Think

Opinion pieces offering commentary on various aspects of book culture, publishing and self-publishing.

Quick Links: Anthologies: How They Can Advance Your Writing Career

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I love anthologies as a way of finding new authors. Alex J. Cavanaugh discusses how anthologies can help writers and has tips to make your anthology experience successful.  Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris has the full details.

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Anthologies: How They Can Advance Your Writing Career

Anthologies - where too many chefs makes awesome sauce!
Anthologies – where too many chefs makes awesome sauce!

by Alex J. Cavanaugh

Anthologies are an excellent way for a writer to break into publishing. They can also do a lot to expand the audience for your existing titles. Blog ninja and Master and Commander of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, Alex J. Cavanaugh, has edited several anthologies, and gives us the skinny on how they can help your career. 

Anthologies offer something for everyone – the authors, the readers, and the organizing team.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group recently released its second anthology, Parallels: Felix Was Here. Previously, we’d put together The IWSG’s Guide to Publishing and Beyond.

Comprised of short essays from various IWSG members, the Guide was put together as free gift to our members and to any writer seeking assistance. The second anthology was the result of a yearly contest and offered the authors royalties. Both were a huge undertaking for the IWSG team to put together.

But the anthologies embody what the IWSG is all about – offering support and providing opportunities for writers at all levels to achieve their goal of being published. When you’re in an IWSG anthology, there’s a sense of family. All the winners become friends and offer support for each other. Watching that unfold is worth any amount of effort.

So, for anyone considering submitting to an anthology, putting together one, or even reading such a collection, I offer these tips and advantages.

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Quick Links: Letter to a Discouraged Writer

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Writing getting you down? Perhaps you are feeling discouraged and even though you got published, it didn’t turn out like you thought it would? James Scott Bell has some encouraging words to help you keep your chin up and move along at Kill Zone.

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Letter to a Discouraged Writer

June 12, 2016
by James Scott Bell

Get back up, start writing! Starting with a funny caption for here!
Get back up, start writing! Starting with a funny caption for here!

My man,

Here’s the thing. You got yourself good enough to get a publishing contract back in the “old days” when you needed to impress an agent, get repped, get shopped, and then sign on with a house. Your books came out with nice covers, some marketing, some placement. You did book signings and conference appearances. Three books I think it was, right?

So what happened? Sales weren’t enough to earn back the advance. And not enough to get another contract from the publishing house.

There’s an author support group for that. It’s called “Practically Everyone” and they meet at the bar.

I don’t know the exact percentage, but most fiction authors who ever lived never caught on in a big way. Many used to manage a “midlist career” which meant at least enough sales to keep on publishing, though not enough buy a yacht.

So you went through a dry period. Your agent shopped you but without success. So you parted ways. That was a tough time for you. You wondered if you’d ever get published again.

 

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Quick Links: It’s Not You, It’s Me: Nine Things I’m So Over in Romance Novels

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Ok, I admit it. Romance is not my favorite genre. Not saying I haven’t read any but I am very picky and they are few and far between. Even so,   at Book Riot has some great points on things that are so wrong or overdone in romance novels. My particular favorite topic to rip on is #4 The wonder virgin but don’t forget to add her billionaire dominant lover who only wants her and only she can redeem him.

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It’s Not You, It’s Me: Nine Things I’m So Over in Romance Novels

All she needs to do is take off her glass and undo her ponytail and voila instant vixen!
All she needs to do is take off her glass and undo her ponytail and voila instant vixen!

By Jessica Tripler

Romance is my favorite literary genre. I read 4-6 a month. But here’s a list of things I’d like to see receding in my reading rear-view mirror:

  1. Building up the heroine by tearing down other women. This typically involves comparing her favorably to either the hero’s ex or his faceless army of sexual conquests. When her positive attributes only show up against the backdrop of all the lying, gold digging, narcissistic, and promiscuous women he’s ever known, I learn a lot more about him than her. As a reader, I’m more interested in why this particular woman is special to this particular man.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: How Writers Can Develop Emotional Connections between Reader and Hero

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

We all want to tell our story and as writers we want someone to get our story, to fall in love with our characters. Patrick Cole at Live Write Thrive, shares with us his tips on how to connect the reader and the characters.

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How Writers Can Develop Emotional Connections between Reader and Hero

June 10, 2016

Even though she was on her way to marry David, she knew in her heart no one could compete with Mr. Darcy
Even though she was on her way to marry Norman, she knew in her heart no one could compete with Mr. Darcy

by Patrick Cole

Today’s guest post is by Patrick Cole: 

When I first met Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, I was in high school and certainly not yet “fully baked.” In fact, my major emotional connection to the novel was not with Sydney Carton but with Lucy and Charles. They were so in love, and I just wanted there to be a romantic happy ending for them. Dickens did not disappoint me.

