Independent author
I’ve talked on here about beta readers before, but the topic is rattling around my head again — and not only because my next novel should head off to that stage by this weekend. Last week, I ran across this article on SelfPublishingAdvice.org by author Michael La Ronn. It’s titled “Writing: How to Find Beta Readers,” but it’s really all about how to find beta readers on Goodreads. [Read more…] about How do you find beta readers? (Hint: Not on Goodreads)
Making the rounds of the indie publishing world lately has been this HuffPo piece from Laurie Gough about the scourge that is self-published books, and how those books are “an insult to the written word.” It’s, shall we say, harsh toward indie authors. It’s also typical HuffPo click bait. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all wrong. [Read more…] about Behold, as I Insult the Written Word
In a recent critique I received of “Killing the Immortals,” a couple of people mentioned that they thought there was too much dialogue, particularly in the early going. It’s an interesting criticism that I hadn’t heard before. The first 2-1/2 chapters are pretty dialogue heavy, while the second half of the third chapter is completely devoid of dialogue at all. [Read more…] about Is Using Dialogue a Writing Crutch?
Writing can be a pretty solitary pursuit. Most people are solo authors on their manuscripts. Most will bring in help at the tail end of the project; some may even solicit some advice over the course of the project. But, for the most part, the story is being pulled from some deep, dark part of your brain. Well, mine is deep and dark. Yours might be sunny and bright. Don’t let Negative Nancy here tell you how your pretty little brain should work.
But the process doesn’t have to be as solitary (and whiskey-fueled) as many make it out to be. While you may or may not get explicit help during the course of writing a story, having the support of others — knowing there are people going through the same problems you are, and that are rooting for you to succeed too — can be a great motivating factor toward getting to the finish line. One such option for that support is the Curiouser Author Society, a pay spinoff from Shayla Raquel’s Curiouser Editing site that can provide lots of editing services for your book. The Society is more of a general help site, with an e-newsletter and a (private) Facebook page where the members can interact with Shayla and each other, getting questions answered, offering advice, critiques, and bad jokes (mostly by me).
After several weeks of trying out the Society, I thought it could be worthwhile for more authors to give it a shot. Here are three reasons you might want to consider joining: [Read more…] about 3 Reasons to Join the Curiouser Author Society
To figure out why you should hire a professional editor for your novel, perhaps we should first look at why you shouldn’t do so. That because, well, it’s not at all cut and dried. Not everybody needs to put forth the effort, legwork and cold, hard cash to hire an editor for their novel. There are good reasons not to, and you might fit that profile. [Read more…] about Why Shouldn’t I Hire an Editor for My Novel?
In the pieces I’ve been writing so far, I haven’t exactly been shying away from tough scenes, death, sex, whatever. I don’t think you can write well if you’re scared of what your mom, or some random person with delicate sensibilities will think, and I’ve made every effort not to hold back.
However, in the book I just started reading, there’s an early scene that made me think there may be limits to that. I’m not going to go too deeply into the scene (Let’s just say it involved the potential apocalypse, and some panties from a laundry basket), but I’ll say that I wondered how necessary it was. Now, it’s possible that it will have an important role in building the character that was involved, in which case I’ll just have to revisit my thoughts on this, won’t I? [Read more…] about When Your Story Goes Too Far