Tag: author
How to Sell Your Books
[found on lloydlofthouse.org; by Lloyd Lofthouse]
“How I sold almost 2,000 books in twenty hours…
If you are a serious author—indie or traditional—then you’re in business and should have an internet platform. The simplest platform might just be a blog, or it could be more complex with a combination of a website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, and an Amazon author page, etc.
Once an author has an internet platform, there’s one more step to seriously consider—to advertise. Although I have been a guest on thirty-one, traditional radio talk shows, advertised in a regional magazine, held several author events in brick and mortar bookstores, earned awards from literary contests and been on several book blog tours, the only two marketing methods that resulted in immediate, measurable sales was through blogging on iLookChina and buying e-mail blasts from BookBub and/or Ereader News Today.”
To read the rest of Lloyd Lofthouse‘s article, and to add his blog to your toolbox, and bookmark the link, click HERE.
[found on http://lloydlofthouse.org/2014/06/19/how-i-sold-almost-2000-books-in-twenty-hours/]
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Strategy for Writer’s Block
[found on entrepreneur.com; by Catherine Clifford]
“In many cases, the more important the writing task, the more the would-be writer freezes up. The result can be something of a Mobius strip of anxiety turned into fear turned into more anxiety, and what you’re left with is a blank page.
To help you work through writer’s block, consider the strategies below…
Don’t wait for perfect words. If every sentence has to be a flawless work of art, then you will sit in fear. The sweat might pour, but the words won’t come. Just start writing words on the page. Know that once you have started, you can go back and revise what you have. But until you start, you will never know where you are trying to go. If you are writing on a tight deadline, it is even more critical that you let go of the notion of immediate perfection. One writer friend of mine offered the analogy that writing is like cleaning a messy room: the only way a large mess gets cleaned up is to start tidying one small corner at a time.”
To see the rest of the writing strategies from Catherine Clifford, and to bookmark her articles for your toolbox, click HERE.
[found on http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233264]
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Under the Skin
“Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.”
— Mel Brooks
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Featured Writing Addict: Benjamin Phillips
Ben Phillips is a 35-year-old father of four remarkable and rambunctious children. He has been married to his loving and patient wife, Katie, for 16 years. Ben’s lifelong passion has been writing and creating music to lead people into a better understanding of God’s pursuing love for them. By God’s grace, for the past ten years, he has led people in worship as a full-time career at Calvary Community Church, a non-denominational, 13,000-member church located in Phoenix, Arizona. During Ben’s time leading at Calvary, he has written more than 40 songs, and published two albums. His band, North Element [formerly North Worship], is available through iTunes, cdbaby.com and other major music-based websites.
Ben began his love for reading at the young age of eleven—he enjoyed tackling novels by authors like Stephen Lawhead, Terry Brooks, J.R. R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. Ben began creating fictional characters in early childhood, and progressed to writing short stories in high school. He found the same love and interest in writing fiction as in music. For years, as God led him to use music for His glory, Ben’s love for writing was focused on songwriting lyrics. In 2010, following a back injury, Ben was forced to lay low from his busy, musical lifestyle. During that time, a desire to communicate God’s beauty, plan of salvation, and love through fictional stories was rekindled.
Ben was becoming aware of the growing divide among American subcultures—and the general lack of interest in hearing the gospel of grace. These two realities, combined with his children’s love of reading, sparked the idea of joining others who have portrayed Christian ideals and spiritual truths through fictional characters. He had a sincere desire for his children to understand the honor, strength, and lifelong wonder found within a relationship with Jesus, and knew it could be communicated through stories and characters in ways other than theological non-fiction—a genre widely unread by the majority of the world’s children and adults. During the past three years, Ben has worked on a fantasy trilogy: The Shadow Champion. His new sci-fi novel, Eonian, will be published and released in the fall of 2014.
Ben’s Genre:
Post-Apocalyptic Sci-fi; Heroic Fantasy
Ben’s Passion for Writing:
“My passion for writing began years before I could read or write. It was a love that stemmed from a vibrant, wide-eyed amazement of all things make-believe: bedtime stories, picture books, theater productions, movies, backyard pretending—it all embodied the possibility of an otherworldly escape to my impressionable, pre-school mind. As a boy, I would get lost in books, privately placing myself as a character within those fictional tales. Before I was ten years old, I had begun dreaming up my own worlds, complete with larger-than-life characters, and deadly archenemies. It wasn’t long before I attempted to write down the adventures from my mind, often in storyboard form. Somewhere along the way, while I grew farther into adulthood, the wonder was lost to me, as I think happens to many of us.
In my early twenties, I came into a saving faith in Jesus. Soon, when reading authors like Lewis and Tolkien, the idea of writing fiction with the intention of incorporating analogous truths that hold an eternal value became romanticized in my mind. As I matured in my faith, the make-believe of my youth—that had once been lost—began to reemerge.
Without necessarily intending to do so, I found myself dreaming up new, elaborate, imaginations that I would share with my sons. I have to confess, the actual act of writing has always been more of a burden—a means to an end. Dreaming of the story, in all its grandeur and beauty, comes easily…typing the words on a page, to convey the depths of those dreams, is daunting to say the least.”
What is Ben’s book about?
