I was a slug this weekend.
And by slug I mean I didn’t hit my word counts. Now, mind you, they might have been over-ambitious as I’m working on three (count ’em!) three different books in three (count ’em again!) different genres, so I might have been overly-ambitious.
I didn’t do it. I limped along on one, ignored another, and barely got an outline on the third. Ugh. Continue reading
Research for a novel can be a double-edged sword. One the one hand, you can really get in-depth about the history and applicability of something or someplace, which helps shape your characters and the events happening around them.
On the other hand, you can get sucked down a research rabbit hole and lose a whole lot of writing time searching for tidbits.
Good research can really make a book, and it’s a fine line between really knowing the history of a person or place and getting bogged down on what’s essentially a small tidbit of information. So here are three research strategies that can help you get the job done: Continue reading
I came across a really helpful spreadsheet tool based in Excel (courtesy of Julian Ionescu at FantasyScroll.com), for charting and outlining your novel. Here’s the link to the page explaining it in depth, but the instructions are right on the sheet as well.
If you struggle with getting the bones of your story in place before fleshing it out, this thing can be a godsend. Check it out!
In the last 45 days I have:
Believe me, it’s been sucksville around here for a while. But I’ve also been using my favorite form of therapy to deal with it: I write. Continue reading
Book 2 of my YA series is in the hands of my editor, and while they peruse and read and pass around and deconstruct and ready their notes for me, that gives me a window of time to knuckle down and finish up Earthsinger! Whoo Hooo!
So look for a cover reveal in the very near future, and let’s get back to the Elemental Destinies – there’s still a lot of story to tell!!
Earthsinger is coming SOON!
Came across this painful piece titled “I Lost $6500 On My Last Book Launch.” The author details her foray into the dark world of “assisted” self-publishing, and how she feels she’s been given the runaround regarding the launch for her book. She includes a list of all the red flags she ignored, and some sage advice she got from other veterans in the industry.
I’m also going to point you toward this piece, In it for the money – 8 signs that your publisher is scamming you for some further insight.
Words to the wise, from the sadder-but-wiser.
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to do one of these, but I had to pass these along because there’s some solid advice here:
How To Promote Your Books But Keep Your Friends
Marketing Your Novel: Pro Tips From A Newish Author
How To Promote Your Book Without Being Annoying
What about you? Any marketing tips you’d like to add?
It’s not easy writing two very different books at essentially the same time.
See, I thought I had this all planned out. Considering the deadline for my first YA book that the publisher gave me, I assumed the follow-up book in the series would be on roughly the same rollout, giving me a few months after final edits on book one to refine book two before submission.
Nope.
They pushed the schedule up by three months from where I expected it to be, and whoosh! There went the time I’d planned to use on finishing up Earthsinger and getting a head start on Firesinger.
Crap. Continue reading
I have spent the last 30 days under major serious deadline pressure. And now….it just got worse. Some things have collided professionally, and I find myself without enough hours in a day (or cells in my brain) to get all the writing done that needs to be done. I spent almost all of Memorial Day weekend looking like that picture above.
Okay, that’s a lie. I looked more like this:
But I made headway, and that’s a start. The long and short of all this is….Earthsinger is going to have to get pushed back. I had hoped for a mid-June break on that book, but it’s now looking to be late July.
Readers, I apologize.
Britt DeLaney 