Quick Links: The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

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

Well howdy partner, rustle on up a stool and sit a spell. The reason why I picked this article to share with you is that it is more about writing a story with western spirit than an actual western.   There is really a lot of great information in this post, even if you never though of saddling up and heading out yonder to ride off into the sunset. Do yourself a favor and go read  excellent post at Standoutbooks.

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The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.
Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.

June 22, 2016 by Robert Wood

Westerns are a strange genre of fiction. They’re generally set in one place, deal with one kind of character and utilize a specific but limited aesthetic language. At first glance, it seems like such a specific setup that this fully fledged genre should actually be just a niche interest. Cowboys on their horses always seem to belong to the generation before, yet the Western never really leaves, with constant new films, novels and video games published in the genre year after year.

Clearly Western fiction has something special to offer. By understanding what that is, authors can prepare themselves to write great Western stories. To that end, this article will cover the three golden rules of the Western, along with some advice on how to apply them to your own writing.

Rule #1 – It’s not about the cowboy hat

As I mentioned above, Westerns have an easily identifiable aesthetic (or ‘look’). The cowboy hat, horse, revolver and spurs are shorthand for a familiar, trustworthy character. In the Pixar children’s movie Toy Story, the writers use Woody the cowboy doll to support and introduce an outlandish world in which toys come to life. Dropped into this strange setting, children are greeted by the familiar and orientating presence of the dependable, recognizable cowboy.

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Quick Links: Busting Myths about Book Reviews

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A good book cover and title will get a potential reader to look closer at your story, and a good description goes a long way. But it is still book reviews that most people use to decide whether or not to invest the time into reading a title. On Live Write Thrive, the esteemed C. S. Lakin bust some myths about book reviews.

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Busting Myths about Book Reviews

Busting myths so hard!
Busting myths so hard!

June 23, 2016

For Throwback Thursday, we’re looking at excerpts from past posts on Live Write Thrive. Today’s post is from 6 Common Myths About Book Reviews, by Dana Lynn Smith:

Book reviews are a powerful promotional tool, but there are some misconceptions about how to obtain them. Here are some common myths about getting book reviews.

  •  Myth #1 – Book reviews are just for new books.

It’s true that book review journals read by librarians and booksellers review books at or soon after publication. It’s best to focus your review efforts during the first year of a book’s life, but some venues will review older books.

  •  Myth #2 – No one will review a self-published book.

It is more challenging for self-published authors and small presses to get reviews in certain venues, but it’s certainly not impossible. Self-published books are far more likely to be reviewed if they are produced to industry standards (well written, edited and designed). A number of book review websites welcome self-published books or even focus specifically on them, and there are several book journals like Midwest Book Review that are friendly to independent and small presses.

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Quick Link: Character Group Dynamics

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A story is usually made up of more characters than just a hero and a foe. There needs to be a supporting casts, with different amounts of value to the story. How they all interact with each other is what gives the story depth and helps you to build up your character in your reader’s mind.   at Fantasy Faction discusses the importance of group dynamics.

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Character Group Dynamics

Group dynamics are very important. When in trouble, add bubbles!
Group dynamics are very important. When in trouble, add bubbles!

by Aaron Miles
June 18, 2016

One of the most important tasks of a writer is to get the reader to engage with their characters, but almost as important is how your characters engage with each other. Their interactions are what make up the narrative and drama of the book, bringing the story to life. How can your hero show off his quick wit if there’s no one around to impress, how can your villain be cruel if there’s nobody to terrorise? It’s only in concert with each other that the characters really start to shine.

There are a number of memorable partnerships and groupings throughout fiction, think of Sherlock and Watson, Han and Chewie, or the entire Fellowship of the ring. The success of these characters isn’t just down to the individual protagonists, but also to how well they work together, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. They play off each other in ways that allow the characters to shine, following classic writing patterns in order to get the maximum entertainment value. The nature of these groupings isn’t random, the author will choose the best mix that makes use of each character’s strengths and engineer matchups that will lead to great action.

If you think back to some of your favourite books it’s relatively easy to spot the formulas which lead to success. Whether in a partnership or group there are specific archetypes and forms that just fit better. Looking at partnerships first, there are a number of traditional groupings commonly used in fiction, for instance the pairing of a protagonist with a foil. The foil is a supporting character that will usually serve as a counter to the protagonist, someone to banter with and who will often have a wildly different personality type.

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Quick Link: How to Plot a Book: Start With the Antagonist

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At Helping Writers Become Authors, K.M. Weiland shares her tips on how to avoid making one of the biggest mistakes on plotting a story. Spoiler alert, you need to start with the antagonist, not the protagonist, because the whole story revolves around them. Sure the hero is important, but without a worthy foe how can the hero shine and be the best things since sliced bread?

