Jade Varden Official Blog

Indie authors should always have their own space on the web, and a blog is the easiest option. But if you aren't using it to sell books, you're wasting your own time. Always Selling Authors are salesmen (or women). Yes, all of them -- that includes you. It's your job to think about selling books, or finding ways to give them away for free, at all times. You're not doing this to make money , because you're probably not going to make a lot of money so don't waste time on that ambition. You're doing it so that you get read, and that's the ultimate goal of any author. You want people to read.  To facilitate that, you've got to get them to buy. So use your blog, because it's yours. You've got to pay money for Facebook ads, and you've got to spend a lot of time with Twitter to get big results from that. You put a ton of work into being an indie author because you write your books, and edit them and put them together beautifully...

When you need to move a story forward, it's tempting to start looking backward. But this is a slippery slope, and it might keep you from finishing that book.  Don't Look Down You know that moment in the movies when Character B is walking across some narrow piece of something-or-other over a dangerous chasm of doom -- and they're just one freefall away from being at the bottom of it? Character C, like an idiot, always hollers out "don't look down!" Inevitably, Character B looks down. More than half the time, it makes them fall or otherwise screw up what they're attempting to do.  So the last thing I want to do is tell you not to look back when you're writing a book...but don't. You have to keep writing forward. Remember that it's just a first draft, and doesn't have to be perfect . It's not going to be perfect in the first draft anyway, no matter how long you take to write it. In the first draft, you may not have all the ...

Hobbies are fun. They're what you choose to do when you don't have anything you have to do. But when you make the leap to indie author, writing is no longer your hobby. It's not your job (in most cases, it's only one of the jobs you have). And to be good at it, you have to learn how to sacrifice. Your Books, Yourself When you work all day at a job, and I'm going to go ahead and assume that you don't get to write novels all day at your job, you're going to be tired when it's finally over. You might be frustrated, grumpy, all sorts of stuff. You might be looking forward to some relaxation time, maybe doing a little unwinding with some video games or a movie.  Forget it. If you're an indie author, your second work day just begins when the regular work day ends. You can't play games or watch a movie, because you have plots to imagine and pages to type and paragraphs to edit -- so get to it. And when the weekend rolls around? Well, ...

Too many people have no idea that Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a book before it was a movie. Those who have read it largely agree that it's even better than the famous film, yet the book is currently out print. If you haven't been exposed to it, you've truly missed out on one of the most authentic high school stories ever told. The Book Cameron Crowe is a talented writer who got an early start (the film Almost Famous is loosely based on his life). While working for Rolling Stone , Crowe went undercover at a high school while in his early twenties in order to research Fast Times at Ridgemont High . He attended for an entire school year, and a very memorable book and movie were the result. The book itself very closely resembles the movie, but the story has much more depth. Linda and other characters become less shallow on the page, and there's much more dialogue and interaction. Since it's out of print, you'll have a hard time finding a ...

If you've got strange writing habits, don't worry. Many great authors did lots of weird things while they were writing. Maybe one day, your weird habits will become the stuff of literary legend.  Getting Weird to Write Do you have any of the strange habits of brilliant authors who have come before you? If you write lying down, you've got something in common with Truman Capote. The Breakfast at Tiffany's author said he had to write horizontally. He wrote in longhand, and began every morning sipping coffee as he wrote. By the time evening rolled around, he'd moved to martinis.  T.S. Eliot wanted to be called "Captain Eliot" while he wrote in a room above a publishing house in the 1920s. He had another writing hideaway in the city where he was known as "The Captain." According to legend, he wore green powder on his face to look "cadaverous" while he wrote. Dan Brown, who penned the Da Vinci Code , wakes daily at 4...

It's not always great fun to come up with character names. In fact, for many authors it's more of a hassle. The protagonist is one thing, but when you have to come up with names for that guy in the hallway, that random next door neighbor and everybody's brother, of course you're going to get a little cross-eyed. Figure out everything you need to know about character names, and make it easier on yourself.  By Any Other Name Pretty much every character is going to need a name , but the most important belongs to your main character.  With every main character, keep a few points in mind: make it easy to remember, easy to spell and unique enough to stand out. You want your main character to be memorable and sharable, and for that you've got to have a name that trips right off the tongue.  The same rules don't apply to all the other characters in your books, with the exception of the main supporting cast. Love interests should also be fairly easy to spel...

Indie authors need social media to promote. You hear it all the time, but what you don't hear is that sometimes it's a waste of time. What you don't know about the secret life of social media could be hurting you. Or at least, it could be wasting all your best efforts. Sunday Always Comes Too Late When you tweet links, do you know which ones get clicked? Or do you just post and post, waiting for it to work? Do you write Facebook statuses, and can't figure out why they don't trend? And what about that YouTube channel that looks as desolate as a ghost town in a Western movie? You aren't a bad marketer. You just don't know the secret of social media : it's different every day. Focus your efforts and tailor your links not to your audience and not to your genre. Let the day of the week determine how you're going to promote. Because here's what you don't know: it already does. Monday, Monday Start out every work week ...

There are 9 parts of speech in the English language, and all sorts of rules about how you ought to use them. But when it comes to a and an , maybe we could use a few more...because sometimes, knowing the rules won't help you pick the right article. Articles...And Other "A" Words A or an ? This seemingly simple question plagues all writers at some point.  There is a rule (isn't there always) that is meant to be followed: use a before words beginning with a consonant; use an for words that start with a vowel. So if you write An antique chair would best suit this room , it's right. So is A contemporary chair is the only option . But if you say A hour ago , you're wrong. Yes, I know that h is a consonant ...but it's not pronounced in hour so it stops existing (not really, just grammatically). The same thing happens when you ask for an honest opinion , but normal rules apply when you want a ham sandwich . Yes, it's confusing....