Of course, since that time, I have reread this novel two more times—once in college for an English Lit. class and once more because there is much to learn from Dickens’s writing.

To me, now that I am closer to coming out of the oven, Carton as a redemptive figure is one of the best in literature. And while many fiction writers do not have “Christlike” characters in their novels, the methods used by Dickens to establish that emotional connection are timeless and universal. Here are things I have learned that you can learn too.

  1. What’s the Backstory?

Readers cannot develop connections with characters unless they have the backstory that got them to where they are at the opening of your piece.

Backstories can help to establish empathy, understanding, and credibility, as long as they are done well.

Before you ever develop your protagonist in his/her current situation, spend some time developing a history that logically leads to the emotional and behavioral state in which they find themselves today. Never do this through a narrative. Provide that history through thoughts, behaviors, words and interactions with other characters.

It’s easy to see Sydney Carton’s backstory by his behaviors in the beginning of the tale—he is a drunk who feels worthless and inept, despite his stellar legal history. He has “fallen” and, though would like to redeem himself, cannot muster the strength and courage to pull his life together. He has no purpose.

 

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In The News – The World’s Oldest Working Library Will Soon Open Its Doors to the Public

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Morocco’s al-Qarawiyyin University is the worlds oldest continuing working library and soon it will be available for everyone. Road trip? If I only had the money! Smithsonian.com has the details.

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The World’s Oldest Working Library Will Soon Open Its Doors to the Public

Seriously who want to come!
Seriously who want to come!

By Danny Lewis

smithsonian.com

After renovations wrap up in September, the library at Morocco’s al-Qarawiyyin University will debut an exhibition section for non-scholars

When the library at Morocco’s al-Qarawiyyin University was first built in the 9th century, it was one of the world’s great centers for learning. Scholars from around the world traveled to Fez to visit the library and peruse its books, and today it is the oldest continually operating library in the world, Selina Cheng reports for Quartz. But soon students and researchers won’t be the only ones with access to the storied library. The architect in charge of a lengthy restoration project to the library, Aziza Chaouni, confirmed to Smithsonian.com that after renovations wrap in September, the library will be debuting a wing for the general public’s use for the first time in history.
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Read the full post on Smithsonian.com

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Quick Link: Eight things booksellers would like self-published authors to know

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Ever thought about trying to get your book into a bookstore or hold an event? Niki Hawkes at The Independent has some tips for you that booksellers think you should know. There is also a podcast along with the story.

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Eight things booksellers would like self-published authors to know

By Niki Hawkes

We want YOU to sell your book!
We want YOU to sell your book!

Self-published authors are sometimes ill-prepared or don’t know what to expect when they approach booksellers about selling their titles, signing events, policy, etc. To be successful in pitching their books to booksellers, self-published authors should have a sense of the resources available to booksellers, what is appealing to them, and how to approach them. Here are eight things booksellers would like self-published authors to know.

Making sure your title is available for bookstores to order is an important first step

Bookstores don’t have access to all titles, and corporate stores like Barnes and Noble can’t sell your title unless it’s in its system and available from one of its distributors. Independent bookstores are much more likely to accept copies you bring from home, but each one is different, so it’s important to do some preliminary research. The more available your book is, the easier it will be to make sales.

Before setting up a book signing, do research on how to get your title accepted into the bookstores you are considering.

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Book Bag From Think Geek – On sale now

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Full disclosure, I have no affiliate with them, just think this is cool and love the site and wanted to share with you all. It’s on sale too!

 

Quick Links: The Author’s Guide to Book Marketing: Part 2

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

When should you start a marketing plan? Before you have even finished or started your book. A plan is just a map of what you want to accomplish and how to get there. shares some good tips on how to create a basic marketing plan over at Digital Book World.

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The Author’s Guide to Book Marketing: Part 2

By:

MarketingIn part 1 last week, we discussed the two basic questions that should drive any author’s marketing strategy. Below, we show how to turn that strategy into a workable plan.

Step 1: Set your tactics

Using all you’ve learned above, list every way in which you’ll reach your reader around publication. A classic marketing framework may look like this:

• Paid (marketing you pay for): Digital ads, flyers, tchotchkes, etc.
• Earned (marketing you have to earn): Book reviews, features, interviews, social media influencer outreach, events, bookstore adoption, etc.
• Owned (marketing you own or can build): Website, email list, social media presence, promotions, etc.

These are all the tactics that will support your strategy. Be as exhaustive and creative as you can.

