Category: writing

7 Books Every Writer Should Read…

Success Strategies

img_0395.jpg

Readers make writers and writers make readers 
~ Carl McKever

Writers write for many different reasons. Never Meaningless, the reasons are specific to each writer. Naturally writing for ordinary work as in preparing policies, reports, or memos differs from the writing writers do, which often is for their own satisfaction. Some writers write poetry. Some write short stories that ignite passion, joy, or pleasure as in fiction writers. Others write non-fiction sharing their own true stories, those of a loved one, or some about topics they care about as in Success. Whatever your reason for writing it makes sense to read a lot in order to write with finesse that satisfies yourself or your audience.

7 Books To Strengthen Writing

Here are 7 books that will help to strengthen your craft:

  1. Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.
  2. Working People Talk About What They do All Day by Studs Terkel

View original post 37 more words

If You Don’t Go After What You Want You’ll Never Have It…

If you don’t step forward, you will always be in the same place. ~Nora Roberts

A sure advice I would give to my teenage self and those who are afraid as they start the new year.

Success Strategies

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you will always be in the same place. ~Nora Roberts

A boost of Motivational Quotes always work for those days when you need a quick pick-me-up. Find yours In Book 101+ Empowering Quotes For New Entrepreneurs.

Cheers!

View original post

The 4 Benefits Of A Holiday Beach Escape As The Cold Descends…

Success Strategies

Ever wondered how even the thought of the beach makes you feel relaxed? I reflect on a holiday when my family and I spent some time in the islands with a getaway at the beach enjoying the beautiful sunrise and sunset while avoiding the thought of the icy snow. It was a relaxing feeling that I wished could be brought to many during the Christmas snowy season.

I pondered more and decided to reflect on the reasons the beach is an answered prayer. Here I share 4 benefits as gleaned from Christina Heiser.

  1. The Blue Color

The color blue is associated with feelings of calm and peace while staring at the ocean puts us into a mild meditative state that enhances creativity. The perfect place for me as I write. The book My Safe Place serves as evidence

2. The Sound’s Ebb and Flow

The quiet sounds that the waves…

View original post 111 more words

Your Words Matter. Online Literary Magazine…

Your Words Matter- Your Words Have Power

Dr. Ralph Hogges

YOUR WORDS MATTER – WORDS HAVE POWER

Words can create the Power of Faith and Hope.

Words can create the Power of Love and Compassion.

Words can create the Power of Unity and Cooperation. 

Words can create the Power of Truth, Honesty and Fairness.

Words can create the Power of Freedom, Justice and Equality.

Embracing our Literary Voices,

The Enduring Power, Creative Joy,

And Beauty of Words,

We Unleash Our Infinite

Power of Imagination and Creativity.

— Ralph Hogges

literary-magazine2Download

Access the work of Literary Artist in the November, 2021 issue here

Sell More Books This Holiday. Here’s How…

Writers write. Readers read. Together they are one.

The holiday season brings many opportunities for authors. Families, co-workers, friends, networkers and even the Grinch shop for the perfect Gifts for book-lovers. From fiction, non fiction, Poetry, Sci-fi and sweet holiday romance for those hallmark enthusiasts who dream not only of movies but to curl up in the warmth of Christmas bliss. Their goal? To get lost in the world of the ideal relationship.

Marketers go crazy to capture the holiday magic for those on the naughty or nice list. So why shouldn’t authors…well author-preneurs participate? It’s become a common trend for non-traditional publishers to want to optimize the sweet fruits of their labor. They want to see their hard work nicely wrapped under the Christmas tree or at minimum, stuffed into Christmas stockings.

So how can authors prepare? I was chatting with a group of self published and traditionally published authors who long to boost their holiday sales. Why have the books gathering dust on Amazon’s platform or even yours? It seems the practice is to write it, publish it, and forget it, with the hopes that writing and publishing the book will attract sales. Not so. It does not work that way. Not for any type of author. The point is, after your book is published… unfortunately that’s when the hard work begins. You have to make the world know that it exists. So here are a few simple tips to help get you started. Don’t be overwhelmed. Choose one, two or a few and prepare for the most wonderful time of the year.

Create That Holiday Plan

  • Create a plan for the holidays. I am a firm believer in the saying if you are not planning you’re just practicing.
  • Evaluate where you are now and where you would like to be at the end of the holiday period. For example, you could include factors like doubling or tripling your year-to-date sales. If you are an experienced author with several books, take a loo at your past holiday sales. Project an increase in sales over past years.
  • Plan to up your Marketing and Promotional strategy. Sometimes just a little effort goes a long way from doing nothing at all.
  • Update your book covers. Make it festive (easier if you’re self-published) but whatever you do, make sure your cover looks professional.

Your Holiday Author Platform

  • Become more visible
  • Get your website holiday ready
  • Update your Amazon Author Central profile
  • Get more amazon reviews
  • Make your book covers more festive
  • Update your book description
  • Update your author bio. It’s a good idea to edit and review often on your amazon page. You would be surprised when you look back you seem to be looking at a stranger who essentially is a person you hardly recognize. Think of this like a resume. Update frequently.
  • Get a professional photo done and spread it across the different media networks

Build That Strategic Audience

  • Set up or expand your mailing list
  • Write blog posts
  • Create a newsletter… if that’s on your agenda
  • Find and connect with your audience. Engage, engage, engage them
  • Offer free holiday shipping

You may also like From Books To Bucks

Get Social

  • Update your Social Media Profile
  • Do a holiday-themed hash tag search
  • Dig a little deep and find out who your followers are
  • Create images of your books in holiday settings on instagram
  • Create your own 12-Days of Christmas

Show. Don’t Tell

  • Increase your book reviews. Aim for 25 which means you have to go after many in order to get this done. You will receive promises but usually only lower percentage will come through
  • Create gift bags and other swags for giveaways
  • Create holiday videos. Already doing that? Do some more
  • Have a series? Make the first book FREE
  • Prep your own 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways

Holiday Party Connect. Collaborate.

  • Collaborate with other authors in Holiday Book Events
  • Participate in Holiday Book Guide
    • Gifts for the Poetry Lover
    • Gifts for the Sci-fi lover
    • Gifts for the child reader enthusiasts
  • Invite your fans to an “ask the author” virtual Holiday party on social media
  • Get involved in local festivities (holiday markets, local fairs etc.)
  • Contact local independent bookstores

Hope these few tips will help get you underway. There are tons more but these few will get you started. Don’t get overwhelmed. Choose one, two or a few and Sell More Books this Holiday!

Cheers!

What Are The Requirements To Be A Writer? 25 Authors Share…

What does it take to be a writer? That was the question asked in a writers’ forum. Some think it’s rather scary to become a writer. They believe they can’t do it. But isn’t that the case with many new feats that we decide to embark on? The unknown is scary. But I always encourage you to step out afraid, scared, trembling… but do it anyway. Here I share basically verbatim responses as Professional Writers dived in assiduously with their opinions.

Characteristics Of Good Writers

  1. Patience and determination
  2. Perseverance, self-awareness, optimism, logic, self analysis, the ability to listen to expert input, communication skills, your own writing voice, attention to detail
  3. A willingness to learn the skills you don’t have and 50 percent sanity and 50 percent raging eccentricity
  4. “What kind of writer? What do you write? But let’s say FICTION. First of all endurance. You’ll write a lot of ‘crap’. I am not sorry to say. It’s just that the first few years of your writing will. General advice aside, you’ll have to work hard by writing, reading, getting the “feel” for a storyline and characters. And get a touch of the flow. You’ll begin to understand what makes a character, drives a character, what characters fear and desire. And most important what they need. You begin to feel the pulse of the story and where it goes on too thin/long and where things could be expanded on. You begin to understand archetypes too. It is a long path. But at some point you “feel” the story is right. My suggestion is to read a lot and watch good movies. Movies with well done stories and characters. Classic movies. I watched Lord of the Rings many times, it heavily uses archetypes and characters with strengths, desires, and flaws. And yes I read the book many times too! You could read Dracula, watch The Godfather and so on. The classics is where many of the deep archetypes lay”.
  5. Imagination
  6. Words. Words written down. Words woven into a great story.
  7. Write. Simply write
  8. First, ‘butt’ in the chair, pen in hand
  9. Desire, persistence, and the willingness to learn the craft – that’s all.
  10. Passion for writing
  11. Read, read and read. Then you write
  12. Commitment, imagination, and a touch of insanity
  13. Tell a complete story. Beginning, middle and end. It’s shocking how many people can’t do this.
  14. A touch of talent and a ton of hard work.
  15. Keep on learning each day and move forward and up.
  16. Thick skin
  17. Lots of practice.
  18. A good writer just needs something important to say
  19. Faith
  20. Learn to Finishing things.
  21. Keep a journal
  22. Time
  23. Just be yourself. Lots of people grow up feeling like the main character of a crazy adventure novel. At least that’s how writing came easy to me. Know that revision and editing is essential. Don’t see it as too daunting and make sure you save your work. Develop that habit.
  24. Mindset and practicing are the most important basic requirements to become a writer. The other crucial steps are the ability to experiment and research. You need to have the ability to think from different POVs and develop a strong ability of imagination by reading a lot. Building up a proper balance between your fingers and mind is important and that may only be achieved by writing on a regular basis.
  25. To be a good writer, you have to have something to say. Writer’s block is a sign you don’t have a message. I keep a diary of daily observations and what they mean to me. Good writers have an uncanny sense of the motivation of others, and they can capture the human condition in words that repeat their/our thoughts. My diary is often the storeroom for those words. I learned long ago that eloquent words come from eloquent thoughts. You have to write them down in the moment or lose them forever. The rest is ‘craft’ (the tools of the trade, so to speak). There are so many writers, so caught up in craft, they struggle with content continually.

So there you have it, authors giving their feedback to newbies and/or those who aspire to start something new. Just do it!

Cheers!

You may also like Write. Just Write

Photo by Djordje Petrovic on Pexels.com

Error In A Published Work? 3 Things To Do…

Finding A Book Error

Your book is published, yea!

It’s an outstanding achievement especially for a first time author. Be proud of yourself. But then patrons buy your book and later a reader finds an error or worse–two. It may be his/her interpretation but an error none-the-less. You feel sad. Down. Disappointed in yourself. How could that happen? But before you throw in the ‘author’ towel, here are 3 simple things to do.

Write Quality Books

Write quality books. I can’t stress that enough. Those of you who have worked with me know that is most important. It makes the difference in the success of your product. Quality means, professionally done book cover, formatting, editing and more

Edit. Edit. Edit Some More

Of prime importance is the editing. Nothing is more distasteful than a product that wherever you read, you find errors. That being said, in professionally published books… be it traditional or self-published, you may find errors. That’s the reason reviewing your work with an editor is so important. These days errors are found even in the media. But the great thing now with the media is that it’s mainly online in many cases. Often in their haste to get the news out, they falter. But with online, errors can easily be edited and republished fast. In a printed book, this can also be done so get in touch with your publisher for immediate correction. If self-published, correct the manuscript and republish.

There Will Always Be Haters

Accept the fact. Know that you will always have haters and especially in Poetry, it’s your interpretation, your craft. If the errors are not spelling, then some will still complain because you write as you ‘see’ things.

So in summary, keep your head up. Do something about the complaint. Validate it and if its a fact, correct it. Then move on to writing and publishing your next book. Remember, life is filled with ups and downs. But it’s what you do about it that counts.

Need to write your book? Let’s connect.

Cheers!

Note this discussion does not go in-depth into writing and correcting errors. It is written as a simple recommendation to uplift and rebuild the new author’s inner drive to continue his/her craft.

Authors Share 13 Ways To Rid Writer’s Block…

Overcoming writer’s block isn’t always easy, but it helps to keep a pen and paper at the ready for when inspiration strikes.

Unknown

Many complain of experiencing writer’s block. It refers that time when writers attempt to write and nothing comes. Some complain that it last days, weeks, months. Others say it may even last years. The question came up in an authors’ forum. Here I share 13 tips recommended.

  1. Take a day off from writing
  2. Work on two different books at the same time. If you have trouble with one, move to the other. It helps with the creative process
  3. If you don’t know what you’re going to write there’s no point in sitting down. What you can do is think during the day what the next few pages are going to be like (when writing fiction). So when you sit you know exactly what’s coming
  4. One writer suggested that you leave the last sentence unfinished so you know what you are going to write when you next start writing.
  5. If you have lost direction, print your book so far and re-read it. By reading the previous chapters (preferably in one sitting) it provides a run-up to the bit you are actually stuck with. Then you are able to put down your reading and start writing with a renewed sense of direction.
  6. Read, watch a movie, play a game. Get your head back.
  7. Give yourself permission to write badly. Tell yourself the story. Take a break and write something completely different. Read a lot.
  8. It’s not a block but an opportunity. Time to edit and then later, see it with fresh eyes
  9. Write, write, write…even if it’s not good or what you want. You can always cut it later or edit it into what you do want.
  10. Disconnect and do something completely different.
  11. Talk about the story’s events.
  12. Take a walk.
  13. Just keep writing. Don’t get discouraged. If one thing doesn’t work, try another.

Any thoughts missing that you would like to add? Do share. We would love to hear! By the way, if you are still dreaming of writing that book and don’t know where to start, let’s connect.

Cheers!

Writing Retreat. Alone Or With A Group?

As a writer you have to have the three D’s: drive, discipline and desire. If you’re missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s going to be really hard to get anything done.

Nora Roberts

An author at a Writers forum asked the question whether to attend a writing retreat alone or with a group. Intrigued I dived in. Here are top responses as authors chimed in with their preferences.

  1. A combination. Alone at first to get some writing done, then others can join after to chill
  2. Always with at least one person, Would never travel anywhere alone
  3. Either. Done it
  4. Alone
  5. I like both. But prefer to have a couple of other writers. That way there is someone to talk over plot points and such with.
  6. Would probably accomplish more alone, but a group is nice too
  7. I have done both. You can also go to the location (Tennessee Williams Writers Festival in New Orleans) with non writer friends who will go off sightseeing and leave you blissfully on your own to attend master classes, panel discussions and book signings. But bring your new writer friends with you to dinner so you have something satisfying and intelligent to talk about.
  8. Both could be fun
  9. Alone but towards the end I want to meet up with a friend for dinner
  10. Writing retreats are so fun with a friend, but the point as in writing is not to have fun, but to be productive. Learn, write, make a few new friends after hours but you are there to write.

I think point 10 sums it all up. Writing is indeed fun but the point of writing is to be productive. Personally, I believe writers write alone but after compile the pieces and celebrate together.

As a writer, what’s your preference? Do share. We would love to hear.

Cheers!

Dear Intern, It’s All Good…

Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new

Albert einstein

Twitter’s Tales Of Mistakes And Blunders

So many inventions have been made from the blunders and mistakes that we make. The post-it notes was a mistake on the part of 3M setting it aside because it didn’t work for their purpose. Then kudos to Fry who thought it a cool tool to mark his page hymns. It’s now a tool that writers, readers, researchers, teachers, corporate and a gazillion more can’t live without. Keep trying people. If you never made a mistake you really haven’t tried anything new.

Here are a few responses to the tweet. Stay encouraged.

Photo by Alex Green on Pexels.com

15 Authors Tell How To Spot A Hater…

A person who has an intense dislike for another person or thing

dictionary.com

A hater is someone who speaks trash…said a 5th grader. This term was not as rampant a decade ago. These days, the media shares stories which spread like wild fire at the click of a button. All you have to do is simply tune into any channel. Suffice it to say, writers on a social media forum was asked to Explain what a hater is or tell their experience. Here are 15 extracted.

  1. Someone who despises anything contrary to what they think is right.
  2. A jealous, envious, bitter person angry at another’s success
  3. A person projecting his/her shortcomings to the other person. Unwilling to accept his/her role in the incident in case it is directed at a person or racist/nationalist when directed towards a skin color or a country
  4. Those who can’t do it, teach or complain
  5. The process by which a miserable and/or failed person attempts to achieve equality with a happy and/or accomplished person not by improving themselves but by ruining whatever achieves beauty or virtue. In short an egalitarian of the latrine
  6. Literary folk who discover you write genre
  7. Those who latch out with with vitriol to mask their fear
  8. One who is experiencing the absence of love – the result of serious disconnection
  9. They are those who are so broken inside that they only find joy in causing pain to others they envy
  10. Someone who repeatedly expresses their dislike of someone or something which dislike is firm and unshakable despite any evidence tending to show its inappropriateness or error
  11. Severe dislike or disgust, abhorrent
  12. Someone whose self-esteem is so low, they can see the good in those who are different from them
  13. A person who due to bitterness, envy or jealousy, looks at others with disdain, being incapable of showing them support, compassion of kindness
  14. A person who is obsessively negative about a particular target
  15. Someone without kindness, tolerance or forgiveness

When Haters Hate Fill Them With Love

It’s crazy that we look at such terms these days. In a recent Instagram post, I shared a quote to which a fellow writer expressed surprise that she shudders to think that there are those who wish to see her stagnate. Sadly, as the above definitions show, there are indeed many who dislike the progress that others make. To them it would be wise to not dwell on it but fill them with love.

Ever had a dissatisfying experience with a so-called hater? How did you handle it? Do share. We would love to hear!

Cheers!

Binge-Watching For Personal Growth. 9 Must-See…

People are hungry for something Different

Miles Millar

Binge Watching is the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.

Dictionary.com

Patty’s text excitedly read “hey, I’m here binge watching your YouTube videos”. Hmmm an untapped medium, I thought about it and decided to share a few of the top videos. Below are 9 listed and shown below for your convenience. Go grab a snack and tune in. Build your personal growth as a writer, leader, new entrepreneur and more.

Happy watching!

  1. A Conversation With Reggae Music Matriarch Pat Chin On Overcoming Barriers As A Woman In Business
  2. 15 Leadership Traits
  3. Get Unstuck. A Literary Conversation with Lawyer Turned Author Meg Nocero
  4. Authors Of Color Books, Literary Hooks And Nooks
  5. LIVE Interview with Journalist Grace. How She took The Step From Career To Entrepreneur
  6. Simply The Best Or Naw: Signs A Business Needs to Change
  7. A Conversation With Entrepreneurial Investor David Mullings On How To Ditch Your Fear
  8. Success Defined by Millennials
  9. Success Defined

Enjoyed watching? Which one was your favorite? Do share. We would love to hear!

Cheers!

Photo by Alexander Suhorucov on Pexels.com

GREENLiGHT

When God Says Go

PhoebeMD: Health + Inspiration

Poetry • Medicine • Life

Bloganuary

The blogging challenge keep you motivated and start the new year on the "write" track!

Amaring random facts and theories

Knowing every thing

Success Strategies

Motivate. Inspire Your Personal Growth & Development

My Sister My Friend

Family. Youth. Parenting

Kamileon Photography

Your Focus. Our Lens.

WordPress.com Courses

Educational Resources for WordPress.com

I Speak. You Read.

Poetry That Inspires

Money Senpai

%d bloggers like this: