Link Feast For Writers, vol. 15

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: Last week I said that Link Feast would become a monthly feature. But in two weeks I gathered already so many links that I will likely post these every other week.)

 

If You Have Time For Only One Post:

Perfection by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

On Writing

The Ending Debate: Make Mine Realistic by Lisa Hall-Wilson

The Ending Debate: Make Mine Happy by Melinda Van Lone

The Ending Debate: Make Mine Hopeful by Marcy Kennedy

The Ending Debate: Make Mine Open by Diane Capri

The Hard Work Of Writing: Do You Embrace It by Jami Gold

How To Put Your Story Together In One Neat Tweet by Theresa at Edittorrent

It’s All Fun And Games Until Somebody Writes A Story About It by Kristin Nador

Worse Than A Cliché by Tiffany Lawson Ingman

My Character Is Like… Fill In The Blank by Darcy Pattison

Character Arcs Made Easy by Fae Rowen

Voice Experiments by Darcy Patterson

Finding Your Voice Workshop by Jennifer Stevenson

When Something Is Not Quite Right With A Scene by Elizabeth S. Craig

Politically Correct Overkill by S.B. Stewart-Laing

His Or Her Story? Using Multiple Main Characters and Story Lines by Michelle Davidson

Point of View: Common Types & 5 Tips To Strenghten Yours by Lori Devoti

5 Advantages To Using Omniscient Point Of View by Linda Adams

Marks of the Amateur – Starting a List by Alicia at Edittorrent

Freelance Editor Talks About Authors’ Habits & Predictable Writing by Elyse Dinh-McCrillis

How To Write Massive Quantities On Demand by James Chartrand

10 Things To Do With Your Write Hand by Suzannah Windsor

8 Tips To Waking Up Early & Conquering The Alarm Clock by Loren Pilinis

The Business of (Successful) Writing by Greg Carrico

 

Your Author Platform

What Makes You Special by Mark McGuinness

10 Word Branding Challenge & 7 Free Sites To Promote Your Book by Marcia Richards

Publishing Isn’t A Meritocracy, It’s A Casino by Kameron Hurley (how her book became an Award nominated success)

Promote Your Book on a Budget: 20 Thrifty Ways to Get Your Writing Out There by Chris Robley

What To Avoid When Writing Back Cover Copy by Allie B. Books

Debra Eve’s Successful Blog Re-Launch & Self-Publishing Launch (Amazon #1 Bestseller) (PDF)

How To Engage Your Crazy-Dedicated Fan Base by Shannon at Duolit

3 Steps to Pinpoint Your Crazy-Dedicated Readers’ Favorite Hangouts by Toni at Duolit

How To Keep In Touch With Fans by Lindsay Buroker

Newsletters 101: Email Marketing for Authors by Lindsay Buroker

How I Increased My Email Subscribers By 500% In One Week (SocialMouths)

4 Ways To Improve Your Amazon Ranking (And Sell More Books) by Laura Pepper Wu

Undead Advertising by Ellie Ann Soderstrom (can you make your plugs this funny?)

20 Easy Ways Readers Can Help Promote Your Book by Jody Hedlund

How To Query Amazon: The Little Goat That Could by David Gaughran

Gathered Query Post Links by Elana Johnson

Great Example Of An Unsolicited Query Letter That Sold by Jenny Bent

 

Blogging

Why I Think Some Authors Go Hermit by Michelle Davidson

Author Blogging 101: 8 Blogging Styles by Joel Friedlander

Types Of Blogs: Which One Is The Right For You? by Sommer Leigh

College of Blogging: Nine People’s Favourite Thing by Sommer Leigh

Blog Follower Explosion by Elana Johnson

College of Blogging: Feedly – The Magic Button To Make Your Blog Reading Easy by Sommer Leigh

College of Blogging: Tools & Tips For Managing Your Blogging Time by Sommer Leigh

Content Marketing Zen: The 5-Step Process to Creating Remarkable Content by Gregory Ciotti

Do You Have An Idea Garden? by Charlie Gilkey

12 Must-Do Tasks For The New WordPress Site Owner by Pamela Wilson

10 Steps To Finding Your Blog’s Writing Voice by Jeff Goins

5 Signs You’re Having A Blog Identity Crisis & 8 Ways To Fix It by Roni Loren

A Look At The Blogger / Publisher Relationship (Staffer’s Book Reviews)

 

Social Media

‘Social’: Over The Top by Porter Anderson

The 6 Types Of Social Media Users (Social Media Today)

Twitter – A Matter Of Personal Taste Or A Set Of Rules? by Rachel Abbott

Revamp Your Twitter Page In 7 Days  (Wise Ink)

