Writers' Forum - October 2024
The month's important publishing news, helpful writing craft tips, and savvy book marketing and publishing advice curated for you!
Woo-hoo — my books have been launched officially into the world — AND — I’m only a teeny bit tardy with the Writers’ Forum. As you can imagine, this week was a little crazy with lots of last minute tasks to make sure my book launches (and the Halloween party I threw to celebrate) went off without a hitch. We had a blast. And there’ll be a post all about that, too. But for now, enjoy the Forum!
FEATURED ARTICLES:
2024 Indie Author Survey Results: Insights into Self Publishing for Authors
Writer Beware’s Go-To Online Resources
Why Everyone Should Keep an Authority List
21 Books Soon to Be Movies
Children’s Authors Frustrated by Rise in Celebrity-Penned Titles
2024 Indie Author Survey Results: Insights into Self Publishing for Authors Written Word Media 2024 Survey results are in … there were 1500 respondents to the survey which asks about “experiences with writing, publishing, and marketing. That’s a pretty decent sample size. I was one of them. Perhaps you were, too? See the results here: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/2024-indie-author-survey-results-insights-into-self-publishing-for-authors/
Writer Beware’s Go-To Online Resources
Writer Beware is a trusted resource for all things scammy in the publishing world – but not only that, they keep a trusted list of resources. Super comprehensive list of websites that are helpful to writers. Bookmark this page.
https://writerunboxed.com/2024/10/25/just-for-authors-writer-bewares-go-to-online-resources/
Why Everyone Should Keep an Authority List
I love this article from Joshua Dolezal for Jane Friedman’s blog. As writers (and perhaps from our previous or concurrent careers), we have probably racked up a fair number of areas where we can claim expertise. What are yours? How are you using them in your writing?
https://janefriedman.com/why-everyone-should-keep-an-authority-list/
21 Books Soon to Be Movies
Just for fun, this list from Kirkus shows books that will be made into movies. I adored “Regretting You” by Colleen Hoover, so I cannot way to see that one. Are any of your favs on this list?
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-lists/21-books-soon-be-movies/#margos-got-money-troubles
Children’s Authors Frustrated by Rise in Celebrity-Penned Titles
Yes, it’s frustrating as a fellow children’s book author when there’s so many new titles ‘written’ by celebrities from other creative areas – movies, television, Broadway, reality TV, and more. But I’m not sure why this is surprising anymore? The bottom line when a publishing house acquires the rights to publish something is whether it can make money. And star power sells books (often—although there are some exceptions where star-studded books fell flat.) Interesting article, nonetheless.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE NEWS
Inside the Heated Controversy That’s Tearing a Writing Community Apart
Well, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has really stepped in it now … if you haven’t heard about what’s happened there … it appears that the popular November writing challenge has “endorsed the use of bots to write novels” to ensure “access for the disabled or those from marginalized communities who would otherwise not have access to the inner circle of the publishing industry.” As you can imagine – there was an immediate backlash. NaNoWriMo doubled down and said that using AI to write can help “address classism, ableism, and general access issues.” Writers in the disabled community took offense saying that “while disabled writers might use accommodating tools” they can’t endorse the use of technology that steals other’s work. Read the Slate article here:
https://slate.com/technology/2024/09/national-novel-writing-month-ai-bots-controversy.html
Draft AI Policy Roils Horror Writers Association
Apparently, over at the Horror Writers Association there’s a similar issue between endorsing / defining AI-Assisted and AI-generated. If you have the energy for this one too, here’s the link:
https://file770.com/draft-ai-policy-roils-horror-writers-association/
5 Plot Hacks That Just Might Save Your Novel
Susan DeFreitas offers incredibly helpful plot-saving ideas on Jane Friedman’s blog . . . you need to read the whole article because it’s just that good. But for shorthand her notes are to consider shortening the time frame, simplify (remove) events or characters, ADD a subplot or consequence, start earlier in the story, and create a real climax—meaning you have to read your work critically and be aware if you’ve created a story without a REAL climax. Great advice!
