10 Ways to show your favorite authors just how much you love them

November 13, 2012beccakinla advice, authors, blogging, blogs, book, books, reading, recommended reading, success, writer, writing Tags: admire, amazon, author, barnes & noble, best, blog, books, facebook, fan, favorite, favorite magazine, favorite writer, fledgling writer, goodreads, help, literature, love, market visibility, marketing, platform, post, readers, search engine optimization, SEO, show, support, writer Leave a comment

Pretend you’ve just opened up your favorite magazine. You see a name–the name of your favorite writer, whose articles you always like. You flip right to the page with their latest story and start to read.

Or maybe there’s an author you like so much that you head for the book shop as soon as their newest title comes out. Or perhaps your librarian knows they are your favorite writer and steers you to all their books.

Or maybe there’s a book you always recommend to friends, but no one’s ever heard of that author or that book before.

How do you love me (and my blog), let me count the ways…

I’ve been doing research about marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) in the last few weeks, and what’s interesting is that for writers, many of the best ways to promote our work are free—but depend on the participation of our fans to succeed.

How can you help writers like the ones I described above improve their sales and market visibility?

Here are a few steps. Continue reading →

Finding Inspirational Words from Sarah Shapiro–Defining Jewish Writing, Part 2

November 11, 2012January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, comments, fiction, how to write, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, Orthodox, publishing, writer, writing, writing process Tags: all of our lives, anthology, author, defining, definition, editor, essays, feldheim, inspiration, inspirational, jewish, jewish writing, judaism, orthodox, sarah shapiro, targum, workshop, writer, writing 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, some of the comments on a post I wrote about defining Jewish writing revolved around the introduction to Sarah Shapiro’s All of Our Lives. I took a workshop with Sarah–who writes, edits, and teaches amazing writing workshops that have inspired many fledgling Jewish writers–and have a lot of respect for her opinions, so I borrowed the book from a friend (thanks Miriam!) in order to more accurately represent Sarah’s opinions here.

Sarah’s essay “The Writer’s I” reflects several of the issues I discussed in my original post. Jewish Writing can be defined by the author’s identity, by its subject matter, or can be considered a completely arbitrary label. She personally feels that “all three are right,” but admits the difficulty in establishing a single definition.

Sarah goes on to say that attempts to identify or define specifically Orthodox Jewish writing are even more complicated. Continue reading →

Am I brilliant or not so much? A writer’s self-confidence bounces on a po-go stick.

November 7, 2012November 12, 2012beccakinla advice, book, submissions, submit, writer, writing, writing groups, writing process Tags: boing, bounce, brilliant, dumb, po-go stick, self-confidence, self-esteem, submission, submit, writer, writing, writing process Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was reading the daily post of a great blogger, Bottleworder. His topic? The benefits of being dumb. It’s worth reading.

Today, I’m not going to write about the benefits of being dumb, but something that afflicts many writers: feeling dumb.

“Have you read this yet, Eugenia? It’s brilliant, I tell you! That Rebecca Klempner’s going to win a prize one of these days!”

When I read something I’ve written in the past, I usually have one of two reactions:

1) That was brilliant! I wrote THAT? Was I channeling or something? Wow.

2) I can’t believe I wrote that. Why, oh why didn’t I (insert suggested improvement here) before I submitted? It could have been so much better. People are reading this drech? And my name’s attached to it? Can I hide now?

I think that writers like me have the self-confidence of a pogo stick. Up-down-up-down. If this were just a matter of my self-esteem, I’d keep this discussion to myself, but it actually affects my decision-making skills relative to my writing.

When do I submit? Is it good enough? Will it be accepted as it is, or will some editor laugh at my sub and then tell his buddy in the next cubicle about how terrible it was.

Is what I wrote actually funny, or did the members of my writing group (and my darling husband) only laugh because of the intonation of my voice while I was reading? Or because they were feeling punchy after too little sleep?

