Top Three Excuses For Not Writing That Book

The top three excuses for not writing that book – and what Don Massenzio has to say about that!

DSM Publications

You’ve always wanted to write a book. You know you have at least one book bouncing around in your brain. So what’s stopping you?

I’ve been there. I’ve had the desire to write a book my entire life. I had many fits and starts, but always found an excuse not to do it. Finally, at the tender young age of 50, I published my first novel. I’m now 53 and I’ve published five novels, a collection of short stories and a non-fiction book on independent publishing.

I’m not bragging about this. I kick myself every day for not starting 20 or 30 years sooner. The only thing that allowed me to finish my first book is that I stopped making excuses.

This post is a look at the top excuses that keep many of us from unleashing that inner author on the world. Take a look at them and feel…

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When to Show and When to Tell

Ryan Lanz of ‘A Writer’s Path’ tells us when to show and when to tell. Thank you for a great post Ryan.

A Writer's Path

by Kyle Massa

Show, don’t tell.

If you’ve ever taken a writing course of any kind, you’ve probably heard that phrase.

If you haven’t, the meaning is pretty simple: don’t come out and tell your readers everything they need to know. Instead, show them examples and specific situations that support what you’re trying to say. Doing so often solidifies your points a little better than straight telling.

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Indie or Traditional – How does an author pick the right direction?

Don Massenzio gives us his advice on picking the right direction – Indie or Traditional. Thank you very much for helping us all, Don!

DSM Publications

Jumping into the indie author scene, for me, was a calculated risk. Like I do with a lot of decisions, I looked at the pros and cons.

Pros:

• You can easily publish your work on a number of platforms at little or no cost (Amazon, Nook, Smashwords, etc.).
• The royalties for sales are good. If you price a book on Amazon over $2.99, for instance, you will get 70% of the selling price as royalties.
• You can write at your own pace in whatever style you want.
• You can directly interact with your readers on many platforms (blogs, mailing, lists, social media, author signing events).
• There is an organized community of independent authors and you can learn from others and help others that are just getting started.
• My writing would be judged directly by the readers and not some low-on-the-totem-pole publishing house employee looking for the flavor of the month.
• Trend-setters like Hugh Howey

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This Week in Indie Publishing

I found a very interesting blog post on Don Massenzio’s blog. Thanks for sharing this Don!

Author Don Massenzio

Traditionally Published Authors Want What Indies Have

When self-published authors like Amanda Hocking became book industry names, it was for reaching incredible sales figures on the fairly new Kindle e-reading platform. After reaching newsworthy levels of success, Hocking and others like her attracted the attention of literary agents and publishers looking to reach consumers. Experts would often question why an author who was already on the bestseller list would possibly be convinced to give a sizeable portion of their royalties; the answer was almost always the same: “I’m tired of being a businessman, I want to go back to being a writer.”

Essentially, self-published authors who “took the deal,” as people claimed, were looking for support that they either had to pay for out of pocket or do themselves. Marketing was a major reason for this, along with publishing services like cover design and editing. The work of being that…

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Who Else: Writing Secondary and Minor Characters

Morgan S. Hazelwood writes about secondary and minor characters in our stories and books. You can find this blog post on Ryan Lanz’ ‘A Writer’s Path’.

A Writer's Path

by Morgan S. Hazelwood

Who Else Is There?

Writers know all about our main character–they’re the focus of our story. Often, the story is told in their voice.

But what about everyone else? Unless you’re writing a person-versus-nature like Hatchet, you’re probably going to have other characters.

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What Chef Ramsay Would Say About Writing – written by Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb, one of my favorite writer’s, an amazing teacher, fantastic blogger and wonderful person, writes about current struggles in her writing profession.

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The past few months have been tough. I’ve struggled with being down, depressed and stuck in a rut. The writing profession I once loved just had lost its…sparkle. In a recent post, I believe I voiced what many writers have been feeling:

Don’t know about you, but I dreamed of book signings, launch parties, my novels on pretty displays in an actual store. I imagined a real book signing with devoted fans I’d be able to meet face-to-face. Those were the dreams that kept me going in my darkest hours when it made no sense to keep on writing.

I don’t think a single one of us fantasized about favorable algorithms, a massive mailing list with a solid open rate, or a depressing spot for ten copies of our book on a Costco bargain table. And I sure as hell never dreamed of working like an organ-grinding spider monkey for fractions of KU pennies.

None of us did.

I never minded learning and doing the business of my business. I embraced branding, blogging, social media, SEO. But something was just…off. Something I couldn’t articulate. Leave it to my subconscious to kick me in the @$$ and have the answer…in a technicolor dream (okay, nightmare).

Last night *deep breaths* Chef Gordon Ramsay royally chewed my @$$ out at…a writing conference.

Bear with me, this is bizarre but salient.

To read the entire blog post, click here:

http://authorkristenlamb.com/2018/01/what-chef-ramsay-would-say-about-writing/

What You Need To Do Before You Self-Publish Your First Book – written by Derek Haines

 

Before you self-publish your new book, make sure you are ready

Too often, new authors get carried away with all the excitement of becoming a published author and rush way too fast into self-publishing.

When this is done, without working on building the necessary marketing and promotional tools beforehand, it is then a never-ending game of catch up.

What should have been an exciting book launch, ends up being a total fizzle, because few people apart from the author knew about the new release.

The process of uploading a Word file and a cover image and self-publishing the two as an ebook is extremely easy.

But without the necessary work before hitting the publish button, it is like throwing a bottle into the ocean and hoping someone will find the note inside.

The far better way to successfully self-publish is to get the basics in place first, well before publishing.

Here is a must do seven-point checklist to help first-time authors avoid making the classic mistakes that are difficult to correct after publishing.

To read the entire article go to:

Must Do Seven-Point Checklist