Breaking Down a Book CoverIf you've read any of the genre guides, you've seen my cover breakdowns. I take six covers off the bestseller list and break down their commonalities in elements, fonts, and overall structure. But I don't do it randomly. There's a system, and I'm going to outline it below so you can do it yourself in whatever subgenre you're writing in...
Writing Success Isn’t up to YouYou can do everything right: write a good book, get a good cover, write a great blurb and description, create good ads, run promotions with trustworthy promotion sites — and if your writing doesn’t connect with readers, your book won’t sell. And you have to be okay with that. Because that’s the business. Readers make the business go. Without readers, there are no writers. They are so important, I call writing a collaborative act between the writer and each individual reader. And you can’t force them to like your book. You can help them find it. You can encourage them …
YA Predicted to Trend in 2024In researching the nonfiction market, I came upon this excellent article from Blurb.com. It's an in-depth look into the stats of the last year, both from numerical data as well as surveys. And while everything in the article is interesting, I want to highlight their predictions for popular genres in the coming year. Blurb predicts that "young adult, romance, fantasy, mystery and thriller,
Alpha Testing Starts TodayI have gotten all our testers memberships and two are already online and checking out the site. I am both excited and anxious. In some ways, this is the culmination of a year’s worth of work, in others it is just the beginning. A real inflection point on the road map of this project. The first typo was found at 1:20pm CST, where I (and it was definitely me, as it was in the Epic Fantasy Blueprint) typed Spuernatural instead of Supernatural. I tried to claim it was the German spelling, but no one believed me. It is fixed now. …
Let’s Talk About AIArtificial Intelligence (AI) is the current hot button issue in the world of writing. Some people say it’s the greatest thing for writer productivity since the word processor. Others say it will destroy the entire field. As a writer, web designer, and someone who was coding before he hit puberty, I can assure you that it’s not the former and probably won’t do the latter. It’s not even actually artificial intelligence, which is something I am not going to get into in this article, as the semantics of what we call it is less important than what we use it...
Scams and How to Avoid ThemMy father defined a shortcut as "the longest distance between two points." Keep this in mind whenever someone offers you an easy way to become a successful writer. Because there is no easy way. But any time there is a group of people willing to work hard to achieve their goal, there will be people offering them a shortcut — a shortcut that will not work. This is the general rule of writing, publishing, and well, everything. If someone offers you a guarantee of success predicated on how much you pay them, the only guarantee is that you are being scammed. That's the general idea; now let's talk specifics.
Apropos of nothing…There are only two pieces of advice any would-be writer needs. The first is Give up. Those who heed that don’t need to hear the second, which is Don’t give up. Mick Herron
Alpha Testing Starting SoonThe fantasy genre guide is all done, so we’ve begun recruiting fantasy authors to help us alpha test at the end of this month. If you’re interested, simply fill out the form on the front page and let us know. With the genre guides, essentials, and all the articles, we’re up over 130 articles on the craft and business of writing. I’ve been tracking trends in subgenres all week and adding data and charts to the guides, like this one showing steampunk books on the rise: But that doesn’t tell the whole story, as the outlook in steampunk ebooks is …
Three Act Description StructureIf you’re looking for an easy way to write blurbs, why not use the structure most writers use — whether they know it or not. It’s based on the three act story structure, as featured in this portal fantasy blueprint. The structure is three acts split into three sections each like this: Act I — Set Up Exposition — The setup. Show your protagonist in their ordinary life. Inciting Incident — The thing that happens to start the protagonist on their journey through the plot. Plot Point One — The thing that solidifies the protagonist going on their journey (despite...
Analyzing Story BeatsWhether it’s on your own stories or someone else’s, learning how to analyze the beats of a story can be an important tool in a writer’s toolbox. First of all, what do I mean by story beats? Story beats are not the plot. In fact, you can map out the beats of a story without talking about the plot at all. Story beats are shifts in tone, in action, in emotion. They are the highs and lows and the movement between those points that make a story enjoyable or tragic or comedic or whatever it is determined to be by...
