Writers in the Storm

By Lyn Horner

A new Kindle author recently visited my home page http://texasdruids.com and asked me for tips on what to do next. I’m flattered by his request and more than happy to share what I’ve learned since publishing my first Kindle book. After blogging about the topic, I thought it might make a good follow-up to my earlier posts here on WITS. I hope some of you will find it helpful.

Tips For All eBook Authors:

•  Presentation is important. Properly format your manuscript!
  
  This is the most important tip for any aspiring ebook author. A professional, polished, easily read book is vital on all digital devices. Check and recheck, page by page, before uploading. Then check it again! I went through my book, Darlin’ Druid, at least a half dozen times before publishing it on Amazon, and I still caught a few small glitches when I downloaded it to my Kindle. I immediately corrected these problems and re-uploaded – without ever having to delete DD from my product page.
• Consider using smashwords for publishing with multiple outlets.
  
  They offer strict formatting guidelines and will convert your book to suit several different e-publishing retailers, including Barnes & Noble. Amazon is the exception. Kindle authors need to format and upload their own books via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) or employ a service to do it for them. Amazon affiliate CreateSpace is one such service. They also offer print-on-demand service, making it possible to purchase Kindle books in paperback form.
• Self promotion is a must. E-publishing is no place for the meek and timid. It’s your book against thousands of others and no one is going to do it for you! Here are a few avenues you should explore.

Tips For Self Promotion, Specific for Amazon:

• Set up your author page on Amazon Author Central, including a brief biography and photo of yourself. I chose the same photo I use on all my own sites. This helps make me quickly recognizable. Should I decide to change the photo later, it’s very easy to do.
• Start a blog and link it to your author page. Amazon also lets you link to your Twitter page.
• Check out Amazon forums, but be careful.
  
  Don’t promote your book on readers' forums.  Readers feel they’re being pushed. Instead, seek forum threads inviting authors to promote their own books. Amazon recently created a forum titled “self promoting authors” – where I’m hosting a thread called “Books Unmolded: crossing genres, breaking cookie-cutters.” I hope you’ll come visit this forum.
• Some of these suggestions also apply to Barnes & Noble, but I’m less familiar with their site. Explore their options.
• Join Tag My Book On Amazon!
  
  This site allows authors to post book blurbs and tag each other’s books on Amazon. To join, you must agree to tag the other members’ books. It takes time to plow through the site archives and tag all the books, but you don’t have to complete the task all at once. And it’s well worth the time.
• Tags make a book pop up sooner when customers search book categories on Amazon. For instance, if a customer types “western romance” in the search bar, Darlin’ Druid pops up on the first page in that category because it has 59 votes for that tag.

Note: To see how tagging is done, go to the product page for Darlin Druid. Scroll way down, and you'll see my book tags. Notice the little check box by each tag. If you click it, that adds another vote.

Tips For Self Promotion, General

•  Book reviews are valuable selling tools.
  
  A collection of good reviews on your product page attracts new customers. Inviting a few friends who have read your book to write customer reviews is fine, but don't overdo it. Unbiased reviews are more valuable.
• There are lots of book review sites on the internet. Try requesting a review from sites that fit your genre.

Some reviewers you might consider are:

          Todd Fonseca -- Tag My Book On Amazon (for members)
Paranormal Romance Guild (several reviewers available)
Big Al’s Books and Pals (there’s a long queue for reviews)
Romantic Times Magazine – Contact this review magazine well before publishing
your book. (Up to 4 months in advance.)

•  Online Interviews are yet another way to promote.
  
  I had my first interview with Laurie at Lauries Interviews and Blog Spot.  I suggest you read several of her interviews to get a feel for how online interviews are conducted.
• Catie Vargas at Forbidden Passion Interviews is another interviewer I’m familiar with. As the name suggests, her site is best for romance, erotica and paranormal authors. There are many other interview sites. Look for ones that suit your writing genre.
• Utilize social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise your books.
• Set up a home page or blog site. Blog regularly and be sure to reply to readers’ comments. This is a fun way to gain followers. Don’t hit readers over the head with promotional posts. Instead, talk about humorous, entertaining or informational subjects. Then readers will be more apt to pay attention when you do post about your current book. They might even decide to buy it.

Final Tip of the Day: Be patient!

Self-publishing and promoting a digital book requires patience. Very few authors become famous overnight. It takes time and effort to build a following, but you can do it.

That’s all I can think of just now. I invite other authors to jump in and share their promo tips. The more the better!

Lyn

The Animals
By Fae Rowen

The professional photographers traveling with me were horrified that I’d purchased my new camera from Amazon and only took it out of the box to put it in my carry-on for the trip from the States to Nairobi.  I learned fast with their generous help.  Besides the physical workings of the amazing camera, I learned about framing my pictures, the rule of thirds and more.

By Sharla Rae

Too much flab on a person can cause a fatal heart attack. It's fatal to an author’s writing too.

Flabby writing is usually the result of wordiness or over writing. Both are weak and tiresome and make editors go cross-eyed. Worse, at the first sign of it, an editor stamps it as a reject.

Write Tight, an excellent Writers’ Digest bookby William Brohaugh lists 16 types of wordiness. I can’t detail all those types in this blog, but pointing out a few of the troublemakers might increase your awareness of the problem.

Redundancy: Write Tightdedicates 4 pages to common redundancies. And guess what? Many of them made my repeat offenders list mentioned in my previous blog, Echoes-Repeat Offenders. The repeat offenders are in red font below. Also pay attention to all the ly adverbs in blue.

• Short minute – A minute is short
• Rise up/lift up – If something rises, it’s going up
• Dash quickly – To dash is to do it quickly
• Absolutely certain/sure – If it’s absolute, it’s certain
• Combined together/blended together – If we combine items, they are together
• Clearly apparent – If it’s clear, it’s apparent
• Appointed as – If appointed as one is appointed – appointed Secretary of . . .
• Fall down – If something falls It goes down, not up so down is redundant
• Exact same – Exact and same mean the same thing.
• Radiate out/expand out – If something radiates, it’s moving outward so “out” is redundant.
• Floral bouquet – A bouquet is usually indicates flowers
• Respond back – A response is giving an answer or reaction “back.”
• Seek out – If one seeks, they go beyond/out to search
• Trace amount – Trace is a small amount, making amount redundant
• Skip over – Skip is going “over” one thing to the next
• Could possibly – If you could to something than it’s a possibility
• True facts – Facts are true or they are not facts

Are you having an uh oh moment? I did. Habitually, we love to write “out,” “up,” and “down” after verbs just to make sure the reader gets it. It’s unnecessary flab.

The already understood: Certain nouns or labels are commonly understood and need no indentifying tags. Including them is overwriting.

Example:    …Mark Twain, the author who wrote the book, Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Most readers know Mark Twain was an author and most know Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a book. So all we need to write is: …Mark Twain who wrote Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Empty Modifiers: No surprise here. Many of these are ly adverbs. Basically -- usually -- ultimately -- very -- bit -- rather -- extremely

• Weak: Basically, you have two choices
• Stronger: You have two choices

Point of View Flab: This is a personal peeve of mine. When we’re in a characters head it’s not necessary to “tell” the reader he saw, felt, knew or heard something. Doing so, adds flab and makes the sentences passive rather than active. There are exceptions but eliminate weak verbiage whenever possible.

Example 1:  We’re in Jim’s head.

Instead of:  For once, Jim was glad to go to bed. As he dozed off, he heard his mom’s old Civic chug into the garage, choke and die. He knew money was tight but wished she’d buy a new car.

Use:  For once, Jim was glad to go to bed. As he dozed off, his mother’s old Civic chugged into the garage, choked and died. Money was tight but he wished she’d buy a new car.

Example 2:  We’re in Mary’s head.

Instead of:  Mary knew it was wrong to cheat on the math test. Still, she felt bad about Ann’s situation.

Use:  It was wrong to cheat on the math test, but Mary sympathized with Ann’s situation.

Wordy Verb Phrases - Or weak passive expressions: Notice the weak verbiage get, came, gives/give, put.

• Instead of: We came to a decision -- Use: We decided
• Instead of: He gets the math assignment -- Use: He understands
• Instead of: Vitamins give you energy -- Use: Vitamins energize
• Instead of: We put it to the test -- We tested

Since my crit partners here at WITS have named me the queen of lists, I am going to give you my entire list of wordy phrases with their alternatives. Mind you, whenever I find cool alternatives, I add to this list. I call it my Instead of Wordy Phrase List. Clunky, but it works. I’m sure every savvy writer can add even more phrases to this list. Check the websites listed below and you’ll find some. We hope you share more in the Comments.

• Acted as chairwoman – presided
• Along with – in addition
• Announce names of – announce, identify
• Appear on the scene – appear, arrive
• Are indications of – indicates
• Are suggestive of – suggests
• Assess a fine – fine
• Build up – fortify, store, collect, gathers
• Came to a stop – stopped
• Come to an end – ended
• Comply with – follow, obey
• Continue to remain – remain
• Decide about (or on) -- decide, select
• Devoured by flames – burned
• Draws to a close – ends
• Drink down – drink or drank
• Enclosed herein – enclosed
• Enter a bid of – bid
• Example of – typify
• Exchanged wedding vows – married
• Face up to – face
• File a lawsuit against – sue
• Give rise to – cause
• Give the nod – approve
• Has got to – has to
• Have an effect (impact) on – affect
• Have got to – must
• He was sent – dispatched
• Grabbed hold of his shoulders – grabbed his shoulders
• Infringe on (upon) – infringe
• Is aware of or has knowledge of -- knows
• Is going to – will
• Is taking – taking
• Know about – know
• Made a speech or statement – spoke
• Made an escape – escaped
• Made its way – reached
• Make contact with – meet, see
• Make inquiry regarding – ask about
• Makes his home – lives
• Passed away – died
• Put into effect -- start
• Referred to as -- called
• Stressed the point that – stressed that
• Take into consideration – consider
• Take place -- happen
• Turn down – reject
• Voiced objections – objected
• Want, wanting – desired, resolved, intending, determined, aim, have designs,
•                         set ones sights, plan
• Went inside – entered
• Went outside – exited
• Win out – win
• Withdrew – drew – as in drew his knife

Um, I have a Get Rid Of Get list too. Thought I’d save it for another time.

Helpful websites:

• Writing Essentials Online
• The Grumpy Grammarian
• Conciseness: Methods of eliminating wordiness
• The Writer’s Handbook
• Write Tight at Amazon

I’ve mentioned only a few types of flabby writing, so tell me, what kinds of flab have you trimmed lately?