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Blog Posts on Writing
Why you need to block off a date with your book
1. CLOCK IN AND OUT Be specific, and mindful when you start and when you finish. A focused strategy is better than just wafting into...
Categories or subgenre of memoir
What if you are writing a memoir or biography? Memoirs are as varied as their authors. Here are some of the most common types. Where will...
Six Things Authors Can Do To Get Your Book Move Visible
You have written the book and finally launched it. It’s loaded on Amazon and you have exhausted your own marketing network and harassed your
Novel writers? Know your fiction genres
Okay so you pretty much know my rule - DON'T write until you are clear on your genre. I can't tell you how many novels I get sent and when I open them I can see that the author has not landed their story in a clear and publishable genr e. The publishing environment is too competitive to NOT know you genre, and its key conventions. Readers will know them, and they buy these books regularly. So this is the first step all authors need to take, which is to put a stake in the ground and cement...
Top 10 Best-Selling Fiction Authors of All Time
10. J.K Rowling * 400 million copies Surprised? I suppose not, but I bet you though she would be higher on the list. J.K Rowling has...
Villainous characters
The Mastermind The Mastermind does not commit the crime, but is the brains behind the big event, whether it is a stealing, a scam or some...
Character Profile Worksheet
Basic Statistics Name: Age: Nationality: Socioeconomic Level as a child: Socioeconomic Level as an adult: Hometown: Current Residence:...
Non Fiction Book Structures
You have established your genre – now how will you book play out in terms of how you present the information. A lot of this is a choice...
How to structure your non fiction book
Memoir writers, you need to take a different approach to plotting than writers tackling a straight NF. When you plan a memoir or...
Do you need to be an expert to write?
Here's the question that lurks in the back of the mind of many writers … am I actually qualified to write a book? The book could be about...
Book Lengths What Are You Aiming For?
Where are you going with all this writing? Well, you are mostly likely shooting for a minimum of 50,000 words. Why 50,000? It is the...
The 10 Revision Stages of a Novel
It takes a lot to write a novel. Even those who haven’t tried would say, “well, duh!” to this. But it’s not so much the mind space or the sh
But is this book really yours?
What is original thought in writing? And all those things you think….. those ideas you have….. Are you aware where they come from? Are...
7 questions writers most often ask me
1. How long will this book take?
2. Can I get on the New York Times Bestseller list?
3. Where do I start?
4. Why are publishers
Self publishing your book? Independent Publishers in South Africa
Should you pitch a traditional publisher or bite the bullet, pay and self-publish or independently publish? This is an important question that all authors need to ask themselves. The truth is, only a fraction of books and authors will get a publishing deal with a traditional publisher (think Penguin, Little Brown, Pan MacMillan) A traditional publishing deal means this publisher will pick up all of the costs of producing your book,and they will pick up the costs of distributing your book...
How to get a barcode and ISBN for books in South Africa
There are two steps to this process. Step 1: Get an ISBN Step 2: Order a barcode The National Library of South Africa (NLSA) is the...
Book titles really do sell books
‘When you write non-fiction, you sit down at your desk with a pile of notebooks, newspaper clippings, and books and you research and put...
Writing is about keeping going
‘The pathos, and the gift of life, is that we cannot know which will be our defining heartbreak, or our most victorious joy.’ Alexandra...
The types of scenes all books need
‘I am 54 years old. Large important parts of my life receive virtually no attention in my memoir — a sentence for a traumatic love...
Should I traditionally publish or indie publish?
One of the biggest questions I hear from authors is this. Should I traditionally publish or indie publish? Since 2013 Jane Friedman has been regularly updating her informational chart about the key book publishing paths. She addresses this question in her website Publishing Trends and I have pasted the chart below. She says this: "Should I traditionally publish or indie publish?" This is an increasingly complicated question to answer because: There are now many varieties of traditional...
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