Follow Angela Booth on Twitter
Here's what I love about writing ebooks: you write them once, and they keep on selling forever.
I know several writers who've taken to the Kindle platform like the proverbial ducks to water. One writer friend turns out a new Kindle ebook every month, like clockwork. The last time we spoke, she had 11 ebooks selling -- and her income is rising month by month.
Another writer friend mixes writing her own ebooks, with writing ebooks for others. Currently she's been commissioned to write a biography, and a family history, for the same client. She's finding it huge fun, and she's making more money than she's ever made.
The benefit of writing and selling ebooks is that once written, they can keep on selling forever. Would you trade eight hours for an income stream?
Whatever your current income from your writing, you can make more, much more. But first you need to know what's possible, and you need to be aware that the easy advertised writing "opportunities" are quicksand.
In my new Writing For The Web: Make Money Today program, I discuss what pays the most in Web writing, and what pays YOU the most. I explain why, if you're charging just $40 an hour, you're not making enough to survive.
Discover why writing for the Web is the best thing that's ever happened to me... and to you.
« June 2012 | Main | August 2012 »
A 30-Day Novel-Writing Challenge starts tomorrow
Want to join our 30-day novel-writing challenge?
via www.fabfreelancewriting.com
You'll receive my 32-page PDF ebook, Write Genre Novels (Commercial Fiction) For Fun And Profit completely free.
With 30 days of motivation and inspiration, you'll get your ebook written, and you'll have fun too.
| | | |
| | |
I Will Outline and Revise My Articles With Quality in Mind
If you confuse your readers, you’ll lose them. Before you start writing, jot down the points you want to make. Then, leave your article for 24 hours. When you come back to it, you’ll see ways in which you can make your article better.
Here’s an efficient work flow:
* Research keywords, and create article titles:
* Outline the titles — aim to cover three or more points in each article;
* Write the first draft;
* Revise your articles a day or two later.
via www.fabfreelancewriting.com
I've had several questions about creating an article writing business from writers who want to work from home.
Web content is in huge demand. If you're a fast, prolific writer -- or want to become one -- you can make a good living.
In many ways, the online word is meshing with the offline world: Web articles are looking a lot like print articles, as regards quality.
It's up to you to make the most of the benefits Web articles have over print (immediacy, relevance, links.) Your clients will thank you, and you'll be hired on longterm contracts.
| | | |
| | |
20 minutes a day keeps you “in” your book
20 minutes a day may not sound like much. It does one important thing. It keeps you in your book — connected to it.
You’ll find yourself brainstorming while you’re driving, or mowing the lawn. I get most of my best ideas in the shower.
via www.fabfreelancewriting.com
Got 20 minutes? If you have, you can fit writing a novel into your frantic life.
| | | |
| | |
One minute fiction is great fun. The idea is to write a story of 500 words fast. You start out with a character who has an immediate problem on which he/ she must act... Unless the character acts right away, there will be dire consequences.
This is a fun fiction exercise, and if you're taking part in our August 30-Day Novel-Writing Challenge, it's ideal preparation.
| | | |
| | |
I’m challenging myself to 30 days of 1,000 words a day, starting August 1.
Want to join me?
If you do, make a note in your calendar. I asked ezine subscribers, and there’s lots of interest, so we’ll go ahead with it.
Here’s how it will work.
I’ll create an email list which you can join. Each day, you’ll receive a short motivating tip/ advice to help you with your Kindle fiction.
We can share our progress using the Twitter hashtag: #30novel.
It’ll be fun. We can motivate each other.
via www.fabfreelancewriting.com
I've had some questions about what to write during the 30 days. You don't need to write a novel. You can write a screenplay, short stories, kids' books, nonfiction... The idea is simply to set a process goal, and write each day.