Eonian
“Death, blindness, and chaos—this is the reality that the 22-year-old military subcontracted courier, Gavin Marksdon, awakens to discover. It’s been nearly six months since a meteor storm pummeled one of the largest cities in America, causing a mysterious plague to spread throughout the world. The unknown bacterium is saturating every living organism with a contamination level that is bringing all civilization to a halt—technology and organic life are both struggling to survive.
Gavin regains consciousness in total darkness. Recovering from a grievous wound received by a meteor fragment, he learns there is a tangled web of his own government’s knowledge—deceit as well as a war—that has raged for countless eons from beyond Earth. While battling powerful changes to his physical form, Gavin and his handful of allies find themselves on an expedition that holds the balance of their world—a world wavering between a dark evil, and a new light. Journeying their way through a devastated, post-apocalyptic America, to find and save Gavin’s 13-year-old sister, Lenora, they stumble on a deeper conspiracy of a global alien presence…and their own government’s betrayal.”
| A Book’s Mind | iTunes: This Dust | iTunes: North Element | PureVolume.com |
| Facebook | Twitter | Email |
Ben’s Published Music:
This Dust
by North Worship; 2008 | Spiritual / Alternative
“Slow and peaceful tones collide with driving rock to create a worship project that glorifies Jesus Christ with the honesty of humanity.”
| A Book’s Mind | iTunes: This Dust | iTunes: North Element | PureVolume.com |
| Facebook | Twitter | Email |
North Element
by North Element; 2009 | Spiritual / Christian Rock
“A seven song EP with music that ranges from songs of wonder and praise to heart-wrenching cries for God to intervene in seemingly hopeless situations.”
| A Book’s Mind | iTunes: This Dust | iTunes: North Element | PureVolume.com |
| Facebook | Twitter | Email |
Upcoming Events:
Book Launch:
Eonian is scheduled to be released in fall of 2014 through A Book’s Mind publishing. The official book launch is scheduled for October 2014. Watch for the date!
Tell Ben you heard about him on editingaddict.com!
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Hold the Illusion
“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”
— John Steinbeck
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Engineer of Souls
Simple [decluttered] Writing
William Zinsser on the need for simplicity in writing:
“Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.
Who can understand the clotted language of everyday American commerce: the memo, the corporation report, the business letter, the notice from the bank explaining its latest “simplified” statement? What member of an insurance or medical plan can decipher the brochure explaining his costs and benefits? What father or mother can put together a child’s toy from the instructions on the box? Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who announces that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn’t think of saying it may rain. The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it.
But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence….”
William Zinsser’s book, On Writing Well, is an excellent resource for writers of all kinds. You can find it here.
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A Writer Is…
“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
— Thomas Mann
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Market the Author
[by Billi Joy Carson, Senior Editor/ Editing Addict]
Editor Tip: Market the Author
If you are an author, a blogger, or a copywriter…then correct spelling, punctuation, word use, and grammar is a necessity in all areas of your writing…books, blogs, marketing, advertisements, social media, queries, submissions, letters, and emails.
Why…?
I can hear the horrified gasps, feel the eyes rolling—doubt and fear from writers everywhere. Panic in the streets.
Before you throw your hands up, and stop reading, let’s look at the WHY behind this necessity.
You are always marketing YOU.
Your books come and go, but you, the author, remain constant. You are the first line of defense when it comes to marketing yourself—which you are doing every day, every time you write…anything.
You are marketing not only to readers, but to publishers, agents, editors, and your fellow authors who would network with you. You are marketing your writing ability—yes—but you are ALSO marketing your organization capabilities, your attention to details, your desire for accuracy….
What if you don’t care about details and accuracy? Publishers do.
Publishers, editors, and agents notice. In this world of instant access, through social media and blogs, your everyday comments and posts are seen.
If an author can’t be trusted to use the right word in 140 characters, why would they trust the author with a 300-page book?
Agents, editors, and publishers (oh my!) have deadlines. Organization is a big part of that. Make it appear you are organized—even if you have to fake it.
Here are some excellent tools to keep close to you, always. I suggest bookmarking them, as well as storing them on your smart phones and tablets—wherever you write, post, and email.
OneLook.com
- Dictionary compilation of over 1000 dictionaries
- Correct spelling not needed
- It offers options for word spelling
- Shows several dictionaries, with links.
- Breaks search answers into four categories
- General
- Business (language)
- Computing (language)
- Slang*
- *Words that haven’t made it into traditional dictionaries will show up here.
- *Caution: When writing items for publishing (versus informal social media, emails…), only use a Chicago Manual of Style approved dictionary, like Merriam-Webster.
Other dictionaries:
- Dictionary.com (GREAT tool, but not CMS approved)
- Merriam-Webster.com
Thesaurus:
Grammar:
- Grammarly.com (not CMS approved, but still a great tool)
- Copy/paste text in box—it shows grammar errors and weaknesses
- Guide to Grammar & Writing
- Quick lookup for parts of speech, word use, and grammar rules
Style Guides:
- The Chicago Manual of Style Online
- Requires a yearly membership, but is GOLD for authors & editors
- Standard for most publication (certain types of writing e.g. science and psychology have their own style guides)
Questions for the editor to answer next time:
[by Billi Joy Carson, Senior Editor / Editing Addict]
Editing Addict, LLC 