Developing your Business Side

Tip of the Day: try going vegan for two weeks. You'll never enjoy ice cream and chocolate as much as you will when you are finished!

We all know this writing business has a lot more to it than just writing. And it's easy to get overwhelmed in the business-aspect of growing a writing career.

You might find yourself in a constant spin of wondering...

• Do I really need a professionally designed Web site before submitting to agents or editors?
• How much time should I be spending on Twitter now, before having a book published?
• How many queries should I be sending a week?
• How do you write the best possible query letter to catch an agents attention?
  

So why is it that it's hard to drown out all the business aspects, even when you don't have a book coming out.

1.) you want to be competitive
2.) you want to appear as if you know what you are doing
3.) you want to create buzz that could lead to a book sale
4.) you want to feel cool...like you are part of the in crowd.

It's so easy to get lost in all the marketing, advertising, and promotions that you forget about what is most important...the book.

So to all of you in this same boat, maybe we should all make a mass exit off of Twitter, the Internet, and worrying about sales...

And then jump right back into working on our books!!!

And when time permits, then--and only then--can we work on marketing, promotion, and the business-side of things.

Who's with me?

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Brainstorming Ideas: The Plot Web

Tip of the Day: Author2Author celebrates post number 700! Thanks so much for following us!

I bought a workbook for elementary school teachers at a yard sale called Teaching Creative Writing. It's not very helpful for adult writers as opposed to elementary school teachers, but hey, it was only a quarter. I love me some yard sales.

There is a fun exercise in here I'd like to share called the plot web. Basically, you take a topic you've always wanted to write about, write it down, and draw a box around it. Then you draw lines radiating from the box--about 12 lines. Each line ends in a circle. In each circle, brainstorm something that could happen; some kind of conflict.

For example, I always wanted to write a story about motor boats. So if I had boating in my box, what could be in my circles?

1. Stranded at low tide

2. Motor failure/out of gas

3. Catching a big fish

4. Drunk boyfriend/girlfriend tries to drive

5. Fall off boat, almost drown

6. Sharks!

7. Winning or losing a race

8. Fishing/clamming/shrimping for a living

9. Poaching in a black boat

10. Rogue wave!

11. Crash Dad's boat into the dock

12. True story: once a deer swam to my Dad's boat and jumped on board!

For kids, the book recommends picking one of these ideas to write about. But I think it would be more fun to combine a few, don't you? Like maybe my main character's father is a clammer and she lets her boyfriend take the boat out. He has a few beers and crashes into the dock. Now she has to talk the dock owner into letting her pay for the damages without telling her father. Oooh, now let's say that the dock owner's gorgeous son hates her boyfriend. I don't know why yet. Maybe when they were kids, boyfriend pushed hottie off a boat and he almost drowned. So by extension, hottie hates my main character, but his parents agree to let her work off the debt.

Well, it doesn't seem like I'm working the shark into this story. But that's not bad for ten minutes of thought. This isn't a bad method if you've always wanted to write about an interest but you're not sure exactly what.

The best advice in the book is this: "It must be remembered it's a hard line of balance between having thoughts flow smoothly and being conscious of everything that should be included." Doesn't that make you feel better?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Wait. Should I really be reading this?

Tip of the day: If leggings did not look good on your short and stocky legs 25 years ago, they probably will not look good now. Yes, I am speaking from experience.

I've been reading some REALLY good books lately.

First of all, I read THE BOOK THIEF shortly after it first came out, but I recently decided I wanted to listen to it in audio form, so I got the set from the library. Wow, what an experience it is, listening to that book being read out loud. 

I finished some Advanced Review Copies of some great books - MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS by our own Kristina Springer; THE MOCKINGBIRDS by Daisy Whitney; and LOSING FAITH by Denise Jaden.

I'm currently about two-thirds of the way through CLOCKWORK ANGEL by Cassandra Clare. Holy crap, that girl can write!!!

So this morning, when I sat down to start in on a brand new project, I had a really hard time! All of these great books made me feel so inferior. Like - I will NEVER be able to write as good as these people, what am I doing even trying?

The first couple of hours were rough. Eventually, I found my way and stopped thinking about all of the wonderful words THEY had written and was finally able to focus on my own.

I think reading good books is important. I learn a lot from well written books. But at certain times, they actually hurt me more than they help me, if that makes sense. 

Anyone have a crappy book to recommend after I finish CLOCKWORK ANGEL? I need something to make me feel a little better.