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How to Plot a Book: Start With the Antagonist

by K.M. Weiland

"And then instead of moving the assets to the positive side of the accounting sheet, the evil bean counter divided the dividend...."
“And then instead of moving the assets to the positive side of the accounting sheet, the evil bean counter divided the dividend….” Bad protagonists aren’t bad enough.

I hate antagonists. Not so much because they’re, you know, the bad guys. No, I hate them because 90% of the time, they bore me into catatonia. Evil plan to take over the world? Yawn. Just please do whatever you gotta do to make the hero look good.

That’s how many authors approach their antagonists–as an external force who is present in the book solely for the purpose of giving the hero a reason to do all his cool hero-y stuff.

You may have planned almost all of your story–in your head, in an outline, or in a first draft–before giving even an afterthought to the antagonistic force. This is a mistake. Why? Because the antagonist is the catalyst for everything your hero does in his story.

TL;DR: Your antagonist is the catalyst for the entire plot.

In short, if you’re struggling with how to plot a book, the answer is easy: start with your antagonist.

The Plotting Mistake Almost All Authors Make

I’ll admit it if you will: my creative inspiration for my stories is always the protagonist. I can see him so clearly in my mind. There he is: going all Jason Bourne on some faceless thug, maybe weeping touchingly over a fallen comrade, then striking a melancholy heroic pose against the sunset. Let’s start writing!

But the plot? Hrm. You mean the reason why nameless thugs are coming after him, felling his comrades, and leaving him in such a melancholic mood? You mean the antagonistic force that’s opposing him for presumably watertight reasons?

Um, yeah, that’s a little blurry.

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Quick Links: What Should You Pay for When You Self-Publish a Novel?

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

So you have decided to self-publish, but are wondering what services are necessary, which ones can be avoided, and most importantly how much is this going to cost?  Ali at Ali’s Adventures has some great advice for you.

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What Should You Pay for When You Self-Publish a Novel?

by Ali

Even paying out fake money hurts....
Even paying out fake money hurts….

One reader asked me to write about, “Self-publishing, whether to use editors, cover designers etc and how much is a reasonable amount to pay them.”

This is a big and important question, and one I wanted to tackle on the blog. (I normally run reader questions in the weekly newsletter – if you’re not already receiving that, and the various bonuses that go with it, get on board here.)

Here’s the quick answer to the question – one that virtually everyone writing about self-publishing will agree with:

If you’re going to self-publish, you should definitely use an editor.
If you’re going to self-publish, you should definitely use a cover designer.
Let’s dig a little deeper into that, though.

Your Plans and Hopes for Your Novel

Before you make any decision about what to pay, it’s important to think about what you want to achieve with your novel.

There are dozens of different reasons to write and publish a novel, such as:

  • Having a book in your hands with your name on the cover.
  • Being able to give your book to friends and family.
  • Receiving the validation of “being published”. (If this is your main motivation/goal, then you might want to aim for traditional publication, with a publishing house.)
  • Having your book on the shelves in major bookstore chains. (Again, you might want to aim for traditional publication here.)
  • Getting your work in front of readers.
  • Making money from your novel.

If you’d be happy to simply print a dozen copies of your novel to give to friends and family, then paying for editing or cover design is probably overkill.

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For Fun – 34 Compelling First Lines of Famous Books

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Are they missing any? Which is your favorite?

 

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Quick Links: What’s the Best Print on Demand Service for Self-published Paperbacks?

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Print on demand is such a wonderful option for authors who want to expand from their eBook offering.  helps you to ask the right questions on what to expect from POD services, and which option is right for you. Go to Self Publishing Advice Center to learn more.

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What’s the Best Print on Demand Service for Self-published Paperbacks?

By Jay Artale

This looks expensive.
This looks expensive.

June 21, 2016

In a new occasional series here on the blog, ALLi’s Communications Manager Jay Artale dips into our vast Author Advice Centre archive of information and distills the answers to some of the most frequent questions among self-publishing authors.

Before you dive headlong into creating a paperback version of your ebook you should ask yourself why you want a print version in the first place, which will give you all the information you need to choose the right print partner to achieve your self-publishing goals.

Many of the decisions regarding printing your books will depend on your goals. If you only intend to sell online, you’ll have fewer decisions to make. If you intend to try and get into brick-and-mortar stores, you have a lot more to consider. Quality and cost are considerations, but ease of use also comes into play when making your POD decisions.

Determine your POD goals

Choosing a print partner is not as much about money as it might seem at first. It’s a decision that can only be answered after you determine exactly what you want to do with your printed book. Here are five questions to ask yourself:

  1. Are you going to be primarily an ebook author with a few printed books for promotional purposes?
  2. Are you going to restrict print sales to online, through the pbook retailer and your own website?
  3. Are you going to limit yourself to a few local or handpicked bookstores?
  4. Are you going to go all out and try to get a distributor and do a print campaign with the associated trade-style publicity in newspapers and other media that is necessary to sell books in this way. If yes, why?
  5. Have you realistically budgeted time and money costs?

