Fee-Based Contests are NOT Writing Scams
Is having to pay a fee to be a part of a writing contest a scam? The answer is not what you think. The reality is that you need to consider the purpose of the contest and the purpose for entering the contest.
Writer's Fun Zone by Beth Barany
7 Rocks to Being an Author of a Bestseller
Say you have a jar full of rocks, pebbles, and sand. Each rock, pebble, and grain of sand represents a step you can take to being a bestselling author, a full jar. Some steps take more time than others, some cost more money to do, but time and money are not a reflection of the size of the stones. Instead, the size refers to how effective each step is in reaching your goal. If you only have the time and money to put in 7 things, doesn’t it make sense that you should focus on the ones that are large rocks instead of the tiny pebbles?
Creating Time
People used to be tied to things like families, communities, rituals, worship, curiosity, and beauty. Now we are tied to schedules, watches, datebooks, computers, and keeping up with the latest gadgets that start with i. It seems like time is going by faster than ever these days, and we’re all exhaustively trying to find, chase, save, and manage time.
Writer’s Adventure Guide Giveaway
Check out my new giveaway … Attention: This is only for people who want to write a book! Or are writing a book! The Writer’s Adventue Guide is FREE on the Kindle from Wednesday, June...
Avoid Construction Accidents: Building Book Structure One Scene at a Time
Let’s say that you know who your story’s characters are, and you know what they’ll be doing—you have a plot. Now it’s time to write your story. And like many writers, you’ll be sitting there in front of your keyboard and monitor, staring at a blank page, and sweating blood. Where to begin?
How to Edit My Book
A lot of authors that wonder how to edit their book think there must be some system all the great authors use for editing, when the reality is each author is different. For example, I have my own unique set of frequent writing flaws, so I have my own way to edit my book. You’ll need to come up with a system of self-editing that’s tailored to your own writing needs.
Instead of telling you how to edit your novel, I’m going to give you tips on how to create your own system of editing.
What if you knew you couldn’t fail?
What if you knew you couldn’t fail? I’m plagued with the vague notion that I’ve failed already. But let’s just say for kicks that I hadn’t failed and I couldn’t fail. What would I...
Increase Your Book Sales with Anthology Submissions
Many authors think getting their work published in an anthology is great for visibility. They’re right. But not for the reason they think. If you self-publish, you then tell all your friends and family about the book. But with an anthology, you now have all the contributing authors tell all their friends and all their families about the book. The amount of people who hear about the anthology and see your published name can be ten times as many!
Making the Most of Your Tumblelog
Welcome guest columnist, Karma Bennett, Publicist, Social Media Consultant and Writer. When I met Karma recently at a meeting for book publicists and those interested in book publicity (like me!) I was struck by...
Is Tumblr Right For Your Book?
Is Tumblr Right For Your Book? Tumblr is the original microblog. It’s a fantastic resource for authors, and much easier to use than other blogging platforms like Wordpress and Blogger.
Artist Entrepreneur: K for Kickstarter — The Artist’s Alphabet Guide to Writing About Your Art by Aletta de Wal
Kickstarter is the entrepreneurial artist’s equivalent of venture capitalists, only better. Their tagline, “A new way to fund & follow creativity,” describes crowd-sourcing money and encouragement through “a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.”
3 Tips to Making Great Book Trailers
Some people think book trailers are a great way to make more book sales, while others think book trailers don’t truly increase book sales much at all. The truth is that book trailers can increase your book sales if your video becomes viral. So how do you make a video go viral?
The Best Print to Ebook Layout to Boost Your Sales
I thought that if I made my ebook have a layout exactly like my print book, that would be enough to make my ebook sell well. The truth is, by going from print to ebook, I made the layout identical and that was a mistake. I missed out on making news of the release of my ebook spread like wildfire, and I missed out on making sure I got plenty of good reviews from my ebook sales. If I had just added a few extra components to my ebook layout, I could have made more sales and received more reviews.
Plot: It’s What Happens after the Shower
Everybody knows what plot is, right? It’s action. Action drives stories. Without action, without plot, you’ve got no story. Simple. But not all actions are equal. For actions to be plot, they must have consequences. Actions without consequences are setting or description.
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