Writing 101: Historical Figures

If you're writing a period piece, you have to really put your characters in their time frame. You have to know about the music, books and politics of the day. And you might be writing a story that takes place hundreds of years before anyone you know was ever born. So under those circumstances, is it all right to use historical figures in your fiction? 

Expiration Dates

Anything ever written by Jane Austen can be purchased for free by you today. Any publishing company can print out copies of Jane Austen books, and they don't have to pay anybody any royalties for what they sell. It's because Jane Austen has been dead for so long that all her copyrights have now expired. Anyone can publish and use her books for free these days. 

So what's the expiration date on a personality? If Jane Austen's copyrights are expired, does that mean that I can make her a character in my newest book? 

Writing 101: Tweeting About Your Books

As an indie author, you might spend more time tweeting about your books than actually writing them. Social media is your best avenue for marketing, and Twitter is an incredibly popular social media site. But tweeting about your books isn't easy...because you've got to figure out what to tweet about.

This Space for Rent

You can't tweet "buy this book" all day long, because who's going to click on that? You tweet something like that all the time, and you'll just get a bunch of people who unfollow you all the time. If you really want people to buy your books, you've got to use your tweets to make a case for yourself.

And you need to a spanking good job, too...because you've got a very limited amount of space.

Writing 101: Selling In-Between Books

The self-publishing game moves pretty quickly. Bowker statistics show that around 391,000 self-published titles were published in 2012 alone. Since 2007, self-publishing as an industry has increased by a mind-boggling 422 percent. So if you want to stay in the game, you have to publish frequently. There's just one problem: it takes a long time to write a book. But you can still stay in the game. Start selling in-between books.

On Again, Off Again

Indies have to play the perfectionist game. You'll spend more time editing than you spent writing the darn book, and lots of editing is second-guessing and fact-checking and plot-managing (and, if you're like me, frustration). Factor into this the fact that you have a day job, and time starts to get pretty short. Let's not forget that you are also human, and must spend time eating, sleeping and not working (because if you don't relax a little you're no good as as a writer). 

When all these factors come together, it's really not easy to publish new titles frequently. Books take time, and lots of indie authors don't have a lot of time. So you end up defeating yourself before you can even really get in the game. You have to publish often to keep selling often, but you haven't got the time to write often. Don't give up just yet. There are ways to start selling, even when you're in-between books.

Writing 101: Asking for Reviews

Indie authors have to promote their books all the time. They spend time on social media, they browse forums, they blog. But as an indie author, you should also be asking for reviews -- every chance you get.

Soliciting

Indies have to court the book bloggers, and it's a great way to get reviews. Keep sending your requests out every week. Keep using forums to find potential reviewers and swap opportunities,  if you do swapping. But don't stop there. If you want to get reviews, start asking for them:

Writing 101: There Is vs. There Are

Figuring out the correct use of the word there gets confusing enough, but when you start adding verbs it can become a grammatical nightmare. Do you know how to use there is and there are the correct way? Don't answer too fast. I thought I knew how to use them, too, until I caught myself making the same mistake over and over again. 

To Be or Not to Be

Why is it so hard to know the difference between there is and there are? For starters, is and are are both forms of the same irregular verb, and nothing's worse than irregular verbs. They're both forms of the verb to be. For example, I might say that Sheila is pretty, or that We are polite. Both sentences use a form of be (Sheila be pretty; We be polite). 

Confused yet? If you weren't confused about there is and there are before this post, you probably are now so my job is half done already. But I'm also going to get it all cleared up.

Writing 101: Heroes and Anti-Heroes

Many stories are basic at the core: hero vs. villain, good vs. evil. But life isn't always so black and white...so books can't be, either. Not all main characters are heroic. Some, in fact, are just the opposite.

Bette Davis Eyes

In literature, heroes are good guys. They are honest, or noble, unselfish maybe, and caring of others. They're designed to be lovable.

Not so with the anti-hero. This character is barely likable. They make bad decisions and wrong choices. They lack admirable qualities and maybe even do really dumb things. 

Indie News: Is Amazon Being a Bully?

Is it still cyberbullying when it's perpetrated by a mega-million-dollar corporation? Maybe. Lots of self-published authors are weighing in on the debate between Amazon and traditional publishing, represented in this particular dispute by Hachette. So let's examine the issue and ask the hard question: is Amazon being a bully?

Goliath and Goliath

Believe me, I get it. Defending Amazon, and anything they do, has become a bit of a knee-jerk reaction for indie authors. Amazon gave them a platform, a voice and for a few, millions of bucks. So it's easy to jump to Amazon's defense, particularly when one hears that they're in a good old-fashioned standoff with publishing giant Hachette. Put in that context, I almost want to grab a pitchfork myself. 

But that's just one facet of this complicated mess that's being carried out right now, this very moment. Amazon and Hachette did not see eye-to-eye on the price of ebooks. The two companies could not agree on how to split the profits. Amazon wanted to give more money to the authors, and Hachette said no let's give them even more than that. 

Books on Film: Pollyanna

Pollyanna is a hundred-year-old book, but it's a classic story that left a mark you can still find in pop culture today. As you may know, Pollyanna has become synonymous with any overly-optimistic person who sees only sunshine no matter how much rain there is, a sheer goody-goody who always has something nice to say. But before it was a term to tease your friends with, it was one of the most memorable literary characters ever to grace a page.

The Book

Eleanor H. Porter wrote Pollyanna way back in 1913. It became so popular it launched an entire series of "Glad Books," and if you know the character you understand the title.