Jade Varden Official Blog

Adding an s to a word may be enough to completely change that word. With other words, however, the change is not so big. When it comes to regard and regards , does that little s make a difference? To S or Not to S I'm writing to you in regard to a book review .  Regard is sort of an old-fashioned way to say about or concerning . Or is it regards ? Use it in the sentence, and it still makes a lot of sense. I'm writing to you in regards to a book review.   In the example, the correct usage of the word is regard . You're talking about a book review, a singular object. This means that any modifier of that noun should also be singular -- so leave off the s . But in the plural, you want to add the s to regards . Let's look at an example. With regards to the book review requests I've been sending... Now you're talking about more than one object -- requests . That means now you add the s to make your sentence technically correct. ...

by Leti Del Mar Everything I have ever come across in regard to self-publishing says I should get my work edited.  Even those who don't self-publish are still urged to have their manuscript edited before submitting it to agents or publishers.  It makes sense to have your work edited, but it can also be incredibly expensive. I asked around for someone to edit my 82,000 word manuscript and the price range was $500 to $1,500!  ...And that was people just getting started in the business, not those who come highly recommended. What if you're just starting out and uncomfortable with spending that much money on editing?  What is an aspiring writer to do?  Fortunately, I've got some cost-cutting suggestions! When it comes to editing for content, you absolutely need another pair of eyes looking over your work.  A free way to do this is to ask a beta reader to read your book.  A beta reader is someone who will read your work and t...

Once you've been an indie author for a while and published a few books, you begin to gain a certain amount of wisdom and experience. You know, for example, how to format an ebook, where to go for cover art, which Goodreads groups to use to find reviews. The indie author community is largely a place for sharing information, and there are times when it all feels friendly. And one day, you may be compelled to take some other indie author under your wing and share your valuable experience with them. You may, one day, feel the need to give out a little unsoliticed advice -- with the best intentions in mind, of course. I warn you not to do this...no matter how tempting it might get.  Everything You Can Do... Say you're hosting an indie author on your blog, or you're being hosted on their blog. Suppose, during the course of getting all of this organized, you notice something on their blog or Twitter profile or Amazon page or whatever. Something...that's just wro...

Do you get crushed by every negative review? Feel a deep pain in your gut if someone doesn't absolutely adore your book? As an artist, it's natural for you to love your creations...but it's something you've got to avoid. Loving your books is dangerous.  Love's Labor Lost I wrote, once, about falling in love with one of my books...and how it nearly destroyed me. Now I know that I should never love one of the books I write....I should love writing itself.  There is a difference, believe me. If you love your book, you're going to be sensitive about it. You're going to find it much harder to listen to criticism that may help you, and you're going to struggle to read and absorb those reviews you work so hard to receive.  What I'm saying is this: that book isn't going to love you back. Don't give your heart away to something that can't return it or even reinforce it. Don't love your books, love the work. If you love w...

Self-publishing is spreading, like a word plague, across the globe. Amazon has launched the Kindle Store and their KDP program in Mexico. Tears for Fears said that everybody wants to rule the world...but Amazon may actually do it one day. The two launches mean that indie authors in Mexico will now have the option of self-publishing their work through the online giant. Stateside authors enthusiastically embraced the KDP program upon its launch, unleashing a tidal wave of indie titles. The availability of the Kindle Store in Mexico means that US authors will now have the option of selling their books to Mexico, and vice versa.  Self-publishing has spread so far so fast, many have questioned whether it signals an end to traditional publishing. If self-publishing and ebooks become the norm, Amazon really could rule the world one day.

Some storytellers know how to be frightening. But does it come to them naturally, or is being scary a skill that writers can learn?  Boo Like most things, writing is about 10% artistry and 90% grueling work. In other words, I believe much of the skills that create a writer can be learned. And if you can learn to write, you can definitely learn to be scary. After all, isn't it something that everyone practices doing every single October? For Halloween, people dress up to look frightening and throw parties meant to scare their guests. Haven't you ever pulled a prank on someone, or crept up behind a friend to startle them? You've done stuff to scare other people before. Now, you have to harness that innate streak of meanness...and put it on the page.  It's okay to be a little mean, sometimes. That's really what scaring people is all about. That...and a few other tricks.  Sudden shock: This is a classic horror device you'll find in every sin...

When was the last time you looked at your books on Amazon? If you're doing your promotional tweets and paying attention the way you should, your answer should be today or yesterday at the earliest. If you're not looking at the page all the time, you're missing opportunities to sell more books. You can use that page to find more buyers, and that's pretty invaluable. Right in Front of Your Face If you're anything like me, you don't need to be reminded to look at your book's Amazon page. I checked it every 20 minutes for three weeks after I published my first book, no exaggeration. My biggest thrill came from receiving my first review, but this was only slightly more exciting than seeing something in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section. Seeing something appear in this section meant that someone actually bought the book, and I paid attention. I'm still paying attention to that section of my book pages, and yo...

Cross-marketing is a fancy term that's usually applied to product linking. You may not be aware of it, but you see cross-marketing all the time. When the commercial tells you that the cheese spread goes great with this cracker, that's cross-marketing. Coupons from soda that allow you to buy candy is another example. Cross-marketing is everywhere, and you can use a form of it to promote your self-published books. Finding the Links You're not a huge corporation and you probably don't have a bunch of industry-related ties, but as an indie author you can still use cross-marketing to push your work. Like every other type of indie promotion, it only requires a little bit of outside-the-box thinking.  Let's play a game. Answer this question: what's your book about? Make a list of words that come to mind when you ask yourself this question. Think about all the different activities and events depicted in your book and place them on the list.  Now use it ...