Building a Career Archives

Archive for the ‘Building a Career’ Category

Writing and Gaming: An Interview with James Sutter

SFWA interviews award-winning game designer and author James Sutter–a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Fiction Editor/Senior Editor of Paizo Publishing.

Rejection and Reinvention

Since I can’t tell why, for sure, a story was rejected, I keep submitting to places that meet my minimum requirements. When I run out of places, I put the story in a folder that’s labeled ‘stories I still believe in’ and I review it once in a while.

Marketing, Sales, and Publicity. Part Two: Topics in Publicity

Is book publicity necessary? In my mind: yes. Do you need a publicist? It depends! I’ve long felt that authors are small business owners; what publicity means to an author is going to vary widely depending upon the resources available.

Marketing, Sales, and Publicity–Part One: The Basics

Marketing is, and has been, a hot topic for authors these past few years. This two-part article seeks to remove the mysticism from the subject so you can make better decisions about your career.

Five Tips to Improve Your Amazon Author Central Page

If you’re selling books on Amazon, you’ll want to set up your page in their Author Central program. Use your Author Central page to provide more information for your readers: upcoming events, a full listing of your books, pictures and videos, and even excerpts from your blog.

An Introduction to Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, Part 1: Definitions

For writers who are interested in writing middle grade or young adult fantasy or science fiction, the first step is puzzling out what exactly those categories mean. Science fiction and fantasy, after all, has a long tradition of featuring young protagonists — including such classics as Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings, and Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey — even if those novels weren’t originally published as middle grade or young adult books.

MFA Programs and You

MFA Programs and the efficacy or use thereof tend to come up in discussion periodically. For those of you interested, here is a run down of the types of programs and what to expect. I personally have an MFA in Poetry from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and am currently looking into applying for a second MFA, this time in Fiction. I might be addicted to school. Or it might be that MFA programs really are just that awesome.

Guest Post: The difference between audience and market

You might have heard the advice, “Don’t chase the market.” That’s good advice, as a general idea, but many people misunderstand it and think that it means that you should not write for a specific audience. Here’s the thing… Your audience is not the market.

Book Promotion Giveaways: What Works?

As authors increasingly explore way to promote their work, one question that occurs when launching a book concerns giveaways, things like bookmarks, pens, postcards, or sometimes more complex or costly items, used to promote the book.

Guest Post: Monster In the Laundry Basket —
Part III: What is Literary Success?

When my first novel came out – in 2000 – by all weights and measures, I had “made it” as a mid-list fiction writer. I’d secured a two book deal (the second: a collection of short stories, the most elusive prey on the planet), a tidy first-timers advance, and a round of positive reviews from all the usual suspects.