Seven Writing Links -- Volume 65

Received a lot of good feedback from my online critique group this week.  Not the kind of feedback that makes you want to throw the manuscript into the trash.  The kind that makes you sit back and think "Yeah, these suggestions will definitely make the chapter even better."  The kind that makes you want to immediately jump right back in and rewrite that scene instead of moving on and writing the next chapter like I probably should.

Thought of the week?  I wish Candy Crush had a replay button so I could figure out why seemingly simple moves sometimes result in outcomes vastly different from what I expected.  Sometimes I think the game cheats.  Doesn't stop me from playing it, though.

Enjoy the links and have a great weekend!

ChemistKen


Writing the Tight Synopsis

How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

Getting Your Self-Published Book Into Bookstores And Libraries

The Dark Side of Digital

Going Pro—Earning Rhino Skin & Learning Which Opinions Matter

Volunteering: Marketing’s Best Kept Secret

Follow the Leader: Moving From Scene to Scene

My First Writing Workshop - Woo Hoo!

As some of you know, I spent last weekend attending David Wolverton’s writing workshop, Write That Novel, in Indianapolis.  It was my first ever workshop/conference/retreat and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I anticipated an intense couple of days where we would be writing down so much stuff our hands would cramp. Turned out this workshop was more relaxed, with David sitting back in his chair and describing his approach to writing, sprinkled with all sorts of anecdotes. I suspect he didn’t cover nearly as much territory as he would have liked, but since he emailed us a copy of the workshop notes, I have all the info I need right on my Kindle.

The workshop was a smorgasbord of topics, including how to make your story resonate with the widest audience, how to maximize your income from books (including the handling of movie rights, which I suspect none of the attendees are ever going to have to worry about), and what to consider when negotiating with a publisher.

David is also dabbling in self-publishing, and he spent time explaining what an author needs to do to self-publish a book readers will want to read and how to market it, including how to write back cover copy and where to purchase artwork for cover designs.

One concept he discussed at length involved try/fail cycles. I already knew the MC should struggle and fail through most of the story, succeeding only at the end, but David told us that each story needs (at least) three major try/fail cycles, each more difficult than the last, and each requiring a larger percentage of the book in order to tell.

Overall, David was able to keep me interested for two eight hour sessions, which is no easy feat. So now I’m motivated to jump back into my stories and apply what I’ve learned. Wish me luck!

Friday Links -- Volume 45

It's Friday, which means the kids are almost done with their first week of school. They handled it better than I expected, especially since they had been whining almost constantly the last couple of weeks about how short the summer was. Fall is my favorite time of the year, and I often find this translates into more productive writing on my part. We'll see.

In any case, have a great weekend.

ChemistKen


Starting From Zero

Comparing the Ebook Submission Process: Self-Publishers v. Publishers

The Nightmare of Updating Backmatter - SOLVED

When Giving Away Free Books Is the Smartest Thing a Writer Can Do

How to Pitch Your Self-Published Book to an Agent

Waiting For A Story To Get Going

Friday Links -- Volume 44

Posting kind of late today, but I have other things on my mind at the moment.

Have a great weekend!
ChemistKen


The Value of Indie Print: Necessity, Choices and Costs

What is a Logline and How Do You Write One?.

Why Do I Want to Read Your Story?

The Dozen New Digital Rules Authors Need to Know

There Is One New Book On Amazon Every Five Minutes

Friday Links -- volume 41

After spending last week relaxing (supposedly) on a vacation in northern Michigan, a trip that mostly kept me out of reach of the Internet, I came home to find my inbox overflowing with emails.  Took over a day just to clean up that mess.  Still, it's good to be back, even if my schedule is a bit hectic these days.  I'm beta-reading two different manuscripts, doing a structural edit on a third, helping my wife set up Excel spreadsheets for her new pet sitting business, finished a book review, and still made good progress on my own manuscript.  I even commented a couple of times on Facebook--something I'm trying to get better at doing.  All in all, a good week by any standard.

Anyway, I'm glad the weekend is almost here.  I wouldn't mind sleeping late tomorrow.

Many of this week's links have to do marketing, self-publishing, and  formating ebooks on your own.  Am I noticing a trend here?

Have a great weekend!
ChemistKen


How Bad Can One Page Be? The Hidden Dangers in Short-Form Contracts

Author Entrepreneur. How To Sell Books And Products Direct To Customers

Author Entrepreneur. Go Direct And Sell To Your Customers With Jim Kukral

Clean Up Your Ebook Files With HTML

Writing Basics: Formatting Your Manuscript for Submission

Are Facebook “Promoted Posts” Ever Worth It for Authors?

C’mon, Book Marketing Isn’t That Hard

Friday Links -- Volume 39

After a lot of futzing around with my latest chapter, it's finally beginning to come together.  Good thing too, since I'm about at the point where I can't stand to look at it anymore.  :)  I'll polish it a bit more tonight then move on to something else.

I wish you all a great weekend.  And if you haven't already seen it, check out Wednesday's post on Crystal Collier's Cover Reveal.

