Stacks of Useful Articles for Writers! #WritingCommunity #writers #WritersCommunity #writerslife

.... by me, and others.  It's ongoing; I will add to this list as I come across new ones that are particularly good.  I've sorted them into sections to make it easier to find those that will be of interest to you.  Just click the title of the article to read it.  Hope they help!

Sections:
Debut Author Advice
Editing and Proofreading 
General Writing Advice
Publishing
Reviews
Writers and Social Media/Promotion

ps, if you have come across another article that really helped you, please add the URL in the comments, and I will take a look at it with a view to adding it. Thanks!
 

Debut Author Advice

New Writers: Is this what you're doing on Twitter?

Pauses for Thought - ten pieces of advice for the new writer.

What to do if you have just decided to write a book by Lucy Adams on Nicholas Rossis' blog.

Helpful Advice for Aspiring Writers by Jacqueline Woodson

3 Misconceptions That Can Hinder New Writers 

My Top 10 Writing Tips, from Shelley Wilson's interview series. 

My Review of Back to Creative Writing School by Bridget Whelan

Dos and Don't for First Time Novelists

Ten Miscellaneous Tips for Debut Writers

7 Myths That Can Hold New Writers Back

The Number One Misconceptions Writers Have About Writing by Rachel Thompson

Three Mistakes New Writers Are Still Making

Not another 'how to write' article ~ but it many help new authors

Your first novel is ready to go - five things to consider 

Building an Author Platform (for the total beginner) by Shelley Wilson 

Writing Tips For Beginners by Shaz Goodwin - Jera's Jamboree blog (a series of tips from various authors, collated by Shaz over the years)

How Art Has Saved My Writing by Jodie Beckford

Top 10 Writing Tips on Shelley Wilson's blog (series of interviews with various authors, giving their own tips)

Editing and proofreading

Choosing the right proofreader and editor

How To Choose An Editor by Alison Williams

How To Find A Good Proofreader (And Avoid The Bad Ones!) by Julia Gibbs


Content Edit by Linda Acaster

What being an editor taught me about writing by Anna Pitoniak

The Five Most Common Errors to Avoid in your Writing by Alison Williams

All you need to know about Proofreading by Julia Gibbs 

Authors - please choose your editor CAREFULLY by Alison Williams 

Is the editor you hired actually doing the editing?  by D G Kaye

General Writing Advice

10 Dangerous Critiques by Anne R Allen

The Greatest Menace to the Writer is the Reader by Emily Temple/Shirley Jackson

On Writing Sequels

5 parts of your writing personality that need to die now by Colleen M Story

4 Character Traits that will Derail your Writing Career by Colleen M Story

#amwriting ~ or would be if I could string a sentence together 
(what to do when the words just won't come) 

Please learn from my mistakes - someone should by D E Haggerty

Writers - Respect Your Readers by Alison Williams

Historical Fiction: Info Dumps and how to ditch them by Deborah Swift

The difference between 'Imply' and 'Infer' by Alison Williams

The importance of a good ending by Cryssa Bazos

Writing Action Scenes - Quick Tips by Alison Williams

Ten Things About Show and Tell  by Joanne Harris

The difference between a phrase, an independent clause, a subordinate clause and a sentence 


10 Tips on Writing That First Chapter by Anne R Allen

How to show what a character looks like without having them looking in the mirror and describing their reflection by Neha Yazmin

The Blurb and the Synopsis by Alison Williams

6 Ways To Create Characters That Readers Will Care About 

Do your characters talk too much? by Anne R Allen

Excellent article on outlining your novel before you start - and why you should by Meghan Barnard

3 Things To Omit From Your Dialogue by L M Lily 

Em dash versus ellipsis by Kathy Steinmann

8 Mundane Elements You Should Cut From Your Story by Jane Friedman

How to Handle Writers' Block by Alexandria Szeman

What Reading Has Taught Me About Writing

Three Writing Rules to Disregard by Benjamin Dreyer

Stephen King's 10% rule and the Secret Power of the Delete Button by Anne R Allen

The Grammatical Error That Even The Most Intelligent People Make

Turning Your Back On The 'Rules'

Links to lots of general writing/editing advice,  by Linda Acaster

An article about professional jealousy on Girls Mean Business

Publishing

The Myths of Publishing by Jan Ruth 

An A-Z of independent publishers (ongoing) by Jill Doyle (book blogger)

28 Things I've Learned About Publishing by John Boyne

Publishing scams to watch out for in 2021 by Anne R Allen

Amazon exclusivity or publishing 'wide' - which is best? 

