I don't typically blog on Thursdays, but I figured I could pass along a few interesting/helpful links from now on (when I have them).
Did you know Amazon has a Breakthrough Novel Award? I didn't until this week, so I definitely wanted to spread the word for those interested. You can enter if you are an author with an unpublished OR previously self-published novel. They start accepting entries on January 23, 2012. Will you be entering? Has anyone entered this contest before?
Before we get to the next contest, which Indie writers may be particularly interested in, did you know the Blogging From A To Z April Challenge Blog was the Blog of Note this past week on the 12th? If you hop by the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge Blog, you can catch a series of reflections posts about the 2011 A-to-Z, as well as some new posts about it. Mine's coming at the end of the month, so stay tuned! Are you getting geared up for the A-To-Z? Participating this year?
Okay, for the second contest, Writer's Digest has an annual Self-Published Book Awards Competition. I was shocked to see this is their 20th year of honoring self-published authors. It's a great reminder that self-publishing is by no means a new thing. Deadline is April 20, 2012, to submit your self-published work. I'd love to see one of our Indie bloggers win this thing! Anyone considering entering this? Entered it before?
Those are the links for today! Come back tomorrow for an interview with James Hutchings.
Any interesting links you'd like to share?
May you find your Muse.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
[Mostly] Wordless Wednesday: My Own Personal Clark Griswold
Have you ever seen Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase? If we had lights on our roof, I think my husband would have him beat.
I can't do it any justice. You should know there's also a side yard, and the lights look much brighter in person. There's a sleigh behind all those reindeer. Oh, and there's music...
May you find your Muse.
I can't do it any justice. You should know there's also a side yard, and the lights look much brighter in person. There's a sleigh behind all those reindeer. Oh, and there's music...
May you find your Muse.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: Would You Like Some Terror With Your Romance?
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
"New Jersey was 40,000 feet below me, obscured by cloud cover. Heaven was above me, beyond the thin skin of the plane. And hell was sitting four rows back." p.3
The book I'm reading on e-reader this week is fellow blogger Aric Mitchell's The Congregation.
"At first Marco thought he would have to kill it. But upon closer examination, he could see that it was, in fact, a woman, and that at one time she had been very beautiful." 31% progress in Kindle.
These are two incredibly different books. One is comedy and romance, while the other is pure horror. Both, as it turns out, are quite good.
Come back Wednesday for [Mostly] Wordless Wednesday, Thursday for some helpful links (contests and a blog hop), and Friday for an interview with James Hutchings.
What are you reading this week?
May you find your Muse.
Monday, December 12, 2011
First Impressions Matter: Choosing Titles
A book can be wonderfully written, yet a terrible title will keep readers away. Looking at this from the other end, a magnificent title can pull people into a terribly written book, though one would hope they wouldn't make it all the way through. Still, in terms of book sales, which of these methods works best? The magnificent title and lackluster writing. Sad, but true.
clker.com
Obviously, the intent should be to focus on both the writing and the title, making both so spectacular that you bring in readers and keep them. This is true of any sort of entertainment media. A movie with a bad title may not get the viewers it deserves.
For all you bloggers out there, you know this principle applies to blog titles, as well. Sometimes it's easy to forget that your blog title still has to pull in readers or they'll skip over your post, whether they happen across it in a search engine, are linked to it from another blog, or get notices from their preexisting subscription.
This is mostly common sense. What isn't is how to choose that perfect title. Firstly, what is a title there to do? What do you want it to accomplish? You want it to titillate, to pull a person's attention to it and make them buy/click. At the very least, you want it to interest them enough that they read your description or a teaser, maybe the first paragraph. In addition, you want it to be descriptive. It should let the reader know what the topic is about, both today and in the future. For instance, a blog will have archives. One should be able to look through the archives and see what each article or post may be about. This gives you future business and helps one find important references later on.
