Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
February 5, 2016

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

The Daily Routine of an Independent Author

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8saLenIWOY&index=1&list=PLE1Y2pbwRpkgHsia2FLH-u3cdXoDn2o99

The YouTube link will show more short videos like Marketing Yourself as an Independent Author and Self-publishing your First Book.  All the videos are interesting and a great help to all authors!

How Authors hit #1 on Amazon

Rachel is refreshingly open about how she did it – and the first part of that was about getting the basics right: a gripping book with a strong concept; an evocative and professional-looking cover; and an excellent book description that makes you want to read the book.

Next, Rachel did something very simple but vital: she wrote a marketing plan. Then she carried that plan out. This does not sound remarkable but you’d be amazed how few writers – and publishers, it has to be said – bother to do this. But if you are serious about success, you need a plan and you need to stick to it. Or rather, you need to follow your plan, doing more of the things that work, and less of the things that don’t. (That’s the secret of marketing, by the way.)

What were some of the things that worked for Rachel?

Selling ebooks is all about exposure – it isn’t true that good books will naturally rise to the top. You have to get them noticed. So Rachel focused on getting her book seen, and to do this she did two things.

Read the entire post here http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/01/21/self-publishing-success-kindle-bestseller/

Who’s up next . . .

First-and-third cancelled Tuesday evening for snow.  This moves their presenters for this week to February 16. So, here’s who’s up next:

February 9: ?

February 16: Lisa McDougal (chapter 48, Tebow Family Secret), Eva Mays (chapter 1, Dhuoha), Kashmira Sheth (YA novel, chapters 1-3 rewrite, Journey to Swaraj), Millie Mader (poem, “Apocalypse to Armageddon”), Bob Kralapp (poem, “Train Schedules”), and Jerry Peterson (free verse or flash fiction, “You Can Never Be Sure”).

February 23: ?

March 1: Bob Kralapp (???), Kashmira Sheth (chapters, Nina Soni), Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Randy Slagel (short story, part 1 rewrite, “Watered-Down Witch”), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 27-30, Killing Ham).

Editor for February . . .

Pat Edwards is our editor for Writer’s Mail this month. Send your good stuff for our e-newsletter to her.

Great word . . .

From the Urban Dictionary:

photobombing
Meaning: Intentionally posing in other people’s photos, for a later surprise. Usually people making funny faces in the background, without the knowledge of the main subjects of the photo.

Example: Jim is always photobombing. He’s messed up some of the best photos from the wedding.

The Last Word . . .

“Margaret Mitchell went to great pains to eliminate verbiage that did not further the plot or develop a character. She relentlessly omitted ‘pretty words’ that did not mean anything, aiming to write so clearly and crisply ‘that every word could be read from a galloping horse.’”
– Ellen Brown and John Wiley, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind (2011)