Quick Link: How to Just Start When it Comes to Writing

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I have been a big fan of the Pomodoro Technique for a long time. The short version is that you do your best work when you are refreshed, usually in the first 15 – 30 minutes of a task. So by scheduling short breaks, you give your brain a rest and then can come back to your task with renewed energy.  John Lee Dumas uses this technique to help him with his writing. Head over to Goins, Writer to learn more.

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How to Just Start When it Comes to Writing

by John Lee Dumas

There’s nothing more frustrating than the bright, white glow of an empty screen and the constant, blinking reminder from your cursor that you’re not making any progress.

Writing a strong piece – one that’s valuable to your readers and that you feel great about – isn’t easy.

But what if I told you there’s a simple formula you can follow to get more writing done in a single day than you did all last week?

A simple formula for real progress

You already know the toughest part about writing is getting started. If you can get the first sentence down, then the rest will follow.

Of course you’ll do re-writes, have edits to make, and you might even go back and add a thing or two. But doesn’t it feel incredible to just start?

Just starting the writing process is progress in and of itself, not to mention what follows: strong momentum, or what some refer to as “the flow”.

This simple formula for real progress is made up of two parts and will help you just start every time you use it.

The two parts are: “Focus Time” and “Refresh Time”.

If you’re familiar with the Pomodoro Technique, then you probably know where I’m headed with this. The idea is that you give yourself a specific amount of time to accomplish X, start a timer to hold yourself accountable, and FOCUS on X until your timer runs out.

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Quick Links: Looking for a Book Editor? Here’s How Much You Should Expect to Pay

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If you have never hired a book editor and are curious at how much they cost or want to compare what you have paid, then read on for Blake Atwood’s post at The Write Life. Be warned, you might want to gird your loins for sticker shock. But while these services don’t come cheap they are often necessary to produce a quality (and sellable) book.

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Looking for a Book Editor? Here’s How Much You Should Expect to Pay

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I wish I could tell you that proofreading will always cost one cent per word, copyediting two cents per word, and developmental editing three cents per word, but the truth is much hazier than that.

While I will provide hard numbers, you should first know certain essentials about hiring an editor.

This information may help you understand why editing costs seem to vary widely from one editor to the next, but it should also assist you in comparing possible editors.

How much you can expect to pay an editor depends on at least eight variables:

1. What kind of editing are you seeking?

Developmental editing (aka content editing, big picture, or macro editing) costs more than copyediting (aka micro editing), and copyediting costs more than proofreading.

2. What’s your total word count?

Editors charge by word count or page count. Some may charge by the hour, but that’s rare, especially for editing long books.

Knowing your total word count is essential to an editor’s cost estimations for taking on your project.

3. How complex is your book?

Editing academic work to a niche style guide will cost more than editing a novel per the Chicago Manual of Style.

Editing a book with hundreds of footnotes or endnotes should cost more than editing a book without citations.

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Quick Links: Staying Organized While You Write–and Finish–Your Book

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What tools do you write with? I use both MS word with track changes on and Scrivener.  At How To Plan, Write, And Develop A Book, owner Mary Carroll Moore gives her professional advice on how she stays organized while writing.

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Staying Organized While You Write–and Finish–Your Book

By Mary Carroll Moore

No matter where you are in the book-writing journey, at some point the sheer volume of material begins to overwhelm and it’s time to look carefully at how to organize yourself.

A private client recently wrote me about this.  She’s been trying to locate some “islands” (snippets of writing, or scenes) that she’d written a while back, but she couldn’t remember how she’d titled them.  They were virtually lost in the mass of material on her computer.

She asked:  “I’d appreciate your advice on how to save my islands on Word.  Should I title them? Date them? How will I handle revisions? As separate documents or just edits of the original?  Confusion reigns on this front!  Also, in your book (Your Book Starts Here), you mention saving work in files.  What are these exactly and how do I create them?”

I work in both Scrivener and Word.  I find Scrivener easiest for organizing, but I do end up using Word quite a lot for final drafts before submitting.  Here are the methods I use in each, plus some low-tech organization tools learned along the way.

Favorite Tools for Organizing Your Book-in-Progress

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Quick Links: One Way to Form Habits That Lead to Success

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They say it takes three months of doing something to make it stick as a habit. The esteemable Shelly Hitz has a post and a podcast that gives you more tips on how to succeed with great habits.