At the end of 30 days, you'll end up with something valuable -- something you can sell. You'll also have a great sense of achievement, and the confidence that you can write. :-)
| | | |
| | |
McInterruptus: You start at the promising midpoint of an intimate moment between characters, which on page two will come to a screeching halt due to a tragic accident, discovery by vengeful parent or spouse, or the arrival of the authorities to arrest (erroneously, of course) one of the lovers.
via pbackwriter.blogspot.com.au
Love these.
Don't read the above article if you're drinking coffee or anything else. You'll splutter liquid all over your keyboard.
| | | |
| | |
Writers write by following their intuition… and yet, whenever I suggest to my writing students that they should trust their intuition, it comes as a surprise to them that it’s OK to do that.
Why discount your intuition? It’s your creativity at work.
Unfortunately, you can’t explain intuition. You’ll sound like a fool if you try… you end up talking about your muse.
via www.fabfreelancewriting.com
If you're having problems with your writing, follow your muse.
Here's how.
Sit quietly and relax for a moment or three. Just relax... Become aware of the sounds around you. Feel the chair underneath you. Take a deep breath, and exhale.
Now, simply wait.
When you're inspired to do so, start writing. Write down the words which come to you. Don't judge them. Just write them down.
Your words may surprise you.
Congratulations; you've just met your muse. :-)
| | | |
| | |
If you think someone who writes a bad review of your book is bullying you, then you should quickly develop a thick skin or stop writing immediately and do something else. Because if you keep writing, you are in for a world of hurt. You're not going to get much done if you're determined to respond to all the bad reviews, and you are going to be one very miserable person.
I spend too much time on Amazon, browsing for my favorite genre -- Westerns. Occasionally I read the forums on Amazon; I've found some wonderful authors' backlists that way.
Yesterday I checked an Amazon forum; something weird was happening. Lots of fuss and bother about the readers' site, goodreads. (An excellent site, BTW.)
I looked at all the deleted posts on the forum threads, and couldn't work out what all the controversy was about.
The above HuffPo article cleared it up.
Writers can be very thin-skinned. Years ago I was part of an online critique group, where writers swapped critiques. I wrote what I thought was a well-reasoned, KIND critique for a self-published book. The "writer" took issue with me, at length, and quite viciously.
I was hurt. I'd spent two hours -- 120 minutes -- of my life that I'll never get back, and gave the writer what I considered was excellent advice.
As Ray Garton says in the above article, amateur writers aren't interested in improving their work, they just want to be told they're brilliant. And they are. It takes a lot of work to write a book. It takes sweat and tears and yet more work, to write a GOOD book.
If a writer can't take criticism, the chances he or she will ever write a good book are zero.
Here's a tip: you are NOT what you write. If someone writes a bad review of your book, be grateful. They took the time to do it. Maybe there's a grain of truth in even the worst review. Take what's useful to you from the review, and ignore the rest.
As a writer, you need readers. They have opinions. They're entitled to them, as are you. No one needs to read your writing. Always, always be grateful when someone reads your work. Be even more grateful for a review.
| | | |
| | |
What we call "genre fiction"—like Ursula LeGuin I think the term useless but can't quite get beyond it yet—tends to focus on moments like that. It strips away the usual and familiar contexts of our lives and replaces them with radically simplified environments: a small crew on a spaceship, a detective trying to stop a killer before he can reach another victim, a lawman in a Western town confronting a lawless gang, a superhero trying to track down a psychopathic criminal mastermind bent on destroying a whole city.
Literary fiction has its place. So does genre fiction. Read the above article, it's the best description of genre fiction I've ever read.
A broad generalization here -- I avoid most literary fiction. To me, it's navel gazing, and precious.
My favorite writers are Victorian novelists like Anthony Trollope, as well as P.G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, and... Stephen King. "Genre" novelists all. They set out to entertain, and they do.
Literary fiction does... what? Most of the time, it shows off its cleverness. That's fine. However, to suggest that literary fiction is somehow more legitimate, or worthwhile than genre fiction, is amusing.
