Don’t Advertise, PADvertise: Catch Readers With Their Pants Down – Written By Kristen Lamb

With her usual humor and direct way to say things by their proper name, my favorite blogger and teacher posted an article about ‘PADvertising’. Thanks a lot for that one, Kristen Lamb!

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Seems writers are always looking for some new way to advertise their books, which is fine…but some folks have gone more than a little bit cray-cray. I finally fled Twitter, by and large, because it’s next to impossible to locate real hoo-mans among all the automation. My email has pretty much gone feral as well, but meh.

Today, let’s have some fun at the bots’ expense, shall we?

Okay, any of you who regularly follow my blog know that I am totally out of my mind a bit eccentric. I’m reposting this blog because a) I’ve been flattened with bronchial pneumonia b) I have to travel and c) this post never stops being funny…especially if you’re like me and have the same sense of humor as a fourteen-year-old boy.

This post was inspired when I was speaking in Idaho. I’d excused myself to the ladies’ room and, as I closed the door to the stall, I noticed all the advertising on the back of the bathroom door. This cluttered wall of ads made me think about all the authors spamming non-stop about their books on social media and via email.

Writers were becoming worse than an MLM rep crossed with a Jehovah’s Witness. Could the author book promotion get any more invasive?

Wait…

Maybe it could.

CONTINUE READING HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please read and share

 

This is a very important blog post by Phoenix Rainez. Please read it and share it. Too many people don’t follow that excellent advice!

 

 

Be careful what you post on Social Media

No Sales or Lackluster Sales: It Isn’t the Reader, It’s the Book…Really – Written By Kristen Lamb

I discovered a new, brutally honest, but still in her unique style humorously written blog post by Kristen Lamb where she tells us about lacking sales of our books. Thank you very much for your advice, Kristen!

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No sales or lackluster sales. It isn’t the reader’s fault. It’s the book. Really. This is tough to hear. I know.

It’s a writer’s worst nightmare. You researched, you wrote, you finished, and then published your book. You wait for the sales and….

*crickets*

This is something that can happen to any kind of author, traditionally or nontraditionally published.

We think we have a hit on our hands only to later be checking our work for a pulse. What happened? Why did everything go sideways? Where are the SALES?

 

Continue Reading here

 

Writing Contest Beware: Pressfuls – Written By Victoria Strauss

Victoria Strauss of Writer’s Beware published another warning. This time she informs us about ‘Pressfuls’. Please, read it and spread words to help other authors be aware of that scam.

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Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

On Sunday morning, I woke up (late, I admit) to a flurry of emails about a website I’d never heard of before: Pressfuls.

The writers who contacted me reported that they’d entered a free short story contest this past September.

Continue Reading Here

 

How to Choose the Right Antagonist for Any Type of Story – Written By K.M. Weiland

Thank you for an amazing blog post on how to choose the right antagonist. This is an interesting and very educational post.

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Here’s how to choose the right antagonist for your story. You know “If I Didn’t Have You”—that song John Goodman and Billy Crystal belt out at the end of Monsters, Inc.? It’s this total bromance duet about the undying friendship of our two favorite monsters. But pretty much every lyric in there could also be crooned in gratitude by any good protagonist to any good antagonist:

I wouldn’t be nothing
If I didn’t have you
I wouldn’t know where to go
Wouldn’t know what to do

The antagonist may not be the big-money reason readers pick up a book or audiences flock to a theater. But he is ultimately the reason the protagonist either a) has a reason to stop wasting her life eating potato chips on the couch or b) doesn’t just coast through every obstacle with boring ease.
So we gotta give our antagonists some love.

Continue reading HERE

 

How to Get Reviews to Ensure Your Books’ Success – Written By Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson writes about reviews and how to get them on BookWorks. Thank you very much for your support, Dave.

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Think about the last time you went to buy a book.

Did you pick your new read based on a catchy title and attractive cover art?
Maybe. But more than likely you also did a bit of research. You probably went into what genre the book is, basic plot description, character profiles, etc.
AND… I bet you read some reviews.

Because let’s face it… if a book has nothing but negative reviews, why waste your money?

Reviews are crucial to your book’s success. Having many positive reviews can be one of the main driving factors of a book’s sales. But if your book has many negative reviews, you may not sell very many books at all.

And what if you have no reviews?

Continue reading HERE

 

How To Survive Deleting Characters #AmWriting #WritingCommunity – Written By Lucy Mitchell

Thanks so much for this very educational and supportive article on your blog Blonde Write More, on how to survive deleting characters. So far I haven’t had to do that yet – but I admit, I had to kill one of mine which nearly broke my heart.

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Writing the death of a much-loved character can be demanding and can leave you emotionally wiped out.

Did you know that there is another literary situation which can be just as challenging and one which can cast a nasty gloom over your writing life – deleting a character from your story.

I am not talking about deleting a random minor character; a fictional person who you created one day after too much coffee and inserted into the middle of your novel, just to beef it out (technical literary term) and then deleted them the following day after realising your stupidity. *Sigh*

No. I am talking about those major changes to a draft which result in you deciding to get rid of a key character.

I guarantee this fictional person will have been with you since the start of your story and someone who you have history with. You and this character will have been through some stuff; your rocky first draft, that dreadful second draft which no one liked, your third draft where you felt all hope was lost and the fourth draft which resulted in you wondering why the hell you had ever taken up writing.

You and this character will have shared story in-jokes. They will have been there for you during the bad times. You know them inside out and they are like a good friend.

Continue Reading Here