By: Jason Boog,
on 4/25/2013
At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last weekend, three writers shared advice for aspiring children’s book authors.
During the “Pictures on the Page: The Art of Children’s Books” panel discussion, Blue Chameleon author Emily Gravett, Hang Glider & Mud Mask co-author Brian McMullen and Not a Box author Antoinette Portis talked about their craft and writing lives.
Below, we’ve collected their advice for aspiring authors…
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/24/2013
A Rutgers PhD student recently lost five years of work when a computer was stolen, and they posted a heartbreaking message that has since earned more than a million views online (embedded above).
This is the perfect reminder to BACK UP YOUR WORK. Social Times rounded up the Top 8 Free File Sharing Sites, enough free storage to save every bit of digital work you have ever created. Here are two free offerings from the long list:
1. Box: gives you 5 GB of storage for free and lets you organize your files into folders in the cloud, just like you would on your desktop. You can share links or entire file folders with others and see when they’ve been viewed.
2. Bitcasa: stores up to 10 GB worth of free files, photos, playlists, videos and docs that can be accessed from any device (and reportedly goes up to infinity for paying customers).
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/18/2013
Are you looking for a writers group? Writers groups can motivate you to write more, critique your work or even help you publicize your work.
We have created an experimental project to connect writers around the globe, helping GalleyCat readers create writers groups both online and in the real world.
Sign up to join our free directory here. Once you fill out the simple form, you will be able to access our complete directory of GalleyCat readers who are looking for a writers group.
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By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/18/2013
Today, I'm thrilled to announce an extra-special giveaway in honor of our FOURTH BLOGIVERSARY. To show our appreciation to our blog readers AND to one of our favorite independent booksellers, we'll be giving away FOUR $25 gift certificates to Anderson's Bookshops! And, as a bonus, Anderson's is generously offering our winners a 20% discount, which will help defray the shipping costs if you're unable to redeem your gift certificate in person.
". . . the Christian Science Monitor recently reported [you can read that article here], there are now many indications that a once-beleaguered portion of the bookselling landscape, independent bookstores, are enjoying a “quiet resurgence.” Sales are up this year; established stores, such as Brooklyn’s WORD, are doing well enough to expand and new stores are opening. Indies have been helped by the closure of the Borders chain and a campaign to remind their customers that if they want local bookstores to survive, they have to patronize them, even if that means paying a dollar or two more than they would on Amazon."I confess, I'm one of those book buyers willing to pay "a dollar or two more" to support my local independent. I want to help ensure they'll still be around when I finally have another book signing. :-)
By: Jason Boog,
on 4/19/2013
Do you spend too much time worrying about publishing trends and not enough time writing?
On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Leah Konen, the author of The After Girls. She shared writing advice for aspiring YA novelists. She also explained how a Mediabistro writing course helped her get published. Here’s an important tip:
My first piece of advice would be to really write YA because want to write YA. It’s become very popular now and sometimes people think commercially it will do the best. You have to have a passion for the voice and the tone and this idea of going back to childhood and your teenage years. You should pursue it, if that’s why you’re doing it. Not just because it happens to be the genre with the most movie deals.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/23/2013
Can you name all the trees, flowers and birds around you? According to legend, the great novelist Vladimir Nabokov once met a Cornell University who asked Nabokov for writing advice. The writing student received this curt reply:
Nabokov looks up from his reading he points to a tree outside his office window. ‘What kind of tree is that?’ he asks the student. ‘What?’ ‘What is the name of that tree?’ asks Nabokov. ‘The one outside my window.’ ‘I don’t know,’says the student. ‘You’ll never be a writer.’ says Nabokov.”
Debut novelist Brian Kimberling published Snapper this week, a novel drawn from his own experience as a bird researcher. His book is filled with careful and unexpected descriptions of nature, so we caught up with Kimberling for some nature writing advice…
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/5/2013
Do you dream of using crowdfunding to support a writing or research project that you could never tackle by yourself?
Today on the Morning Media Menu, journalist and literary blogger Edward Champion introduced his Indiegogo campaign to raise money to take and document 3,000-mile walk across the country. He also talked about his dispatches from the roadand shared advice for creating perks for your campaign. Here’s an excerpt:
This is, above all, a vicarious experience in which I hope to impart vital knowledge and awareness of the many people who live between Brooklyn and San Francisco who don’t get the kind of massive and detailed attention that this particular project will offer (that other mainstream outlets do not). It’s the kind of thing you can imagine, maybe even five or ten years ago, magazines might have put up money for this. But those days are now gone. This is long, long form journalism and it’s the kind of thing that may only be possible through something like IndieGoGo or crowdfunding.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/8/2013
This GalleyCat editor spent his weekend transcribing interviews. If you are working on a budget, paying someone to transcribe your work is out of the question.
What tools do you use to transcribe? Over at AppNewser, we collected free resources for manually transcribing recorded interviews. Check it out:
I’ve rounded up a few free apps for manually transcribing long interviews. I spent the weekend using the free Transcribe tool for Google Chrome, an elegant, simple add-on that gives you the ability to slow down or speed up a recording while transcribing. It works on both Macs and PCs.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/9/2013
Struggling to find the best self-publishing platform for your book?
To help aspiring self-published authors navigate the tricky world of publishing platforms, we have collected video tutorials to help you explore these booming marketplaces before loading your book. Follow the links below to watch the videos…
Amazon Kindle Publishing Video Tutorial
Barnes & Noble NOOK Press Video Tutorial
Smashwords Publishing Video Tutorial
Apple iBooks Author Video Tutorial
Kobo Writing Life Video Tutorial
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/10/2013
Will you celebrate National Scrabble Day on April 13? David Bukszpan, author of Is That a Word?: From AA to ZZZ, the Weird and Wonderful Language of Scrabble, will play Scrabble at The Brooklyn Strategist to celebrate the holiday.
The author shared some Scrabble strategies last year on the Morning Media Menu, revealing some literary secrets that GalleyCat readers can use while playing. Press play at the bottom of this post to listen to the whole interview.
He gave GalleyCat readers a special gift: an enormous list of book-related words you can play in Scrabble.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/15/2013
How do you prepare for pitching your next article or book? On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Daniel Pink, the bestselling author of To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.
Pink explored his new book, sharing some unexpected rejection advice for writers. He also explained how he used Qualtrics Research Suite to gather reporting for his book. Here’s an excerpt:
If you’re going to pitch a book or pitch an article to a magazine editor, the conventional view is that we should pump ourselves up that we should say to ourselves, “You can do it!” Positive, affirmative self-talk. What the research shows is that it’s actually more effective to questions your abilities. To go from “You can do it” to “Can you do this?” Because questions, by their very nature, elicit an active response. So when you say “Can you do this?” you have to answer. And in that answer is the preparation, the rehearsal and the review of the strategy. I’ve used that a lot, going from positive, affirmative self-talk to interrogative self-talk.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/15/2013
How many readers remember the old school joy of turning a full page of handwritten notes and running your hands along the bumpy underside of the page?
One Reddit user snapped a photograph (embedded above) of a recently finished page of notes, writing “does anyone else feel oddly satisfied by turning the page after writing for a while to see this?” So far, that photograph has been viewed nearly 38,000 times online.
If that picture made you happy, check out our What Is Your Favorite Kind of Pen? post and our Ballpoint Pen Fan Fiction collection.
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 4/17/2013
Have you ever wanted to share your life story in a memoir? To get some tips, we caught up with Jon Reiner–the author who teaches Mediabistro’s upcoming Memoir Writing course.
Reiner shared the story of his award-winning memoir, The Man Who Couldn’t Eat along with advice for writing a great memoir. Check out the highlights from our interview below…
Q: What advice do you have for others who want to write their own memoir?
A: Figure out the story first and test it with a trusted, critical reader or editor. Is the story compelling enough to keep a reader interested? That’s the first test and you can’t fudge it. If you believe the story can work, begin to write in a scene structure to avoid falling into the confessional diary pattern. If you find that it’s moving and scenes are begetting scenes, keep going.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/17/2013
Are you struggling to write a nonfiction query letter to literary agents?
