Are great writers born or are they made? The answer: both. There are people out there who are innately driven to write, they write because there is something within them that pushes them to put their thoughts and ideas to paper; for them, writing is as essential as breathing. Those same people recognize that while they are artists they must also be craftsmen. There is a reason that writers are also dubbed wordsmiths, because like all good craftspeople they must dedicate time to perfecting their craft. Writers do this by reading the works of other writers, just as painters must learn by copying the masters. So too must writers seek the wisdom of those who have gone before. While reading the works of the literary greats will help you discover your own style there are also writers out there who have written about the craft of writing. The basics of writing and style guides will be immensely helpful in creating your own tone, voice, style, stories, and works.

List of Top 6 Books to Help Boost Your Writing

1. Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

This book in a must have for any aspiring writer! It is a classic and has been read and resourced by dozens of other writers. Why is this book so prolific? Because it gives you all of the essentials to great writing. Don’t underestimate the necessity of basics when writing for they are the foundation to great prose. You can also generally pick them up very cheap online or at a used book store.

2. The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson.

Perhaps the best history of the English language ever written; Bryson has managed to make the weird and wonderful history of English grammar interesting and amusing. He even includes a delightful chapter dedicated to swearing and wordplay. A great read that anyone with a curiosity for the history and imaginative uses of English should read.

3. On Writing Well by William Zinsser

This is another classic on writing non-fiction. This timeless book is great for anyone who is interested in writing essays or anything outside the realm of fiction. From travel, memoir, business, and scientific writing this book is the go to guide for writers of all kinds. Zinsser manages to make grammar interesting and giving sound advice on tone, word usage, style, and coherence.

Aside from the plethora of style and writing guides the anecdotal advice of authors themselves is always useful insight into the world of writing by those who do it themselves.

4. Writers on Writing  (Collected essays from the New York Times)

These collected essays are a fun and delightful read and the collection has an array of writers from Joyce Carol Oates to Kurt Vonnegut. These essays have insight and wit abounding, it is great to read the words of others especially when writer’s block rears its ugly head.

5. Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Ernest Hemingway, Larry W. Phillips (edit0r)

This is my personal favorite book on writing.  The essays feature titles such as “Advice to Writers” and “Obscenities” and are presented in the way on Hemingway can deliver them, candidly and directly.

6. The Writing Life: Writers On How They Think And Work (collected by Marie Arana from the Washington Posts’ column of the same title)

This is another brilliant collection of leading contemporary writers and how they work. This book gives the reader better insight into the inner world of the writer and how they work and gives us a glimpse into the literary life. This doesn’t deal with practical advice as much as it gives you a sneak peek into the work that goes into writing.

For an aspiring writer it is important to read, almost constantly, in order to develop ourselves as writers. It is well known among writers that while they all were born with the urge to write they had to learn to become writers. These books are remarkable tools that you can have at your disposal in order to finely hone your craft and become a more well rounded writer.

Check out another book list on this blog

Angie Picardo is a writer for NerdWallet a personal finance website that aspires to add wit and honesty in answering questions that will help you plan for retirement success.

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Evocative details bring any story to life, but they are particularly important in memoir.

Memoir, the true story of your life or at least the truth as you see it, can come off as boring and journalistic if events are told simply as they happened. Metaphorical language including direct comparisons, simile (using “like” or “as” to compare dissimilar things) and analogy paints pictures with details.

Memoir writers can find a wealth of good metaphor in fiction.

“I was an outsider” tells the truth as a narrator may know it, but it comes to life in metaphor. Here’s an example from Chris Cleave’s “Little Bee,” the story of a young Nigerian refugee in England:

Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would be pleased to see me coming. Maybe I would visit with you for the weekend and then suddenly, because I am fickle like that, I would visit with the man from the corner shop instead — but you would not be sad because you would be eating a cinnamon bun, or drinking a cold Coca-Cola from the can, and you would never think of me again. We would be happy, like lovers who met on holiday and forgot each other’s names.

