Twitterific

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
 
Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 20,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com.

5 Reasons Why Amazon's Kindle Worlds Is Great For Writers: http://bit.ly/11V16LK @Harrison314

The challenges trad pubs face and their silence while dealing with them: http://bit.ly/15BGFEQ @barryeisler @molbarton @Porter_Anderson

Author Photos

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Author photos aren’t just for the backs of books.  They’re also used to brand our series and connect different bits of our platform.  They can also connect a pseudonym to our real name. My photo is one of the few things connecting my Riley Adams books to my Elizabeth Craig books on both my Goodreads pages and Author Central on Amazon.  They’re useful for guest posting on blog tours.

And it’s much better to use our photo than our book cover for branding.  Our covers and series change…our faces stay the same.  Sort of.  :)

7 Secrets to Loving Book Promotion (Even If You're an Introvert)

by  Toni Tesori, @Duolit

Do you consider yourself an introvert?

If so, you’re definitely not alone. Over eighty percent of writers (myself included!) belong to that group. In the world at large, however, we’re outnumbered three-to-one by our extroverted brethren. 

When it comes to writing, this works out perfectly. Crafting your story is, after all, a solitary task. Lots of time alone to think, plan, get creative – all things we introverts excel at!

But what the task that comes after you type that final sentence? What happens when the time comes (shudder) to promote your work?

Chalk One Up for Outlining

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m one of those writers who is an everyday kind of writer.  Creating habits isn’t easy for me—once I’ve formed one, I have to repeat it every single day to keep it.  And writing is like using a muscle…I’ve found my writing gets flabby if it’s not regularly exercised. I make the time. It’s way too hard for me to pick up a train of thought, the voice, that story rhythm if I don’t write daily. It’s tough to get back into the story.

 I’ve squeezed writing into completely impossible days.  I write at 5 a.m.  I write in carpool lines. I write in doctor's office waiting rooms. I come up with dialogue while doing yard work. I’ve written while eating lunch.  I’ve sacrificed sleep to write. I’ve written while traveling. I always make my deadlines. Whatever I need to do to hit those 3.5 pages a day, I'll do it. If life goes to hell, I'm flexible--I'll write when it's not my favorite time of the day.

Twitterific

 by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 20,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com.

Flash Fiction –Make It Up and Make It Snappy: http://bit.ly/17esqwJ @Beth_Barany @amowriting

The alphabet in crime fiction--knives as a murder weapon: http://bit.ly/180bOYP @mkinberg

"Most of the readers love bad books." http://bit.ly/12HBeIt @pubperspectives @Porter_Anderson @DeMarcoAV

Advice for Aspiring Writers

 by Colby Marshall, @ColbyMarshall

All authors face this problem at some point in their careers, whether they’re published, striving to publish, or have simply let their friends know they’re writing a book.   

You know the statement, because if you’re a writer, you’ve heard it over and over again.  “Oh, I’ve always wanted to write a book!”

Sometimes, depending on who it is, you probably smile and ask about their writing, silently thinking about how most people who say this have very little intention of actually ever writing a book.  Most people who say this don’t know how much hard work is in it, either.  

 But, because we’re writers and try to support other writers, it’s always a good idea to give advice if ever asked.  After all, someone at some point has given us some, be it someone in a writer’s group online, a mentor in person, a blog post, or an article.

Subplots

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Today I'm over at Jordan McCollum's blog, talking a little about subplots: what makes for a great
subplot, tips for including them in your story, and a few resources to learn more about writing subplots.  Hope you'll pop over.

How to Promote Books and Win Fans

by Jason Kong, @storyrally

Most fiction writers hate marketing their books.

You have to tread the line between awareness and overhyping. Because you have a vested interest in selling your work, others sometimes assume you're just out to make a buck.

Book promotion doesn't always have to be so unpleasant.

If you have published books and an online platform, then you also have a following. You have readers paying attention because they value your storytelling.

Instead of plugging your books all the time, why not recommend those of your fellow authors? It's a promotion opportunity you can feel good about.

The genuine endorsement

You know what this is like.

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 20,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming worked with author and writing coach James Scott Bell to offer an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com.