Once you find an agent you would like to represent your book, the pitch letter is the next step in the traditional publishing process.
Below, we’ve collected 11 different agent pitch letters that actually worked for different kinds of nonfiction writers. If you write fiction, check out our collection of 23 fiction query letter that actually worked.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/4/2013
Are you struggling to write a nonfiction book proposal? On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Dan Slater, author of Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating.
Slater explained how he went from losing his job to writing a book about dating in the age of social networks. He also shared some practical intelligence for making the best nonfiction book proposal. Here is an excerpt:
I had been a legal reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and I never in a million years imagined myself writing an article, much less a book, about online dating. I stumbled on to it. I thought the subject was interesting, both the business side and the sociological side–’How is this business affecting people?’ … Then you look at the market: ‘Has this book been done?’ That is something that you can see quite easily. You go on Amazon and do a bunch of searches. You say, ‘Okay, what does this space look like?’
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/6/2013
At the IAmAFiction subreddit, you can actually take your fictional character out into the world–interacting with readers and answering questions in character to help your writing process.
The group was inspired by real-life interviews on Reddit, giving creators a forum to test their characters. Simply join the group and submit your character as an interview subject. Here’s more about the site:
If you are working on developing an invented character for creative writing, roleplay, or pure novelty, this is the place to expose your character to the world and subject them to questioning to help you flesh them out. IAmA posts work just like a regular IAmA post, except the poster assumes the role of his/her character. Please be a good IAmAfic citizen and comment on other people’s submissions as well as your own. Remember, they’re not real people — so no need to be shy!
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/8/2013
Over at The Atlantic, Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid discussed one of his “all-time favorite passages in literature,” a quote from the Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Talking about his own journey as a writer, Murakami explained: “writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.”
If you want to get in shape this year, we found some free fitness apps for writers to help you feel better as you write. Also check out our how to write like Haruki Murakami post, taking writing wisdom from his epic novel, 1Q84.
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By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 3/11/2013
When
it comes to celebrating Teen Technology, I feel Mary Ann’s and Jill’s pain.
I
don’t exactly qualify as a Teen.
(Click
HERE to see just which high school Reunion I’m attending this May.)
And,
this is the book I’m currently reading.
I
also boldly revealed my Inner Luddite in a post last March. (Click HERE.)
By: Jason Boog,
on 3/13/2013
Writers around the world struggle to pay the bills and maintain a writing career in their free time.
Over at the screenwriting section of Reddit, readers compiled a list of the best jobs you can take while working on your first script.
We’ve collected these suggestions below, but it is a question we’d like to pose for all GalleyCat readers–what are the best day jobs for writers?
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/15/2013
In a special Google Docs demonstration online, you can collaborate on a story with Charles Dickens, Friedrich Nietzsche, William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe.
As you type your text into the demo box, these writers will add little flourishes and quotes to your story.
We created a short story with the help of Dickens and Nietzsche, click on the image embedded above to see the collaboration in action. Who will you write with?
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/19/2013
Want to beat writer’s block every single day?
The Typetrigger site delivers simple writing prompts every day, letting writers share their 300-word responses with a growing writing community. Recent triggers included: “hard back, warble,rebuild, ups & downs,
over the top and strongest of all.Check it out: “Four times a day, we help you get the words out. Write in any genre in 300 words or less. Hit publish. Read. Be Read. Write. Now.”
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By: Jason Boog,
on 3/27/2013
Researchers have discovered “a clear decrease in the overall use of mood words” in our writing. They also noticed a rising use of fear words in the last thirty years (mood words chart embedded above).
In “The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books” at PLOS ONE researchers Alberto Acerbi, Vasileios Lampos, Philip Garnett and R. Alexander Bentley studied the use of mood words in six different categories: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness and Surprise. They explored digitized books in Google’s Ngram database to conduct the research. Here’s more:
Our second finding is a clear decrease in the overall use of mood words through time. We performed checks to confirm that the overall decrease in mood word frequency in the data is not merely a reflection of, for example, greater numbers of technically-oriented or scientific books through time. Although the Ngram database does not give an explicit breakdown of book subject categories, we analyzed the same mood word lists on Google’s 1-grams English Fiction data set, which contains only works of fiction and literary criticism. In support of a real decrease in literary emotion, we found a similar decrease in the overall use of mood words.
