Budgeting—not a task that many like. And I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve always struggled to make a budget work. The most important part of budgeting is establishing what things cost. We do it in our personal lives by knowing how much the rent, the utilities, groceries, car payment, etc. is each month. Those…
Most writers are thrilled to see their books earn big sales on Amazon. But I can count on one hand the number of writers who’ve said to me, “I enjoy marketing.” For many writers, marketing, aka asking people to buy your book, makes them cringe. Why? This is a question on which you want to…
Amazon ads is one of many ways we can get our books in front of readers. I’ve talked about Publisher Rocket before and how it helps me find the right keywords for listing on KDP and in Amazon ads. Well, Dave Chesson, the creator Kindlepreneur and Publisher Rocket, has made some amazing changes to this…
What are anachronisms? Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary defines anachronism as: “a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.” Anachronisms tend to occur primarily in historical fiction. It happens for various reasons, one of which is the writer failed to…
In writing book 3 of my Her Inheritance trilogy, I learned how NOT to write a book…at least for me. Hat’s off to pantsers because I think my recent experience comes pretty close to writing by the seat of my pants. How NOT to Write a Book
Procrastination. We all do it at some point in our lives for one reason or another. For me, it’s usually because I’m faced with doing something I don’t like. I think that’s the reason for many people. When I stop to think about why I don’t like doing something, there’s often an underlying fear of…
Originally published Aug. 11, 2015 as “Can you recognize your character’s voice?” UPDATED June 3, 2024. My last blog talked about point of view (POV), so it seems appropriate today to discuss creating a unique character voice for each of your book’s main characters. Our voice is as much a part of who we are…
Omniscient point of view, the god-like view where the narrator knows all/sees all, has plagued me for a long time. I just couldn’t quite grasp how to write it. Omniscient was the POV of nineteenth-century books. Later, as third-person limited came on the scene, omni-POV fell out of favor with publishers. I hear that it…