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One Way to Form Habits That Lead to Success

By Shelly Hitz

Do you want to form good habits that will help you reach your goals? In this training, I share with you three steps to form good habits that will lead you to success.

Good Habits are Key to Success

What we’re going to talk about now is about habits. This is on my mind because, to be honest, I have some habits that need changing. So I’ve been working on this and I’ve seen some things that are helping me. That’s why I wanted to share them with you.

As an author, there are so many ways that consistent small habits can lead you to success. It could be a habit of having a power hour every week. Or it could be working on writing your book a couple of times a week. This habit can eventually allow you to finish your book.

The small habits of doing marketing every day can lead to more sales. In fact, one of my Author Audience Academy members, Kim Steadman, was just talking in the group today. She shared about how she had been busy and stopped posting regularly on social media.

For everyone it’s different. But for her, Facebook and I think, Pinterest is her thing. She observed that when she stopped posting, her sales stopped. And she was getting consistent sales.

Then when she started posting again, she started getting sales again. There are so many small, consistent actions and habits that can lead to success. And that’s what I want to talk to you about.

Honesty is a Start

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Quick Link: Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts

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Over at Romance University, new blogger Cecelia Mecca shares her tips on how to simply your social media to do list.

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Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts by Cecelia Mecca

 Welcome first time poster Cecelia Mecca with her time saving ideas for any of us who might be busy. =) Like all of us!! Read on…

Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts by Analyzing What Works and Focusing on the Intersection Between High Reach and Engagement

As marketing efforts for authors and other industry professional begin to look beyond reach to engagement, a shift in thinking about the purpose and management of social support for our content and campaigns is needed. Whether you’re launching a new book or building and sustaining interest in your own platform, engagement is key. It’s not enough any longer to set up a hashtag, analyze reach or impressions and consider a campaign successful. In addition, with content more prolific than ever, finding ways to cut through the noise is essential.

On the other hand, if you are not reaching your target audience, it is impossible to engage with them. Both are necessary metrics to consider. For example, your Facebook insights include both reach and engagement for a reason. Of course, you must regularly consider your insights in order to glean information from them.

If your reach is down on a given week, start by replicating your most popular posts. What trends do you see? What media type is doing well? What do posts which reached the audience have in common? Then shift to look at your engagement on those posts. Which had both high reach and engagement? Which posts did your audience engage with most? By looking at each metric together and individually, you can begin to replicate patterns since there really is only one golden rule when using social media to amplify your content. Find out what works and do more of it.

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Quick Link: 6 Attitudes of Highly Productive People

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Writing is hard, we all know this. And sometimes it is beyond hard. So with that in mind I have a great article from C.S. Latkin about how highly productive people manage to do what they do so well.

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6 Attitudes of Highly Productive People

 by C.S. Latkin

We’ve been exploring the power of positive thinking for a few weeks. It’s such an important topic because one of the biggest roadblocks to becoming a super-productive writer is poisonous negative thinking.

Writing for life is a hard road, with lots of curves and bumps and giant walls that suddenly appear on the horizon. if writers can’t learn to change the self-talk and transform negative thinking into productive, positive thinking, all the free time in the world won’t help a writer crank out great books.

Positive attitudes have been called “the undo effect” (Barbara Fredrickson, Positivity). They help us to quickly recover from negative emotions. When we generate a positive perspective, it helps us bounce back. And that “bouncing back” brings motivation or impetus. Which is what we need to be productive. Wallowing never got a book written.

Think of it this way: negativity is like a vise grip that squeezes and constricts our creativity. Negative emotions such as fear, anger, blame, and resentment narrow our focus in a way that obscures options.

Worry, especially, paralyzes us. We worry our books will get bad reviews. We worry that our plot is stupid. We worry that we’ll never sell a copy, so why waste all this time.

Studies were done with highly stressed students about to give speeches. In under a minute, their cardiovascular system relaxed (heart rate down, blood pressure lowered, artery constriction lightened) when these students were shown a movie clip of peaceful ocean waves and puppies frolicking. Other studies show that the more people entertain positive emotions, the quicker they can let go of negative ones.

