Word Magic
Are you writing short stories? If you aren’t, give them a try. Why? Many reasons: we’ve looked at the many advantages of bite-sized fiction here. The biggest advantage for me is that shorties bring visibility to novels I wrote years ago. If you want to promote older material in a story too, add a link to that published book in … Read more
Marketing can be challenging. You may market conscientiously, but struggle with fiction sales. Some books, for whatever reason, fail to launch. They fizzle. Why, oh why? No one knows. You love the book. Beta readers do too. Sadly, the book makes few sales, but you’re not ready to give up. You try commonsense solutions. Results? No. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, … Read more
As you may know, I mentor writers and authors. Although many of my students begin their careers by writing short fiction, few have goals for this short material. They look at short stories and novellas as practice material for their real goal: writing a novel. Of course, this is laudable. I’m a big fan of exercises and writing journals. The … Read more
Are you a self-publishing author? Here’s a big tip: start preparing for Christmas holiday sales NOW. It’s July; we’re in the second half of the year. Christmas goodies appear in stores early: consider having your fiction and nonfiction selling by October, at the latest. Speaking of October, if you write fiction, consider writing a few horror stories for Halloween. I … Read more
A popular question: is it hard to write serial fiction? In a word… No. In many ways, it’s much easier to write a serial than it is to write a novel. For example: we’ve discussed hitting the dreaded wall in fiction—you’ll be pleased that there’s no wall with serials. Overall, serials tend to cause far less stress and confusion than … Read more