing in the way of being published successfully is the lack of a large-enough, personal promotional machine. It is important, along with several other items affecting whether a book is published by a traditional publisher; but there is one powerful item that is rarely discussed or mentioned. Sometimes books …
H Is for Hybrid
To state the obvious, the publishing industry has changed rather dramatically over the last few years. The possibility for a writer to inexpensively produce their own books (in e-book form) shifted the sands. In addition, the economic challenges facing the brick-and-mortar bookstore reduced the amount of shelf space available to launch a new book via traditional methods. It appears to be an …
Fun Fridays – October 20, 2023
Today’s clever short movie is called The Black Hole (less than three minutes long). I’ll admit, I laughed at the end. What would you have named this if you had written this short story? (A story without words.)
Helpful Writing Rituals
I’m a firm believer in helpful habits, systems, and rituals. Such things can grease the writing wheels, so to speak. That may not be the right metaphor; but you catch my drift, right? So not long ago I asked some writer friends (I have friends, I really do. “Mom, they’re picking on me again!”) to tell me about their writing rituals, in the hope that readers of this blog might find the information …
Not Everyone Is Your Reader
As part of my voluntary continuing education, I’m reading books by authors celebrated during the past century. Many of these authors won significant literary prizes. Most sold millions of copies of their books while they were still writing. Yet, I only enjoy the work of some authors I’ve explored. Perusing the shelves of my local used bookstore, I have read the back cover copy of an …
Story Structure Part #1 – Be Wise When Crafting Your Fictional Foundation
When you were a child, did you sing that song about the wise man and the foolish man? The foolish man built his house on the sand, and the wise man build his on the rock. So when the rains came, the wise man’s house was still standing; but the foolish man’s house came tumbling down. It’s the same with story structure. If you build your story with a firm foundation, it will stand; but if the …
P Is for Preemptive Offer
It can be exciting if more than one publisher is interested in your book. The publishers gather their calculators and prepare to make their offers on the book. Depending on how many publishers are involved in the bidding process (we’ve had as many as nine at once for a property), it can quickly become complicated. (I talked about the “auction” in a previous post.) Some will bid solely …
Fun Friday – October 13, 2023
Let us watch today’s video as a metaphor for writing a book. Piece by piece. Nail by nail. And you have to know what you are doing, or it all collapses. This is why you get annoyed when people say to you, “I’m going to write a book someday,” as if it were easy. Note something about the video. Your foundation has to be absolutely correct because everything depends on it. …