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Quick Link: The Secret of a Successful Mystery: Making the Reader a Participator

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Although this article on Writers Helping Writers is geared towards the mystery genre, the wisdom that is shared really applies to all types of stories. The best reads are the ones that suck you in and won’t let you out until you find out what happens because you are rooting so desperately for the protagonist.

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The Secret of a Successful Mystery: Making the Reader a Participator

by Writing Coach

A lot of great stories have a mystery in them. The mystery may not be the primary focus; it might be the secondary, or the mystery might be so minor it lasts only a few chapters. But whatever the case, it should draw readers into your story and keep them turning the pages. That only happens, though, if it’s done right.

As an editor, I see a lot of unpublished work. One of the most common problems I see when an author includes a mystery is that the whole mystery seems to happen on the page. The author plants “clues” of course, but then focuses too much on them, making sure the reader “gets it,” or she has her character wonder for paragraphs upon paragraphs, with speculation that is often vague, uninteresting, or leads to conclusions that are far too predictable.

In cases like this, the reader becomes a spectator.

But just as emotion is more powerful when the reader experiences it himself, mysteries are more powerful when the reader is a participator.

The narrator (which in some cases is the viewpoint character) is the readers’ guide. The narrator draws focus to certain aspects of the story, and leaves others in the background. The narrator offers an emotional tone that helps the reader interpret a scene. The narrator suggests themes and ideas and judgments on the story and characters.

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Quick Link:How to Start Your Own Publishing Company

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Not every indie writer needs to become a publisher, but there are a lot of advantages even if the only books you publish are your own. But it is always nice to give back and if you have figured out how to self-publish, there are a lot of people out there who could use your help. In that spirit, Writer Unboxed‘s shares her experience with us.

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How to Start Your Own Publishing Company

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Over the past few months, we’ve talked about what it means to be an ‘indie’ author and why some writers choose this path. Today we’ll discuss how to turn your writing into a business by starting your own publishing company. While today’s publishing platforms don’t require you to start a business in order to publish your work, doing so offers many advantages—maximizing tax write-offs, controlling and protecting your work, shielding your personal assets in the event of a lawsuit, conveying professionalism, and, of course, the pride of running your own business.

Indie Navigator founder Mary Shafer believes that starting a publishing company can create plenty of value for self-publishing authors, whether you’re about to publish your first book or you’ve been at this for a while. “Creating a publishing company does two main things: it establishes you as a serious indie publisher who may or may not handle the work of other authors, rather than simply a self-published author. It sends the message that you take the business end of publishing seriously, even if you only publish your own work. Second, it gives your products a professional quality that makes them a lot more attractive to book buyers, librarians, and other parties who may be interested in buying or licensing rights to your work. Plus, it makes your company a lot more attractive to buyers should you ever decide to retire. ‘Sun City Press’ is a lot more impressive-sounding and easy to market as an imprint than ‘Joe Schmoe Books.’”

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Quick Link: Schedule Your Time in 4 Simple Steps

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Trying to find more time in the day seems to be every adult’s desire. I don’t know if I could follow Janalyn Voigt schedule personally, but I thought it was very well written and that there are some of you out there that would like more structure in your day. So head on over to the newly redesigned  Live Write Breath website, and let us all know of any time scheduling tips you have. For me, as my kids are older, I have a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Everyone knows when they are on, I am not to be disturbed unless there is fire, flood, or blood.

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Schedule Your Time in 4 Simple Steps

And no, cat barf doesn’t count as fire, flood, or blood.

Have you ever pictured what living a perfect life would look like for you as a writer? Perhaps you would exercise regularly, eat right, take time for hobbies, engage in recreational activities, travel, complete your household duties, keep up with family responsibilities, and ace your job — all while having plenty of time to write.

The divide between what you want and your actual lifestyle is never more apparent than at the beginning of the year. There’s something about turning that calendar with a fresh new outlook that gives all of us a boost toward attaining our dream lives. That’s why we devise New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, exercise, and you name it. The writing version of that can look like a push to increase the number of novels you write this year or simply to finish the first one.

You start with the best of intentions every new day but time escapes you, distractions waltz by, or you rebel against your own schedule. Overcommitting your time is a common mistake. I know about this firsthand, let me tell you. It’s no fun to stay up past your bedtime when you want to sleep in order to meet a deadline.

