Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Writing Tips from Doctor Seuss

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW AS LONG AS YOU KNOW IT.

History’s greatest children’s author did not have children of his own. He would say, when asked about this, “You have ‘em; I’ll entertain ‘em.”

via colinfalconer.wordpress.com

Lovely article; take the tips to heart.

Another Clever Note-taking App

Squarespace Note is a clean, minimalist, note-taking application that can push your thoughts to email, Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, and, yes, Squarespace. Note is unique from most existing note applications in that it’s not used as a database, but a passthrough. It becomes the first place you go to push text to various services.

via blog.squarespace.com

Clever. Grab your ideas on the go. I'm using it on my daily walks. Perfect.

Create Free Websites: Put Your Ideas Online

Host Simple Or Test Websites For Free

If you ever need to make a single-serve website, or test out some new web stuff you’re fiddling with, Google Drive has some spare server space they’re willing to donate to your cause. You just have to upload your files and grab the right link.

via www.fastcompany.com

I work with writers every day. They share their ideas with me, and ask me whether they'll work. I tend to respond with: "Put it online. Let the market decide."

You'd think I was suggesting they scale Everest in their underwear. They need to buy a domain name, get hosting, create the site...

Google Drive eliminates the hassle of creating sites to try out ideas. You can create a site for free, in minutes.

Make Money Writing Whatever You Like

I love self-publishing on the Kindle. Here's why.

You can write whatever you like. I've got a long list of ebook ideas. Many are ideas I ignored, because the potential market is small. Others are ideas which I thought were too small for a book.

However, with Kindle self-publishing, the size of the market doesn't matter. The books stay online for years. So the market will eventually number in the millions. As for small ideas: your Kindle ebooks don't need to be big. Your ebook can be 20 or 30 pages.

I was speaking with a friend last week. She's been writing for magazines successfully for over 20 years. She's very excited because she's now got  a home for rejected article queries -- she can write her articles, and publish them as ebooks.

The world has changed. These days, you're in control of your writing life. You don't need anyone's permission to write a book -- there are no gatekeepers. Write what you like.

Should YOU write and self-publish ebooks? On my freelance writing blog, I gave you three reasons you should consider it.

What do you want to write?

Whatever it is -- short stories, a science fiction novel, a travel or recipe book -- you can write it, and you may even make money. Of coourse, there are no guarantees. You may make nothing at all. On the other hand, you could get lucky.

If you love to write, there's a whole new world of self-publishing open to you.

Related articles

Print or Ebook: How Do You Choose?

Write and Publish Your Book

Writing a Book? You're in Control

Ebook Pricing: How Much Will You Pay?

Ebook Pricing: How Much Will You Pay?

I think they will soon learn that readers will pay what they need to pay to read them and prices will steadily go up and settle at $12.99 to $14.99 for most popular best-sellers.

via www.forbes.com

Maybe. On the other hand, readers may decide they don't want to pay $15 to $20 for an ebook, and find authors at the $5 price point.

That's true for me... I have authors I love, but no way will I pay $20 for their latest bestseller in ebook format. Nor will I buy the paperback. I'll look for new authors, and I've found several where I've purchased their entire backlist -- at $4.99 each.

I'd rather have four books to read at $5 each, than one $20 bestseller I may or may not enjoy.

Ebooks change the publishing game.

Good news for new authors, a wake up call for publishers.

Master Writing and Selling Kindle Books

Just for you: a package of products to build your Kindle empire

I've been working with writers who are getting into self-publishing, and their biggest question is: "Which of your products do I buy?"

After putting together a package for self-publishers, Julia suggested that we call the package: "Master Writing and Selling Kindle Books", and offer it to readers.

If you're getting serious about Kindle publishing too, this package is for you.

via www.infoproductmaestro.com

Ready to build your Kindle publishing empire?

You're a Writer If...

You constantly edit. Whether it’s while you’re driving down the street and pass a misspelled sign, or grammatical errors in Facebook posts, you fix errors constantly in your mind—and sometimes not so silently. 

via writerswrite.posterous.com

So true. I mentally edit books. Don't get me started.

Well, maybe a couple of peeves...

For example, what happened to adverbs? Why have writers stopped using them? When did "ly" become de trop, and why didn't I get the memo?

Also, why are writers confusing "loose" with "lose"? and "passed" with "past"?

Textilus Word Processor for iPad: Scrivener Sync

★ Powerful yet very easy to use rich-text word processor for iPad
★ Create and edit MS Office RTF documents
★ Export your work as PDF , RTF , TXT , Markdown and HTML
★ Sync with Scrivener, iCloud, Dropbox or Evernote

via itunes.apple.com

Textilus is new to me, but the app's Scrivener sync caught my eye.

