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Guest Post: Shorts vs. Novels—A View from the Trenches
The books I love most immerse me in a world utterly different from my own. Arrakis, Pern, Barrayar, Chalion… I crave deep information about these planets, and fortunately the author always delivered.
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 15 – Story Cycle Action & Trouble
We solve all sorts of problems on the first or second try in real life. We keep tension down. But with stories we don’t want to eliminate tension. We want to build it.
Quick Updates for 2011-03-26
Industry News and Member News for Thoraiya Dyer, Nancy Fulda, Sara Creasy, Anna D. Allen, and Matthew S. Rotundo.
Guest Post: Writing on the High Seas
For many it does feel like a kick in the gut when you see people refusing to pay for something you’ve invested anywhere from six whole months to years of your life to create.
Submission Guidelines to Beware of: Midwest Literary Magazine
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Midwest Literary Magazine (MLM) bills itself as “the quiet press.” Its online magazine publishes poetry, articles, and short fiction. Its mission: to “find and publish excellent authors of poetry, fiction a…
How Not to Market Your Book
How not to promote your book: make up a faux publicity company (at whose supposedly professional website you are the only listed client), whip up a badly-written press release (don’t bother with grammarcheck), and spam everyone you can think of…
Judge Rejects Google Book Settlement
A US District Judge has rejected an agreement between Google and some members of the book industry. If the deal had been accepted Google would have put millions of additional books online, in most cases, without the author’s permission.
Hugo & Campbell deadline: March 26
The Hugo nomination deadline of Saturday, March 26, 2011, 11:59pm PDT is fast approaching to cast nominating ballots for the 2011 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Quick Updates for 2011-03-22
Industry News and Member News for Stina Leicht, Gregory Norman Bossert, Lou Antonelli, Bill Ledbetter and Eugie Foster.
Guest Post: Networking with Purpose and Sincerity
Want other people to feel inclined to spread word of your stuff? Then make sure you’re doing it for them.
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 14 – Put Your Plot Together with the Story Cycle
Let’s say water starts dripping out of the light fixture right above your kitchen table. Maybe the wiring in the light starts to spark. What do you do?
Quick Updates for 2011-03-18
Resources and Member News for Richard Johnson, Linda Poitevin, Peter David, Seanan McGuire, Edward Willett, John Joseph Adams, and Christie Yant.
Guest Post: An Infinite Supply of Writing Prompts
I’m usually a bit reluctant about using writing prompts that are offered to a group because of the danger of similarity in stories and because a given prompt may or may not interest me personally. The Wikipedia Prompt Trails approach…
Tidbits
A judge has dismissed the case of an author who launched a criminal libel suit against a journal editor who published a bad review of her book, and the author has been ordered to pay punitive damages to the defendant.
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 13 – Make the problem hard to solve
with growing troubles & surprise
The moment you solve all the problems in the story, the story is over because the readers have nothing more to worry about. Troubles allow the story to progress and grow.
Guest Post: Does it Matter?
The status quo is segregation. It’s a state of segregation in which black, queer and members of other abject groups are not deemed to belong as main characters.
Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks? Internet Book Promotion
Ask anyone – in these days of a less-than-thriving economy, and reduced budgets for book promotion, publishers increasingly count on authors to do much of the promotion for their own books.
SFWA announces the Pacific Northwest Reading Series
The greater Pacific Northwest is home to Ursula K. Le Guin, Kay Kenyon, Jay Lake, Nancy Kress, Brent Weeks, Ted Chiang, and Ramona Quimby. Although Ramona isn’t known for her Science Fiction and Fantasy escapades, the rest are celebrated masters…
Guest Post: Building Secondary Worlds
I’m surprised quite often how little or ill thought-out the political and economic infrastructure of secondary worlds can be. How the hell do people get food to eat? How do they earn their money? What are their voting rights and…
Contest Alert: TheNextBigAuthor.com
In May 2011, the publishers of many of the world’s most famous authors – including Dan Brown, Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer – join to support The Next Big Author: a new initiative which encourages budding…
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 12 – Make the problem hard to solve with conflict
Remember, the better the opposition, the more tension the reader will feel because a formidable opponent increases the chances in the reader’s mind that the hero will fail.
Quick Updates for 2011-03-03
Member News for Laura Ruby, Charles Oberndorf, Susan Dennard, Myke Cole, Diana Peterfreund, Julia Watts Belser, Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban, Kat Howard, Larson Richard, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Arthur Dorrance, Daniel M. Kimmel, William Lawhorn, Eugie Foster, and David Levine.
Guest Post: Why Writers Suck at Marketing
Writers and marketing. In this digital age, the two words are becoming synonymous, but to what end? Having been on both sides of the fence, this is a difficult post for me to write. This isn’t the sort of thing…
Guest Post: 5 Things To Do In Your First 3 Paragraphs
Display your command of language. It’s worthwhile for a writer to think about poetry, and all its devices like assonance and alliteration, metaphor and allusion, internal rhythm, even meter.