https://janefriedman.com/5-plot-hacks-that-just-might-save-your-novel/
Stakes: How to Hook an Audience All the Way to THE END
Kristen Lamb’s article on Stakes relates directly to the previous one on plot fixes, but in finer detail perhaps at the scene level as you develop a story’s conflict. I love Kristen Lamb because she’s a great educator on writing craft while being humorous. She has easy to follow recipes for conflict structure and creating the emotional thread of a story. Even if you’ve been writing for a while, these are such good reminders that will bring you back to the basics of story structure!!
https://authorkristenlamb.com/2024/10/stakes-how-to-hook-an-audience-all-the-way-to-the-end/
How to Handle Memory Gaps in Your Memoir
Clearly, a memory gap in a memoir needs a decision by the writer—Lisa Cooper Ellison examines whether you just do your best and fill in with speculation. Or you research by asking others their memories of events. Or—perhaps—you just admit you don’t remember. All are valid. See how she advises on each one here:
https://janefriedman.com/how-to-handle-memory-gaps-in-your-memoir/
Romance Authors Thrive in the Self-Publishing Era
In this interview, Elizabeth Held talks with Christine Larson, author of “Love in the Time of Self-Publishing” about how well indie romance writers are doing and why. Interesting look at the industry overall and what impacts indie published romance authors’ success is having at shaping the traditional industry. What I know personally is that if a book is good—a reader doesn’t care if it is indie or traditional published.
https://janefriedman.com/romance-authors-thrive-in-the-self-publishing-era/
Get Better Book Launch Results by Taking These 9 Steps While You’re Writing
Sandra Beckwith of Build Book Buzz always has fantastic advice and this list is no exception. Please do all nine of these – I wish I had done so when I was writing. It would have made marketing my book so much easier. (I did some of these but NOT all nine.) My favorites are “research your target audience” and “build an email list.”
https://buildbookbuzz.com/get-better-book-launch-results/
Secret Method to Seeing Other Book’s Keywords
Woo-Hoo – Thank you Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur for coming up with this way to see something we’ve long wished we could see – the keywords working for other books. Nifty. Short 5 minute video explaining it all below.
Reverse ASIN Lookup Explained: Boost Your Amazon Book Rankings
So the video above was the introduction … and in this article from Dave Chesson he further explains this Publisher Rocket update and how to use the ASIN look-up feature. With this information, you’ll be able to gain insights that can help you books your book’s rankings on Amazon. This will help you build your seven keyword phrases with the very best data to position your book well for publishing.
https://kindlepreneur.com/reverse-asin-keyword-lookup/
4 Ways Authors Use Canva in Their Book Marketing
Canva is a wonderful online program that allows you to create/design graphics, videos, images, documents etc. quickly I cannot live without my Canva Pro account. I use it daily for myself and my clients. In this article Jeevani Charika guest blogs for the BookBub Partners blog and walks through many of the things Canva can do!
https://insights.bookbub.com/ways-authors-use-canva-book-marketing/
Your Ultimate Guide to Being a Great Guest Blogger
Thank you again Ms. Beckwith for super advice. I think you can apply nearly all of these tips to being a good podcast guest too. Basically, it gives you a quick cheat sheet on how to be the best guest you can be on someone else’s platform by providing great content and making it EASY for the host to say yes to you. I love it when guest bloggers on my Substack publication are this organized. LOVE!
https://buildbookbuzz.com/how-to-be-a-great-guest-blogger/
How One Debut Author Built an ARC Team from Scratch
Wow – Rick Burnes gives a step-by-step guide on how to build an ARC team. Really interesting use of ARC reader groups on Facebook and on other social media platforms. Cool look at something I hadn’t seen someone share before.
https://insights.bookbub.com/how-debut-author-built-arc-team/
9 Places to Look for Readers Who Write Reviews
Ha ha – yes – another article from Sandra Beckwith – but what I can say? She has some of the best advice this month. This is a straightforward list of locations you likely anticipate would be good spots to find reviewers – your own email list, your social media followers, review services like NetGalley, asking at the end of your book and more.
https://buildbookbuzz.com/readers-who-write-reviews/
7 Website SEO Tips for Authors
I just redid my website (with a little help from my web tech and graphic designer), so I’m knee deep in getting a handle on my SEO. I like how Nate Hoffelder offers advice in a really accessible way. I think SEO is confusing—and often described in accurately. Nate’s article will help set things straight.
https://natehoffelder.com/seven-website-search-engine-optimization-seo-tips-tricks-secrets-authors/