Author Anne Panning uses the dairy industry as a book-length symbol of a disintegrating life in “Butter,” the story of 11-year-old Iris growing up in the ’70s in a small town in Minnesota. In this scene, Iris is invited on her birthday to choose something for free in the convenience store that was once her father’s creamery:

As I walked around the newly arranged aisles in the cramped little store, scanning rows of squeeze-out-of-the-tube cheeses and Triscuits and Chicken in a Biskit crackers, I couldn’t believe that to the left in the big glass cooler there were tubs of Parkay margarine for sale. To my father, margarine was like a sin – an evil, unnatural thing that looked and tasted like plastic and was full of food coloring to make it look not as much like lard, which it really was. There were several different types of margarine for sale – white-and-yellow plastic tubs of it with little flowers ringing the bottoms, big blocks of it, and foil-wrapped silvery sticks of it. Next to the margarine, my father’s butter, in its familiar white waxed wrapper with plain black lettering, looked so old-fashioned, so out of date, and seeing it there made me feel tender toward my father and his beautiful butter. I reached out quickly and picked up a brick.

Effective use of metaphor made Dee Doanes’ “The Man with the Green Suitcase” a pleasure to read. One of my favorite lines from her book: “He ages before Gerald’s eyes like dawn creeping into morning.”

I appreciate metaphor for its ability to transport the reader from the here and now into another’s mind which is crucial for creating a likeable narrator in a memoir. Here’s an example from my book, “The Percussionist’s Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal”:

The basement served as an apt analogy for the foundation of our relationship. It was unfinished and offered a view of the dirty underbelly of the house. The stone walls sweated when it rained, and the whole thing was damp in the summer, icy cold in the winter. It was naked and unpleasant. We stacked unused furniture, old drum equipment and holiday décor around the furnace, stuck the cat box down there and generally avoided spending any time there.

Metaphors don’t have to be serious to be effective. Author Jen Lancaster is a master of sprinkling similes in her very funny memoirs: “Despite my best efforts, I’m not quite perfect. Let’s just say I’m like one of those Hopi blankets where they leave a tiny flaw so as to not affront the Lord. (Don’t want to offend the Big Guy, right?)”

Some tips on writing metaphors:

1. Think about the characteristics of the person or event you’re trying to describe. Brainstorm on other things that share some of those qualities.

2. What kind of mood are you setting? Choose bright metaphors to evoke happiness and dour ones to set a darker mood.

3. Write it down. Try out an idea in a couple of sentences and see where it goes. Some of my best ideas are buried so deep in my psyche, even I don’t know they are there until I unearth them at the keyboard.

4. Read it out loud. Pretend you’re doing a book reading. Does it sound right? Does the metaphor work?

May your writing be like jumping in puddles on a warm spring day: Joyful even when you are making a mess.

Monica Lee is the author of “The Percussionist’s Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal,” the story of her marriage to a man accused in a school sex scandal. A native of a small town in Minnesota, she is working on her second book, the story of the year she turned 15 and learned to French kiss.

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“The Percussionist’s Wife” on Amazon

Check out other books on this blog

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As a writer or a book lover, it may be hard for you to understand how other people may not share your enthusiasm. It may be even harder when the people in question are your children. You want to share your favorite books with them, and you want to see them following in your literary footsteps, but they’d much rather play Xbox or get on their computers.

All is not lost! There are many ways that you can help your kids to get more excited about reading and writing. Here are a few ideas to get kids excited about reading and writing:

Read Books that Match their Interests

Do you have a budding explorer on your hands who loves dinosaurs? Pull out books on dinosaurs and read them together. Or is your little one more interested in exploring the final frontier? Buy books about the universe and the planets, and search for stories about space explorers. By giving your children books that reflect their other interests, you are likely to see them get much more excited about reading.

Read Popular Books

Sometimes peer pressure works in your favor. When all your kids’ friends are talking about Harry Potter, they are likely to want to read Harry Potter. Look for popular books like these to get your kids more excited about reading. They may start out reading the book because all their friends are, but they may find that they actually really enjoy it and will be motivated to read more.

