Seven Ways to
Select a Book Topic That Sells
by: Judy Cullins
Since a book title is the number one "Essential
Hot-Selling Point" for your book, it's a good idea
to choose one that sells well.
- Write what you are passionate about.
- Write down five topics that stir your passion.
- Write a book your audience needs or wants.
- Research your target market.
- Compare your book with other reputable, good sellers
in your field.
- Survey your market.
- Create a winning vision for your book
[ Read Full
Article ]
|
|
|
Writing a Book
Ten Tips to Help You Finish Writing
Your Novel
by: Ann Roscopf Allen
1. Set aside a time to write and keep it sacred.
Make this a time when you know you are at your best and
feel most creative -- Saturday mornings, late at night,
whatever works for you. Make writing a priority and arrange
other parts of your schedule around it.
2. Remove all distractions while you write.
Turn off the television. Don't answer the phone. You may
need to set your writing time at a time when no one else
is around to help you avoid being distracted.
3. Outline your plot.
Know generally where you want your story to go. Sometimes
stories and characters develop in unexpected ways, and
you need to allow for that. But keep your guiding plan
in mind.
4. Avoid the intimidation of a blank computer screen.
Just start writing. Try freewriting about the plot of
the story or a character to get "the flow" started.
Begin a dialogue between two characters and see where
your flow takes you. Sometimes that ends up in an embarrassingly
bad scene, but that bad scene may just have the seeds
of something a lot better in it. Once you've got something
written, you can always improve it, but you have to get
something, anything, written first.
5. Keep a draft mentality.
Nothing you write has to be permanent. Everything can
change. If you get into a good flow and there's a word
that you just can't think of, don't interrupt the flow
by pondering over the word or going to the thesaurus.
Leave a blank space and keep writing. There will always
be time to go back and look up that word. At this stage,
spelling and grammar don't matter; just write and create.
6.
Don't feel compelled to begin at the beginning.
You don't have to write your story in chronological order
during the drafting phase, especially if you know the
main events you want your novel to cover. Work on the
chapter you feel like working on. The first sentence and
the first chapter will probably require the most work,
so don't get frustrated by trying to get them perfect
before you write anything else.
7. Organize your files, especially if you are not going
to write in order.
Create a different file for each chapter you write. That
way you can dip in and fool around with a few words or
draft a scene and then save it, close it up, and move
on to a different section of the story. When you can easily
work on what you want, you are also preventing writer's
block.
8. Revise, revise, revise.
Someone once said, "Writing is revising." Change
and polish and delete and rearrange and change some more
until you like the sound of the words. Often the best
way to revise a sentence is to delete it.
9. Don't be afraid of putting yourself out there.
Make a list of writers who have written mediocre books
(the incentive: "If HE can do it, so can I.")
Be emboldened by writers whose works don't impress you
much. The only thing they have over you is their persistence.
There will always be critics, but you have to separate
the wheat from the chaff: some people's criticism means
something; most people's criticism is just so much noise.
People keep writing novels despite the criticism. You
might as well be one of them.
10. Only you can determine when you are finished.
Show your writing to a trusted friend, preferably one
who knows about writing. Friends are likely to tell you
how wonderful your novel is, as friends will do, and this
of course is not helpful at all. Read between the lines
of their compliments. Ultimately, you have to be the judge
of your own writing.
Make up your mind to finish your novel, and you can do
it. The only thing standing in the way is you.
About The Author
Ann Roscopf Allen is a college writing instructor and
the author of the historical novel A Serpent Cherished,
based on the true story of an 1891 Memphis murder. Visit
her website - http://www.aserpentcherished.com/pages/1/index.htm
info@aserpentcherished.com |
|