How to Self-Publish an ebook by Alison Williams

 

Signing with a small publisher? Here's what to look for by Alison Williams

Novel, novella, novelette - the differences explained

How to self-publish a book: tips from indie authors on BookBub

Choosing Amazon Keywords  by Dave Chessan/Kindlepreneur

Publishing: A lot of smoke and mirrors by Jan Ruth

Why there is no point querying a book that has already been self-published by Meg La Torre

15 Things I Learned after reading 100 Query Letters by Ryan Lanz

Read This Before Signing With A Small Independent or 'Hybrid' Publisher

It's A Jungle Out There - article about vanity publishers, by Alison Williams

New Writing Scams to watch out for in 2019 by Anne R Allen

Self-Publishing and the Snobbery Issue by Alison Williams

Why Self-Publishing is a Creative Choice, not a Last Resort

Yes, We Do Judge A Book By Its Cover by Alison Williams

Writing a Blurb by Alison Williams

Book Blurbs: As Hard as Writing the Book Itself?

The Only Post You Need To Read About Getting That Novel Finished

Reviews

My review of Getting Book Reviews by Rayne Hall

A Beginners' Guide to Requesting Reviews by Lilyn from Scifi and Scary

The DNF by Alex from Spells and Spaceships

Ten Reasons Your Book Is Getting Ignored by Book Bloggers by Rosie Amber

How To Deal With Bad Reviews

Why You Shouldn't Ignore Bad Reviews by Alison Williams

64 Book Bloggers who will work with self-published authors by Jo Linsdell

Spotlight on Rosie Amber, book blogger 

Authors Reviewing Authors - it'a a Minefield! 
(what to do if you're expected to review a friend's book and it's... just not that great) 

Writing A Book Review by Joan Hall

Tips on writing a book review by Shaz Goodwin

Addressing some of the recent book blogging BS by Sarcastic Enigma 

Reasons why a blogger declines your review request and doesn't want you on their blog by Sarcastic Enigma

Writers and Social Media/promotion

Why won't you buy my book?  by Leonard Tillerman

Don't be a 'humble-bragger' by Julie Haiselden

To Go Free Or Not To Go Free? 

BookBub's Top 10 Marketing Articles of 2019 

The Scourge of Auto DMs (Twitter) by Lisette Brodey

Why does my book not sell by Jan Ruth

Basic Tips For Writers Using Social Media For The First Time

Dos and Don'ts for writers new to Twitter 

Great tips for taking your books to book fairs and signings  by Judith Barrow

9 Reasons your book was rejected for a BookBub Featured Deal

How to Get the Best out of Twitter - please note, whereas the principles remain the same, the occasional bit of practical info may be out of date, as these articles were written in 2016. 

How to put the joy (and the impact) back into Twitter by Helen Baggot, for the Alliance of Independent Authors 

Twitter Tips for Newbies by Emma Lombard - truly excellent and up-to-date post (March 2019) for writers using Twitter for the first time, every tiny nuance explained. 

More Twitter Tips for Newbies by Emma Lombard
 
Make Your Own Luck by Lizzie Lamb

How to change your Twitter handle by Alison Williams

My review of Twitter for Writers by Rayne Hall

5 No Good Reasons Authors Resist Marketing by Rachel Thompson

No, you don't need superfans, 'street teams', mass tweeting sessions or newsletters by Anne R Allen (nb, this is not the title of the article)

Had to include this, though it is for book bloggers rather than writers:
Advice for new book bloggers by Mrs Bloggs 

Boost Your Blog/Social Media: services provided by Suzie Speaks - I wouldn't post a link to services of this type without personal experience, but Suzie is currently running a social media site for me (not Twitter, I hasten to add), and I can most definitely recommend!  

And finally....

Before I started this Self-Publishing thing I used to....

How to Write a Romcom in One Easy Lesson!

Three Mistakes New Writers Are Still Making

I've been doing this self-publishing thing for seven years now, and during that time I must have read, written, tweeted, retweeted and commented on hundreds of blog posts about the whole complex subject.  Sometimes, when writing a guest post, I think, 'does this really need saying yet again?'  But I forget; I may have been seeing all this stuff forever, but new writers are starting out every day, and won't have read seven years' worth of dire warnings about not getting scammed, not spamming people on social media, etc, etc.

Or maybe it's just that the people who need to read all those advice posts are clicking on the ones entitled 'Three Reasons Why Everyone Will Want To Read Your Novel', instead.  Anyway, a few recent conversations have made me think that these three old chestnuts could do with underlining again.  And again, and possibly again!  So here goes:

Mistake 1:  Skipping the proofreading step.  

