Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Once upon a time authors didn’t have to think much about their genre, or their reader demographics. They just wrote stories and never worried about the book finding a slot in a high traffic section of the bookstore. Some of my writer friends still feel this way; they don’t care about genre labels one way …
Continue reading “Do We Really Need Genre Labels?”
The decision to self publish can be tough. For some of us, it follows months of pursuing the traditional route, trying to stay buoyant through multiple rejections and dozens of rewrites, catering to the expressed or implied preferences of industry professionals and beta readers. A few authors eschew the big five and smaller independent presses …
Continue reading “The Decision to Self Publish: Defeat or Triumph?”
A little backstory on me… I have not worked a regular, paying job this past year. I used my savings to quit everything and just write a novel. I’ve had many friends ask me how I stay motivated without the threat of deadlines or reward of money. This is how I do it… 1) Schedule. …
Continue reading “How To Stay Motivated Without Deadlines or Money”
Books can take us places we yearn to explore, introduce us to characters we’d love to be, and allow us to live our dreams no matter how impossible. Such books help us escape our own troubles, at least for a while. But books can also take us to dangerous places, introduce us to despicable people, …
Continue reading “What We’re Reading This Month: Books That Make Us Thankful”
In the olden days (maybe five years ago?) an author relied on the publisher/agent to promote and market their book. It was part of the package deal and could be hit or miss. Some books were marketed aggressively, some not. Not exactly sure why. The advent of social media has revamped the landscape and the …
Continue reading “Build a Platform. Then Jump Off!”
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) takes place every November. As most of you know, the goal is to compose a first draft of your novel, roughly 50,000 words during the 30 days. It works out to be a doable 1,667 words a day, but only if you sit down and write that chunk every day. …
Continue reading “Lessons From The NaNoWriMo Trenches”
When my daughter Amber was seven years old, she wanted a kitten, and we decided to seek one out at the SPCA in Johannesburg. Any visit to a shelter is always heart wrenching because there are so many animals worthy of adoption, and their survival depends on their ability to connect with us. Most seem …
Continue reading “Marketing Our Books: What We Can Learn From Our Pets”
My last post about Theme turned out to be a little contentious. Not everyone agreed with the definition, which isn’t surprising considering we were all taught in English class that theme is a) usually distilled down to one word, like “salvation” or “death”, and b) open to interpretation. This approach to theme works in a …
Continue reading “The Controlling Idea – Not Your English Teacher’s Theme”
Learning how to write a great query letter is almost as important as writing a must-read manuscript. If you don’t have a fabulous query letter the chances of ever hearing those wonderful words: “Send me your full manuscript!” are just about nil. When I finished my first novel, I searched the Internet for a query …
Continue reading “The Question is? The Elements of a Great Query Letter”
As I mentioned in my last post, Pace, Friend or Foe, one great way to drive a novel’s pace and keep people reading, is to end your chapters with a cliffhanger. Most people are familiar with the cliffhanger at the end of a novel (encouraging you to buy the next book in the series) or …
Continue reading “8 Ways to End a Chapter With a Cliffhanger”