Beta reading is the turbo-charger for revising a book. Finding beta readers and delivering a good beta is not simple, but there are practices and rules that make this important task easier to accomplish. During my Workshop's in-person era, writers took on beta duties for each other, twenty pages at a time each month. We […]
Memoir is writing based on a portion of our life, a part filled with meaning that a reader can grab for their own. Understanding, compassion, inspiration, education, empathy; we can get any of those from a memoir, Perhaps you're starting from the idea of a loose memoir: limited structure, at first. Or maybe a story […]
Writing seems serious, especially when we have dreams for it. We're making novels or creating great nonfiction that will enrich the lives of readers everywhere. Maybe our memoir will help people see how struggle shows the way to survival. While those are noble and necessary goals, they can get in the way of playtime. Most […]
At last, Amazon is letting authors specify their on-sale dates for books. This is the calendar date when readers can first buy your book at the 'Zon. It didn't used to be as easy as plugging in the calendar date when your sales metadata would appear on the Amazon site. IngramSpark will ask you for […]
Many books sell on the strength of their authors. Authors who are bestsellers have their names above any title, riding on the reputation and good regard for prior books. New authors can reach for this power too. It begins with your author's bio. That summary of your life is important for debut nonfiction writers, with […]
Help those author newsletters get read by including all four food groups of content. Education: How to do a task, explained in a thorough but concise way. It might be the way to write a summary of a chapter. (Maybe it's a list of the contents for writing a useful newsletter.) Information: "This event or […]
A quarter-million words is what you get if you're writing four sentences a day for eight years. The total might feel like the accomplishment of your life. A quarter-mil can also haunt you and taunt you, depending on how close you get to revisions. In the span of just three weeks, I consulted with two […]
Beta reading is the turbo-charger for revising a book. Finding a beta reader or three and delivering a good beta is not simple, but there are practices and rules that make this important task easier to accomplish. During my Workshop's in-person era, writers took on beta duties for each other, twenty pages at a time […]
PR can be costly, like anything that's essential to discovery. These are not the inexpensive moments like newsletter startups, or social media posting. Sure, you don't have to spend more money than you can risk. Publicity is a cousin of advertising, though. You might get nothing from the expenditure, except the tuition we all earn […]
By the time you read this, I’ll be pitching. This weekend the San Francisco Writers Conference returns to the City by the Bay. It’s more than three days of learning and networking, with dozens of experts teaching craft and business. Hundreds of us authors, though, will be there to do more than learn. We’re there […]