Recently, I looked at a novel on Amazon because the (expensive-looking) cover interested me, but I rejected it as a possible buy because several reviews complained about the large amount of errors.  One demanded both an explanation (why would the author publish a novel without getting it proofread first?) and an apology for her wasted money.  The author had commented back that he was so sorry, but he couldn't afford 'expensive proofreading and editing' (although he clearly thought the 'packaging' was worth spending money on!) and he hoped readers would be patient with him while he realised his dream of becoming a published author.  Or something. 

Sad but true: Amazon is not a 'have-a-go' writers group.  The reading public are less interested in your personal dreams than in reading something with the commas in the right places and no spelling mistakes.  

Professional proofreading isn't cheap, but many proofreaders will take payment in instalments if money is a problem, and it really is essential if you want to avoid those bad reviews.  You can edit yourself (if you don't know the difference between editing and proofreading, please read this), but it takes time, patience, attention to detail (ie, considering every sentence), an understanding of pace and structure and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to see when a passage must be cut, no matter how dear it is to your heart.  A good piece of advice I read was to read the book as your enemies would read it, not your friends.

It's also worth bearing in mind that every time someone reads a self-pub novel that's full of typos and punctuation errors, it enforces the theory still held by some that all self-published material is substandard crap.  

Most important: when choosing a proofreader, don't necessarily go for the cheapest, or those who say they use 'proofreading software'.  You need the human eye.  Get recommendations from other authors. 

Mistake 2. Spamming on social media

By which I mean tweeting the book to strangers by tagging them in the tweet, in the hope that they will be interested in it.  Or doing auto DMs asking everyone who follows you to read and review your book.  If you want reviews, you need to look at book blogs individually, see what the blogger likes to read, study their submission guidelines.  If you really feel you must resort to the asking random strangers method, at least check out whether they read your genre, if they do actually review books, and enquire, first, if they might be interested in taking a look at yours.  But it's still best not to do it.

The best way to get people to know about your book is to be active on social media.  Share other people's stuff.  Talk to them.  I've written more about writers on Twitter on Swirl and Thread blog, here.

Mistake 3.  Not understanding the difference between Big 5 publishers, good independents, bad independents, and vanity presses.

... or researching the subject before signing a contract with a small independent publisher or a vanity (often called 'hybrid') press.  

If this is you, please read this article; it might save you much angst and frustration further down the line.

Research, research, research.  Talk to published writers.  Get recommendations.  Don't just google 'publishers'.  And good luck!

Good sites with writing/self-pub/book marketing info:

BadRedhead Media 
Anne R Allen's blog 

My Sister, @Proofread Julia, On Telly!

Just a reminder for those who know, and to let anyone know who has managed not to hear us shouting about it across the internet (!!), my sister Julia will appear on BBC quiz show POINTLESS on Monday April 25th and Tuesday April 26th!

She wrote a blog post about her experience filming it last July ~ it's HERE

Hope anyone who is interested gets to see it!  

 

The Z Files: Wendy Janes ~ Capricorn

Astrology ~ a bit of fun, a load of rubbish, or something to take seriously?

I invited around 70 writers/bloggers to write a piece about how typical they are of their sign, and how its traits affect their writing life ~ if at all...

Has your favourite writer been featured yet?  Links to all previous posts at the end of this one :)

Since I made my initial invitations to be featured in this series (I invited about 65-70 writers and bloggers; at the time of writing 51 have taken it up), it's been interesting to see which signs have given me an immediate 'yes please!' and which have not been so interested.

Those cautious Capricorns were one of the three least responsive, then, just when I thought I'd got all submissions in, the goats began popping their horns into my email inbox!  Perhaps they were seeing how it panned out, first... and here is one of late, hircine arrivals, proofreader, supportive social networker and now contemporary drama writer, Wendy Janes :)

Wendy's recently published her first solo novel, What Jennifer Knows ~ it's HERE on Amazon UK.  And there's a rather nice trailer for it, too:

 
Now I'll step back and let her tell you about her Capricornian traits!

"Let’s ignore those negative Capricorn traits and dive right in with the positive ones."

 "Yes, my approach to writing is ‘organized’ and ‘efficient’. I revel in the sense of order and purpose I achieve via daily, weekly and monthly to-do lists for all my writing projects. 

I aim for ‘high standards’. I plot, I plan, I write, rewrite and rewrite, edit and re-edit over and over again. Sometimes the initial getting the words on paper/screen is a little akin to pulling teeth, but once I have something down I love tinkering with it until it feels right. 

