10/24 Trends and OpportunitiesAdam looks at highlights and lowlights from last month and talks about some new changes to both Amazon categories and Publisher Rocket functions....
The Three Act Story StructureThe Three Act Story Structure is one of the most basic story structures and one of the most useful, in my opinion. It gives the author plenty of room for inspiration, innovation, and invention while still keeping them on track to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. Some may need a more detailed plan (the 27 chapter structure extrudes this structure into granular detail), but for those who seek only a little order to help them tell their tale, this structure does the job.
How to Avoid Cliched PhrasesCliches are sneaky little things. The commonness that makes them cliches also makes them hard to spot; we use them so often in our normal life, we write them without thinking. “It was raining cats and dogs.” “He was bored stiff.” “I’m down in the dumps.” They are all descriptive and everyone will know what you mean, but use them too often and readers will eventually be bored with your prose. I’d rather have someone hate my book than be bored by it. Here’s some simple methods to remove cliches from your writing. 1. Use strong words Cliche phrases are...
9/2/24 Trends and OpportunitiesAdam breaks down the August numbers and talks about long tail vs. hungry categories....
Publishing Your First BookA step-by-step guide to publishing your first book.
Novel WritingA step-by-step guide to writing a novel
8/1/24 — August Trends and OpportunitiesAdam breaks down the winners and losers from last month....
Using the Appropriate Amount of Realism in Your WritingLike everything else in writing, the appropriate amount of realism is going to be very genre dependent. If you’re writing a gritty crime story, you’re going to want a lot of it; a fairy tale romance, maybe not so much. But how do you decide how much realism is right for your story, and how do you go about putting it in (or taking it out)? Let’s start with some examples. The first is from a story I was critiquing that was written by a very good writer. And one of the things this writer does extremely well is write...
7/1/24 — July Trends and OpportunitiesLead Instructor Adam breaks gives you the June numbers and breaks down the major trends. Also covers a concept called “List poisoning.”...
6/1/24 June Trends and OpportunitiesAdam breaks down the numbers generated in May and talks about the upcoming opportunities they represent....
