Your fingers hurt. Your eyes burn. You haven’t had anything to drink except coffee for the past few days, weeks, year. You are pretty sure you haven’t slept a full night without dreaming about characters and plot lines. You are certain you will never type again.
Why? Because you finally finished writing the first draft of your novel. Phew!
No matter how many times an author finishes the first draft of a novel, they know this is only the beginning of the writing process.
So what do you even do after you write that first draft? What comes next?
If you're on Twitter, one of the easiest, but most commonly ignored things a user can do is fill out their Twitter profile.
1. Upload a professional picture. Do NOT stick with the automatic egg. And no, not that grainy picture of you at a bar with your arm around a friend's shoulder, but that friend is cut out. If you don't want to put up a photo of yourself, upload your book cover, or a logo or image that tells a person what you are about.
2. Brand yourself.Use your name and background photo to show who you are and what you represent.
3. Fill out the "about me" section.Be funny, be cute, be concise; it doesn't matter as long as someone can immediately tell who you are. If you're a writer or author, let the Twitter-verse know.
"Most people spend their whole life thinking, "what should I write about," and not nearly enough time actually writing...or listening to what is inside them screaming to get out."
—Anonymous
"Be open to inspiration." —Anonymous
"Somewhere, deep down (possibly without thinking it consciously), I believe I assumed the people who knew me and presumably thought well of me...would actually be interested in reading my published works. Especially since most can be obtained for $2.99 in digital forms (less than they'd spend on a fancy cup of coffee).
So, I guess the thing I wish I had realized before 9 of my titles were published...is that relatively few of the people who are my friends and relatives would make the effort and $3 investment to support my work by purchasing a copy and reading it. That has been a big disappointment. —Author J.L. Salter
When: Every Tuesday at 9PM EST Who: Hosted by BiblioCrunch What: Industry experts and authors come together to discuss and share tips on the indie and publishing landscape.