Lead by Example

Children model your behavior. If they see you reading often, they are likely to want to read more themselves. When you read stories together, model your enthusiasm. Use an animated tone of voice to read the story, and talk about what you liked about the story. Be explicit in your enthusiasm. “That was such a great story!” “I can’t believe how brave that heroine was!”

Make Storytelling a Game

To get kids more excited about writing and telling their own stories, you can turn it into a game. Start the story off by telling a few lines of it, then turn it over to your child. Once he has added a few lines, he can turn it back over to you or to another of your children. You keep going until you have finished the story. Keep a notebook with you to write it all down. The game will make it a fun activity that children will want to do again — maybe even on their own.

Make Up Stories While People Watching

The world is full of interesting characters. Whenever you are out at the park, the museum, or any other public place, take the opportunity to use the people you see as characters in your stories. Encourage your children to watch people and to figure out what their story is. Is that man on the bench a retired war admiral who fought in World War II? Is that woman you see at the museum secretly a government agent who is meeting an asset? Be creative and help your children get into the fun of storytelling.

Write Stories about Favorite Characters

Take your children’s favorite book and encourage them to write a story using one of that book’s characters. Maybe they can write a story about what Willy Wonka does after retirement, or about what Harry Potter’s children did when they went to Hogwart’s. If they don’t want to write new stories, they can reimagine old ones. Ask them to write a new ending for their favorite story or to change a scene. For example, what would happen if Alice never ran into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum? How would the story be different if Dorothy had met the Scarecrow and Tin Man but not the Lion?

Be creative! There are many ways that you can help kids get excited about reading and writing if you think outside the box. Tap into what got you excited about reading and writing, and find ways to do the same for your children.

How do you get your children excited about reading and writing?

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When I first made a firm decision to become a  writer, I decided that writing short stories could teach me a lot about how to make up a good story in, um, short order.

I was maybe half right. Writing short stories can spoil you because they are usually finished rather quickly. At least quickly compared to writing novels. And because I wrote so many (over fifty published, probably another thirty in various stages of just beginnings to having been submitted but rejected), I became addicted to writing them, even though I wrote a few novels, too.

I do think I learned how to write a better story by writing so many short stories. I came up with an enormous number of characters, plots, descriptions, and learned a lot about craft along the way. They work great with critique groups, and I belonged to several over the years. The critiquers get a whole story at one time to give advice about. They could tell right away if a beginning, middle, or ending worked or not and explain why. Critiquing a novel chapter by chapter doesn’t give the writer as much help with the overall project.

I know several writers who swear they can’t write short stories. And I know several more who much prefer writing shorts stories to writing novels or anything else. I guess I’m fortunate because I learned to enjoy writing both. I think some of that learning was by osmosis because I read a lot of shorts and a lot of novels. Stephen King, in his book, On Writing, said he believes in reading one hour for every hour he writes. Sounds like a good formula to me.

My final takeaway is to read a lot, write a lot (whatever length), to polish a lot, and to submit. Studying craft can be helpful, of course, but you can learn a lot by reading other work.  And by writing your own.

Bio:

Jan Christensen grew up in New Jersey and now resides in Texas. Organized to Death is her third published novel. She’s had over fifty short stories appear in various places over the last dozen years, two of which were nominated for a Derringer Award.

Jan mainly enjoys writing mysteries, but every once in awhile steps out of that comfort zone and goes for something else, including non-fiction articles. She has a column about reading in the ezine, “Mysterical-e” and blogs regularly at her website.

Check out her new book, Organized to Death

Check out some other authors on this blog

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Writing is a fine art form that takes years of practice to perfect. Some may never achieve the star status as a writer that they hope to accomplish, while a select few have so honed their craft that they became millionaires just from doing what they love. To truly refine your craft, some believe that you may need a Master of Fine Arts degree, or MFA for short, to take the next step forward in their writing careers.

While it is a good idea to get as much training as possible to sharpen your writing, there are definitely some pros and cons to this path. Let’s go over the details of what those pros and cons would be as you consider pursuing an MFA for your writing career.

