• Planning an event for your book? Here's our best tips on how you can bring your book event into the 21st century!

    Bringing Book Events into the 21st Century

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    Are you ramping up for your summer book launch? Or maybe you’re getting ready for a reading at your local bookstore? Authors have been walking the same line when it comes to these sorts of events since well… basically forever. I’m here to say, that just as the book industry is changing, these events should be too. Let’s bid farewell to the cheesy pens and bookmark giveaways and welcome ourselves, and our marketing material, to the 21st century. Make yourself memorable and you’ll make your book more memorable too. Here are 5 tips to get you started! 1. Branding, Branding,…

  • Finding the balance between your work life and your writing can be tricky. We dive into some of our best tips in this blog post!

    Finding the Balance Between Working and Writing

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    Take a moment and think of your favorite author. Without even knowing who you selected, I can say with 95% confidence that they had to work a full-time job while writing his or her first or first few books. Writing begins as a passion project for almost all of us and learning how to balance it with all of our other responsibilities is one of the most challenging aspects of writing. Think about it. If we had all day to sit around and write—no work or family responsibilities—we’d be able to crank out at least two books a year. In…

  • Working on your manuscript? Here is a post discussing The Art of Fast-Drafting Your Novel.

    The Art of Fast-Drafting Your Novel

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    Writers tend to fall into two camps regarding how much time it takes to finish drafting a book. There are those who can take upwards of 10 years to write their manuscripts. Then, there are those who fast-draft their manuscripts in as little as 14 days. While no clear-cut rules exist for fast-drafting a manuscript, writers who use the technique know what it takes to get as many words on paper in as little time as possible. What is the secret sauce to churning out a fast-drafted manuscript in less than one month? Aside from proactive preparation and a well-planned…

  • The do's and don'ts of writing character dialogue.

    The Do’s and Don’ts of Dialogue

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    From an early age, we’re taught that good description is the key to excellent writing. I’d argue that well-written dialogue is the true key to writing. A description will never move your story forward in the same way dialogue can. It’s not as hard to write dialogue as you might think. Plus, once you’ve mastered it, the rest of your book will fall into place. The pacing will increase and you’ll find yourself clicking away on your keyboard to keep up with your characters’ conversations. The Do’s and Don’ts Do use quotation marks at the beginning and end of a…