Do I Have to Kill My Darlings? 5 Self-editing Steps You MUST Take Before an Editor or Agent

March 30, 2012 by 9 Comments
shutterstock_43047028

Congratulations, writer!  You’ve done it. As you type “The End” and move your mouse up to the little “Save” button in the corner, you feel like running down the street screaming “I’M AN AUTHOR! I’M GOING TO BE FAMOUS! I’M SENDING MY MANUSCRIPT TO (PUBLISHERS/AGENTS/EDITORS/SMASHWORDS) TOMORROW! YEAAAAAAHHHHH I’M AN AUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTHOOOOORRRRR!” This jubilant response is not wrong—it’s just premature. Once you finish the first draft, it’s like you’ve browned the taco meat but haven’t added the seasoning. For your book to be seasoned, it’s going to require that you take some measures—some emotionally painful—to ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward. Before sending it out into the world in any professional or official capacity, take your manuscript through the following steps… [read more]

Filed Under: Revising, Writing, Writing Tips Tagged With: , ,

45 Quick Word Replacements for Good, Great, Awesome and Other Boring Superlatives

March 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
shutterstock_97473626

Great, excellent, amazing, awesome (our personal favorite); these are just a few stale superlatives stymying your writing. As the Wise, Ink team were working on our own book project, we were shocked to find the obscene number of “really greats” and “very goods” that peppered our precious book content. The overuse of words like terrific, amazing, and awesome are boring and pedestrian. We’re among friends, so we’ll admit that it was not only embarrassing, but downright lazy on our part to rely so heavily on “great” and other past-its-prime word choices. Thus, we sought several resources to help eliminate this and developed a list of words we’re committed to using from now on. Use powerful superlatives that enhance your blogs,… [read more]

Filed Under: Revising, Writing, Writing Tips Tagged With: , ,

The 7 Secret Weapons of Groundbreaking Indie Authors [Plus Infographic]

March 26, 2012 by 2 Comments
shutterstock_88936375

We’ve got a lot to say on this topic, so we’re going to cut to the chase. Here are the tried-and-true secret weapons that will take your good book idea to star status.   1. A Kick-ass Book Cover Your cover is the first impression-maker. It must be thoughtful, well-designed, and eye-catching and is one of two places you cannot cut corners (the other is in editing). One literary agent we met once told us she accepted a new author largely due to the beautiful cover she hired a designer to create for her self-published book. This author’s book cover showed the agent that she meant business and that author soon received a large advance and book publishing deal. A… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Marketing Tagged With: , ,

The Indie-Author Marketing Pie: Bite-Sized Tips for Your Book’s Success

March 23, 2012 by 7 Comments
shutterstock_46422355

“You mean I have to try to get on radio stations nationwide, and have a crazy-active Twitter account, and have a blog, and also do a blog tour, and have book signings, and worry about getting my book in bookstores, and have book reviews, and write a newsletter, and have a book trailer, and do speaking engagements, and what about a book launch? And sell it to my friends and have them do book clubs, and Facebook, and submit my books for awards, and how do I get readers? This is all so overwhelming!” We agree. It’s a big bite. When you’re an indie author and you try to swallow the whole big marketing pie, of course you’re not going… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Marketing, Motivational Tagged With: , ,

Keep Your Book Fresh: 25 Clichés to Avoid in Your Writing

March 21, 2012 by 5 Comments
shutterstock_91570133

Everyone—writers, scuba divers, and presidents alike—have “key” phrases that they tend to use and use again. Some of those “key” phrases also might tend to be used by other people again and again. We’ve all heard them: clichés. It can be far too easy to introduce clichés into your book. While there are instances to use clichés—such as when you’re establishing a character’s voice—they tend to make your writing feel monotonous for readers. Used too frequently, clichés can tell the reader that you are a) too lazy to come up with an original way to phrase your passage, b) too unoriginal to come up with an original way to phrase your passage, or c) just a bad writer. (These three… [read more]

Filed Under: Audience, Revising, Writing, Writing Tips

5 Myths You Should Never Believe About Your Book Idea

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
shutterstock_96648040

Do you have a book idea? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Be prepared to experience a roller coaster of emotions: fear, doubt, excitement, and insanity. Emphasis on insanity. You will wrangle with your neurosis and you will learn more than you ever cared to know about book production, marketing, sales, and distribution. It’ll be freaking fantastic. We promise. However, if you should find yourself in need of a reality check at any moment, keep reading. Here are the five myths you should put out of your mind about your book idea:  1. It’s original In our business we hear new ideas daily. And we love it. It’s rare, however, that we hear an idea we haven’t… [read more]

Filed Under: Motivational, Planning Tagged With: , , ,

Author Interview with Alice Anderson,”Tips for Authors”

March 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
300_tipsforauthors

We enjoy any opportunity to gather writing and publishing tips from experts in the publishing arena and Alice Anderson is one savvy author to pay attention to. For the last several years, Alice has worked with authors to promote and market their books and her website for writers has been named one of the Top 101 Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest twice. Alice’s new book Tips for Authors is a must-read chocked full of gems that every author will find valuable, which we discuss in today’s interview. We definitely recommend you grab a copy! 1. Your book Tips for Authors says that authors need more than a great book. What do you mean by this? Have you heard the… [read more]

Filed Under: Guest Post, Planning Tagged With: , ,

7 Book Writing Tricks that Work for Blogs

March 14, 2012 by 1 Comment
shutterstock_97242986

It’d be nice if blogs could write themselves while you focused on writing your next book, but it doesn’t quite work that way…yet. Never fear, the same techniques you use to generate fodder for your book writing, also work pretty darn well for your blog writing.  So as you sit at your desk with your cup of coffee pondering your next blog post, try these tricks: 1. Keep a record of your ideas Just as you keep a notebook for those precious moments when you think of an intriguing book character, epiphany, phrase, or story idea, also keep a notebook for any blog ideas that come to you. This, especially comes in handy when your well of ideas runs dry. *Tip:… [read more]

Filed Under: Social Media, Writing Tips Tagged With: , ,

Book Launch Party Itinerary

March 12, 2012 by 1 Comment
shutterstock_34265182

You will hear the Wise, Ink gang say more than once that a book launch party is the first major book marketing secret to jump start book sales. You must start your book marketing with a bang as we mentioned a few weeks back. The first way to do that is by throwing yourself a party. In our experience, authors who plan a party at least a month in advance are able to sell anywhere from 50 to 200 books — in one night. It’s absolutely worth it. The major benefits being you’ll sell a good number of books to your friends in family at once, you’ll collect names and contact information for sales leads, and get much needed encouragement… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Launch, Book Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Why Indie Authors MUST Have a Top-Notch Cover (and 5 Steps to Getting There)

March 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
shutterstock_94211758

I have to start by showing my indie authors some love! You, you amazing and fabulous indie author, have the chutzpah to do it yourself. Go indie publishing! Still, it would be irresponsible not to acknowledge that there’s some serious quality control for the books going through the traditional route, and this quality control is what gears the book for market. Indie authors would do well for themselves to implement much of the same quality control steps that traditional publishers use. The first step to being a successful indie author is knowing where and when to implement your team of experts. If a book isn’t self-published well, the first tell is usually the cover—the cover, the quintessential marketing material by… [read more]

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: , ,
«Older Posts