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….
Category: Publishing
Lessons Learned: Writing & Illustrating an Amazon Best-Selling Children’s Picture Book
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…
Editing Your Book
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…
New Book: Writing Young Adult Fiction
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…
Audiobooks are another great way to sell your work
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…
What Genres Do Literary Agents Want?
Since agents work on commission, they are looking for books they can sell and make money from. Those don’t necessarily match what books are the best sellers. Some very popular categories don’t sell for high contract prices, meaning less commission to the agent. Agents are looking for the high dollar contracts. If you want to…
Translating Your Self-Published Book
One of the advantages of self-publishing is that you don’t have to wait for your publisher to translate your book. You can do it yourself! Translation can help open your book up to more markets, but keep in mind that your translated book will need to be promoted – just like the original. Read more:…
Proofreading tips
Proofreading tips to help professional writers, students, or anyone that writes as part of their work day. Error free writing and typing is possible! The skill of proofreading is necessary whether you are a student, a professional writer, or someone who creates lots of office memos. No matter the context in which you are writing,…
A New Publisher Who Promotes Your Book
When JK Rowling first wrote Harry Potter, she couldn’t land a publishing deal. That’s right, the greatest money making book of our time was passed over repeatedly. However, it was finally accepted…not because an editor actually read it, but because one of them gave the first chapter to his eight-year-old daughter and said, “Here, you…
NaNoWriMo: Creating a Novel in 30 Days
November is National Novel Writing Month, when authors can sign up at http://nanowrimo.org and receive encouragement as they work to create a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Hundreds of my students have successfully used NaNoWriMo to complete their first draft, so it’s a valuable tool. It sounds like a lot of work, but you…