I’m definitely ‘resourceful’. The initial spark for most of my fiction comes from my own experiences or, more often, from those of my family. The genesis for my short story ‘Verity’ came from rescuing an elderly lady who had fallen in the street. ‘Verity’ also contains a number of anecdotes that have become family folklore. My husband says he’s a trifle concerned that anything he says or does will be used in my writing. Oh look, I’m even doing it in this post."
(Terry's note: 'Verity' is from a lovely anothology about mothers, definitely the best anthology I've come across since Kindles were invented, my review HERE)

"People tell me I’m funny, so I’d like to think that in addition to creating some ‘witty’ characters, I’m fairly witty on social media, and hope I spread a little smile through the ether.

I can’t finish without making reference to the Capricorn trait of being ‘simply irresistible’. As I’ve only recently published my first solo novel, I think it’s a little too soon to judge whether the reading public think What Jennifer Knows is simply irresistible, but I can dream!"

If you'd like to know more about Wendy and all she does, here's her website, Facebook author page, and her Twitter profile

Now, well known Capricorn writers ~ and indeed we are none of us worthy...

...because the first one I've chosen for Wendy is one of my absolute favourites, the High Priestess of historical fiction ~ Phillipa Gregory 

...and Booker prize winner 

(does it make me a pleb to say I've never read one of his?) ~ Julian Barnes.

Up next ~ A book blogging Scorpio!

Previous posts: (click name to view article)

Leo and Aries: Terry Tyler and Proofreader Julia

Leo: Rose Edmunds, Alex Johnson, Anne Goodwin

Aries: Trisha Ashley, Cynthia Harrison

Gemini: Haydn Lee, Norah Colvin, Jerome Dumont, John Privilege,
  Shelley Wilson

Aquarius and Capricorn: Nicky Black

Capricorn: Annie Lyons, Steffany R

Aquarius: Cathy Ryan, Lynda Renham

Sagittarius: Rachel Amphlett, Wendy Lennox, Katrina Mountfort

Cancer: Sarah Boucher, Katie Oliver Mark Barry

Virgo: Louise Marley, Elizabeth Ducie, Barb Taub

Pisces: Julie Haiselden, Sacha Black, Maria Savva

Scorpio: Gemma Lawrence, Robert Leigh, Catherine Hokin, Jenny Twist

Taurus: Valerie-Anne Baglietto, Val Poore

Libra: Tom Hocknell, Jen Ammoscato, Joanne B

 

The Zodiac Files ~ Round Up

Fifty-six writers/bloggers (and one proofreader!) accepted my invitation to be featured on The Z Files, telling us how typical they are of their star sign, how its characteristics manifest themselves in the way they work and what they write about.

The feature runs from the end of August 2015, until the middle of January 2016 ~ two more to go, and I will take back some writing time!

Here's a quick run-down; just click the writer's name to see any article you'd like to read or revisit:)

~ The Fire Signs ~

Leo and Aries: Me, and Proofreader Julia
Leo: Rosie Amber,   Rose Edmunds,  Alex Johnson,  Anne Goodwin
Aries: Trisha Ashley,  Joanne Phillips,  Cynthia Harrison
Sagittarius: Jan Ruth,  Adrienne Vaughan,  Rachel Amphlett,   
Wendy J Lennox,  Katrina Mountfort
 

~ The Earth Signs ~

 

Taurus: Jaye Dawes,  Valerie-Anne Baglietto,  Val Poore
Virgo: Heather Burnside,  Louise Marley,  Elizabeth Ducie,  Barb Taub
Capricorn: Annie Lyons,  Wendy Janes,  Georgia Rose, blogger Steffany
Capricorn and Aquarius: Nicky Black

~ The Air Signs ~

Gemini: Jerome Dumont,  Norah Colvin,  Haydn Lee,  John Privilege,  Shelley Wilson
Libra: Jan Brigden,  Marcia Carrington,  Jennifer Ammoscato,  Tom Hocknell,  Joanne B
Aquarius: Cathy Ryan,  Lynda Renham

 ~ The Water Signs ~

Cancer: Emma Gray,  Sarah Boucher,  June Kearns,  Katie Oliver,   
Mark Barry
Scorpio: Judith Barrow,  Gemma Lawrence,  Stacey Garrity,  Gen Gannon,  Robert Leigh,  Catherine Hokin,  Jenny Twist
Pisces: Julie Haiselden,  Lizzie Lamb,  Maria Savva,  Sacha Black

A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed, shared posts, commented, retweeted - and read!  I hope you have all enjoyed it as much as I have :)