You catch my drift. Continue reading →

Give yourself credit for the effort, not your success

October 30, 2012November 14, 2012beccakinla advice, failure, revision, secular, submissions, submit, success, writer, writing, writing process Tags: amateur, credit, effort, Esther Simon, G-d, God, hishtadlus, hishtadlut, hobby, jewish, new writers, organizing, priorities, submission, success, time, try, work, writer, writing 1 Comment

Soooo…to make long story short, I did not spend my morning writing or editing today. Nope, no 1000 words for me today. Instead, I attended a workshop by Esther Simon, a well-known professional organizer. It ended up being a little bit of a wake up call. My revelation came in the middle of a discussion about how the way you spend your time should reflect your goals and values.

Am I really doing what I need to do to sell my next book? Continue reading →

Be childlike, not childish–What we can learn about writing from kids

October 19, 2012November 15, 2012beccakinla advice, challenge, children, how to write, writer, writing, writing implements, writing process Tags: books, children, copy, effort, helpful, imitate, kids, LD, learning, learning disabilities, process, special needs, strategy, teaching, tools, try, writer, writing, writing process 4 Comments

We now—joyfully—have 2 1/2 literate kids in our household. (The 1/2 is only 5. Cut her some slack.) One of the interesting things in my life lately has been watching them become writers, as well. I think we adults can learn a thing or two from their learning curve.

1) Kids enjoy writing about what they like. However, one of the things that makes them better writers is writing about things outside their comfort zone. It’s a lot easier to get my 10 year old to write about cars or maps, but his writing skills have been built up greatly by writing all those friendly letters, book reports, essays, and so on that get assigned as homework or classwork. When was the last time you wrote something outside YOUR comfort zone? I know professional writers who only write personal essays, or those who have always exclusively written for kids. Try a little of everything. Mix it up. It’ll surprise you.

Watch out! Your bookworm might just become a writer!

2) Kids try to copy what they like to read. They’ll borrow liberally from Captain Underpants, Tintin, and the like. They recognize excellence and strive to emulate it. Of course, we want writers to develop their own voice (and never, ever plagiarize), but there’s nothing wrong from learning from the greats. So do a little pastiche–you’ll get a childlike pleasure from it, and brush up your skills, too.

3) There might be obstacles in the way. The right tools can help. One of my kids has a graphomotor problem. Upon advice, we bought him pencils with fatter leads. What a difference. And now he usually types writing assignments. So much easier for him. Another of my kids is so young, she hasn’t learned to spell yet. Relying on invented spelling allows her to communicate on paper, and she’s so pleased with the result she does a little dance (really, she does). If your inner kid has problems with writing, break it down and see if there’s a solution. Don’t just give up. Continue reading →

The 2 easiest ways to write books yet

January 16, 2012January 21, 2013beccakinla how to write, ingermanson, pressbooks, snowflake method, tools, wordpress, writing process Tags: author, blog, blogging, book, collaborate, collaborative, easy, new, novel, pressbooks, process, Randy Ingermanson, snowflake method, wordpress, write, writer, writing 1 Comment

Picture credit:
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/24300/24305/snowflakes_24305.htm

For a while now, I’ve been a believer in the Snowflake Method. It was invented by Randy Ingermanson as a way to build your novel in a structured, yet streamlined way, and it does just that. I came late to it, as my novel had started off as a short story, then had expanded to much more than that. I wish I’d got to the Snowflake Method sooner–it would have prevented me from floundering about quite as much. There are other ways to create a novel with discipline and skill–but this has always seemed to me just about the easiest. There’s even a computer program that can help you with the method.

However, there’s new tool that makes creating a book possibly even easier. Building on a successful blogging format, the folks at PressBooks have designed a online tool that adapts the WordPress platform for the purpose of making a book. The writing process becomes as easy as managing a blog, using the same familiar, simple tools.

The webware is free, and can be used collaboratively (multiple authors can have access to your book-in-progress at once, just as with a blog). Each post is roughly one chapter. You can take your document and covert it to a PDF, epub, etc. It can also be used for a POD (Print On Demand) service, if that’s what you want to do. The design of the book is reportedly much more refined than in most do-it-yourself POD products.

I’m skeptical about its utility for novel-writing (although if you want your final product to seem like a fly-by-the seat-of-your-pant serial, where what happens next might surprise the author as much as the reader, it might be okay). It’s too linear, where a good novel is usually built in layers. However, if you are working on a non-fiction book project with colleagues, I imagine it would be outstanding. Check more about it out at: http://pressbooks.com/about

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