Most think of February as the month for romance, proposals, flowers, chocolates, Hallmark Cards, and overworked cupids. For weeks we’re blinded by flashes of red hearts and roses, as lovers get high on the possibility of romance – especially romance readers. But if you think about how well branded Valentine’s Day is, romance writers prepare months in advance just for this annual event, ensuring they fit the brand of V-day. Branding. It’s a thang. And when it’s done well, readers don’t realise they’re following a brand – like 80% of the people on social media do. Do you think romance …
Want to set some author goals for 2023?
It’s that time of the year when authors reflect over the past year and start focusing on their future, making it the best time to start planning your author goals. WHAT ARE AUTHOR GOALS? Author goals list out your desires, helping you to work out the steps you’ll need to take towards achieving them. It’s where you map out a way to turn your dreams into realities. And it’s not that hard. DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF AUTHOR GOALS? According to some goal-setting geniuses, there are three types of goals. For an author we have: To achieve …
Creating A Monthly To-Do List For Romance Writers
Have you ever thought about creating a monthly To-Do list as a romance writer? I asked around and came up with the following 10 quick tips to help you with the month ahead… 1/- Ask yourself, what matters most to you as an author? Take five to ask yourself the above, and then what can you achieve this month? It’s all about knowing your author goals. While you’re thinking of the answers… From the book Your Author Goals >> 2/- Let’s begin with the worst first, by cleaning up your writing space. If you’re anything like me you’ll have paper, notes, …
Aussie Audiobook Production? Easier than you think! By Amy Soakes.
Online publishing has thrown open the door for authors everywhere to launch their work to the world, without the need for a traditional publishing deal. This free-flowing market has nurtured authorship in an unprecedented way, and – importantly for us Aussies – removed the ‘tyranny of distance’, allowing direct access to the major markets of the US and UK. And we’ve taken to it like ducks to water, happily splashing around in the same pool of publishing opportunity as our cross-ocean counterparts. But while Aussie authors have ridden waves of publishing success through text, our uptake of audio has languished. …
How to tap back into your creativity with Sarah Gates
I teach writing workshops in school and libraries. Sometimes it’s the same workshop (with just a few variations) that I’m asked to deliver to 13-year-olds as to adults. I’ve observed that something happens to our creativity when we hit adulthood. Kids and teens will throw out the wildest of ideas. Once you break through the shyness, it’s a free-for-all. When I ask a group of adults in a writing workshop to throw ideas out, a silence falls. The ideas tend to come slowly, in dribs and drabs. They often stay within the box. Adults will say things to me like, …
How to calculate your word count goals for romance writers with Mel A Rowe
In response to the many amazing romance authors who contacted me over the previous post, Why should word counts matter, what follows is how to calculate your own word count goals for romance writers. Why bother with a daily word count? Writing a book is a long process, so cutting it down into bite-sized goals makes this process achievable. Having a daily word count goal can help you create a writing habit. It can also help you beat the overwhelm of having too many words to write, which causes some of us to binge something on Netflix instead of writing. …
Kiss and Tell | Minnie Darke
It’s such a pleasure to sink into a romance novel with lashings of humour, warmth and a heroine that’s not only business-savvy and determined but arty and vulnerable. Minnie Darke’s new novel, With Love from Wish & Co, swiftly transported me to the fictional town of Alexandria Park and I spent a week happily immersed in the lives of professional gift-buyer, Marnie Fairchild and the seemingly perfect Charlesworth family. If you’re after a sweet, clever tale about complex relationships, prickly consciences and following your heart, then wrap your hands around a copy of this novel. And if you’re keen to …
Why Should Word Count Matter with Mel A Rowe
Does word count matter? And what is the average word count for writing books? See if our research results match your book, below… We all know books are made up of words. Word count matters when novels are judged, not just by their covers, but by how they sit on the bookshelf. Bookshops count: Bookshop owners can only allocate so much space for certain genres on their specifically created bookshelves. When a book is too big it looks messy on the shelf. If a book takes up too much spine space, they can’t get as many books to fit within …
FABULOUS FICTION with Stella Quinn & guest Dakota Harrison
Welcome to Fabulous Fiction, which celebrates books so good, you just want to hug them when you’re done reading. It’s August. It’s conference month. And yes… you’re getting this blog a teensy bit later than its scheduled delivery date, so sorry. Can I blame it on jetlag? (It’s a thing, right, even with a two-hour time difference?) But anyhoo, without further ado, let’s get the drums rolling for August author of the month, RWA’s own Dakota Harrison. Laugh. Cry. Love. That’s the head’s up Dakota gives us on her website of what she’s packing into her stories. There’s some interesting …
The Number One Concept to Stop Confusion About Showing
‘Show don’t tell’ is one of the most worrisome writing guidelines ever created, but it’s also essential to modern authors. Finding the right balance of showing and telling in your story is like patting your head and rubbing your belly while balancing on one leg at the top of a pole in a river full of crocodiles. (And I never exaggerate.) Authors get themselves tied up in knots over showing and telling, but the good news is if you take a deep breath, let go of the minutiae that are bogging you down and remember one simple and liberating concept, …