Step 2: Build your schedule

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News – Indie Authors Are Responsible for the US eBook Decline

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

According to , indie eBook authors are responsible for the decline of readership. There are a good share of spammy books and just plain bad books and the bar to become an eBook author is very low, however I happen to disagree. To me there are so many distractions out there, that it is difficult to find time. Which is why my to view list and my to read pile are both huge. Read the article at GoodEReader and let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Indie Authors Are Responsible for the US eBook Decline

By Michael Kozlowski

How I feel every time I look at my to read stack.
How I feel when I see how big my to read stack is.

Over the course of the last two years the modern bookstore has been undergoing a resurgence in sales. The publishing industry have all reported that e-book revenue is down between 2-6% year on year and 12% across the board. The funny thing is, publishers  for the most part are making more money, primarily due to higher e-book prices, but most are seeing a modest increase in print sales.

Why are bookstore chains like Barnes and Noble enjoying a robust increase in book sales? I think the main reason is because they only stock physical books by new authors that the publisher is really hyping and perennial bestsellers by recognizable authors. Simply put, it is far easier to discover a great book in a bookstore, than try and find one online. So why are digital sales truly down? The answer is too many e-books being self-published by indie authors.

Independent and self-published authors release more books on a monthly basis than the trade houses do. This creates an influx of new titles that fall by the wayside and pollute the search engine results,  so it is almost impossible to casually browse and find something good.  E-Books are immortal, so they never go out of print. Like cobwebs constructed of stainless steel, they will forever occupy the virtual shelves of e-book retailers. Every month there are more and more books for readers to choose from and there are now fewer eyeballs split across more books, this is the real reason why e-book sales are down across the board.

Not only do self-published authors write legitimate books that nobody reads, but some are doing some very shady things. One enterprising software engineer posted 800,000 Kindle titles that were written by an algorithm and there is a growing trend of authors taking advantage of Kindle Unlimited to redirect people from the first page of the e-book to the end, so they instantly make the full amount of the monthly pool of funds.

Read the full post on GoodEReader

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: What to Do When No One Shows Up To Your Reading

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

A lot of prospective authors are held back by fears like “what if no one likes my work”. So what if you hold an author event, and no one show up? Embarrassing, right? How do you deal, besides with lots of wine and Hagan Daz? Literary Hub‘s Matthew Norman survived such an event and gives us his tips for keeping our chins up and our spoons down.

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What to Do When No One Shows Up To Your Reading

Matthew Norman on the embarrassment of confronting an empty room

May 31, 2016
By Matthew Norman
Bipartisan empty seats!
Bipartisan empty seats!

A few days after my first novel Domestic Violets was published, I was scheduled to do a reading at the Barnes & Noble at Johns Hopkins University near my house in Baltimore. It’s difficult to describe how happy I was. I was officially a published novelist, which, at the time, represented the accomplishment of a lifelong dream, and I was about to do my first reading at an esteemed university. Things were good.

I charted my route to the bookstore on my phone, which was just plain silly. It was four miles from my house and had driven by it no less than 15 times in my life. To prepare, I selected a passage and read it aloud over and over, to no one. I spent an embarrassing amount of time picking out my outfit. I wanted to look like a writer, because, of course, I was a writer, but I didn’t want to look like I was trying to look like a writer. Slightly disheveled literary indifference was the goal, so I ultimately chose jeans, one of about 20 nearly identical blue-ish button-up shirts that I own, and a brown corduroy blazer. Sneakers would have been too carefree—too boyish. Instead, I opted for some brown, reasonably casual boots. I didn’t shave.

I got there absurdly early. My phone told me the trip would take about 12 minutes, but I allotted 45 just in case some sort of catastrophe struck along the way. I sat in my car for a while watching people come and go. Whenever someone entered the store, I wondered if he or she was there to see me read.

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In The News – A brief look at how we read books today

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

A breakdown of American reader habits brought to you by the Staff at The Week.

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A brief look at how we read books today

The Week Staff

E-books were supposed to spell the end of print, but Americans’ reading habits have taken a different turn. Here’s everything you need to know.

Stack Of Books Flying From Computer Shows Online LearningDo most Americans still read books?

Seven out of 10 American adults, or 72 percent, have read a book in the past year — in whole or in part, and in any format — according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey. That’s a steep decline from 1978, when 92 percent of Americans made that same claim, according to Gallup, although book-reading percentages have remained level since 2012. Women and young adults tend to be the biggest bookworms, the Pew survey found. The average woman read 14 books over the past 12 months, while men averaged nine books. Among young adults — ages 18 to 29 — fully 80 percent read a book in the past year, compared with 71 percent of adults ages 30 to 49, 68 percent of those 50 to 64, and 69 percent of those 65 and older.

