Last week we talked about fool’s gold and not being attracted to bright, shiny objects. Today we’re going to journey in the opposite direction because I coach individuals all the time who fall into this trap. It goes something like this: You spend nights and weekends at the keyboard pouring your best efforts into creating the manuscript you just know will be a New York Times Best Seller. You save your pennies to register for a writer’s conference and practice your elevator speech until you recite it in your sleep. An agent and editor both want to see the manuscript so you run back to your hotel room you couldn’t afford and press the “send” button. Then you wait. You don’t want to leave your room to attend the workshop […]
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Reach Back and Reach Forward
I can remember in my early days of writing, not the early ones when I was 12 years old and wrote stories on a typewriter I bought at a garage sale. I mean when I made a full-time go of it in my mid-20s. I felt so alone, so isolated…so weird. With the internet it is much easier for newer writers to find help. We realize that there are others out there who hear voices in their head and have reasonable conversations about murdering characters and destroying relationships. [All in the name of craft] We have an incredible opportunity now to learn from other writers—are you taking advantage of that? “Well, Tiff, I’m reading this blog post, aren’t I?” Yes, you are. But what are you doing with it? What did […]
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Three Steps to Being a Voice, Not an Echo
Writing in the Christian market pushes us to go beyond the realm of this life to find meaning and purpose for our characters. While we are not writing sermons and devotionals set in fictional places with fictional characters, we are imitating life. For the Christian author, Jesus is very much a part of our every day life. We want to express Him in some way in our stories, through the lives of our characters. But often our stories sound hokey, canned, full of Christianese. How we talk in the foyer at church, or in Sunday school class does not translate into fiction. Remember, our goal is to write great stories about great characters. Our goal is not agenda fiction where we pound the pulpit so to speak about some error of […]
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One Thing Marketing … Write a Press Release as Compelling as Your Book!
Welcome to this week’s One Thing Marketing where we talk about that “One Thing” you can do this week to build your platform, connect with readers/reviewers and snag some attention for you and your latest book or WIP. Last week we talked about a writer’s mission statement. How did you do coming up with a Brand Promise, Tagline and Emotional Relevance? This week we’ll tackle the press release. A press release is an announcement of your new book. The trick is making the announcement as compelling as your book is, and that takes a slightly different touch. It’s a simple formula merely to put together a proper press release for your book. In the first paragraph, include the following: Title ISBN number Publisher Author Price Then in the body of […]
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