A bestselling author reveals his 3 techniques to overcome writer’s block
cnbc.com – Thursday August 23, 2018
Experiencing writer's block can be both frightening and frustrating for anybody working on a project with a deadline fast approaching.
Unfortunately, this inability to produce content within a specified period of time can strike at any moment.
And bestselling Hay House author Charlie Morley is no stranger to this common setback.
Nurturing the literary landscape
thebookseller.com – Tuesday August 21, 2018
Literary fiction has lost status over the past quarter century, becoming marginal to our wider culture, argues New Statesman editor Jason Cowley in forthright terms in an interview in this week’s issue, reigniting the debate kicked off by Arts Council England’s report last December (Literature in the 21st Century) on what ACE reckoned were serious threats to literary fiction in the current climate.
Cowley may sound a touch nostalgic in his lament for the glamorous publishers of yesteryear, but many will think he has a point—particularly given that shrinking review space and the loss of dedicated literary editors has diminished the public profile of literary work over the past few years. This has made it a tougher arena than ever to establish new names and find a readership for experimental work, a task which was surely never easy anyway.
How #ShareYourRejection Reminds Us That Failure is Normal
comicsbeat.com – Sunday August 19, 2018
Big news. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Any success we have is accompanied by years of work and often countless failures. As someone who has faced rejection more times than they could shake a stick at, finding the #ShareYourRejection hashtag on Twitter was a lightning bolt to the soul (in a good way). It all started when Saeed Jones, author and co-host of Buzzfeed’s popular AM2DM show, Tweeted about a recent rejection he recieved.
Ebooks: How digital publishers are 'shaking up' the industry
bbc.com – Wednesday August 8, 2018
JK Rowling notoriously received numerous rejections before meeting her literary agent, and later, publisher. Having stacked up at least 60 rejections in my writing career, I know exactly how that feels.
And while being a novelist recently came out on top in a survey as one of the most desirable jobs to have, it is definitely not for the faint hearted.
I now have an agent and an award, but it wasn't always that way.
As a writer, the first step to securing a publishing deal is to acquire an agent, a middle-man, basically your number one fan who will shout about how good you are to publishers and hopefully persuade them to read your carefully-crafted novel.
They are the gatekeepers to the publishing industry.
Digital publishers, however, are changing the game because they talk directly to authors.
The one piece of advice every aspiring author needs to know
independent.co.uk – Sunday August 5, 2018
If you are one of the millions of people who aspire to be a published author, I have some writing advice for you: never listen to writing advice.
Not that it’s easy to avoid. If you go on Twitter and follow the hashtag #amwriting you’ll get more unsolicited advice than you know what to do with. Do this, do that, don’t on any account do the other. Everyone it seems, has some rules for you to follow.
Which is hardly surprising, as literally almost everybody is writinga book. And I use the phrase “literally almost everybody” advisedly. At the BookExpo America conference in 2015, author Jane McGonigal claimed that 90 per cent of young people in the US say they want to write a book.
How to Write a Book Without Losing Your Mind
theatlantic.com – Thursday August 2, 2018
A few months ago, I promised some nice people in New York that I would, sometime very soon, write a book.
Since then, I have:
Called my mom rejoicing.
Called my mom crying.
Considered changing my Twitter bio, then thought better of it.
Considered emailing all my ex-boyfriends and mentors to let them know I’m an impostor, then thought better of it.
Extensively researched three different long-form writing softwares, only to find that I prefer the first one I ever tried.
Why Are So Many Wannabe Screenwriters Getting Scammed?
hollywoodreporter.com – Wednesday August 1, 2018
From "pitch fests" to online script coaches, an entire cottage industry has sprung up to help aspiring scribes crack the movie business, and while some offerings are legit, many are schemes designed to prey on the Hollywood dreams of gullible strivers.
A few weeks after Manny Fonseca arrived in Los Angeles in the early part of this decade, having left his native Michigan with the hope of becoming a Hollywood writer or executive, the then 30-year-old was at a party when a producer asked if he’d “like to make a hundred bucks.” Sure, he replied. What would he have to do?
The answer was to show up the next day at a “pitch fest,” one of dozens of such gatherings each year in which hopefuls pay hundreds of dollars to serve up their story ideas to agents and executives who, in theory, will buy them if they’re good. Fonseca would be there as one of the buyers, which struck him as strange — not only was he not an executive, he didn’t even have a proper job: he had been interning with producers Arnold Kopelson and Irwin Winkler.
No, you probably don’t have a book in you
theoutline.com – Friday July 27, 2018
Has anyone ever said you should write a book? Maybe extraordinary things have happened to you, and they say you should write a memoir. Or you have an extremely vivid imagination, and they say you should write a novel. Maybe your kids are endlessly entertained at bedtime, and they say you should write a children’s book. Perhaps you just know how everything should be and imagine your essay collection will set the world straight.
Everyone has a book in them, right?
I hate to break it to you but everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them.
2 Big Book Writing Myths That Will Keep You From Achieving Big Profits
entrepreneur.com – Wednesday July 25, 2018
When my first book was published, I thought it would be an overnight success based purely on the topic and the fact that I knew the world needed it. My genius marketingplan was to simply publish it. If it exists on the internet, people will find it, right?
As you can imagine, that didn't work. It's a bit like showing up to a party, not knowing anyone, trying to make a grand entrance and having zero people pay attention. In fact, it was a lot like that. Hardly anyone blinked an eye or turned their head when my book became available.
Undeterred, I decided that the ticket to my success was that coveted Amazonbestseller ribbon. That will solve all my problems, I thought.
How to hook time-poor readers: 16 tips for publishers, booksellers and authors
thebookseller.com – Wednesday July 18, 2018
I’m a mom of four kids, and a book lover. These two facts don’t typically mesh too well. For years, the only time I could find to read was when I finally crawled, exhausted, under my covers at night. It would sometimes take months for me to get through even a short, mindless read. Many nights I’d have to backtrack a few pages because I couldn’t even remember what I’d read in my half-dazed, zonked state the night before. Short chapters were my savior.
It got to the point where I felt guilty buying books because I would never get through any of them. My book-buying slowed down, despite my interest in new releases. I felt like a book failure! In my most stressed out, time-short kid-raising moments, I needed to escape into someone else’s story more than ever, yet couldn’t figure out when and how to do it, or even what to read. And in today's frantic, information-overloaded world, I don't think this issue is restricted to moms.
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