Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with thoughts for April on writing matters in the news, work in progress, reading and publishing. Several years ago, I watched a TV programme showing Sir Terry Pratchett at work in front of a number of computer monitor screens. Then a little later, the news…
Why You Need a Social Media Publishing Calendar and How to Build One – Antonio Tooley | Guest Post
You invested tons of effort to write your book, and it was even harder to get it published. You didn’t have a team of publishers watching your back; you did all the work on your own. You’re proud of that piece, and you should be. Now, the marketing aspect is also your responsibility. You can…
How Independent Authors Can Grow their Following on Twitter – Jessica Davis | Guest Post
If you’re an independent author, you probably already know that maintaining a good online presence and building a readership is crucial to your success. This is all the more important when you’re primarily self-published, and need internet buzz for people to engage with your work. More than any other type of social media, Twitter is…
Foolproof Methods to Avoid Authorship Problems – Rose Scott | Guest Post
Have you ever thought of book piracy as a good way to promote your writing? Lots of indie authors tend to give their eBooks away through torrent sites. But what they fail to do is properly take care of and protect their intellectual property. The reason why many authors give their books away seems logical…
Finding the Right Editor – Sarah Barbour | Guest Post
A good editor should know the norms of the genre and edit to those norms—not try to turn a story about vampire space aliens battling zombies into Faulkner. —Survey respondent A couple of years ago when I was writing my first book, The Copy Editor’s Guide to Working with Indie Authors, I ran a survey…
Why an Author Needs a Publicist in Today’s Competitive Book Market – Tany Soussana | Guest Post
For the author who is looking to make a difference between where their book is at today (perhaps just puttering along), or where it can be (with a publicist in tow), let me ask you this: If not now, when? First off, congratulations are in order if you are an author who has made it…
Reading and Writing for Pleasure: March | Douglas Burcham
Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with some leap year thoughts for March on work in progress, reading and publishing. “How do you plead?” “Guilty.” “Mitigation.” “I just need time to find the right words and then place them in the right order.” Being locked up in jail before a big drop…
Reading and Writing for Pleasure: February | Douglas Burcham
Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with some thoughts for February on places related to writing progress and structure, 2016 reading and publishing. January 2016 was an interesting month of travel to Ramsgate, Margate, Vermillion Sands and Berlin with writing and reading connections. Most of our friends could not see why…
How to Create the Best Antagonist – Megan Hicks | Guest Post
The best antagonists are those we fall in love with, despite knowing that they shouldn’t triumph in the storyline, or we truly develop hatred toward. Either way, they stir emotion. When writing, there are actionable steps you can take to add to the impact your antagonist has on readers. Keep in mind that your work…
Writing and Reading for Pleasure: January | Douglas Burcham
Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with some thoughts for January on writing progress and structure, 2015 reading and publishing. I set out in June 2015 to complete a full self-edit and restructuring of my 300k word Gemini storybook by the end of 2015. Alas, I have failed because I have…