ChemistKen

The Links:

Building a Character Arc: Start at the End

Picking the perfect name for your character

3 Steps to Taking Your Character Further and Deeper With…Anger?

Pricing Strategies for Ebooks in a Series

How To Find The Right Editor For Your Book And More Editing Questions Answered

The Self-Pub Diaries Part III: Asking For It

Friday Links -- Volume 38

I spent most of the week on vacation, so not much progress on the writing front. You'd think that having all that time away from work would mean lots of writing time, but it never works out that way, no matter how many computers and writing pads I drag along with me.  I'm guessing I only managed about an hour of writing in six days. Almost makes me glad I'm back to work.

At least the week is ending well. We returned from our vacation to find that the family computer wouldn't start, no matter how many times we kicked it. Turned out the power supply was fried, so I picked up another one at a local store and now everything is back to normal. I wasn't too worried about my manuscripts. They're backed up on multiple computers as well as Dropbox, but every minute I spent getting the computer back up and running was one less minute I could spend writing.

Does anyone have any scary computer stories to tell?

Have a great weekend and enjoy the links!

ChemistKen


Having Trouble Plotting Forward? Try Plotting Backward

Hidden Emotions: How To Tell Readers What Characters Don’t Want To Show

Are You Showing or Telling Your Internalization?

How to build better relationships with your readers using Goodreads’ “Ask the Author” feature

Navigating the Next Frontier in Digital Publishing: Audiobooks

Mark Coker's Tips On How To Sell More Books

New Authors, Should You Self Publish or Seek a Traditional Publishing Deal?

Friday Links -- Volume 36

This was a good week for me, writingwise.  Finished up another chapter and sent it off to my crit partner.  I'm sure it will need a lot of work, but I know I'm making progress and that's a great feeling for a writer to have.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Enjoy the writing links.

ChemistKen


7 Storytelling Lessons from Sports

4 Tips for Setting Up Your International Amazon Author Central Pages

7 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Self-Publishing Company

Who’s Your Distributor: Smashwords or Draft2Digital?

The Self-Pub Diaries Part II: Paying For It

What's it About? How Movie Trailers Can Help You Write Better Query Letters

Friday Links -- Volume 35

A lot of links for self-published authors today.  Not sure if this is due to my subconscious telling me that's the route I'll be taking when I publish or because more writer/bloggers are entering the self-publishing arena. Either way, enjoy the weekend!

ChemistKen


What Every Self-Published Author Needs to Know About Taxes

Writing Basics: It's Exposition, Yeah, Baby!

How to Plan for a Successful Book Launch

How Emotional Peril Keeps Readers Reading

Writing Revealing Dialogue: Self-centered People and Unpredictable Outcomes

Nuts & Bolts – Back Cover Copy and Why Yours Is Bad

Tips on Making Covers or Working With a Cover Artist: Part 2

Thinking of Self-Publishing? Put These Books in your Self-Publishing Toolkit

Friday Links -- Volume 33

Another good week for me.  The garden is almost finished (I'll post pictures later), I made good progress on my stories, and after today, I won't have to help the kids with their homework again for another three months. Woohoo!

On the downside, Hostess still hasn't gotten around to making Suzy-Qs available yet.  What's the holdup?

Anyway, here are this week's links.  I found the first one particularly useful, since I have trouble with setting. Enjoy!

ChemistKen


The Building of a Setting

Make Your eBook Look Great and Sell it Everywhere

What Are Your Secondary Characters Good At?

Self Publishing With NookPress And Marketing To Nook Customers

How to Write a Story: The Creative Process… One Writer’s Take

The Escalation of Complications

Increasing Visibility on Amazon with the Big-Fish-Small-Pond Strategy

Novel Diagnostics—How to Tell if Your Book Might Have Terminal Problems in TEN Pages

The Insecure Writer and Being a Slow Writer

Today is December's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.


Why am I an Insecure Writer this month?

Because slow writers like me are fighting an uphill battle.

I’ve posted before about being a slow writer, and when that slowness is coupled with a busy schedule, progress on my WIP often drops to a snail’s pace. And this year has been particularly vexing in that regard. (The details will be the topic of a future post.)  Nevertheless, I've come to accept being a slow writer.  It's who I am. Of course, I still fantasize that one day I’ll be a fast writer, but I’m not holding my breath.

But in these heady days of publishing—especially self-publishing—everything I read suggests an author needs to be prolific to be successful. Book promotions, for instance, are often a waste of time unless the author has several books available for purchase. Several books? Yikes! At the rate I’m going, I’ll be retired before I finish three books.

 Hmmm. The time I’m spending on this post is already making me antsy. I think perhaps I should wrap up this post and get back to my story.

What about you guys? Does not having a lot of published books worry you? Do you feel pressured to finish books as quickly as you can?

Selling Ebooks Directly to Your Readers

Author David Gaughran, whose blog is filled with interesting posts about the art (science?) of self-publishing, wrote today about Gumroad, a company that allows you to sell your e-books directly to your readers. I don’t have anything to publish (yet), but the concept is intriguing and I’m sure I’ll eventually try it out someday. Head on over and read his post.

Have any of you ever considered the idea of selling your books yourself?