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Quick Links: When to Do That Stringing-Words-Together Thing with Hyphens

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Did you ever wonder when you should hyphenate words? Mark Nichol at Daily Writing Tips has the answers.

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When to Do That Stringing-Words-Together Thing with Hyphens

If only they had a hyphen...
If only they had a hyphen…

By Mark Nichol

When are hyphens required to string together a sequence of words, and when are the hyphens extraneous? The following sentences, each with a discussion and a revision, illustrate the syntactical situations in which they are necessary and when they are superfluous.

1. Who was the behind the scenes negotiator who facilitated the deal?

The negotiator is described as working behind the scenes. When that phrase appears in isolation, as an adverbial phrase rather than as a phrasal adjective modifying a noun that follows, no hyphenation is needed, but here, it serves the latter function: “Who was the behind-the-scenes negotiator who facilitated the deal?”

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For Fun! 5 Libraries That Should Have Been Cast in Beauty and the Beast

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http://bookriot.com/2016/06/21/5-libraries-that-should-have-been-cast-in-beauty-and-the-beast/

Quick Link: The Secret to Bringing Your Characters to Life

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

Readers want to fall in love with your characters, so your characters need depth and personality. At The Write Practice, shares with us his secret to bringing characters to life.

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The Secret to Bringing Your Characters to Life

While quite cute, these are not something I would want to read a full length novel about.
While quite cute, these are not something I would want to read a full length novel about.

by Jeff Elkins

It’s Atticus Finch giving advice to Scout that shows us he is a man of empathy and compassion. It’s Frank Underwood banging his class ring on the table that reminds us he is in command. It’s Holden Caulfield using phrases like “vomity” and “grow up” that helps us remember that he is an adolescent.

Using indirect characterization can make our heroes and villains leap from the page and come to life in our readers’ minds.

What Is Indirect Characterization?
Direct characterization is when the author tells the reader about a character.

Jack was a rambunctious boy.

Jill was a clumsy girl.

While it is something we have to do on occasion, when done too often, it can make a story flat and dull.

Indirect characterization is far more fun. This is when the author tells a reader about a character through the character’s repeated words, reoccurring actions, or physical descriptions.

As he did every day, Jack ran wildly down the hill with reckless abandon.

Jill stumbled on her untied shoelaces for the fourth time that day.

Showing our readers who our characters are through indirect characterization allows our readers to draw their own conclusions about our characters, intensifying our readers’ engagement with our stories.

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Quick Links: Should You Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish?

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Jane Freeman tackles the question should you try to publish traditionally or go the self-publishing route.  She gives you some thoughts you might not have heard before.  Personality has a lot to do with it. As someone who is self-employed, self-publishing seems a more likely route for me, if I ever get a book finished. ; )

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Should You Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish?

June 21, 2016

The key is to know yourself. You got to check yourself, before you wreck yourself.
The key is to know yourself. You got to check yourself, before you wreck yourself.

by Jane Friedman

Are you wondering if you should self-publish or traditionally publish? You’re not alone. The same question is on the minds of many writers I meet, regardless of their career path or how established they are.

When I began working in the publishing industry in the mid-1990s, a stigma surrounded both self-published books and self-published authors. I recall speaking at the Chicago chapter of the Romance Writers of America in the mid-2000s, and running a workshop on how to self-publish. About three people showed up and two of them were already self-published; it was by far the worst-attended session I’ve ever run at a major writing event. At the time, self-publishing was not a well-regarded path to success, and it indicated some kind of author failing or eccentricity.

Times have (dramatically) changed, and now some self-published authors accuse traditionally published authors of being misguided or short-sighted in their allegiance to a “legacy” system.

But there is no single right answer to this question because it’s context dependent. That means the right answer can change—even for the same author—from book to book, and from year to year.

This post outlines what I think are the biggest factors that play into the decision.

1. Do you expect or want to see your book stocked in bookstores across the country?
It next to impossible for a self-published author with a single title to achieve wide-scale distribution for their book at bricks-and-mortar stores. You may be able to get your book stocked locally or regionally, especially if you have the right connections or are a well-known person in your community. But for the most part, a self-published authors’ books will sell primarily through online retail, whether as a print book or an e-book. That’s not the drawback it used to be, given that more than half of all books sold in the United States sell through Amazon (regardless of format).

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Quick Links: How Authors Can Get More Fans and Book Sales with Less Social Media

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You know you need social media as part of your overall marketing strategy, but there are so many different types of platforms. There just isn’t enough time in the day to really utilize them all.  At Digital Book World, helps you to use your social media time wisely.