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Quick Link: Which Option is Better, Traditional or Self-Publishing?

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Jeffrey Monaghan, guest posting on Writers And Authors, shares his thoughts about tradition vs self-publishing.  Give it a read and let us know if you think traditional publishing or indie publishing is better?

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Which Option is Better, Traditional or Self-Publishing?

by Jeffrey Monaghan

The actual publishing of your novel is an exciting time. You’ve spent countless hours writing, editing, re-writing, re-editing, doubting, writing some more, feeling like you’ve written the best chapter ever, feeling like you’ve written the worst chapter ever, and on and on. But you are finally finished and are now prepared to send your novel out to the world. So what’s next?
There are really two options, traditional publishing and self-publishing. Both are good options for different reasons. I spent a lot of time looking into both and decided self-publishing was the best option for me. But it may not be for everyone. Below is an overview of what I learned so you can decide which is best for you.

Traditional Publishing

This is the way things have always been done. It’s the option we all dream of. What author doesn’t want one of the Big Five publishers buying the rights to their novel and publishing it? But to publish through a Big Five publisher, you first need a literary agent because you can’t pitch your novel directly to a publishing company. This requires you to write query letters to agents, hoping for a reply requesting a partial or full manuscript. Then you wait for them to read it and let you know if they are interested in representing you and your novel. It’s a long, time-consuming process, but a process that needs to be followed if you want to be published the traditional way.

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Quick Links: Author Blogs: 5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones

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I LOVE this post by In my day job, you know the one that pays the bills, I develop WordPress sites for people.  I still get people who think that if they put a post or two, the world will throw money at their feet. I feel bad and I try to explain to them that a blog is like a baby. It needs constant feeding and care for many years before you see any results. Alas, there are a lot of people out there that will tell you differently. So go check out Anne R. Allen‘s post on her blog and see if you agree!

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Author Blogs: 5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones

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5 Bad Reasons for Author Blogs

1) Getting Rich Quick

Nothing infuriates me more than those books and blogs promising writers they can make a gazillion dollars of “passive income” with a blog in the next month if they take this overpriced course or buy that book of rehashed advice from 2005.

The only people making a lot of “passive income” from blogging are the people selling the overpriced courses and worthless advice. Pyramid schemes always provide “passive income” for the people at the top of the pyramid. That’s not going to be you at this point. The boom is over.

Blogging is work. Writing is work. There’s nothing “passive” about it. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying.

I used to subscribe to a couple of hype-y “how-to-blog” blogs, but I had to unsubscribe because these people are getting so desperate. One blogger now sends an email 15 minutes after you click through to read his post saying, “You’ve had enough time to read my post. Now share it to Facebook.”

Creepy!! I’d just shared his post to Twitter, but I deleted the Tweet and unsubscribed. You’re not the boss of me, dude. And I’m not responsible for your bad life choices. If you really were making the fortune you claimed to be making a decade ago, why didn’t you invest it?

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Quick Links: Self-Publishing Success Stories: How I Do It – with Joseph Alexander

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It is always nice to see how other people are managing their success and maybe getting a tip or two for your own success. At the Alliance of Independent Authors, guest author Joseph Alexander shares his thoughts on how he has been successful as an indie author.

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Self-Publishing Success Stories: How I Do It – with Joseph Alexander

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This week in our series celebrating super-successful indie authors, we talk to guitarist Joseph Alexander who has established the terrific Fundamental Changes series of non-fiction books about playing guitar, though a non-stop, single-minded focus on his goals, collaboration with other musicians and an enviable email list of over 25,000. Read on to find out how he does it, and to be inspired for your own self-publishing career, whatever genre you write in. He also shares great advice for those who run small indie imprints publishing other authors’ work.

What is the secret of your success?

I wish I knew! I guess it’s constant output. I’ve written 30 books about playing guitar myself and published about 15 more by some other very talented musicians. For the last four years I’ve been working about fourteen hours a day and making sure that everything I write is to the highest possible standard. I try to go above and beyond every guitar guide out there. I add as much value as I can and cram in a huge amount of freebies, such as audio downloads and videos. These downloads help me to grow my email list.

