So I kind of love the Allstate Mayhem commercials. You’ve seen them right? They’re hilarious, and the goal: to get you all prepared and insured before mayhem strikes. Well, let’s replace mayhem with a book contract and insurance with a super sweet platform and marketing strategy, and we’ve got our topic for today and the next few weeks: Marketing Before You’re Contracted. If you’re serious about a career as a published author, then the sooner you get started on the marketing piece of your journey, the further ahead you are…and the more attractive you are to agents and editors. So in the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about some incredibly practical steps you can take to start marketing now. Over three weeks, we’ll look at a total of […]
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The Writer’s Emotional Bank Account — How To Make A Deposit
Q: I just finished NaNoWriMo and now that I’ve completed my first draft, I can’t seem to settle down and focus to start the rewrite. Do you have any tips or ideas? A: Awesome question. First, congratulations on finishing your novel, or most of it for some folks. That is a huge accomplishment. NaNoWriMo is a great tool for authors because it forces us to set a goal. We are writing toward something. It also joins us with other writers and creates a bit of buzz and excitement, even a bit of competition, that keeps us going. Most goals are like that: end driven. We want to get to the end and achieve what we started out to do. But then what? So, you have 50,000 or more words on […]
Read the RestThe Power of A Rewrite
Q: Dear Therapist, I hear that novels are not written they are rewritten. But I edit as I write. Is that considered rewriting?, all I feel I need is a final polish. Why should I spend time with a rewrite? What do I gain? A: I love this topic. To rewrite or not to rewrite… that is the question. Let’s just say up front, everyone has a different writing process. Fast, slow, edit-as-you-go, write and rewrite. Early risers, late nighters. A thousand words a day. Five thousand words a day. Writers come in all shapes and mind-sets. Some writers plot to the minute detail. Others have a loose idea of what they want to do when they sit down to write and let the story come to them day by […]
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