encouragement

If you build it they might not come, and that is ok.

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I have talked before about writing because you have a story in you that needs to get out, or because writing is something that you love. The fact is, its quite probable that you will never become a millionaire by writing and that is ok. You might be able to make a decent living from it, with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work.

You got this!

The fact is you will have to find your own motivation to keep you going. I was talking about NaNoWriMo this year and trying to encourage everyone I know to join. It is a great challenge and quite fun. My daughter asked about where all my stories are and I let her know they are all here waiting for me to do something with them. My son remembered a story I had written for NaNoWriMo a few years back and asked if he could read it.

BAM! Encouragement received.

I know encouragement from families members is kind of a given but my young adult son remembered this title from years ago, remembered the plot and really wanted to read it. He is a smart kid and he totally did not have to say that.

Because my writing is something I do for me, it is enough encouragement to keep me excited for this year’s NaNo and thinking about brushing up on that novel afterward. Who knows, with enough encouragement I may actually finish something someday.

What is your encouragement?

Have a great day,

Paula

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Quick Link: 6 Surprising Reasons Why Your Story Is Better Than You Think

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

Are you one of those people who are very hard on themselves? I know I am, and it gets to the point where it stops me from working at my best. John Yeoman is talking directly to us when he gives us six reasons why maybe our story isn’t as bad as we tell ourselves.  Go on over to Writer’s Village for a little pick-me-up.

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Be good to yourself. Have a kiss on me.
Be good to yourself. Have a kiss on me.

6 Surprising Reasons Why Your Story Is Better Than You Think

by John Yeoman

June 17, 2016

Have you ever tumbled into a trough of writing despair? “My stories are no good,” you say. “I’m a hopeless writer, witless and inept.” Baloney. Everybody is a bad writer – at least, in their first drafts.

More to the point, your self-opinion is wrong.

Wrong.

Wrong.

Your stories – and your writing skills – are probably a lot better than you think. Why? Let me count the reasons, all six of them.

1. You love your story – or something about the story.

If you don’t love it, nobody else will. Trash it. But if you do love it, there’s something lovable in it – which can be developed.

Maybe it’s a character.

Dorothy Sayers fell in love with her grandee sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Was he Sayers’ imaginary son or lover? Only Freud could say.

No matter. Her passion drove her to write 15 classic Wimsey novels plus five story collections.

Or maybe it’s a world.

Each of Sayers’ stories is a microcosm of her social world, an age when everyone in Britain had servants. If you didn’t, you were nobody. She was tacitly in love, not just with Wimsey, but with a between-wars golden age now lost to us.

(Some might say, well lost. It was no ‘golden age’ for the servants in those days.)

Build on that passion. It’s too strong to dismiss. Soon you’ll have a story – even a novel – that other readers will fall in love with too.

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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.

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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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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: This is Why Your Books Aren’t Selling: 4 Ways To Improve Now

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

Happy Friday! Today’s post has Rachel Thompson aka BadRedhead Media giving some tough love on why your book isn’t selling. There is some really good marketing advice and encouragement. When do you decide if it is time to give up?

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This is Why Your Books Aren’t Selling: 4 Ways To Improve Now

Frustrated writerBy Rachel Thompson

Your Books Aren’t Selling

“My sales are awful, and I’ve done everything. I give up.” 

I heard this from three authors this week, and it’s not an uncommon sentiment right now. As an imprint director, book manager and book marketing consultant, my first questions are always:

  • What do you mean by everything?
  • How do you define “awful?”
  • What do you mean by ‘giving up?’

Let’s deconstruct four ways to improve on that!

1) What Is ‘Everything’ RE: Book Marketing?

Your definition of ‘everything’ and my definition are probably quite different. When I asked one of these authors what he’d done, he said he’d:

  • placed a few Facebook ads,
  • sent out a bunch of tweets during his free days,
  • placed a FreeBooksy promo (cost: $45). That’s about it.

To me, that’s barely scraping the bare minimum of ‘hardly anything,’ but in his mind, that’s more than he’d ever done! When I asked him what he had achieved in his marketing plan, he replied: what marketing plan?

Read the full post on BadRedhead Media

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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.

Advice For Young Writers

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This post by Nathan Bransford originally appeared on his blog on 7/21/14.

I often receive e-mails from young writers in high school and even younger, and I’m always so impressed with them and even a little bit jealous. I had no idea I wanted to be a writer when I was in high school and I rue all those years I could have spent honing my craft. And even if I had known I wanted to be a writer, I didn’t have the Internet to reach out to other authors and learn more about what it takes to write a novel.

These young people are getting such a head start on their careers, and I can’t wait to see the incredible books they produce.

There’s a long tradition of writers offering advice to young writers, perhaps none greater than Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. I can’t top that, but here’s my own modest contribution to the genre.

Here’s my advice for young writers:

Don’t write for the writer you are now. Write for the writer you’re going to become.

Writers aren’t born, they are made. It takes most writers years and years to hone their craft, and it’s helpful to have had years and years of reading experience now. By the time you’ve reached high school you have lived enough to have tasted the world and it may feel like you’re ready to channel it all into a novel, but don’t expect that your writerly success will come immediately.

 

Click here to read the full post, which goes on to share more specific advice and tips, on Nathan Bransford’s blog.