Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks? Internet Book Promotion
Ask anyone – in these days of a less-than-thriving economy, and reduced budgets for book promotion, publishers increasingly count on authors to do much of the promotion for their own books.
Archive for the ‘SFWA Blog’ Category
SFWA announces the Pacific Northwest Reading Series
The greater Pacific Northwest is home to Ursula K. Le Guin, Kay Kenyon, Jay Lake, Nancy Kress, Brent Weeks, Ted Chiang, and Ramona Quimby. Although Ramona isn’t known for her Science Fiction and Fantasy escapades, the rest are celebrated masters of the genre, and their work will be enjoyed as part of the Pacific Northwest […]
Guest Post: Building Secondary Worlds
I’m surprised quite often how little or ill thought-out the political and economic infrastructure of secondary worlds can be. How the hell do people get food to eat? How do they earn their money? What are their voting rights and what stops people from rising up against their governments?
Contest Alert: TheNextBigAuthor.com
In May 2011, the publishers of many of the world’s most famous authors – including Dan Brown, Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer – join to support The Next Big Author: a new initiative which encourages budding authors to write the opening to a novel in May.
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 12 – Make the problem hard to solve with conflict
Remember, the better the opposition, the more tension the reader will feel because a formidable opponent increases the chances in the reader’s mind that the hero will fail.
Quick Updates for 2011-03-03
Member News for Laura Ruby, Charles Oberndorf, Susan Dennard, Myke Cole, Diana Peterfreund, Julia Watts Belser, Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban, Kat Howard, Larson Richard, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Arthur Dorrance, Daniel M. Kimmel, William Lawhorn, Eugie Foster, and David Levine.
Guest Post: Why Writers Suck at Marketing
Writers and marketing. In this digital age, the two words are becoming synonymous, but to what end? Having been on both sides of the fence, this is a difficult post for me to write. This isn’t the sort of thing I care to admit or highlight to people, because writers are a unique breed.
Guest Post: 5 Things To Do In Your First 3 Paragraphs
Display your command of language. It’s worthwhile for a writer to think about poetry, and all its devices like assonance and alliteration, metaphor and allusion, internal rhythm, even meter.
What’s an Idea Worth?
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m fascinated by the bizarre things that happen at the outer fringes of the publishing universe.
Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 11 – Make the problem hard to solve with disadvantages
Readers want to hope and fear for a character. To feel this, they must not know what WILL happen, but do need to suspect or know what MIGHT happen and feel tension about the possibilities.