Compare the Pros and Cons for MFA Writers

Pro: You will be trained by those that really know their stuff.

While having your work picked apart and criticized by professors of the arts may sound a bit frightening and worrisome, it’s actually a good thing. If you can’t pinpoint what you are doing wrong, but someone else who really knows what they’re doing can, then it will help you go a long way. Some things may not be visible to you in your writing but an extra set of experienced eyes on your work will help you to hone your skills, and voice.

Con: It’s not guaranteed that you will find success.

While having an MFA on your resume will certainly get a second look at your file, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are guaranteed success. There are other writers that are just naturally gifted without having ever stepped foot on a college campus, that’s just the way the world works. You will certainly have to submit samples and if someone else’s writing is just simply better, then they will go with that person over you, despite the MFA on your resume. In the long run, you could find yourself in massive debt while the successful writer that didn’t have any debt to begin with is making even more money.

Pro: You will become better at critiquing other works, which will help you critique your own.

During an MFA program, you will focus more on reading and critiquing other works compared to creating your own. This can be a little frustrating as all you want to do is sit down and write, but to truly become a great writer, you will need to read other people’s writing and figure out what they did wrong. Sometimes you will see something wrong and then suddenly realize that you have been doing the same thing through your whole life when it comes to your writing. It can be a bit of a sad shock, but it’s the only way to become truly great.

Con: It’s a bad road to take for commercial writers.

Included in these critiques will be commercial writers, you know, the ones that sell boatloads of copies of their books and have found themselves wealthier beyond their wildest dreams. If that’s the course you want to take (and truthfully, who wouldn’t want support themselves with just their writing), it is looked down on by most in MFA programs. They see it as more of a cookie cutter form of writing that should be thrown in the trash.

Now that you’ve seen what comes with the good and bad of an MFA program, it’s time to decide if that’s going to be the right fit for you. It’s a lot of time and commitment, so make sure to choose wisely.

Angie Picardo is a writer for NerdWallet, a financial literacy website where you can find advice on how to fund your education and set financial goals. 

Writers check out another post on boosting your creatvity

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I have just finished reading another of Jodi Picoult’s novels. It is astounding how each of her books seems to speak directly to me. How does she know just what I am going through or what challenges I am struggling with? Can she read my mind?

Several months ago, I lost my very dear 102-year old mother-in-law and when I picked up Picoult’s Lone Wolf, I was drawn by the disentanglement of the exact moral issues I had just encountered. Although I was only one of her four daughters-in-law, (my husband being one of four boys), I had a wonderfully close connection with Mummy and with my biological mother gone from my life for over forty years, I looked to the elderly woman as my true mom.

So when she lay dying in the hospital bed, the conflict presented by medical science and moral choices was prominent in my mind. Unlike Lone Wolf, there was no decision here about organ donation. Mummy had passed the stage where any of her organs could be implanted in another body. But the nagging questions of life and death remained nevertheless. Should we keep a person alive artificially when there is no hope of recovery? How long should we allow an ailing person to suffer needlessly just so she can continue to live another day? And if a mother’s life hangs in balance, how do four brothers come to a mutual agreement about her fate? Conflicting emotions make decisions difficult. No one wants to be the one to pull the plug.

Picoult writes with a sense of directness to the issues at hand.  The ethical subjects she deals with, presented always in first person, are placed in the lap of each character who observes the ongoing events from a different perspective.  Ever outspoken, she has written about issues most authors avoid, such as suicide, gays, sexual abuse and euthanasia. With all of her books, I find myself directly trapped in the mind of each personality, trying to grasp the varying sides of a situation and grapple with its moral outcome.  Picoult’s stories speak directly to the mind, with more than one turn through the heart.

Thanks to Cina for this guest post. Check out these other great authors 

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By The Watchman, Author Matt Langford

5 Tips for Parents Raising a Child With a Learning Difficulty. This is a great guest post from Matt Langford. His book, The Watchman, is about a young man with a learning disability. Matt knows about this subject well since he grew up with a brother that has a learning disability.

My experience growing up with my brother. 

