Tag: writing
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Stop Guessing Your Readership’s Needs: Build an Ideal Reader Avatar
Nothing pleases an acquisitions editor more than a writer who can articulate exactly who their audience is. Borrow a strategy from business courses to pinpoint yours.
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Writing Romance for Non-Romance Readers
When writing a love story for the masses, you need to get intimate with your story’s central question. If the central question is “will they get together?”, only romance fans will enjoy it.
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How to Find Publishing Companies and Freelancers You Can Trust
Scammers who target authors thrive on the lack of public awareness about how publishing really works, so let’s push back with some information sharing. A little knowledge goes a long way toward helping you avoid these bad actors.
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Writing for Young Adult vs. New Adult
Young Adult and New Adult are similarly fast-paced and accessible, with a distinct narrative voice characterized by the personality of a book’s protagonist. But the two categories have important differences in the protagonist’s life stage, their preoccupations, and the emotional journey they experience during the story.
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How to Write an Author Bio with No Experience
Publishers aren’t reading author bios to separate the experienced from the inexperienced. Instead, they want to know why you’re the right author for the book you’ve written. Sometimes life experience that connects to your book’s subject matter is a stronger hook.
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Finding and Using Theme as an Author—With Examples
If your story isn’t quite pulling together—if it’s unfocused or isn’t connecting emotionally with the reader—it might be suffering from the absence of a clear theme. Theme is the heart of a narrative. It’s the thing you want a reader to take away from the experience of reading your book.
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Answering Your Questions about Nonfiction Book Proposals
Writing a book proposal can be a daunting undertaking, but it’s necessary to get your nonfiction pitch into the hands of an agent or editor. I recently presented a webinar on crafting your nonfiction book proposal and the audience asked some insightful questions. Here’s an exploration of those and others I’ve encountered.
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How to Know Your Novel is Ready for a Substantive or Developmental Editor
You’ve written a manuscript for a novel. You’re eager to plunge ahead and get an editor’s feedback…but are you ready for that step? If this is your unrevised first draft, the answer will usually be no. Almost every author needs to revise and rewrite their work extensively before the shape of their novel is fully…
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How Do You Know if Your Fiction Book Idea is Good?
How do you know you can turn your novel idea into a book that people will want to read, or that publishers will want to buy? To answer that, you need to consider your audience’s needs, the conventions of your genre, and the preoccupations of society today.
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How Do You Know if Your Nonfiction Book Idea is Good?
If you’re wondering if your nonfiction book idea is good, you are probably really asking these questions: Is my nonfiction book idea marketable? Can I make a whole book out of it? Is it worth my time to write it? This post will help you answer those questions before you commit yourself to writing.
Erin Alladin 