The great books of any era, from the Bible and Shakespeare downwards, have more in common with genre fiction than with "literary" fiction. They tell a story. Stories live.
| | | |
| | |
Your brain says: “You’re a pretty awful writer. Why are you still doing this?”
The reality: If you were truly terrible, you probably wouldn’t know it.You know those first episodes of American Idol where tone-deaf contestants shriek over Katy Perry backing tracks then look truly shocked when the judges don’t see their talent? Those deluded souls are victims of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which says that incompetent people lack the skill to recognize whether or not they are competent.
via litreactor.com
Years ago, I got a gig reading slush for a publisher. After just a few hours of reading, my brain felt as if it were melting.
If you think your writing's bad, there's a very good chance it's not as bad as you think -- or could imagine.
Read the above article. Truly bad writers think that they're headed for the bestseller lists.
| | | |
| | |
Yet, in the midst of those lonely and desperate days, she realized, she said, that “failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
Think you've got it tough? J.K. Rowling had it very tough. But she also had an old typewriter, and a big idea...
What have you got?
Get an idea, and write. Your idea may not look "big" initially, but as long as it enthuses you, it's perfect.
| | | |
| | |
Power Hour: Power Up And Power Down
Be decisive about your technology and use a power period to manage distractions. Set up a power hour twice a day for big projects. A power period is a one hour time slot where you close down your email and turn off your phone while working on a significant project.
via www.productiveandorganized.net
No time to write?
You need to make time, because there's no chance that you'll suddenly get more time, no one does.
Create your own "power hour". It will be the best thing you've ever done for your writing, and for your life.
| | | |
| | |
Last week Pearson, the owner of Penguin Books, bought one of the largest grassroots publishers, Author Solutions, based in Indiana, in the US, for £74m. The idea is that Pearson will no longer have to rely on spotting ebook hits early; instead, they will own a new author's work from the first moment it appears on screen.
My mind is spinning... PEARSON has acquired Author Solutions?
Fascinating.
| | | |
| | |
McDermid said it was "terrifying" to take on an author of Austen's stature, however. "She's a genius – I'm not a genius, but I hope I can still bring something to it. One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today – love, money, family.
Bestselling crime novelist Val McDermid has been signed to develop her own version of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
I've long enjoyed McDermid's books, and can't wait to see what she does with the Austen classic. McDermid's a powerful writer, with a gritty style. She's certainly not the first author you'd consider for this gig; the result will be fascinating.
Jane Austen homages have turned into an industry. There are endless fan fiction ebooks, and websites.
McDermid's a professional, and while many professional writers' reworkings of classics like Gone With the Wind have been woeful, McDermid's books are based on psychology. She understands people. Let's see how she thinks her way into Austen's imaginary world.
| | | |
| | |
Kill the dream sequence. My husband, who’s my first reader and who has a demon eye for sloppiness, says that a dream sequence is almost invariably either a repeat of something that’s already been done within the action, or a lazy way of doing something that should be done within the action.
If you're writing a novel, convince yourself of this: you need ACTION. Your characters must act to achieve their goals.
Read the above article; take the tips to heart. And if you have a character dreaming in a novel, do your readers a favor -- delete the sequence. You can keep it in if you're writing a paranormal with a lead character who's psychic. :-)
| | | |
| | |
Join today, and receive "The Very Best of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine (2006-2012)" completely free. Discover how thousands of freelance writers have launched and built successful careers.
You'll receive our writing tips ezine in your Inbox every week. Make this the year that YOU become a successful freelancer.
Writing jobs are everywhere. If you want to make $5 for writing 500 words, you can get these jobs all day long. No searching necessary. These gigs are plentiful because the Web's built on words. If you can string a few words together, you can make money.
I've got nothing against these jobs. Sadly however, there are two major challenges with these kinds of gigs: you'll burn out, and they're a dead end...
You can write less than you're writing now, and get paid much more. Get the dream writing jobs you want, at top rates.
Want to sell your writing services? Here's how. Everything you need to know to get started today.
Recent Comments