When I was 12 years old I performed an act of such pitiful unkindness its echoes deafen me to this very day.  I was striding through the park with my school friends one sunny lunchtime in about 1990 when I saw my brother walking towards me.  Free of the childhood strata that allows you unbridled love and pride for your family, it occurred to me that having a brother with a learning difficulty might afford me some embarrassment.   So I ignored him and walked on, jumping like an enlightened puppy around my pre-pubescent chums.  Unfazed by my wretched act my brother reacted in the only sensible way – he wrenched himself free from his carer, ran up to me and my gang, picked out the coolest, toughest guy (Simon … what a legend) and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the lips.  We all stared, open mouthed, at the audacity of it.  We were cool, don’t forget.  My brother laughed, blew me a raspberry, grabbed his balls and sauntered back to his carer and the promise of an ice cream.

Like all our minor battles, my brother won with a class and dignity you and I will never achieve.  His joy and amusement at life boiled down to a few minor yet ultimately precious strategies put to such breathtaking effect by my extraordinary parents.  The fact that I had no idea there was a problem within my family until that sunny day in the park is testament to mum and dad’s ridiculously fabulous parenting.  They were able to deploy several methods of true wonder which coloured in what must have been an incredibly difficult life for them both.  Here are just a few of those strategies which I feel may help other parents who have the fortune to find themselves with a child in possession of a learning difficulty.  It won’t be easy, but just remember this – no one else can do what you’re doing.

5 Tips for Parents Raising a Child With a Learning Disability

1. Be yourselves – make life as normal as possible for yourself and your kids.  Go to the beach and the zoo.  Argue about money and housework.  When walking in the woods, hold hands and giggle at fart jokes.  Tell your child they’re being a plum when they are, indeed, displaying plummish behaviour (because they will; there’s no getting away from it – sometimes these people, disability or not, can be utter jerks).  Ultimately, by being yourselves, your children will appreciate you and trust you.  And, apart from anything else, you’ll feel like you’re raising a family and not performing a task.

2. Have a break – Don’t be afraid of respite care.  Give yourselves and your child a break from one another.  If the service exists, use it.  Spending 21 relentless years under the same roof will inevitably lead to axes through doors and you speaking in tongues.  You’ll irritate the hell out of one another.  Deal with it.  This is a family afterall.  Send them off for a couple of nights and invite your friends round for food, drink and dancing to Deacon Blue at 2am.

3. Don’t isolate yourselves – Join groups.  Volunteer for stuff.  Do sports.  Ensure you and your partner get out at least once a month and pretend to be 19 again.  Getting up at 6am every morning and helping an adolescent get washed and dressed is rubbish.  But only you can do it.  No one else.  Ensure you apportion some reckless time – give yourself over to silliness and involve other people in this practice.  Your child will thank you for it.

4. Fight for everything – Services, help and money.  Sadly, there will be no miraculous knock at the door from a man with a briefcase offering you an array of magic beans.  It’s not ideal.  You’ve got enough to deal with.  But that’s the life you’ve been handed – the more you fight and the more of a nuisance you make of yourself, the more you’ll get.  If you don’t then you’ll struggle.  My mum and dad fought for 3 years to get motability benefit.  They jumped through every hoop and even suffered the indignity of parading my brother in front of a board of suits in order to prove just how disabled he was.  It was rubbish – but we got the car!

5. Enjoy your child – the thing that made our family life so enjoyable was the fact that my parents brought out the best of my brother’s personality.  He was always happy.  He always laughed.  If your child is happy then you will be happy.  The reason he gave cool Simon a hug and kiss in the park is because he thought it would be fun (but then again, he believed that making my life hell was a noble, fun-packed pursuit.  See chapter 7 of The Watchman if you don’t believe me).  If it’d been me in his shoes I would’ve chinned me.  But, as I said before, he possessed infinitely more class than I do.  So enjoy your child.  Play with them.  Make them laugh.  Let them amuse you.  For all the hardship you will endure, you will receive joy beyond words.  No one else can do it.  Only you.