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How Authors Can Get More Fans and Book Sales with Less Social Media

By: Chris Syme

June 20, 2016

My brain on social media
Social Media is NOT Pokemon. You don’t need to catch them all!

Expert publishing blog opinions are solely those of the blogger and not necessarily endorsed by DBW.

A mind-boggling 78 percent of Americans have a social media profile. According to Statista, 2.72 billion people will be social media users worldwide by 2019.

It is a given that authors can develop loyal audiences and sell more books with the help of social media. But as numbers of users rise, the pressure to “be on every channel” also rises, as authors succumb to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Even though it may be true that you have potential readers on every social media channel, it may be a waste of your time and resources to try to connect with people everywhere.

It’s Not About Numbers Anymore. It’s About Engagement

Internet users have an average of five social media accounts (Global Web Index), but they do not engage on them equally or use them for the same purpose. Numbers do give us information about social media, but numbers can be deceiving, as their meaning can shift with time. For example:

• In the pre-algorithm world of 2011, the race was on to build up as many fans on social media as possible. The more followers you had, the more people would see your content, as Facebook was yet to become the first social media channel to institute an engagement-choking algorithm.
• In 2016, numbers are a function of baseline reach as they have always been. But today, three of the major five platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) have engagement algorithms that restrict reach. Because of the sheer volume of online information, users have cried out for a better way to see the information that’s important to them. The result: constricting engagement algorithms. Today, your fan and follower numbers are only a baseline. The effectiveness of your content to get fans to like, share, comment and click will determine how many people actually see your content.

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Quick Links: The Legal Side of Writing for Anthologies

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

I have posted before about my love for anthologies, as a great way to find new authors. It is a great way to get your work in front of more people, and for the reader you get a bunch of great stories, usually at a bargain price. Susan Span from Writer’s Unboxed discusses the legal side of anthologies, and what you need to watch out for.

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The Legal Side of Writing for Anthologies

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

June 20, 2016

By Susan Spann

Anthologies offer writers an excellent platform for shorter works and create opportunities for reader cross-pollination. When managed and published properly, anthologies have many benefits and relatively few drawbacks for authors. However, authors do need to ensure–before submitting or signing a contract–that the anthology publisher is offering industry-standard contract terms and proper legal protection for the contributing authors and their works.

Today, we’ll review a few of the legal traps and pitfalls authors should beware (and avoid) when contributing work to an anthology:

1.   Contracts Are Not Optional.

Every anthology should use a professional, written publishing contract (or release) containing industry-standard terms for anthology publication. If the publisher is taking only non-exclusive rights, and not limiting the author’s right to reprint and re-use the work in any way, a simple release will often suffice, but even this should be in writing. (Note: The author should always retain the copyright and subsidiary rights to the work, as well as the right to re-publish in other contexts. Also, the author should never have to pay the publisher any money or be required to purchase copies of the finished anthology.)

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Author Tools: Improving Your Writing With AutoCrit by Pat Haggerty

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Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Any tool that can help authors refine and edit their writing is a good thing. AutoCrit isn’t free but it is designed to help authors self-edit their work. I don’t think it would take the place of a professional editor, but it would be a good thing to help get your draft ready for a professional editor and save you time and money in the process. Any users of AutoCrit out there? Let us know how you liked it.  Pat Haggerty at Romance University has the scoop.

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Improving Your Writing With AutoCrit

autocriticby Pat Haggerty

Every time I think Pat Haggerty can’t out-do his last post on RU, he comes up with another amazing article. Ever heard of AutoCrit? Check out what this software can do for you and your writing!

Have you ever heard the term Meatware? Yea, well that’s you. In a computer based system the hardware is where the computer software runs, the software is the set of instructions telling the hardware what to do and how, and you’re the meatware, running the show. At least for now

One never ending problem for writers is self-editing. It never ceases to amaze how many times I can read the same piece of work only to allow any number of mistakes to slip right past my notice. With training, and there are good books and classes on self-editing, you will improve, but some things are just hard to catch. We can, and eventually should, turn to a professional proofreader and/or line editor but wouldn’t it be nice if we could get a little more out of our self-editing cycle?

Enter AutoCrit.

AutoCrit is a web based, automated proofreader which does an excellent job helping you spot common problems in your drafts. The AutoCrit website says it well: “How do you get unbiased, knowledgeable feedback on your early drafts quickly, easily, and without spending a ton of money on an editor?” AutoCrit, that’s how.

Read the full post (and get the free worksheet!) on Romance University

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Editor’s Desk – You might have noticed some changes….

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Thank you to all the people who have stuck with the site! You may have noticed that I have updated the look of the site, and I will be continuing to make little changes in the next few days. I hope you like it, and thank you for your continued patience. This is the first step towards making some changes that I hope will make the site even more useful to authors.

Paula