Jade Varden Official Blog

Authors who self-publish have to do everything themselves, from plotting to editing to formatting to marketing. It takes up a lot of time to wear all of those hats, and by nature self-publishing is very interactive. You're participating on forums, you're communicating on Twitter. You're practically a one-author show.  And you're not getting any writing done, because all that other mess is too consuming. Figure out how to manage it, and still get to work on your next book, by avoiding email addiction.  Are You an Email Addict? The self-published author's email is their greatest tool. It's here that bloggers respond to review request, here that your Goodreads messages appear, here that Smashwords sends notification that you've got a new buyer or a new review. If someone mentions you on Twitter, your email will tell you all about it -- heck, it'll even show you the message.  It is, in a word, addicting. More than that, it's distracting....

I don't even remember how Angel Dance ended up on my review list; I was reading the previous book for so long that it's rendered my entire list unrecognizable. However it ended up on my Kindle, I'm so happy it did. Angel Dance was a fantastic book, a quick read, and everything I wanted it to be from the very first page.  This novel introduces us to Danny Logan, a likable soldier-turned-private investigator who's heading up his own fledgling firm. His newest job may also be the most important: find an heiress who has gone missing. Gina Fiore's brother Rob is a friend of Danny's, and Danny has a history with the now-missing Gina. The two dated for three glorious weeks...it all ended when Danny went into military service. Mostly, Gina likes to be in control. It's because of this that Danny has trouble picturing her as a victim, and things start to look off-course right away. I was completely caught up in the missing person investigation, which unfol...

October is National Book Month, which makes it my favorite. While most people are planning Halloween parties and going to haunted houses, I'm thinking about books. Of course, it's a little unfair since I'm always thinking about books. But it does make me qualified to recommend the best ways to celebrate a month full of books.  Celebrating Books It's time to start celebrating books, and I can help you do it. Looking for the best ways to spend your October? Bury your nose in a book, and then try some additional Book Month activities.  Review-A-Week . Take the review-a-week challenge, which I'm inventing now, and review four books for National Book Month. I know at least three books you should read to help you get started... Set a reading challenge . Challenge yourself this month. Decide that you're going to read at least 1 book; set a bigger goal if you're feeling bold. Join a book group . You'll never have a better excuse for joining a book ...

Some of my best ideas come to me at the worst possible moments. I'm in the shower, I'm laying in bed, I'm stuck in traffic...and I'm getting great ideas. Entire scenes are unfolding, dialogue is racing through my mind. By the time I get the opportunity to sit down and start typing, I can no longer remember all those great ideas...and I just end up writing something else. Knowing what to do with your ideas may seem like simple, even silly advice, but if you don't find out you could end up cursing yourself later.  Inspiration Knows No Boundaries Creativity is a finicky muse. She appears without warning, and when she does she demands to be heard. You could be engaged in watching a TV show or movie, and suddenly your mind is no longer your own. It's inside your story, working out complex scenarios and imagining characters. You could be doing anything at all when creativity strikes, and that's why you've got to be prepared for it at all times .  ...

Entering contests can be time-consuming, but winning them will give you a great feeling. There are a ton of contests out there for poets, short story writers and self-published authors. If you do manage to win one of them, you can get a lot of marketing mileage out of it. And when you win, you can call yourself an "award-winning author." How fun is that? Indie Book Awards Indie authors can get plenty of love on the award circuit; I don't even have the room or time to post all the links to all the available contests. Start your search with some of the bigger contests, and keep up the hunt from there. Put all the links together in a single folder, and program the deadlines into your calendar so you don't miss them. The Independent Publisher Book Awards , Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards , the Indie Book Awards and the Indie Excellence Awards are all fairly prominent. You can find more contests at the Independent Book Publishers Association . ...

October is swiftly approaching, and with it Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays, and it's all about being scared. That's why I'm going to (attempt to) feature only scary books on film all month long. The first installment begins with, of course, Stephen King. After a fashion, anyway. King wrote Thinner as Richard Bachman, the worst-kept secret pen name in the entire history of the written word. But the jig is definitely up, and the novel moved easily to film. Was it any better in the second medium? The Book When King first started in the writing biz, many publishers believed that authors shouldn't release more than one book a year; they thought it might over-saturate the market. According to literary legend, King invented his pseudonym Richard Bachman for this reason -- and because he wanted to see if readers were buying his words, or his name. Supposedly. As I've mentioned, the secret wasn't kept very well, and fans aren't dum...

What does it take to be an award-winning, best-selling, much-loved author? In looking at the stories of those who have walked the path of success (without falling on their faces), certain qualities shine through: grit, stubbornness, hard work...and luck.  It helps to write something new and interesting and great...but a stroke of luck can completely change your fate. Just ask one award-winner who came within inches of never being published at all.  A Wrinkle in a Perfect Plan Madeleine L'Engle was born in 1918 and spent most of her childhood in New York City, where many writers have been inspired. She wasn't much of a student, and received poor grades. Madeleine preferred writing in her journal, creating poems and making up stories. It was a habit she took with her to the French Alps, where her family moved when she was 12. She studied English in depth at Smith College, where she continued working on her own writing. Upon graduation, Madeleine moved to Gre...

As an author, it's essential to also be a reader. Authors are influenced and inspired by other greats who have taken pen to page to pour out prose. Every writer should have a reading habit bordering on addiction, because it's important to continuously build upon your craft. Reading is really research for new writing styles, new punctuation usage, tone and wordsmithery (not a word technically, but I like it).  So if you want to write a bestseller someday, doesn't it follow that you should study bestsellers of the past? Take a look at the most popular books ever written (at least, to date) and see how your work compares to the best of the bestsellers.  Still the One The trouble is, it's hard to determine just which books are actually the best . How do you determine what makes a book great? Is it good reviews? Sales? The number of people who have read it? As it turns out, the best book in one of those categories usually ranks pretty high in the others, too...