To be honest, having a 25,000+ email list helps tremendously as all out email marketing is automated now.

This results in a constant trickle of sales across all titles and helps to keep my books at the top of the best sellers lists.

What was the single best thing you ever did?

Can I pick three things?

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Quick Link: Top Time Savers for Social Media and Blogging

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A really great post from Elizabeth Spann Craig on how she saves time with her social media responsibilities. Worthy of a bookmark!

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Top Time Savers for Social Media and Blogging

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The biggest complaint I hear from writers is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all that we need to do.

Tasks facing writers include reading publishing-related news, doing research, promoting, updating websites and social media…on top of working on our books.

And most everyone is doing the above in addition to a day job, parenting, or caregiving.

It’s a lot, for sure.  The only thing that I can recommend is that we save time where we can.

With that in mind, I’m sharing my own biggest ways of saving time.  With these methods I give myself more time to do…whatever.  It could be more time to write, more time to do housework/cook/run errands, more time to spend with my family.

I started to include all of my tips in one post, but realized it was far too long for a post. I’ve divided them up by category: social media and blogging, writing, book production, and general tips.  I’ll run this series on Fridays for the next month.

Social Media

It’s commonly referred to as a time suck and it certainly can be. For this reason, I keep myself off of social media as much as I can. If I spent as much time on Twitter as I appear to, I’d never get anything done.

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Quick Links: Organic Marketing by Kristan Higgins

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I love this post from Romance University! Marketing is a very important part of being an author. But you don’t want to turn into one of those people who everyone tries to avoid at a party because all they do is try and get you to buy their book. What is needed is organic marketing. What an awesome term!  You want to be you, genuinely you, but still find a way to get your message out. Read the post by Kristan Higgins to find out more.

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Organic Marketing by Kristan Higgins

Could you say “no” to this face?

I am so excited to welcome back one of my favorite authors, KRISTAN HIGGINS!

Please no, you’re saying. Not another article on marketing! I know, I know. They’re such a drag (except THIS one, of course). And we authors do so much already. We’re tired!

Don’t worry, my lambs. Organic marketing is different and in some respects, easier, because all it requires is authenticity, an eye for why your readers reach for your books and a little time.

What is organic marketing?

Organic marketing is what you do as an author when you’re not overtly promoting your books. Direct marketing is when I post a graphic on my Facebook page with a cover of my latest book and give all the buy links. When I do a Q&A on Goodreads. When my publisher takes out an ad in People and sends me on book tour.

Organic marketing is me being me…or rather, the me who writes my books. Believe it or not, I don’t share every little thing about myself, my family and my life. The fact that it seems like I do is because I understand organic marketing. I’ve been in the writing world for ten years, so I know by now what readers respond to in my books and in my public presence—social media, speeches, workshops. Sometimes (often) they’re funny —my awkward encounters with the UPS man, the time I ate dog biscuits by mistake. Sometimes they’re sad—a recent blog about when I lost a baby.

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Quick Link: 7 Essentials for Your Book Launch

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Today’s offering is about that most wonderful of things, getting ready to launch your book!  Hooray for you! But before you break open the champagne, check out the post by Keely Brooke Keith at Helping Writers Become Authors to make sure you have the basics down!

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7 Essentials for Your Book Launch

by Keely Brooke Keith

Congratulations, it’s a book! You accomplished something rare and impressive just by completing your masterpiece, not to mention surviving blood-boiling revisions and the agony of the publishing process. Now, the book launch date has been set and—surprise!—you have more work to do!

Orchestrating a book launch sounds daunting, but people need your book. Take a long slow breath and relax into the creative process of promoting your release. While there is no one-size-fits-all promotion plan, there are certain essential tasks that both traditionally published authors and independent authors should do to ensure a fulfilling book launch.

How to Prepare for Your Book Launch in 7 Steps

Following, are a few basics to get you started.

Book Launch Step #1: Ready Your Website

Your author website is the online version of your professional office or storefront. It could also be your catalog, your bulletin board, or your yearbook. It should not be a cobweb-covered single page you set up years ago and haven’t touched since.

Unless you’re an avid blogger, the author website won’t be how readers discover you. Instead, it’s where they will come to learn more about you. Your web address should be the simplest form of your author name as possible and should be the link you share more than any other.

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