Going one step further, you should know whether you want your title to titillate via topic, humor, mystery, fear or any other means. A funny title will bring in people looking for a fun read, but a fear-based one will grab a different audience. Consider who your audience is. Do they want just the facts? Lay it out for them in all seriousness, avoiding the humor. Will a question grab their attention more readily than the answer? Your audience should dictate every facet of your medium, including the title.
clker.com
Once you've figured out your purpose and your audience, it's time to pick that title. First, consider what your piece is about. The title should reflect some important, or at least meaningful, aspect of your work. It's okay if the connection isn't readily available right from the start. Some of the best titles inspire that "ah-ha" moment during the read, and can be the most fun. This may not be appropriate in more serious pieces, though, as a serious piece should be more straight-forward in order to engender trust and gain the appropriate audience.
clker.com
Another important factor is title length. A title that is too long may be a turn-off. It's also harder for someone to remember if they hear about the work in passing or want to recommend it to another. Don't shoot yourself in the foot that way! Choose a title that gets the point across with some measure of brevity. In this age of short attention spans, you want someone to read your entire title before deciding whether or not to move on.
If at all possible, make the title something that touches someone in some way. Whether this means eliciting a reaction or an emotion, there should be a connection there. It may make them question what it means. It may make someone nod in agreement and read on. Perhaps it will touch off a sense of fear within them, or even delight. Chances are, if it touches you in some way, it will do the same for them.
It's obvious to me that I don't have the market on titles cornered. It was this fact that made me want to talk about it and look into it a bit further. Setting aside blog titles (which I'm going to try to work on), I'm still not entirely certain I'm happy with the title of my YA novel. You see, I either come up with a great title and work from that, or come up with a great story and struggle (at least sometimes) to find the title that fits it and gets it across to others in the way I would like. As someone guilty of having a weekly dated title ([Mostly] Wordless Wednesday, ahem), I feel I need to work on bettering my titles. I'll try to start with those [Mostly] Wordless Wednesdays!
What do you think makes an excellent title? Can you think of any titles that have really stood out for you over the years? What was it about them that touched you or caught your attention?
Please return Wednesday for the photo of the week, and Friday for an interview with James Hutchings, independently published author of The New Death and Others.
May you find your Muse.
Obviously, the intent should be to focus on both the writing and the title, making both so spectacular that you bring in readers and keep them. This is true of any sort of entertainment media. A movie with a bad title may not get the viewers it deserves.
For all you bloggers out there, you know this principle applies to blog titles, as well. Sometimes it's easy to forget that your blog title still has to pull in readers or they'll skip over your post, whether they happen across it in a search engine, are linked to it from another blog, or get notices from their preexisting subscription.
This is mostly common sense. What isn't is how to choose that perfect title. Firstly, what is a title there to do? What do you want it to accomplish? You want it to titillate, to pull a person's attention to it and make them buy/click. At the very least, you want it to interest them enough that they read your description or a teaser, maybe the first paragraph. In addition, you want it to be descriptive. It should let the reader know what the topic is about, both today and in the future. For instance, a blog will have archives. One should be able to look through the archives and see what each article or post may be about. This gives you future business and helps one find important references later on.
Going one step further, you should know whether you want your title to titillate via topic, humor, mystery, fear or any other means. A funny title will bring in people looking for a fun read, but a fear-based one will grab a different audience. Consider who your audience is. Do they want just the facts? Lay it out for them in all seriousness, avoiding the humor. Will a question grab their attention more readily than the answer? Your audience should dictate every facet of your medium, including the title.
Once you've figured out your purpose and your audience, it's time to pick that title. First, consider what your piece is about. The title should reflect some important, or at least meaningful, aspect of your work. It's okay if the connection isn't readily available right from the start. Some of the best titles inspire that "ah-ha" moment during the read, and can be the most fun. This may not be appropriate in more serious pieces, though, as a serious piece should be more straight-forward in order to engender trust and gain the appropriate audience.
Another important factor is title length. A title that is too long may be a turn-off. It's also harder for someone to remember if they hear about the work in passing or want to recommend it to another. Don't shoot yourself in the foot that way! Choose a title that gets the point across with some measure of brevity. In this age of short attention spans, you want someone to read your entire title before deciding whether or not to move on.
If at all possible, make the title something that touches someone in some way. Whether this means eliciting a reaction or an emotion, there should be a connection there. It may make them question what it means. It may make someone nod in agreement and read on. Perhaps it will touch off a sense of fear within them, or even delight. Chances are, if it touches you in some way, it will do the same for them.