5 New Twitter Marketing Tools by Social Media Examiner

How Should Authors Handle Facebook by Jody Hedlund

8 Fast And Furious Ways To Maneuver Facebook Changes Without Crashing And Burning by Kristin Nador

 

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig

Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas

Writing on the Ether: Independence by Porter Anderson

Extra Ether: eBooks Gone In 5 Years? by Porter Anderson

 

Deep Stuff

Simple Steps to Better Health, Organization and Progress Toward Your Goals by Lynn Johnston

The Many Reasons We Rely On Our Clutter by Leo Baubata

10 Myths About Introverts by Anna Wojnarowska

The Importance of Ripples by Tracy Hurley

“You’re Not Special”, He Says At High School Graduation Commencement by Shannon Lell

 

Fun Stuff

Ellen De Generes Reads E.L. James’ Fifty Shades Of Gray by Emma Meade (Hilarious video!)

Your Punctuation Personality Type by Leah Petersen

Rejection Letters: The Publishers Who Got It Embarrassingly Wrong (Huffington Post)

Stupid Deaths by S.B. Stewart-Laing

Link Feast Vol. 4

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.

On Writing

Stress Less, Write More by Kristen Lamb

Could a ritual jumpstart your writing? by C.J. Lyons

How to properly harvest your ideas by Ollin Morales

Do your stories match your voice? by Jami Gold

Do stories need a theme? by Jami Gold

Outlining without outlining by Janice Hardy

Organizing a novel when you’re right-brained by Linda Adams

Characterization 101 by Joe Bunting at The Write Practice

Jack Kerouac’s 31 Beliefs about writing by Joe Bunting. This reminds me why reading poetry is good for writers.

Describing characters of color by N.K. Jemisin

Man Up: Writing Male Point of View by Roni Loren

Like Me: How to create sympathetic characters by Roni Loren

Why not go bigger? asks Donald Maass

Tips on writing the first chapter by Laura Pauling (The beginning used as an example is from YA novel Nightshade by Andrea Cremer)

Love Story Elements by Alexandra Sokoloff

Creating Suspense by Alexandra Sokoloff

Lydia Sharp on short stories

On the prevalence of US tropes in storytelling by Aliette de Bodard

Do the pros measure up to the Lucky 7 Meme? by Lynette Burrows

How to write the Great American Novel (if you love Chuck Wendig’s voice, this post is for you)

 

Your Author Platform

Does your author bio tell a story? by James Scott Bell at The Kill Zone

8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers by Annabel Candy at Copyblogger

Find your blogging voice by Succesful Blogging

Looking for inspiration on what to blog about?

Stop Writing Boring Blog Posts at Men With Pens

How To Cast A Spell On Your Next Blog Post? at Men With Pens

Why You Should Ditch Your Blogging Schedule at Men With Pens

April Platform Challenge: Day 10 by Robert Lee Brewer (do a search on your name)

http://lateralaction.com/make-yourself-indispensable/

A Squidoo Lense (article) showcasing different types of writer websites

I have to add to the writer website types a Tumblr blog. Bestselling YA writer Cassandra Clare uses hers really well.

Active marketing & passive marketing (aka long-term investments on your platform) by Randy Ingermansson

The Excitement of What’s Coming Around The Bend of Publishing by Elizabeth S. Craig

 

Social Media

Staying safe in the digital world by Kristen Lamb (a must read post for everyone to avoid getting your social media accounts hacked)

Social media sharing buttons and why we need them by Jen Talty

How to get more pins and repins on Pinterest by Dan Zarrella (infographs)

An innovative Facebook marketing campaign by a writer: A virtual Titanic cruise by Janice Thompson

 

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (April 14)

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (April 15)

Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (April 12)

Links by Linda Adams about competent female characters

Advice for writers by Robert Lee Brewer

 

Deep Stuff

Cinderella Strong by August McLaughlin

What Groundhog Day (the movie) can teach us about contentment by Marcy Kennedy

Carpe Diem by Trish Loye Elliott. Watch the second inspirational video. Seriously. It made me to cry even though I had seen it before.

Left Brain vs Right Brain by Jayrod Garrett

The Earth Mother stereotype by fantasy writer N.K. Jemisin (contains spoilers about her book The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)

 

Fun Stuff

13 Links for Friday the 13th by Lynette M. Burrows

Women fighters in reasonable armor (kick ass pictures)

Designing From Bones: Isles of Dystopia by Gene Lempp

I loved Nickoleoden’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series and now the sequel series, Legend of Korra, premieres

N Is For No Porn On The Job (Pretty Please) by Jenny Hansen

Amber West shares hilarious images

Boyfriend of the week: Orlando Bloom by Roni Loren

 

To be able to gather even better links for you, I’d love to hear what kind of blog posts and sites you find useful (or not useful). Which links did you click from this post? Thank you for reading? 🙂