How are people consuming their books?

Read the full post on The Week

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News – ‘People are hungry for real bookstores’: Judy Blume on why US indie booksellers are thriving

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

I am not allowed in a book store by myself. It is a deal I made with my husband, because I can’t be trusted. The problem is that once you get into a book store, it is a very enticing place. So no matter who I take with me, we end up with too many books for my budget’s happiness. Even with my husband! interviews the Judy Blume,  in this Guardian article that also explains part of reasons behind my addiction.

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‘People are hungry for real bookstores’: Judy Blume on why US indie booksellers are thriving

At 78, the multimillion-selling author has begun a new career, opening her own bookshop – and joining a business sector that’s flourishing again in the US

May 20 2016

This is the face I make when I am told the bookstore is closing and I have to go home...
This is the face I make when I am told the bookstore is closing and I have to go home…

She might be a beloved and bestselling author of classic children’s books from Forever to Blubber, but Judy Blume says she wakes up every day “and I look to the sky, and I say, ‘whoever’s up there, I thank you for not having to write today’.”

Blume doesn’t have to write because, at 78, she has embarked on a new career: she’s an independent bookseller. Together with her husband, George Cooper, she has opened a small, nonprofit bookshop in Key West, Florida, where she’s working almost every day. And she’s loving it. She had planned “to take a gap year” after she finished writing and promoting her last novel, In the Unlikely Event. “I was going to relax and read and have this whole time with no pressure. And then bingo – the chance comes along to open a bookshop, and there you go. I guess I like that in my life … To learn something new like this, at 78, makes it all the more exciting.”

Read the full post on The Guardian

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In The News – I attached 4000 books to my new living room wall and ceiling.

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Brilliant use of old books or sacrilege? I honestly can’t decide and keep going back and forth. Especially because my beloved The Last Book Store does the same thing.

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Book Room, 2016

Quick Links: Business Musings: The Grant of Rights Clause (Contracts/Dealbreakers)

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

You should always give a contract a solid look over or, better yet, hire a lawyer so you know what you are getting into. According to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, publishing contracts are getting even more – shall I say politely – complicated for authors. She has some great tips for you guys, so go check it out. Don’t be in a rush to sign away your rights, or do something you will regret later in the excitement of the moment.

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Business Musings: The Grant of Rights Clause (Contracts/Dealbreakers)

May 25, 2016

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Be careful, cause friends don't let friends sign shitty contracts.
Be careful, cause friends don’t let friends sign shitty contracts.

I’m sure some of you have noticed that the art for this blog isn’t my usually snarky commentary on whatever topic I’ve chosen. I decided to use the photo header for this blog to promote the Storybundle that I’m in. Why? (Aside from shameless self-promotion?)

Because the Storybundle includes a book of mine that you might need to do half the stuff I mention in the contracts and dealbreakers posts. I’ve recommended How To Negotiate Anything before. It’s my biggest seller in nonfiction. (You can also find it in audio  and free on this site in an earlier draft.)

However, if you get the book in the bundle, you also get nine other stellar writing and business books, plus you can donate to The Pearl Foundation, a charity that helps support adult education.

There. Ad over.

Now onto today’s topic.

I am revising the Dealbreakers 2013 book. I had hoped to revise it every year, but I get so discouraged looking at the contracts as they exist now. I actually started to revise in the hopes of having the new book in this Storybundle, and then discovered I had so much new material that I didn’t have time to finish the book by mid-May.

Why is there new material? Because traditional publishing contracts have gotten ugly (or should I say uglier?). And they’re not alone. Contracts for movie deals, gaming rights, comic books, and now works in translation are also getting more and more draconian.

Corporate entities have finally gotten a clue about the value of copyright and trademark. Now, those entities which own many of the companies you’ll deal with—even as an indie writer—want to own each piece of the copyright to any property they put their grubby little fingers on.

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Author Tools: How to Manipulate Scrivener Labels

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Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

For those who haven’t heard of it, Scrivener is a popular writing tool. at Writability gives her hints on organizing pov with color coding her Scrivener labels.

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Old school writing software
Old school writing software

How to Manipulate Scrivener Labels

by Ava Jae

So last week I participated in #YAGetsStuffDone on Twitter, which was a tag that lasted a week and encouraged goal-setting and cheering each other on to get their goals done. One of my goals was to finish plotting a project I’d barely started brainstorming, which I did both in Word and Scrivener simultaneously, writing the synopsis in Word and transferring it over to Scrivener on scene cards to get everything ready for drafting.

When I finished on Saturday, I posted my results, which looked like this:

Read the full post on Writability

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