I logged on today to post about creating an internet presence, but I see Jeannie beat me to it! And said almost everything I was going to say.
I want to reiterate something Jeannie said though: don’t start a blog just because all your friends have one. Blogs take a lot of time to maintain, and it cuts into your writing time. If your writing time already short, don’t blog. And don’t do it unless you think it’s fun. There are more efficient ways to promote your books.
If you’re determined to …
I’ve seen a lot of discussion in different places recently about how much or how little an unpublished writer should do in the way of marketing or creating a “presence” for themselves. As you probably know, in addition to “this writing thing”, I also have a marketing and design business. I deal mostly with authors and writers at all stages of their career, including some who are unpublished. I’ve heard from some clients that agents are asking for a website presence prior to looking at a full manuscript. Others …
Welcome back to the Book Video workshop, where we’ve been discussing all the different elements that go into the making of a book trailer®, or book video. If you’re just joining us, please be sure to visit the previous discussions: Day 1: Deconstructing A Book Video, Day 2: Writing the Book Video Script, Day 3: Imagery to Tell The Story, and Day 4: Creating The Soundtrack. In our discussions, we’ve talked about the different components: graphics, music, the script. And ultimately, once you’ve got all of that pulled together, drilled …
I was watching an episode of Bones last week and one of the characters made an interesting observation, “As in most cases, the book revealed more about the author than his subjects.”
Well that kinda freaked me out lol As my beta reader, does my mom believe I think her to be a controlling witch who won’t let her daughter grow up? Does my sister believe I, personally, had sex in her laundry room? Does my husband think I have the hots for tall men with black hair and blue eyes? …
Digging through computer files, I found a little journal about my first time experience with edits and I thought it might be fun to share:
After accepting an offer for publication on my first book, I anxiously awaited my first ever edits from a publisher. And yes, I said anxiously. It’s my first book, after all. Finally, after an agonizing wait, they arrived. I was giddy. Yes, giddy. And emailing all my writer friends, plus some of my family, in CAPITAL LETTERS. It’s been a couple days now. Reality has set …
No, I don’t mean getting your butt up and moving to get exercise, though lord knows we all need more of that! One of the toughest things to write, in my opinion, is physical action. While fight scenes (action) are tough enough and present their own set of complications, I’m talking about an actual physical act—picking up a sandwich and taking a bite, rolling over after making love, watching someone from across the room. A writer has to walk a fine line between narrative and dialogue as is. Where exactly …
Welcome back to the Book Video Workshop. If you’re just joining us, please be sure to visit the previous discussions: Day 1: Deconstructing A Book Video, Day 2: Writing the Book Video Script; and Day 3: Imagery to Tell The Story. (This post was updated on 3/4/10.)
Music plays a vital role in commercials. The point of music in a commercial – and a book video is a commercial – is to make it memorable. To stand out. In the book Television Commercials, Charles Wainwright writes, “Advertising execs say ‘of the …
With the plethora of social media options out there for authors, it can be daunting and overwhelming to decide what will work for you, how to get started and what to focus on. And with reports stating that social networks have overtaken email in popularity (and this was in early 2009), can you not be involved in social media as an author today?
But before you jump into the fray, you need a plan. I’m not talking about how many minutes per day you spend (which is important, as well), but …
As you may have noticed, we have a query letter contest going on where you can enter your query letter and potentially have it read and critiqued by Literary Agent Assistant Tracy Marchini from Curtis Brown Ltd. In the spirit of the contest, I thought today’s post could focus on the query letter and some basics. So to go through the basics, I’m going to use the query letter that I sent out for my book, SOMETHING ABOUT HER. It’s certainly not award-winning, but it got me four agent requests …
First off, due to scheduling glitches over the weekend, today’s workshop will have to be postponed until next Monday. Sorry about that, but we’ll continue with the Book Video workshop then.
In the meantime, here are a few great articles for writers:
Keli Gwyn discusses revisions and how to plot the attack (with pictures to boot!) Great article.
10 Steps to becoming a better writer at The Professor’s Blog.
On writing subplots at Mystery Writing is Murder.
At Romance University, Writing Hot Love Scenes
Good advice on choosing a marketing or PR firm at Buzz, Balls …
“Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up.” ~ Chinese Proverb
Like many of you, I’ve been watching the Vancouver Olympics. Upon my many hours of viewing, one news reporter made an interesting observation. Winter Olympians are different from other athletes. They have something in their DNA that makes them want to push past their comfort zone and tow the line between insanity and glory.
Writers are the same way. No, of course we don’t risk life and injury from what we do, but I think many of us have …
No one likes to get rejected, no matter what the cause. But remember those dates when that great guy (or gal) didn’t call back and you never understood what went wrong? Or the job interview you thought was in the bag that you didn’t get? Or yes, the manuscript you were so certain of… Sometimes, all we want is the “why.” And Angela James at Carina Press has offered a few answers. For the manuscript rejections, at least… There isn’t enough space on this blog to discuss why men don’t …
“Put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.” -Colette
I don’t know about you, but I can’t stepped back far enough from my work to judge its worth. If you can, I’m envious. If you’re like me, then you need a critique partner or group. I have the good fortune to belong to two critique groups, both providing different input for my journey as a writer and an …
You have an idea. You want to write it down. You have to write it down. So, what do you do?
If you abandon your cup of tea mid-sip, switch off the music and sit down at your desk to do the writing, ask yourself why. Why the desk and not the bed? Why switch off the music? Why not take the cup of tea with you to sip as you ponder?
You might discover that those did not make those choices consciously: you just followed a pattern of learnt behaviour. At school, they told us that to study we needed a quiet area away from all distractions, a neat desk, a firm chair and plenty of light. And yet, the latest research tells us that sitting at a desk can place too much strain on the coccyx, and that bright light can lead to burnout.
Welcome back to the Book Video Workshop. If you’re just joining us, please be sure to visit the Day 1 and Day 2 posts.
Today, we’re discussing the imagery aspect of building your book video. Once you’ve got your script exactly as you want it — pared down to the most essential, provocative lines and as short as you can make it, it’s time to add images.
Storyboarding
Before we delve into the specifics of choosing your images, I want to share with you a technique I use when building videos: Storyboarding. Basically, …