Author Bio:

Since deciding some years ago that writing would be a fruitless, difficult career path, and that I should really devote my time to something more sensible (say, accountancy or nursing), I have written several books and dozens of short stories and essentially given myself over to the typewriter at the expense of my hair, my looks and my physique. Demotivation seems to be key here.
The problem seems to be, however, that once I write a book a magic unicorn named Bob comes along to edit, rewrite and tidy up my work. Bob has been absent. With this in mind I have spent the last year editing, tidying and rewriting a dozen of my shorts and a couple of my novels.

About The Watchman :

The Watchman is a fictional novel told through the eyes of Adam, a young man with a learning disability, as he matures into adulthood and attempts to make sense of the disintegration of his family.

Set at the end of the eighties we follow the Olsen’s through their upheavals as they begin the final stretch of their family years. We begin as the family move into rural Devon and try to settle into country life. Adam is at first quietly content with his new life, new home and new dog. He makes interesting friends and enjoys his days at a nearby day centre. Adam’s love of his family and wonderfully endearing (if flawed) nature comes to the fore one Christmas. He terrorises and smothers his long suffering Gran in equal amounts, supplying her with acts of wonderful menace and heartbreaking love. We move onto a visit from a family friend who changes Adam’s view of those closest to him forever – he begins to realise how fundamental his differences really are, and that he may never make a ‘real’ friend.

The first cracks begin to appear, however, when he realises that his two younger siblings, Jake and Joss, are growing up and spending more time away from the family. It is also apparent that his father, Pete, who although clearly well meaning yet largely absent from Adam’s life, is on the verge of leaving the home. Adam finds this situation impossible to understand – why do families break up? Why do people hurt one another? And, crucially, why do people have to change? He can’t understand how his closest family, this foundation of his existence, won’t stay with him when, crucially, he never realised there was any other option.

As time goes on Adam’s behaviour deteriorates, culminating in a violent attack on his mother – the absolute centre of his world. He realises his mistake and makes a pact with himself never to hurt those around him ever again. Sadly, it is too late for him, and his worst nightmare is realised – the family as he knows it is split and gone forever.

The book is based upon my own childhood experience of growing up with a brother with a severe learning difficulty. Although all the characters in The Watchman are fictitious, most of the events are based upon real anecdotes and encounters from our teenage years. He never articulated a feeling or a need. Everything he communicated required a noise or a physical act. I cannot begin to comprehend the hardships he must’ve endured in life – not being able to make himself understood or be able to make sense of the world occurring around him. So this novel is an attempt to see the world through his eyes. I doubt I have captured even a degree of his real frustrations or bewilderment, but I hope it will allow the reader to go partway into the mind of someone who, essentially, just loved his family.

Buy the Watchman on Amazon

Buy the Watchman on Smashwords

The post 5 Tips for Parents Raising a Child With a Learning Disability appeared first on DeeDoanes.

By Angie Picardo of Nerdwallet

If you haven’t noticed, Amazon is trying to take over the world. Or, at least the publishing and book world. In March 2013, it was announced that Amazon bought Goodreads, the free and neutral review site for readers and writers, for an undisclosed sum of money. It is deduced the price was in the billions. Besides being beneficial to the bank accounts of those involved, Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads has the potential to change the landscape of books and publishing, and not necessarily for the better.

Because Goodreads is a neutral and free website, users are able to review freely and thus accurately and without any worry of repercussion, such as filtered reviews or purchased reviews. So far, money is not a factor with Goodreads as it stands today. Sure, authors and publishers can host giveaways on Goodreads, but with the understanding that reviews are going to be honest and not pitiful attempts at gaining positive reviews. Goodreads still has honor.

With Amazon, things are a little different. Money makes people do bad and weird things, like write fake reviews or write 25,000 reviews. Amazon book reviews can be as cutthroat as a middle school dance popularity contest: thousands of reviews were deleted by Amazon in efforts to curb fake reviews last year, and people have rallied to have Super Reviewers with tens of thousands of reviews removed or limited because of their excessive influence. There is a book review war raging on Amazon, skewing ratings of books and making someone’s wallet thicker.

