Site of the Week - Fiction Factor

As an aspiring writer you have a goal – PUBLICATION! And not just any old kind of publication; successful publication.

You research agents and publishers for the right fit for your novel. You perfect your query letter and novel synopsis. You polish your manuscript until it glitters like a flawless diamond. You tirelessly send it out and ignore the pile of rejection letters because you just know your book is fantastic.

And then it happens – your manuscript is sold!!

Now what? Just sit back and wait for the money to start rolling in, right? Wrong.

Writing is a business and you – not the publisher or agent – are the business owner. In the publishing world you are a lowly “NO NAME” author.

But wait, I have a name! It’s a great name, just ask my mom!

Unless it happens to be Jim Butcher or Anne Bishop it might as well be Hey You because your book will have zero publicity dollars. And if your book doesn’t sell enough, don’t count on the publisher asking for a sequel.

So, what are you going to do to make certain your business, your BOOK is a success?

Ummm, me?

Yeah, Y.O.U.

Marketing – it’s not just for buying groceries anymore. That’s right. You, the creative, go-with-the-flow writer has to get serious about promoting your book. It’s your baby and if you want it to make its way in the world you have to step up and help it along.

But how?

Well, I’m glad you asked. After taking a seminar on starting a business my eyes were opened to the just how crucial self-promotion is to your success. So, I started surfing the web for advice on how to apply this knowledge to my writing. And I found Fiction Factor. It’s an ezine dedicated to doling out advice to aspiring authors.

Their drop-down menu at the top of the home page has a wide variety of topics to choose from, but for the purposes of my topic select “Promotion, Publicity and Marketing.” (You have to scroll down to see it – that’s how much information is on this sight.) You will be given a list of articles written by experts in the business. The articles I perused were very helpful and got the wheels turning, so to speak.

Planning ahead is worth the effort. Those of us with blogs and memberships to writing forums are already working on self-promotion, but we have a lot more to learn. Why not let those who have been there before give us a few pointers?

UPDATE: Somewhere is now submitted.

Well, I did it. I uploaded the "final" version of Somewhere and submitted it just a few minutes ago. It's been a long time since I submitted anything. (An embarrassingly long time, actually.) So I've got the butterflies all over again. The down side here is that this market has a long turnaround time. But, I am going to keep working on other projects to keep myself busy.

I'll post when I hear anything - good or bad. (Keep your fingers crossed for good.) ;-)

Site of the Week - The Knight Agency

As you are all aware, I am unpublished in the fiction realm. So as I go about increasing my knowledge and seeking out advice, guidelines and others who understand the feeling that you are standing on the edge of an abyss more than ready to swallow you whole, I believe in highlighting websites from unknown or lesser known people, agencies, etc.

While we have all heard of the BIG names in the agent world; Nathan Bransford, Janet Reid, Miss Snark(now retired) what about those agents who haven’t got the followings these bloggers do? Are their websites somehow less informative? Less realistic? Less inspiring? Or, like us, are they just waiting for the world to pay attention to their genius?

Let us see, shall we?

I did a Bing search for agent blogs and found a list. How convenient. :-) At random, I chose to check out The Knight Agency’s blog. And here’s what I found:

They like to publish romance novels(which is probably why I’ve never heard of them). While they do have a sci-fi/fantasy section, just from the “cover blurbs” posted, most of them are romance based. (Good news for any of you working on a Paranormal/Sci-fi Romance, not so good for the rest of us.) However, they do represent some well-known names in the paranormal genre, like Gena Showalter and Nalini Singh, so they know their stuff.

But when it comes to advice, I found a wonderful article Loving a Love Scene by Chris Marie Greene. I do not write romance, I find emotional scenes very difficult to write. This article has some great tips for the romantically challenged like me. My favorite was to keep in mind that a sex scene is a point where your characters should transform. It should be a catalyst for them. Unconsciously, I knew this, but to see it written out with examples and suggestions – it clicked. :-D

So, while Knight Agency does not specialize in the type of fiction I am writing, that doesn’t meant I can’t learn from what these professionals have to say. I encourage you to stretch out beyond the confines of your own chosen genre when seeking hints, tips and knowledge. You never know when you’ll find a little gem to make your writing sparkle.

The tediousness of market research.

I've just spent my entire afternoon searching for a market that will fit my novelette, Somewhere. Well, it's a novelette according to some markets and a novella according to others; which makes finding the right market all the more frustrating! ;-)

Anyway, after all of this tedious research, I only found five possible markets which are currently accepting submissions - and of those five, only two offer any form of payment.

Talk about discouraging. I'm wondering if I should either lengthen this or cut a bunch out (though I have no idea what I could cut without sacrificing the heart of the piece). 

However, I am going to make my final edits (yes, that means making my comma errors obsolete) over the next two days and begin submissions on Friday afternoon or Saturday when I get home from work.

I'll post any updates - good, bad or ugly. :-)

Site of the Week - Alan Cooper's Homonyms

I have a  writing pet peeve - the misuse of homonyms. You know, those words that sound the same but mean very different things. Homonym misusage is quite common and it never hurts to have a place to go and double check your word choices. Alan Cooper's Homonyms  includes definitions to help you find the correct word.

It's an excellent resource for new and not-so-new writers alike. So the next time your debating on a word, make your final decision baste on this list.  ;-)  (Can you spot the homonym misusage?) LOL.

Site of the Week - Ancient Weapons and Armory

So, I've decided to take a slight detour from the classic websites for writers and highlight Ancient Weapons and Armory, a great research site. For those of you who know me, battle scenes are my favorite to write and when I stumbled onto this site my heartbeats quickened. ;-) 

This site is a bit of an unusual combination - an ancient weaponry encylopedia with links to weapon replica suppliers. (No, I haven't placed any orders - yet.) The weapons are listed on the left side of the page. Clicking on the links reveals quick general descriptions of each item, including such useful information as how much a typical suit of chain mail weighs or the basic design of a bayonet. These are the sorts of details that can add depth and dimension to your writing. And you can find them all in one handy little database.

Now for you sci-fi folks, you can just make up your own weapons. But if you are so inclined you can click here for a site which has lists (and pictures) of modern military weaponry of all sorts.

So, pick your poison, grab a notebook to jot down notes and browse until your hearts are content.

Happy researching. :-)