I may have linked to this article before, but I believe that the concept is worth noting. Even if you don’t (or can’t) write a book in a month, it’s great to get that first draft done as soon as you can.
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/30-tips-for-writing-a-book-in-30-days
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Writing an awesome book blurb
Fantastic advice.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of having a book cover that entices the reader to pick up your book or in the digital age, click on the link for your book. Now that the cover has done its job, you need an awesome book description to entice the reader to purchase your book.
A good book blurb is an essential element in selling your novel. Some people find writing book blurbs easy while others struggle with exactly what to say and how long to make their description. The important thing is not to dismiss this significant element in marketing your novel.
The purpose of the book description or blurb is to grab the reader’s attention. You want to entice them to buy your book, but you don’t want to tell them the whole plot and certainly don’t want to spoil the end. A well-written blurb can…
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Get in Good With Goodreads | WritersDigest.com
Goodreads really is the place to go for readers and writers alike.
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/get-in-good-with-goodreads
Amazon’s Kindle Scout: What’s The Catch? – Blurbify
This is interesting. I’ve never heard about Amazon Scout before. It sounds a little dubious. Does anyone have any thoughts?
http://blurbify.co.uk/amazons-kindle-scout/
AdviceToWriters – Plot
Goodreads | Theodora Gotsis’ review of Black Moon
Black Moon
by Kenneth Calhoun (Goodreads Author)
3 of 5 stars
Read from March 18 to 30, 2015
Set in a slightly futuristic version of today, the entire world has discovered that they can’t sleep. Here and there are people who still contain the ability and they quickly turned into outcasts, forced to hide this once ubiquitous talent.
Told from multiple points of view, Black Moon illustrates just how bad things can get when you take away one simple element of the natural human state of being.
It took me a long time to get into this book. I think it was the hopeless element to it that really turned me off. All I was reading was that people stopped sleeping and then started to act pretty much as you can imagine. Although the characters were convincing, there were a lot of holes in how they got from point a to point b and then their fate was often left to the imagination. There was also the confusion of reading some parts told by the insomniac characters, where I understand what the author was trying to accomplish, but I felt it as an unnecessary burden for the reader.
The story is a very dark one with no lighter moments. Overall, too depressing to be an enjoyable read. Give me 1984 any day rather than this. I gave it 3 stars because it was well – written and it flowed relatively well. But, the content was a killer.
The Spinoff
I recently have in and watched the full (using the term loosely here) season of Ravenswood. For those of you who don’t know, this is a spinoff of the teen drama / thriller / mystery Pretty Little Liars. I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a fan of PLL and have bought most of the dvds as soon as they come out. However, I was hesitant to watch Ravenswood because of the small amount of episodes. All up, we have 10 (10?) Eps and this is supposed to wrap up the entire story? Then there was the other problem of expecting to see the girls from PPL show up and the disappointment when they didn’t.
I love spinoffs. Without them we wouldn’t have shows like Melrose Place (from Beverly Hills 90210) or its tacky but glorious own spinoff, Models Inc (with a very short shelf-life).
Unfortunately, Ravenswood did just the thing I feared: it drew me in, captured my attention and then ended. I was left with the annoying question of “Is that all there is?” The question that makes you want to find the writer and shake all the answers out of them. Oh, and another thing that annoyed me was the phrase “original Caleb” and “original Miranda” on repeat till I was cringing.
What’s your favorite spinoff? Did it live up to expectation?
So, You Want to go Global?
I’m currently in the process of creating my own, special place in cyberspace commonly referred to as a website. This must be easy, I tell myself, because everyone has one. However, getting a website is easy and free (thanks to my friend Google), but figuring out content is the tricky part. How many pages do I create? What sort of font should I use? How the hell do I insert linkable pictures? Why can’t I just click my fingers and have it magically appear? Sigh.
I am creating the website to home my creations. A place where people can go for information about me and the novel – length manuscripts I’m working on. The biggest problem with this is that it may take more work to create the site than to write the damn book!
(Not) Writing a Book
Even unpublished authors go through this:
So I went to a party recently and I had The Book Conversation. There’s always one.
Woman: You’re KJ, you’re the writer, yeah? I’m writing a book too.
KJ: Really, what’s it about?
Woman: Oh…well, I mean, I haven’t actually started it yet. I’m really keen to do it, but I think I need more experience of life before I start the writing.
KJ: Do you think that your stories and ideas might come now if you started actual writing? I find that I need to get down to it to see the ideas and the characters develop—
Woman [cutting that right off]: No. I definitely need to understand life more first. To have deeper experience, do you see?
KJ: Well, to be honest, I write gay paranormal Victorian romance, so I mostly use my imagination.
Woman [with just a smidge of condescension]: My book is rather different to that…
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Words and other such dilemmas 