October 17, 2011
It's mid-October and although the holidays of turkey and lights are still weeks away, I am starting to feel the initial tickles of the spirit. But I must not get distracted, I must write, I must NaNoWritMo!
No, I am not swearing at you. November is National Novel Writing Month. So why am I talking of November when it is only mid-October? Well, If you are like me, I need a heads up on any new event coming down the pike.
I am easily distracted and let's face it. Writing can be a chore sometimes. But as a writer it's what we do, and learning how to focus and maintain our course is essential to becoming a successful author.
Over the next several weeks, we'll be covering basic exercises and plans to help keep you on track.
Enjoy!
Suzanne Fyhrie Parrott
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Storyboard: Using Pictures to Write Your Outline
A storyboard is a set of plans for your novel - or in simpler terms: a blueprint. Building your story can be compared to building a house. You have contractors, framers, and painters as well as drawn plans on how you want your hose to look.
When writing a novel you have great content, graphic designers and editors. But if you don't have a storyboard or outline - What Happens? You run into a lot of dead ends. The storyboard outline keeps you focused and on track.
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What's Inside...
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Storyboard: Using Pictures to Write Your Outline
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Author Success Coach: Creating an Author Business Plan
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"The Computer Ate My Manuscript"
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Formatting 101: Preparing your Manuscript for e-Publishing
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Book Cover Design 101: Breaking Down the Elements of Design
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Creating an Author Business Plan
by Deborah Riley-Magnus, Author Success Coach
As a writer, your produce a product. Like any other business you must make a plan for your future success. Yes, you are a business. You are in the business of writing and selling books and you can't have success without knowing where you are going and how you are going to get there. It makes most writers queasy to even imagine selling themselves but think of it as a map getting you from starving writer to successful author.
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Protect your Manuscript from Computer Crashes
"Noooooo!" A blood curdling scream emanates from your lips. You stare at the computer screen in disbelief. In an instant, months of work are gone...erased from existence.
Technology is great but we need to remember: a computer is a machine and machines break. Now it may not go all Terminator on you, but you do have real concerns such as Hackers, viruses and other anomalies that can infiltrate and destroy all your hard work in the blink of an eye. With a few simple precautions, you can be assured your manuscript will be preserved.
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Formatting 101
Preparing the Manuscript for E-Book Publication
One of the hardest habits for an author to break is the overwhelming desire to design while working on their manuscript. Authors want to "see" the final product - the font, exact spacing, all the little features that make their book "pretty." Unfortunately, this 'help' makes converting the file for offset, print-on-demand, or e-book, a lot harder.
Keep it Simple. Authors need to decide what they are preparing their MS for: PDF file, e-book or print. We’ve all become accustomed to “designing” our manuscripts, adjusting the headings, tweaking spacing, using a variety of fonts and colors. And this is fine when you are planning to create a PDF file, but NOT for print or e-book.
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Book Cover Design
Breaking Down the Elements of Book Cover Design
Not only does a good cover design boost credibility, it captures the attention of potential buyers. For the self-publishing author, this may be a frightening realization. Yet the goal of creating an e-book is to encourage buying decisions in your favor, so why wrap your masterpiece in a less-than-worthy design?
J.K. Rowlings’ cover art for the book, the Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone), uses key ingredients to entice, but NOT reveal the story. Breaking down these elements into their basic parts, we can create a list to follow when you are creating your book covers.
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