Writing Tips & Links
Formatting a screenplay is A LOT of work. Theoretically, I suppose you could do it in a word processor, but it would take ten times as long and drive you crazy. That means screenwriters rely on software to do the heavy lifting so we can focus our energy on the important parts (you know, character…
by Grace Topping Today marks the launch of my mystery, Staging is Murder. It’s been a long road to publication, and I honestly don’t think I would have succeeded without Steve Alcorn’s course on mystery writing. It gave me a solid foundation on which to build. Without that foundation, I probably would have given up….
To begin, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dani Alcorn for inviting me to write a guest blog post for Writing Academy. My debut children’s picture book, Nobody Loves Mustard, unexpectedly became: An Amazon Best Selling New Release A Number 1 Best Seller (Top 100 Free) A Number 1 Best Seller (Top…
Since my last post about Twitter I’ve learned A LOT! Hashtags Hashtags make the Twitter-world go round. A hashtag is something that “tags” a post. It’s preceded by the pound symbol (#) and cannot include any spaces. You can search for hashtags on Twitter and also use them to help people find you. I’ve added…
You need an email list of potential customers to market your book(s) to. Surprised? You probably assumed email lists were just for businesses. But you are a business now! (PS That’s true even if you’re planning to go the traditional publishing route – agents and publishers will be very interested in you if you already…
Today I focused on laying the groundwork to attract and connect with my audience for Structure Your Screenplay. Even though I’m a millennial I’ve just never warmed up to Twitter. I had an account I created years ago at my first job to retweet a handful of articles my boss asked me to… to all four…
Getting your book blurbed by the right person can have a huge impact on the success of your book launch. The right blurb can increase your sales and go a long way toward legitimizing a self-published book. But, first, what is a book blurb? A book blurb is a short quote (usually just one or…
Every manuscript needs to be edited, and not just by the author. Sure, self-editing is an important step in manuscript preparation, but it’s not the final step if you want to be proud of your published work. We authors simply can’t catch all of our own mistakes. We tend to read what we think is…
After two years of editing(!) Dani’s and my new book, Writing Young Adult Fiction, is about to be published. As one of our fans, I’d like to extend this special pre-publication offer to you: get the Kindle book for just $2.99, or get it for free when you purchase the paperback. My favorite part of the book…
Every month I receive a statement showing my latest audiobook sales, and it always amazes me. When I first decided to turn several of my books into audiobooks, I did it as much for fun as in hopes of making big sales. But month after month and year after year the income keeps coming. Now…