Category: The Five Minute Author
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What to look for in a hybrid publisher
…3. Commit to truth and transparency in business practices. In the beginning, I went with a small publisher with first book. They’d send me these emails that said, “Hey, your book has entered our level 4 marketing process.” But they wouldn’t say what that was. And to be honest, I only had about 15 reviews.… Read more
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How to Develop Characters
who says your characters have to be human? The main character in one of my first short stories was a fish in a hotel fountain. Now here’s the other thing; I’m not satisfied if all I do is transcribe the voice of that character. It’s when you push that character against other characters that you… Read more
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What if I have too many writing ideas?
… 4. Set aside a day and go through your ideas. Is there anything that can be combined into a single project? Put the top items that you really want to work on and start with one of them. Set a timer for 20 minutes. And start writing. Do that with each project. If you… Read more
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Find Ideas For Your Next Story
…I know my friend Katy was at one of my short storyathons where we write a short story in a weekend, we walked around downtown and she saw a fountain. She was inspired to write a story called the Last Fish in the Fountain, all about a fish who witnesses a murder and tries to… Read more
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Three Top Things That Sell a Book
…On the marketing panel with me at Killer Nashville was Kiersten Modglin who writes one-off books and part of her success, besides having great books, is she was very targeted with finding ARC readers. She has a list of 200 and she makes sure that they have some following on social media. That’s a smart… Read more
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How to be an Organized Writer
I create electronic folders for all my book information – and make sure to label everything – In my folder for Toy of the Gods – ebook cover, paperback cover, your blurb, any social media images, version of the book (ebook and or print – amazon and or other locations) Scrivener keeps my research organized.… Read more
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Types of Publishing
…Self publishing is taking your book, doing the work that a traditional publisher would do, like editing, picking out a book cover, formatting, and publishing it to the various platforms. Self publishing is good if you like having control, if you’re comfortable on the computer, and if you don’t want to wait for traditional publishing.… Read more
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Don’t Regret Not Writing That Story
From young author Lorna Cronnon who just had her short story (Nathan Dayspring) with an autistic main character hit best seller on Amazon has this to say “keep writing because somewhere out there there is this little kid wishing they could find a book to spark their love of reading. All it takes is one… Read more
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Tools for Writers
…I use Scrivener for writing my novels. Before I get into why I love it, here’s what Tamsin Silver, author of The Curse of Billy the Kid. had to say about tools that she uses. “I personally prefer using Word for my writing but a lot of authors I know love Scrivener. It really helps… Read more
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6 Smart Ways to Work with Other Authors and Sell Books
Author Jim Tritten had this to share with me about working with other authors “Other writers can be your greatest strength. How many men know how to write a scene that involves what goes on in a ladies room? Partner with someone who can provide insights into what you don’t know. When I re-wrote a… Read more