Jailhouse deaths in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/11aqTzH @mkinberg 

Downsides to using pseudonyms: http://bit.ly/12fX3Pb @spunkonastick

Tackling a first draft: http://bit.ly/11TiCic @JoannaShupe

Both publishers and authors should tone down rhetoric, anger: http://bit.ly/ZH0Br2 @Porter_Anderson @DavidGaughran @timdavies1998

There's No Such Thing as Good Writing: http://bit.ly/11xF0iv @theAtlantic @joefassler @craignova

When our stories give off unintended implications (regarding race, misogyny, etc.) http://bit.ly/18wX0C2 @PAShortt

Falling out of love with writing: http://bit.ly/192KHdl @billycoffey @RachelleGardner @Porter_Anderson

Chick-lit will survive - but don't count all female authors in: http://bit.ly/18wwDMo @KatyFBrand

Giving Villains More Depth

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Image by Daniel Gies

Most people aren’t 100% good or 100% bad.  There are bits of goodness and badness in all of us…including villains. 

Flat villains with no dimension to them are just as uninteresting as Pollyanna protagonists. As a reader, my interest is always piqued when I get to see another side of a bad guy…if he does something unexpectedly kind, for example.  I usually wonder if there’s an ulterior motive—and wondering is good for readers. It helps keep them engaged in the story.  Even if there isn’t an ulterior motive, it’s interesting because it offers another side to the character.

In mysteries, this is especially important because we don’t know who the bad guy is until the end of the book….or we shouldn’t, if it’s a traditional mystery (thrillers operate under different rules.)  

In one of my books for Penguin, I’d turned in the manuscript for editing.  My editor emailed me back and told me that this time she’d been able to figure out who’d done it.  She pointed out that the murderer was also the most unpleasant character—that it was too obvious for readers...that they’d want that person to be the murderer, anyway, and the element of surprise would be gone.  My choices were to make the killer more likeable or to change the murderer altogether.

I decided to make the murderer more likeable (although I frequently do change the killer for my editor…in fact, I’d already changed the killer once for that very book.)  This was easier than it might sound.  I changed dialogue where the killer came off sounding snarky and made the statements sound more genuine.  I showed the killer being a good citizen. I showed the murderer helping the sleuth.  I made the killer reluctant to gossip about the other suspects. I nice-d the killer up.  Reader response later indicated that the murderer’s identity remained a secret until the end (well, some readers always guess the right suspect. Sigh.)

For non-mystery writers, showing your villain’s good side has other advantages—mainly to add complexity to the character and make them more believable.  And keeping the reader…and your protagonist…guessing is also a nice side effect.  Maybe it even gives your protagonist second thoughts about the bad guy.  It could also make the protagonist trust the antagonist again…which could make the protagonist’s life more complicated.  Confusing the protagonist could be another strategy to throw a bit of conflict in there.

Do you have any favorite multidimensional villains?  How do you like to display other sides of your antagonist?

3 Useful Additions For Your Mystery

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Today I'm over at Linda Clare's Writer's Tips blog, with a post especially for mystery writers.  There I'll list the three elements that I've found most helpful to me when writing mysteries.  I'd love to hear from other writers what they've found useful for their mysteries and am happy to answer any general questions about writing mysteries there, too.

Thanks for coming by!

Promoting or Re-releasing an Older Book

 by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I recently received an email from someone asking what angle he should take in promoting an older release.  It was one of those situations where he’d sold the first book to a big publisher and a year later, sales were lagging…right as he was wanting to pitch books two and three to the publisher.

Unfortunately, this is a drawback with traditional publishing—if the sales aren’t great, then they’re not going to be keen on buying book two and launching it.  Even though…launching book two can bring book one back to life again. 

What do you do if they don’t buy book two (you’ve probably got a “right of refusal” clause in your contract that will tell you how long it will be before they make that decision.)  You have, actually, a couple of options to get your other books in front of readers.

You could pitch another traditional publisher with book two.  This pitch would probably be more successful with a bump in sales for book one (and I’ll touch on promo ideas below).

You could ask for the rights to your characters back and then self-publish the remaining books in your series.  Incidentally, this has been my approach and the sales for the first book in the series have remained strong for a year now.  This, as a matter of fact, might be the better option (i.e…this is what I would do.)

Let’s say that you’ve chosen one of those two options above.  Exactly how do you promote an older book? 

Don’t even mention that it’s not a recent launch.  As far as I can tell…it just doesn’t matter.  Back before digital books, shelf space at bookstores was fairly ephemeral. You needed to promote your book directly after it released…otherwise, they’d send the books back to the publisher (the dreaded ‘returns’) and free up shelf space for other, newer titles.  Now the books stay up on a retail cloud as long as you want them to.  Why not promote them a year or two years later?  I see older releases promoted every day.  Yeah, your title might not be as exciting for book bloggers as the hottest new release, but it shouldn’t ultimately matter.  A good book is a good book.  If it’s undiscovered, it’s not old news. Consider a blog tour or a Goodreads giveaway.  A spike in sales and reviews for the title is never a bad thing.

