Words, Spoken or Written-it's not about the content…
You may slave over the right thing to say or the right way to say it, but the funny thing about words, spoken or written, isn’t how they are used nor what is said. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is in the interpretation. What does that mean? If a person is in a dark place and someone says “I hate you”, said person might go over the edge and do something awful. Perhaps they’ve been clinically depressed due to a family incident or have a substance abuse problem…or have been the victim of violent crime. The words have a significant impact due to their psychological state at the time. Switch gears and consider that this person is a teenage girl, admiring a pretty friend in a new outfit, who looks totally awesome. Saying “I hate you” is actually just a compliment…with a tinge of envy. It’s poking fun at the [...]
Words, Spoken or Written-it’s not about the content…
You may slave over the right thing to say or the right way to say it, but the funny thing about words, spoken or written, isn’t how they are used nor what is said. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is in the interpretation. What does that mean? If a person is in a dark place and someone says “I hate you”, said person might go over the edge and do something awful. Perhaps they’ve been clinically depressed due to a family incident or have a substance abuse problem…or have been the victim of violent crime. The words have a significant impact due to their psychological state at the time. Switch gears and consider that this person is a teenage girl, admiring a pretty friend in a new outfit, who looks totally awesome. Saying “I hate you” is actually just a compliment…with a tinge of envy. It’s poking fun at the [...]
Cover Art – Boost Your Sales With Proven Styles
Cover art is a touchy subject for authors. I would imaging musicians also are picky about the cover for their next "label". This is the first point of contact your art has with the world. The first impression. According to statistics the cover art of a book has a 30% impact on whether someone chooses to purchase-that's HUGE. I came across the article below on bookbub and thought I'd share. It's a great list of successful tips for choosing the right cover art. After reading, I have decided that my next cover will have three women sitting on a beach peeking over their sunglasses. They'll have a couple of dogs at their side and will be ogling a shirtless guy making sand castles or perhaps digging clams with an adorable little kid. There will be 4th of July fireworks going off at dusk over the water...and a quirky "chick-lit" sign [...]
How to handle reviews so they don't handle you….
This post was shared with me recently and it has such fantastic advice that I'm sharing it with everyone here. How to handle reviews has always been a subject of concern for authors. After reading, I realized that I need to change my ways. I've always thanked reviewers for any and all reviews because I appreciated that they took the time to write something. I did this regardless of a good or bad review. Apparently that's the wrong way to handle (oops). Good to know. While this link is specific to Amazon, the advice regarding reviews is good and probably should apply to any review site. http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-laws-of-amazon-jungleeight-rules.html?spref=fb
What does an agent want you to fix before you send that manuscript?
Recently Dawn Dowdle from Blue Ridge Literary Agency sent out this advice to all her author prospects. These are a few things she runs into on a regular basis that detract from the overall quality of a submission. This is excerpted with her permission. I thought it worthy of sharing as the advice is something I've seen often and certainly have to remind myself on periodically. ***** This is for ALL authors. I hope you will read and follow this. Here are some of the big items I find people are not following. I am going to be returning manuscripts where I have to mark these edits consistently in the beginning of a manuscript. This takes away from my being able to watch the overall story and help you tighten the manuscript to help editors want to acquire it quickly. 1. Telling AND showing. Many of you have this habit. [...]
Five Sense-ible Ways To Improve Your Writing
Want to immerse your readers deeper into your book? Need to keep their attention to the very last word? Here are five steps you should always take before submitting a manuscript to a publisher--or if you self-pub, do it before you even think about publishing. Even if you have someone editing your work, use these five simple ways to activate your writing: Wait until you're finished--or stop at some point in the middle--doesn't matter. Step 1. Peruse your manuscript for the word "said" (or any dialogue tag) and get rid of as much as possible. Do NOT substitute words like yelled, screamed, spoke, whispered, etc. either. If you want someone to be totally immersed in your words, you should describe the actions and provide the words. It's not necessary to add a dialogue tag. That will just pull the person out of the head of the character and make them a [...]
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