Update: Self Publishing Community! … To help self publishers better interact, we’ve added some great new elements to our site. You can now join our self publishing community page, set-up your own profile, and just like Facebook you can contact other members, and add photos and video.
The community section also lets members have their own book blog section on our site and list their books in ourAuthors Book Directory. Finally we’ve added a discussion forum so self publishers can discuss and get help with any and all issues related to self-publishing. Help us get our self publishing community going: Sign-up, post a profile and post in the self publishing forums!
So often, when you sit down to write the flash of brilliance you’d thought of just moments before, you find it has just disappeared. Poof. Sometimes it comes back to you, but quite often it doesn’t. Who knows where it vanished off to?
But, if you’re going to be a writer, then you need to learn how to generate ideas without waiting for lightning to hit you and the great thing is: they’re everywhere. In the newspaper or on TV; listen to the newscaster and try renaming the people, places and incidents to form your own connection. You could be out at a restaurant and listening in to other people’s conversations or standing amidst a crowd doing nothing, but listening and letting your imagination go where it will. Something as inane as a car, dog, cat, child, bridge etc can spark off some new suggestion. Especially if you ask these questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? For instance, ‘who is that person and where did they come from? When was that car parked out there and what is it doing on this deserted street?’ and it goes on. Or maybe think about a piece of furniture and place it in a house, wielding a story around it, the house or its inhabitants.
The age old convention ‘never judge a book by its cover’, wasn’t written for the reader with a short attention span. In this day and age, titles do matter in terms of both publication and “sellability”. It all comes down to being able to substantially attract a potential reader’s attention; it has to jump out and give the reader room for pause. If it doesn’t, the book will simply be passed over for something else.
If you’ve ever paused to observe people in a bookstore, the first thing that catches your attention is how they approach the bookshelves. A different, interesting title will make the reader reach out for the book out of pure curiosity. So when settling on a title, don’t just slap one on and think nothing more of it: put in something that summarizes your book and at the same time, leaves room for mystery.
But settling on a title is hard work especially for a writer who is invariably too close to the project to think objectively of what effectively attracts attention, not realizing that quite often the title is within the content itself. One way around this would be to give your work over to an unbiased reader or editor and see what they have to say; their feedback might be the inspiration you’re lacking.
Before getting started, it’s important to note two important things: first, that these tips are aimed more towards writers starting out on a novella or full length novel and second, that this isn’t an exhaustive list. Think of it more as something to get you started.
1. Principal Character Introduction What is a principal character? The story’s protagonist, which is particularly relevant if you have only one principal, instead of several main characters in your piece. After all, the book is going to be about someone, and you want to keep your reader in mind. What happens after the first few pages? Characters keeps a reader hooked and interested. Make sure you don’t take too long in introducing him/her.
On October 4, 2010 Barnes & Noble announced that Publt, its self publishing ebook platform. Now available to any American bank account holder—author or publisher—interested in uploading their ebook for publication. Previously, this service was only available to select authors and publishers.
This is great news for U.S. authors and/or publishers who are now given more freedom to get their book out into the hands of more readers, through B&N’s existing reputation.
Since we get this question all the time, we’ve made a detailed video reviewing just how authors should go about setting out their book cover layout.
Find out more: Book Cover Layout
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 09:21
So often, when you sit down to write the flash of brilliance you’d thought of just moments before, you find it has just disappeared. Poof. Sometimes it comes back to you, but quite often it doesn’t. Who knows where it vanished off to?
The age old convention ‘never judge a book by its cover’, wasn’t written for the reader with a short attention span. In this day and age, titles do matter in terms of both publication and “sellability”. It all comes down to being able to substantially attract a potential reader’s attention; it has to jump out and give the reader room for pause. If it doesn’t, the book will simply be passed over for something else.
Before getting started, it’s important to note two important things: first, that these tips are aimed more towards writers starting out on a novella or full length novel and second, that this isn’t an exhaustive list. Think of it more as something to get you started.
On October 4, 2010 Barnes & Noble announced that