Although I have many word processing apps on my iPad, I'm always open to trying new ones. Some I delete immediately, others I never use.

My primary iPad writing apps are Drafts, and Evernote. I'm looking forward to trying Textilus, it's feature-rich.

Bestselling Authors: Co-Author Trend

However utilising co-authors is not a new concept. "The notion of having others to produce books has been going on for centuries," says Anna Davis, a literary agent with Curtis Brown.

"The Three Musketeers author Alexander Dumas did it - he had a whole team of authors writing for him all the time. He'd plot things out and have other people do the donkey work."

via www.bbc.co.uk

These days, all writers need to be prolific.

This applies to bestselling authors, too. There's a trend for bestselling authors to hire co-authors so that they can push out more books.

As the article points out, this has been going on for centuries. However, as a fan of a certain bestselling crime writer, I'm disappointed. His latest novels, which he's co-written, don't seem to be up to the standard of his usual work, at least according to Amazon reviews.

You can't fault a writer for wanting to make more money.

However, in the case of my favorite author, I'll reread his early books, which I love, rather than risk the new stuff.

Clever: News360 -- News Where and When You Want It

News360 is a next-generation news
personalization and aggregation service

It learns from your cloud and uses semantic analysis to inform you
on major ongoing events and give you content that is relevant just for you

via news360app.com

I'm a news junkie. If you are too, you may like this very clever app, News360.

The app consolidates news sources, and learns to give you want to want, as you read stories it presents to you.

I'm a Flipboard and Prismatic fan. News360 is similar, with the added benefit of learning from you.

Love the iPad version. :-)

Writing a Book? You're in Control

So Evans self-published, and only after his book hit the bestseller list did a major publisher buy it, for a reported $4 million. So in a way he became a godfather to a whole new generation of authors who are writing the next chapter in the saga of self-publishing.

via www.cbsnews.com

Great article about self-publishing success stories.

Kudos to Stephanie Bond. From the article: "But now, with romance one of the hottest categories for self-published books, her (Stephanie Bond) novels are flying off the virtual shelves. This past week a Bond book, "Stop the Wedding," was number 2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list."

Keep an eye on the freelancing blog. I'll be starting a new series on Kindle self-publishing shortly. Self-publishing was the hottest story for writers in 2012 (EL James and others' successes), and it will be hot in 2013, too.

Clever Google Tricks

Attach Drive Files To Your Email

When you’re writing up an email, you can insert a file directly from Drive through your Gmail account by clicking the Drive icon at the bottom of the new compose email format. It will appear when you scroll over the attachment icon at the bottom. This option isn’t available if you’re using the old compose format, in which case you’ll have to add in your files manually.

via thenextweb.com

The above article has some great Google tricks. Some you may be aware of, others you won't.

I've found a couple which will be immensely useful.

Get Your Writing Unstuck

And eventually, via participation in a live functional MRI scan, I discovered that at least in my case, I’m using different areas of my brain when I write with a pen on paper, when I write as a paleographer and when I keyboard.

via www.ipadprojectsbook.com

Are you stuck on a piece of writing?

Here's a simple solution. Change the way you write.

Write by hand if you usually write on your computer. Write on an iPad if you have one. Write on your smart phone's dinky screen. Write on a LARGE piece of paper (I'm addicted to Oasis pads, they're huge).

It doesn't matter much how you change your writing method, just change it.

Changing the way I write ALWAYS gets me unstuck, and I've found that that's true for my writing students too.

Try it yourself, and see.

Could You Write a Book in Evernote?

The layout of Evernote is both art and science. We might use a metaphor to help explain how cool it is. Notebooks are large filing cabinets that can contain folders of text, photos, etc. The ‘folders’ are where I would store pieces of each chapter, research, quotes, interviews and so on. I had one Notebook for each chapter, and others for larger containers worthy of a notebook but not a chapter outright.

via www.danpontefract.com

I store my research in Evernote. I also write draft material there, but I've never considered writing an entire book in Evernote.

It makes sense. (But I prefer Scrivener.)

Love Curio (Mac)

Curio lets you drag in not only photos and video files, but also live Web page views, Google Drive documents, and live-updating file previews from a host of programs, including Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Word’s heavy hitters. In Curio 8, you can now add YouTube and Vimeo videos, or record your own audio and video with the Mac’s built-in tools. You can also link a project to your Calendar and Reminders, even if they reside in iCloud.

via www.macworld.com

If you're a Mac user, you know why.

No, it isn't just the fact that you can WORK without worrying about your computer, it's also the amazing programs, like Curio.

I've used Curio every day for years. I can't imagine life without it, and it just keeps getting better.