Writer in the Making

Let’s face it, everyone these days is mostly on social media. How do you approach it for your author platform? Listen in for my opinion. Don’t forget to protect yourself, especially when it comes to inappropriate behavior, bullies, and trolls.

Believe it or not, book reviews are the lifeline of a book. They’re not for us the authors, but they are for readers to help them decide if they want to download or purchase your book. Do you want mostly 5 star reviews? Is it realistic to have a range from 1-5 stars? Have a listen so you can be better prepared. Booksprout.co and booksirens.com are mentioned in this episode.

How do you decide if your story should be in first person or third person narrative? What are the pros and cons? Does it matter to readers? I’ll share my opinion but the final decision is up to you. FYI, if you hear a boom in the background, there was a plant fire in Crosby, TX. 😳 My area’s not affected, but send prayers for those that were🙏🏾

Setting up the normal world in your novel? How much time should be allotted before the inciting incident? Is there a word count minimum of setting up your main character’s normal world? I mention K.M. Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel in this episode.

Indie authors, ever wonder what you need as opposed to what you want in order to publish your book? Is it a need or is it a splurge? This is my opinion on what I needed and didn’t need to make my book a success. Have I arrived yet? No, but I’ll share with you what I’ve learned so far. Note: mail chimp subscribers stop at 2K under the free account. Choosing a paid account has unlimited followers.

Writer’s block? I hate it as much as any other author. What do you do to solve it?

Sometimes we think too much and we end up stifling our own creative writing process. Here’s some motivation fellow writers. Just get it written!

Critique partners and beta readers. Do I really need both? Well...

What’s the best way to find beta readers? While there are multiple sources, I mention CP matchmaking, critiquematch.com, and betareader.io in this episode. Here’s what I’ve discovered on my journey.

Is my book a good idea? Should I go ahead and write it or keep it to myself? Where’s the defining line?

This episode is a follow on my tutorial on onestopforwriters.com particularly dealing with mapping out your story. How to go from your setup to the aftermath of your manuscript. How do you organize it?

Ever wish you could talk to your former writing self? What advice would you give? What pitfalls would you have avoided?

How long should my book be? Depending on your genre, the word count can have various ranges. Since I’m in the romance genre, it can range from 50K to 90K. I’ve even seen 100K! You might think, how am I supposed to write 100K? When is my book over?

Here I’m giving an update on my experience so far with booksprout.co. I’ve already received a 4 star review for my upcoming release, Match-Made Christmas! Yes it’s only one review, but it’s better than zero.

ARCs? These are advanced readers copies of books that an author chooses to give away in exchange for a review. This comes in handy right before your official release date. It builds excitement and publicity for your book! So... how do you get them? Here’s one way! Booksprout.co is mentioned in this episode. Follow @booksproutapp

Because I’m scoping for beta readers, I’m exploring all possibilities. I’ve recently discovered critiquematch.com and I’ve already found a beta reader! Listen to see how this site works.

Am I really a writer? Should I even be doing this? I’m not the best so why bother? Am I a fraud? Is this journey even worth it?

Head-hopping? What is that? It confuses readers and overall it’s not good. Here I’ll share on how to avoid this in your books and how you can makes the changes if you’re doing this. Head-Hopping Gives Readers Whiplash by Beth Hill, fiction editor and novel editor Ellen Brock are mentioned in this episode.

I participated in ALLi’s self publishing conference this past weekend. What did I take away? Have a listen and find out.

What truly makes a great book? Is it the outlining? The plotting? Is it the polished grammar or inciting incident? What about the climax and the denouement? Perhaps it’s the conflict and tension that’s added to keep readers on their toes. Then again, what if it’s none of those things? Could it be that what makes a great book is... the author?

Revising your manuscript. Some of us love it, and the rest of us hate it with a passion. Which one am I? Have a listen.

I’m seeing a lot of backstory as I work with my critique partners. I’m still dealing with it myself. What am I learning about it and what’s the best way to handle it? How can you tell if you’re using too much backstory? Are you “info dumping” unnecessarily? How can we break up with it? This is a follow up to the previous episode “Backstory.” I refer to Sandra Gerth’s book Show, Don’t Tell, K.M. We...

I’m learning a lot as I work with critique partners. In this episode we’ll discuss how to give and receive constructive criticism from your CP. How much is too much critiquing? Do you point out everything you see? How do you establish boundaries?

March 16th through the 17th, I’ll be participating in the free Self Publishing Conference online. Anybody else attending? Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi) is mentioned in this episode. www.selfpublishingadviceconference.com

Recently one of my tweets was liked by BetaReader.io @betareaderapp. I further looked into their website to check them out. Listen to see what they’re all about.