Write more books in the series (if you have the rights and if you’re choosing the self-pub option).  This results in higher visibility for your name and your titles on retailers like Amazon.  Then your previous title comes along for the ride.

Create a platform where you interact in readers without being strident.  Learn which are your favorite social media sites…are you more of a Twitter person or a Facebook person?  What about Pinterest?  Would you enjoy blogging?  You don’t have to go crazy with it…just have some sort of consistent online presence in a form that doesn’t drive you nuts.  Interact with others, share things your followers have shared, make friends, and build a name for yourself.

My favorite?  Definitely continuing a series by self-publishing it.  You have more control and have the opportunity to have Amazon’s “customers who bought this, also bought this” algorithm to work in your favor.  It’s all a matter of visibility in a very crowded virtual bookstore.

How about a much older book?  What about a book that came out in the 70s or 80s?  If you’ve got the rights to those books, they might as well be available for sale…they have the potential to bring in additional income.  You’ll need some new, updated cover art (usually the cover art doesn’t revert to the author anyway…at least, it didn’t in my case for my 2009 book.) You’ll need to hire someone to format the book for digital release and/or print on demand (unless you want to learn how to do it yourself…I didn’t.)  Hopefully, the editing was good the first time around at your traditional publisher.  You have the option of updating the book’s text—or not.  It could be a charming snapshot of life in a different decade.  Or you could tweak it to make it appear to have been set in the modern day.  As author and publisher—it’s all up to you.  You’ve got total creative control.

Have you had any success re-launching an older book?

Twitterific

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 20,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming worked with author and writing coach James Scott Bell to offer an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com.

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction: Injections as a Murder Method: http://bit.ly/16DiigB @mkinberg

Getting Reviews as a Self-Published Author: http://bit.ly/11z1Hl3 @SpunkonaStick

#BEA13 "positions authors primarily as creatures of the publishers": http://bit.ly/14pRd9v @Porter_Anderson

1 writer's editing process: http://bit.ly/1aZrFnk @authorterryo

The publishing industry is telling itself fairy tales: http://bit.ly/11VXnlR @samatlounge @Porter_Anderson

Observations on #BEA13: http://bit.ly/15zZL01 @Porter_Anderson @jwikert @ChuckWendig

Good Points and Downsides to Rapid Series Releasing and Studying Algorithms

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

In my post on Monday, I took a look at the phenomenon of binge-viewing or marathon consumption in entertainment.  As I mentioned in the post, Netflix is enjoying some success with its experiment with its original series, House of Cards, in which it released the entire season of thirteen episodes on the same day for viewers to watch at their own pace.

I think there are some real possibilities and perhaps a glimpse at how reader consumption might operate in the future.  I’ve noticed that readers will frequently email me or ask me via Facebook when my next traditionally-published book will release (often asking me why I can’t write faster.) :)  Production for traditionally-published books takes a year.  They don’t ask me that question for my Myrtle Clover series, which is now self-published.   

I think there are both pros and cons to rapid book release (and, also, studying data to help us plan books or series...I touched a bit on algorithms in my Monday post). 

How to Write a Novel in Three Years or More

by Emily Wenstrom, @EmilyWenstrom

It’s often said that writing a novel is akin to running a marathon, not a sprint. For me, it’s felt more like the long, painful, drawn-out process of training for a marathon.

I am two and a half years into the process of writing my fantasy novel, and even though I write for about an hour every day, I’m only starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Along the way, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about how I could have made this easier on myself … and become an expert in the many ways to make this process take as long as possible.

So allow me to share my wisdom—you too can write a novel in three years or more!

"House of Cards," Binge Viewing, Algorithms...and Writing

 by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I don't usually watch a lot of television. One of the reasons is that I’m so short on time and jealously guard the free time I do have.  I don’t want to waste it on bad TV.

Then, by the time it finally trickles down into my consciousness that something is a good show, it’s probably two or three seasons in…I’m just that out of the loop. By that point, it seems useless to even try to catch up. 

But at some point, networks started realizing that if they aired old episodes online, they could snag new viewers.  My sister-in-law assured me that I’d enjoy Lost which was airing on ABC. At the time, the show's last season was about to air.  I started watching episode one on my laptop during my lunch one day.  I continued watching an episode or even more each day after that until I was finished catching up by the time the final season aired.  What’s more, I felt like I’d really followed the fairly convoluted plot because of the way I’d chosen to consume the show.  It had been a self-paced marathon.

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 20,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming worked with author and writing coach James Scott Bell to offer an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com.

An approach for plotting a novel: http://bit.ly/12JAdM9 @WriterAbroad