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

Top 5 Reasons Why it's Super Cool to Have a Second Book Out in the World

Tip of the Day: Pictures of my first book signing for My Fake Boyfriend is better Than Yours are up on my blog, check it out. #5: That awesome feeling of seeing the book in a store for the first time-- it never goes away! #4: The swag is much cooler the second time around! Maybe it's having more practice? #3: I love the first signing! I like all the signings because I love meeting people, especially readers, but that first signing is always so special because friends and family and devoted fans come out to help celebrate. #2: While signing copies of my new book last weekend, a few people were carrying my first book (Espressologist) in their hands. This made me giddy for some reason. and... #1: That fear we authors carry after putting a first book out, the OMG, can I actually do this again? Maybe the first time was a fluke! Maybe I was just lucky! That whole thing goes away. Pretty much. Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves

My Revisions Fried My Brain (or Um, Uh...Right)

Tip of the Day: Favorite recent read besides Tina's MFBIBTY: SIREN by Tricia Rayburn. A paranormal that stays firmly rooted in reality -- my type of fantasy!
It also makes me wonder if there's hope for one of my water-related YA drawer novels....

My WIP, "PF", was primarily "finished" on Sunday night! WOO HOO! From start to finish, this writing process (with tweaks still needed but nothing major as of yet) took about 8.5 months. And it's my longest book ever! My brain is tired. And fried. And Sunday night I couldn't sleep because it kept whirring for hours while I lay in bed from my marathon writing day.

That said, I can write nothing else coherent right now, and am going to do some critiques and get my brain into others' WIPs! Yay!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

The Black Abyss of Writing

Tip of the Day: make sure to check out the new 2011 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market book. Not only is it a great resource, but the lovely Carmela Martino wrote a great article about group blogs, which includes some quotes from us!

Making time for writing is hard for everyone, but now I’m in the flip side of this and I have all the time in the world for writing. And I’m finding out that sometimes when you have too much of a good thing, it can get overwhelming too. Kind of like you are swimming around in a black abyss and don't know which direction to go.

Lisa wrote a great blog entry awhile ago about how hard it is to turn your writing brain off. I couldn’t agree with this more. But now I’m finding out it can be just as hard to turn it on. At least effectively.

When you go to a day job you have people around and you get there at a certain time and you leave at a certain time. It’s a lot easier to trick your brain into thinking you should be working. But when you are in your home, it can get challenging to motivate yourself. Maybe it’s just me and my procrastinator brain that never likes to get anything done until it absolutely has to be done, but sometimes when I sit down to write, nothing happens, even if I’ve been thinking about my story for hours. It’s like I need to clock in to actually be productive. Trick my brain into thinking, “Hey Kiddo, you shouldn’t be staring at the blank screen or re-alphabetizing your books, but actually working.”

When I had a day job, there was a lot less time, so it was easier to get focused. Which is probably why I’ve always been much more productive when I have a busier schedule.

So I’ve made a pact to do that very thing for the next few weeks. I’m going to figuratively clock in a certain number of hours each week and then clock out when I’m done. And in between, I’m going to fill it with as much stuff as possible that’s not writing related.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I’m going to be trying to figure out why when writing the quote above I immediately thought to call myself Kiddo.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

It's OK to Not Be Happy All the Time

Tip of the Day: Feeling blue? Read through some of your early writing and pat yourself on the back when you see how much you have improved. Practice really does work.

If you're like me, and like most writers I know, you don't like to admit it when you feel discouraged. Rejections are supposed to happen, and writers are supposed to shrug them off. As for the discouragement of being stuck on a plot or not being happy with the pages you've written? Complaining about that is, well, nothing but complaining. Nobody's making you be a writer at gunpoint.

Writing means giving up family time, so for me, the last people I want to complain to are my family. They are the ones who live in a messier house, don't go out for movies with me, and watch me spend household money on writing classes and conferences. It seems like it would take a lot of nerve for me to make them listen to me complain about writing on top of everything else.

But last week, I couldn't take all the disappointment anymore and I broke down to my husband. Ugh, I've been writing for so long, why aren't I better at it?! Why is it still so hard for me? Will I ever sell anything? Do I have an ultimate goal here or am I just kidding myself?

And my husband was very surprised that it took me so long to talk to him. Keep going, he said. Don't keep it all inside. The people who love you want to support you. We believe in you.

Then he booked a babysitter and made reservations for us at a trendy restaurant.

So the lesson I have learned is one I have had to re-learn many times in my life. It's fine to ask the people you love for help and support. It really is. I can't always be Super Spouse or Super Parent. It's okay for the people around us to see that we try our best to achieve our dreams even when it's a huge effort--and that sometimes, this effort requires a little pampering.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages