Link Feast For Writers, vol. 41

Writing blogs are a great way to learn about the craft and marketing our work. Enjoy the posts I’ve hoarded, some older, some recent.

 

If You Have Time For Only One Thing

Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing: Enjoy the Best of Both Worlds – Interview with C.J. Lyons by Jane Friedman

 

On Writing

Feeling Overwhelmed? Eat That Frog by Kristen Lamb

Organizing: Eat Dessert First! | Dialogue is War | Make Readers Click On Buy by Randy Ingermansson (eZine PDF)

Why You Get Nothing Done When You Have a Lot On Your Plate by Shanna Mann

5 Quick Tips to Write More by Kathy Steffen

Writing Goals Sheet by Gabriela Pereira at DIY MFA

Enemies of the Art, Part 7 – Failure to Focus by Kristen Lamb

8 Tips For Finding Motivation to Write by Karen Woodward

Closing the Gap: Moving from Notebook to Story by Susan Jackson Rodgers

Dwight V. Swain on How to Write a Novel by Karen Woodward

“In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you” – Mortimer J. Adler

How to Write a Character From Start to Finish by Jeff Gerke

Tags, Traits and Tells by Karen Woodward

The Table Theory of Characterization by Ryan Howse (uses Firefly as an example <3)

The Elementary Life of a Sidekick by Alex Bledshoe

How to Build a Story World Based on a Character by Jeno Marz

Roleplaying Games, Writing and Creation of Magic Systems by Karen Woodward

The Inciting Incident/Call to Action (Key Story Elements) by Alexandra Sokoloff

How to Add Jeopardy to Your Story Before the Main Conflict Starts? by Roz Morris

37 Ways to Keep Readers’ Pulses Racing—and Keep Them Reading by Jordan McCollum

Theme Me Up: How to Develop Your Theme by Janice Hardy

Alternative Ways to Describe Character Reactions by Janice Hardy

Good Writing: Using the Senses by Karen Woodward

A Short Course in Line Editing by Michelle Seaton

Analyzing Story Structure by Karen Woodward

Top Ten Romantic Movies by Alexandra Sokoloff

5 Techniques to Spice Up Your Writing by Jon Morrow

The Terrible Addiction by Annie Laurie Cechini

 

Book Marketing

“Marketing is just telling the right story to the right people.” – C.J. Lyons

Learn Your Craft, Dummy – No, I’m Not Talking About Writing by Edward Robertson

Why Even a Novelist Should Know How to Write Strong Copy by Dana Sitar

The 5 Phases of Microbusiness Brand Development by Abby Kerr

Your Secret Sauce: 9 Steps to Creating an Addicting Brand by Tea Silvestre

The Marketing Rule of 7 by Tea Silvestre

The Author With the Biggest Mailing List Wins by David Gaughran

3 Steps to Building Your Street Team by C.J. Lyons

5 Ways to Market Your Romance Novel by Tim Grahl

4 Great Examples of Author Websites by Caitlin Muir (AuthorMedia)

Are You Making This HUGE Book Marketing Mistake? by Shannon at DuoLit

How to Sell eBooks by J.A. Konrath

Your Amazon Author Central Page by Bufo Calvin

 

(Self-)Publishing

SWOT Your Way to a Sustainable Writing Business by Vickie Taylor

Why Writing Is a Business and How to Win At It by Nick Thacker

Recipe For a Successful Synopsis by Jami Gold

Checklist: The 6 Essentials For Submitting Your Novel to Agents by Brian A. Klems

5 Things I’ve Learned From Self-Publishing by James Calbraith

THING 2. Sucessful Seduction and the Naked Truth: Rethink Cover Design for a Small, Small World by Elle Lothlorien

Why and How to Use Multimedia to Enchance Your eBooks by Harry Guinness

What I’d Like to See from eBooksellers in 2013: A Holiday Wishlist by Edward Robertson (Great analysis of strenghts and weaknesses of Amazon, Nook etc.)

What About the Needs of the Reader? by Elizabeth S. Craig

Why Children Hold The Key To Your Future As An Author by Jonathan Gunson

 

Blogging

How Not To Show Up Like an A-List Blogger by Charlie Gilkey

Quirky Much? How Your Oddities, Flaws and Peculiar Habits Help You Build a Stronger Brand by Tea Silvestre

How to Create an Agile Content Marketing Strategy (and Stay Sane Doing It) by Pamela Wilson

Your Signature Dish: How to Create a Program That Sizzles by Tea Silvestre

5 Silly Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Blog without Even Realizing It by Tommy Walker

Experiences That Make Readers Excited to Spread Your Message by Danny Iny

Why Guru Strategies for Blog Growth DON’T WORK… and What Does! by Danny Iny

Wordalicious – How to Choose the Tastiest Words For Your Message by Tea Silvestre

5 Elevator Pitch Tips For Your Blog by Amy Lynn Andrews

What Happens If You Stop Blogging? by Annabel Candy

 

Social Media

Digital Sheep Get Slaughtered – Being Safe On Social Media by Kristen Lamb

Feeling Overwhelmed With Social Media? Social Media Can Make Us Crazy–Part 2 by Kristen Lamb

Promoting Your Book on Facebook and Twitter Is a Total Waste of Time by Mary W. Walters (the antithesis)

How to Use Twitter to Develop and Promote Your Zone of Genius by Justine Musk

7 Splendid Articles on Using Goodreads As an Author by Iain Broome

 

Collected Wisdom

Writing Resources by Gene Lempp

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig

 

Deep Stuff

Show Up In a Different Way by Charlie Gilkey

The One Thing You Must Do To Achieve Break-Through Results by Michael Hyatt

Restock Your Happiness Well by Ginger Calem

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” – Dalai Lama

Do We Have the Right to Judge Other People? by Marcy Kennedy

The Truth About Constipation and Life by Shannon Lell

Note to Self: Don’t Get Organized by Gretchen Rubin

Library Love: The Sexy Librarian And Our Collective Imagination by Stephanie Bonjack

Defeating the Great Depression by Sarah Hoyt

23 Science Books That Are So Exciting They Read Like Genre Fiction by Annalee Newitz (great material for all writers with a dystopian bend)

 

Fun Stuff

What Kind of a Book Reader Are You? A Diagnostics Guide by Jen Doll (Thanks for the link, Jenny Hansen!)

Incredibly Weird Photos of People With Their Pets (Mommy Has a Potty Mouth)

Movie Spoilers: Who exactly is Peter Dinklage playing in X-Men: Days of Future Past? (and other cool tidbits) by Alasdair Wilkins

The 12 Most Horrifically Bad Dates in All of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Meredith Woerner

The 7 Greatest Bromances in Space by Rob Bricken (fear not, no slash here)

Trailer Frenzy: A Creepy Near Future Book About Government Experiments on Teenagers by Annalee Newitz

Link Feast For Writers, vol. 14

Writing blogs are a great way to learn about the craft and marketing our work. Enjoy the posts I’ve hoarded, some older, some recent.

 

Note: I am taking a short break from Link Feast. The series returns as a once a month feature on the last week of each month. Next Wednesday I will blog about Holly Lisle’s Sweet Spot Mind Maps and how to use them to inspire your writing.

 

If You Have Time For Only One Thing:

Holly Lisle has published the first 5 lessons of her How To Think Sideways writer’s career course as eBooks.

• How To Break Through The 4 Thinking Barriers To Your Writing Success
• How To Discover Your Writing “Sweet Spot” (a brilliant, brilliant technique for idea mining)
• How To Generate Ideas On A Deadline
• How To Recognize And Build On Good Ideas
• How To Define Your Writing Project’s Needs

These are real bang for your bucks. Grab your copies (contains Amazon & B&N links)

 

On Writing

Writing Fiction With The 1-3-1 Method by Teresa Frohock

7 Simple Ways To Make A Good Story Great by Elizabeth Sims

Add Depth To Your Story With Motifs by Julie Eshbaugh

Writing As MMORPG: Building Your Writing Addiction by Daniel Swensen

Making Heroes Heroic: Why Flaws Are Important by Kristen Lamb

What Would Main Character Do: Creating Depth & Motivation In Your Characters by Amie Kaufman

Revealing Character Through Details by Julie Eshbaugh

Fresh, Fresh, Fresh Character Descriptions by Margie Lawson

Ordinary People Are Boring by C.S. Lakin

Strong Heroines by Vahini Naidoo

Character & Theme Study: You Should See Prometheus Just For Michael Fassbender’s Android David by Natalie Zutter

Special Needs In Strange World by Theresa Frohock

Tips For Writing Heavy Emotional Scenes by Jami Gold

Time Transitions by Ilona Andrews

Ramp Up The Fight To Amp Up The Tension by Jenny Hansen

Worldbuilding: The Hooks of Magic In Your Book by Martina Boone

25 Things You Should Know About Fantasy by Chuck Wendig

Genre Mashing by Jodi Meadows

Titles Matter by Deborah Cannon

5 Stages of Editing Grief by Lynda R. Young

Free Program Spots Cliches & Overused Words by Jason Boog (for PC with Windows)

Inspiration On Demand: Create a Swipe File by Marelisa Fabrega

Urgency To Write: How To Keep The Fire Burning by August McLaughlin

If You Can’t Read More, Read Better by Christopher Jackson

Writing A Great Short Story by Lee Masterson

The Not So Secret Backdoor To Publishing by Mandy Hubbard

How One Editor Edits by S. Jae-Jones

Bringing Your Baby To Editorial Board by S. Jae-Jones

Do you CRAVE Success by C.S. Lakin

Would You Take Bullet For Your Art by Jenny Hansen

 

Your Author Platform

A Post In Which You Tell Me About Self Promotion by David. B. Coe

(read the comments, they have great insights on what kind of marketing works for these authors & super readers

Why Publishing Your First Novel Is Like Running For Student Body President by Michelle Haimoff

Free Sites To Promote Your eBook by Jason Boog

“No Rules” Marketing For Introverts by Marcia Yudkin

8 Great Examples Of Personal Domain Names In Action (ThinkTraffic)

10 Step Guide To Fixing Your Writer Website That Cost You Clients by Carol Tice

Stop Trying To Go Viral And Start Being Symbiotic by Christopher Penn

Do You Know Why People Buy Your Book? by Brian Feinblum

Self Promotion: An Author’s Perspective and Guide by Susan Dennard

Start Your Grass Root Campaign With 10 People by Brian Feinblum

Does Swag Sell Books by Roni Loren

How To Resolve Your Brand Identity Crisis by Abby Kerr (her site looks awesome, btw)

Amazon’s Ever Changing Algorithms by Edward Robertson

Will You Vouch For Me by Tamela Hancock Murray

Taken Cover Reveal & Interview With The Designer by Erin Bowman

Covers & Cover Designers – Part 3 by Ruth Harris (how much a pro book cover costs?)

 

Blogging

How To Balance Your Blogging Tasks Without Going Crazy (Pushing Social)

6 Sinister Blog Time Wasters (Pushing Social)

21 Quick Actions For Massive Blog Success (ThinkTraffic)

5 Habits That Make Me A More Creative Blogger & Writer by Judy Dunn

Harry Potter Headlines: 10 Ways To Conjure Up a Viral Blog Post Title by Judy Dunn

Search Engine Optimize Your Blog by Annabel Candy

How To Land A Guest Post Every Time by Mary Jaksch

3 Metrics Every Blogger Should Be Tracking by Michael Hyatt

 

Social Media

The Great Twitter Experiment: What Does More Tweets Really Get You by Janice Hardy

Coming Clean About My Twitter Success by Claude Bouchard

A Twitter Love Story by Tiffany Reisz

Why You’re Better Off Following The Little Guy by Steven Rossi

Why 150 Twitter Followers Is All You Really Need by Srinivas Rao

#followfriday Revolution by Maija Haavisto

8 Tips About Twitter Lists by Jade Craven

Why Twitter Lists Are Less Effective by Ari Herzog

How To Increase Engagement On Your Facebook Posts [Infograph] (Social Mouths)

Can Google+ Pull More Readers To Your Blog by Judy Dunn

 

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (June 23)

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (June 24)

Writing on the Ether: Clear Surface by Porter Anderson (June 21)

Fill Me In Friday by Roni Loren (June 22)

Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas (June 22)

This Week In Favs by Melinda S. Collins (June 21)

 

Deep Stuff

If You’re Consuming Too Much, You’re Creating Too Little by Cynthia Morris

The Truth About Yourself by LaRae Quy

Boy Books, Girl Books by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

 

Fun Stuff

The Men Of True Blood Video by Roni Loren (Yum!)

True Blood Fan Confession: I’m So Over Sookie Stackhouse by Shoshana Kessock

Watch The Avengers Get A Firefly Intro (0:54min video)

Designing From Bones: Cannibalizing Fiction by Gene Lempp

Game Of Thrones: Valar Morgulis by Leigh Alexander

June Releases in Urban Fantasy by Suzanne Johnson

An Introduction To Bordertown (tor.com) [Bordertown is one of the first Urban Fantasy works]

Shannon’s Law: A Short Story by Cory Doctorow in the Bordertown setting (what happens when you mix internet and another realm?)

Explore The Summer Reading Flowchart

The Origins of Zorro by Mary Miley

What Your Books Do When No One Is Watching (1:51min video)

7 Most Insane Things Ever Done To Get Out Of Something (cracked.com)

6 Greatest Things Accomplished by Dead Bodies (cracked.com)