Meanwhile, Goodreads exists in a neutral harmony of actual reviews. Bringing Amazon’s consumerism into this book lover’s paradise will most likely sour it into nothing but marketing pitches and sale efforts. Never mind the fact that now Amazon has the access to invaluable, potential-customer data. Amazon will be able to research what you read, whether or not you bought it, what you recommend, why, etc.

The consumerism and lack of privacy likely to come to fruition from this deal just makes it that much harder for publishers and writers to “make it.” Competing against a monopoly is obviously no fun, and Amazon’s hold on books is worse than waiting for that new bestseller to become available at your local library that just always seemed to be checked out. Perhaps some writers will be able to find a golden ticket in this mess, using Amazon’s monopoly and success to market themselves and their books to a wider audience. That is a hope, in a way. But how will Amazon choose who gets to be “on top”?

For readers, Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads isn’t as devastating, but still invasive nonetheless. How does it feel having a business powerhouse researching your likes, dislikes, and reviews? How will it feel receiving advertising specific to their findings? Even if you don’t care about your privacy, knowing you are just data and nothing more than a potential dollar has got to be irksome.

Moreover, there is the likely possibility that Amazon will integrate Goodreads’ social networking tools into the experience of reading on a Kindle. After all, this is one big reason why Amazon purchased Goodreads: Amazon has no social network, and modern times call for one. Instead of reading a book (whether paper or electronic) and then logging online to socialize it, there could be widgets and thingamabobbers within the ebook “pages” available for instant sharing. Again, questions of privacy come up. Could reading a book, one of the most fulfilling solitary activities, become another version of over-sharing Facebook?

Many Goodreads users have already closed accounts to save privacy and integrity. While some people point to Amazon’s acquisition of Zappos and IMBD to show how those companies were able to remain pretty much the same, Amazon was not created to sell shoes or debate new movies. It arose as an online seller of books. And as one of the most successful book sellers in the world, we must take note of this new acquisition. We run the risk of losing more privacy, independence, and the beauty of creating literature for literature’s sake—not for profit.

In the words of Dee Doanes, a writer and businesswoman, “Goodreads will help rebuild the review reputation of Amazon considerably. The only questions now are: Will readers continue to trust Goodreads? Will writers have a safe place for real reviews? Or will another book social media site take the place of Goodreads? Only time will tell.”

Angie Picardo is a writer at Nerdwallet, a personal finance website that offers advice on topics ranging from business news to understanding personal finance.

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Blogging tips for fiction writers. Fiction writers must write to keep their skills sharp and their creative spirits flowing. One of the best ways to do both of these things is to write a blog. Yet it’s shocking to find just how many fiction writers struggle with it. From what to write about to how to make the most of it, here are a few tips for fiction authors looking to get into blogging.

The article was written by Alice. She works for online proofreading services and writes articles on  writing and blogging.

Blogging Tips To Help Writers

Genre Writing

Fiction writers, stick to what you know. Write about something related to your favorite genre. What you write about is entirely up to you. Mix it up to keep things interesting, and yourself motivated. Sometimes you can write a little piece of flash fiction. Other times you might want to turn into the industry analyst where you comment on the state of your genre.

And you don’t always have to stick to your pure genre. Try to comment on a subgenre every once in a while.

The advantage of writing from a selection of angles is it keeps things fresh for you. Nobody wants to create a new piece of work at the same time each week. You might not feel like it, or you could have stumbled upon a story which has got your blood boiling. Avoid confining yourself and you let your creative heart run free.

Research

When you write your books you conduct research into everything. Not all of this research necessarily goes into your book, and even if it does you can use it. Dig out all your old notes and expand on it. You’ll inadvertently create subject matter for your blog, and you might just find some material for your next book.

Guest Blogging

Try some guest blogging with your characters. Take a favorite character from one of your works and bring them to life in a blog. Allow them to use their voices to speak to your readership. And if you want to add a little twist, you could even have them create blogs in response to each other.

It’s new and it’s creative, and it gives your readership a break from the voice of the writer.

Occasionally, you might want to go back to traditional guest blogging. Invite an author to post something for a week. It generates interest and adds a fresh face to your website. And you can also do one for them, which enhances your exposure.

Invite Your Readers Inside

We live in a world where transparency is the order of the day. Readers want to get closer to you and your work. Short of inviting them into your home for a cup of coffee, the best option is to ask for their opinions. If you’re not sure about one of your pieces of writing, broadcast it online and see what they think.

There’s nothing more honest than the opinion of a stranger who can’t see you. It gives them leave to say what they want without feeling constrained by social etiquette.

Getting to Know You

As already mentioned, readers want to know who you are as a person. Who is the person behind the authorial façade? An ideal way to do this is to speak out on the works of others. It doesn’t necessarily need to revolve around fiction. There’s nothing wrong with going in a new direction and commenting on a social or political issue occasionally.

Your readers might not agree with you, but they’ll relish the chance to communicate with you in another realm of debate.

Tame the Untameable

Fiction writers by nature have wild fits of writing passion and times where the well seems empty. You won’t necessarily always want to write a blog. The key to creating a successful blog is to prize consistency above all things.

Now, as a writer, this is a difficult thing to do. When you’re not at your best, you don’t want to write at all. But you have to. Get into the groove by crafting an editorial schedule where you will make a post. Even if it’s short, anyone reading it will appreciate the effort. It isn’t necessary to write detailed posts you spent hours researching each week.

Just an insight into your life will suffice.

Check out another blog that gives blogging tips here

The post Blogging Tips for Fiction Writers appeared first on DeeDoanes.

Use Goodreads to Sell More Books. Goodreads is the little social network that could. It started out as a niche tool that only book nerds loved — a way for them to connect over what they were reading and the books that they had already read and loved. However, it has quickly grown into a tool that is popular with mainstream audiences and with many more uses.

This guest post comes from Alexis Bonar. She writes for one of the largest open databases of college funding opportunities. Specific topics like educational grants are described in detail to provide multiple resources for students.

Goodreads offers authors a number of great opportunities to promote their works with that large fan base of readers. Not sure where to start? Here are just a few of the ways you can use Goodreads to help you sell more books:

Create a Complete Author Profile

Start by introducing yourself to readers. Goodreads allows each author to create a profile, which you can use to tell readers more about yourself and your books. Write a compelling blurb that will get readers interested in checking out your work. Including a full bookshelf of books that you have written. Include information about events in which you will appear, such as book readings and signings. Of course, include a link to your blog or website, as well.

Post Great Excerpts

For each of your books listed on Goodreads, you can choose to share excerpts to allow readers to get a sense of what they can expect from your book. Choose the very best passages for these excerpts (though don’t give away everything you have to offer). Great excerpts will help you to attract more readers and sell more books.

Get Reviews

Good reviews are free advertising for your book. Of course, you can get reviews simply by writing a great book that inspires readers to want to tell their friends all about it. For others, you may have to do a little coaxing. Including widgets and badges on your blog or website that ask readers to review your book on Goodreads, and include a call to action on your blog asking readers to write a review if they enjoyed your book.

Join Groups

Goodreads isn’t just a place to browse and rate books and leave the occasional review. You can also meet up with other bibliophiles and talk about your favorites. As an author, you can join these groups and become part of the discussion. After you have established a presence there and built up some relationships, you can share information about your books. If you do it before then, any mention of your books will be seen as self-promotional (read: spammy) and will be ignored.

Buy Advertising

Like Facebook, Goodreads offers targeted advertising. Through the Self-Serve Advertising platform, you can choose which readers you want to show your ads, including readers who have indicated a preference for a certain genre or author. You set your own budget, so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make this an effect way of reaching more readers and getting more exposure for your books.

Goodreads is a growing social network, and it offers authors the opportunity to connect with a growing number of readers. Use these tips to help you promote your work on the network, helping you to drive sales and get the exposure that you need.

Do you use Goodreads to promote your books? Share your tips for success in the comments!

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