It's obvious to me that I don't have the market on titles cornered. It was this fact that made me want to talk about it and look into it a bit further. Setting aside blog titles (which I'm going to try to work on), I'm still not entirely certain I'm happy with the title of my YA novel. You see, I either come up with a great title and work from that, or come up with a great story and struggle (at least sometimes) to find the title that fits it and gets it across to others in the way I would like. As someone guilty of having a weekly dated title ([Mostly] Wordless Wednesday, ahem), I feel I need to work on bettering my titles. I'll try to start with those [Mostly] Wordless Wednesdays!
What do you think makes an excellent title? Can you think of any titles that have really stood out for you over the years? What was it about them that touched you or caught your attention?
Please return Wednesday for the photo of the week, and Friday for an interview with James Hutchings, independently published author of The New Death and Others.
May you find your Muse.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
[Mostly] Wordless Wednesday 12/7/11
Since they've been quite far from wordless recently, I give you...
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
How's the weather in your neck of the woods?
May you find your Muse.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
How's the weather in your neck of the woods?
May you find your Muse.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Monday Mish Mash, Including Flash Fiction Contest
First, I'm delighted to tell you that the Flash Fiction Contest, hosted by the Pikes Peak Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, and chaired by Yours Truly, is now open! This is micro-flash, so 100 words maximum. It can be found at the Pen Women website: www.ppb-nlapw.org.
The theme is: "Are You Devious at Heart?" You can take that in any direction you want to, horror, romance, mystery. I think it's a topic you can have a lot of fun with. You can enter by mail or email. Details are on the website, but feel free to ask questions of me directly on here, as well.
If you didn't see my guest post at Nikki's blog, authorinprogress, check it out!
For those that did the A to Z Challenge and/or the Follow-up Challenge this past year, Arlee is revving up the A to Z engines in preparation for the 2012 A to Z! It now has a dedicated website where you can track progress, read reflections posts and be a part of the discussion for the upcoming challenge: Blogging From A to Z April Challenge Blog.
If you signed up for the Follow-up Challenge here on my blog or on my partner's sites, it's still ongoing! You've got until the next A to Z Challenge to visit everyone (and then we start all over)!
I owe Jennifer at Jen's Bookshelf an apology. I don't believe I ever properly thanked her for the "One Lovely Blog" Award, and it's been nearly a month since she posted it. Thank you for thinking of me, Jen!
Finally, how about an update on the final week of ShaNoEdWriMo since I never did that? I got more than my goal of five chapters edited for that last week, which was awesome! As far as words written, I got over 5000 words written for the week!! Yay! It was the only week I met both goals entirely, but I'm happy with it, anyway.
That's more than enough for a mishmash, eh?
Any news to share? How did you do if you did any version of NaNo? Even if you didn't do NaNo, did you meet your writing/editing goals for the week/month?
May you find your Muse.
That's more than enough for now.
The theme is: "Are You Devious at Heart?" You can take that in any direction you want to, horror, romance, mystery. I think it's a topic you can have a lot of fun with. You can enter by mail or email. Details are on the website, but feel free to ask questions of me directly on here, as well.
If you didn't see my guest post at Nikki's blog, authorinprogress, check it out!
For those that did the A to Z Challenge and/or the Follow-up Challenge this past year, Arlee is revving up the A to Z engines in preparation for the 2012 A to Z! It now has a dedicated website where you can track progress, read reflections posts and be a part of the discussion for the upcoming challenge: Blogging From A to Z April Challenge Blog.
If you signed up for the Follow-up Challenge here on my blog or on my partner's sites, it's still ongoing! You've got until the next A to Z Challenge to visit everyone (and then we start all over)!
I owe Jennifer at Jen's Bookshelf an apology. I don't believe I ever properly thanked her for the "One Lovely Blog" Award, and it's been nearly a month since she posted it. Thank you for thinking of me, Jen!
Finally, how about an update on the final week of ShaNoEdWriMo since I never did that? I got more than my goal of five chapters edited for that last week, which was awesome! As far as words written, I got over 5000 words written for the week!! Yay! It was the only week I met both goals entirely, but I'm happy with it, anyway.
That's more than enough for a mishmash, eh?
Any news to share? How did you do if you did any version of NaNo? Even if you didn't do NaNo, did you meet your writing/editing goals for the week/month?
May you find your Muse.
That's more than enough for now.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Guest Post at Author in Progress
I guest posted about finding time to write when you're a parent over at Nikki's blog, Author in Progress. Come by and check it out!
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