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By: Melanie Albert,
on 4/4/2013
Bring your idea or outline to life and get published. Join our online Novel Writing class starting April 10. Save $75 on enrollment with the code LONGPROSE
Our course instructor, Erika Mailman, is the author of The Witch’s Trinity and Women of Ill Fame. She’ll show you how to get your novel off the ground.
Students who have taken this class have been published with Simon & Schuster, Voice, and Forge.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/4/2013
As you build your author site, blog or publishing website, finding photographs is always a struggle.
AppNewser has more about a new site that connects writers and photographers, creating an easy and ethical way to embed great photographs in your site. Check it out:
Looking for images to post on your blog? The new site Imgembed lets you browse over one million images by keywords and find images you can embed for free. As you can see by the keyboard photograph embedded above, the site gives you an embed code with the artist’s name in the frame–a great way to credit the photographer behind your image.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/5/2013
The great critic and author Roger Ebert died yesterday, leaving behind a bookshelf filled with his writing.
The film critic also wrote a number of essays and posts about the writing life, sharing some valuable advice for all writers. To celebrate his memory, we’ve collected some of our favorite Ebert quotes. Ebert offered this advice for writers:
There is no such thing as waiting for inspiration. The idea of “diagramming” an essay in advance, as we are taught in school, may be useful to students but is foolishness for any practicing writer. The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.
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Last time I treid to do this with Raflecopter, I said I had posted the comment and I couldn't find any way to do so.
Congratulations on your 4thyear. I think our 4th year starts in October.
I love the poem. I wonder if April would let us use it for our Blogiversary. We would of course, credit April and Teaching Authors.
Blog on, dear friends. My favorite local books stores are Once Upon a Time in Montrose, CA where we met Allyn Johnston and Marla Frazee and The Flintridge bookstore in La Canada, CA which provides fabulous author events.
Dear Pen and ink Gang!
Yes, you may absolutely use the poem to celebrate your 4th blogiversary. I am thrilled.
xxx,
ahw
Oh, I guess April types quicker than I do. :-)
Pen and Ink Blogger--congrats on posting your comment, and on being the first to enter our giveaway!
Thanks for sharing about Once Upon a Time.
I'll have to see what April says about letting you use her poem. :-)
Good luck!
...I meant to say it this way:
I'm thrilled!!!
I love this poem, April! Warms my heart. :)
"Typing wobbly rocky rows"
April, this poem is wonderful! You need to do a book collection on words and use your Word Woods one too. Love! And to all you Teaching Authors: Happy #4... and here's to many more! xo
Congratulations on four fabulous years blogging! I always enjoy your posts.
Thanks, Andromeda!
Congratulations on your blogoversary! May your blog continue to bloom!
Thanks, Lisa.
Congrats on your blogoversaryery!!!
I live in a very small town (I live in Ga) so we don't have a bookstore, but do wish we did though since more people are starting to get into reading now :)
Hi Gaby,
Thanks for the congrats, and for sharing about your town. Sorry you don't have a bookstore near you. Maybe you can enjoy Anderson's virtually via their website. :-)
Wow-congratulations to all of you! It's quite something to say four years, and still counting! So much to be grateful for! I love your poem April & your 'word work' is clever to include creating as well as revising (all those pesky adverbs!). I appreciate reorganizing all the links, Carmela. This will be a terrific resource. Best wishes to everyone! We have several Indie bookstores in the Denver area, but a favorite place to spend more dollars is The Tattered Cover. I have heard so much about Anderson's that I subscribe to their newsletter-fun to hear from them & perhaps someday I will get there!
Thanks, Linda. I love the name Tattered Cover. :-) Let me know if you ever make it to Anderson's--maybe I can see you there!
I always enjoyed Words Worth Books in downtown Calgary. A messy little place with winding stacks and a grumpy guy at the till. Spent many hours in there, very happily.
I like Booksellers in Lincoln Square in Chicago
Happy Blogiversary! I am so happy I found this great resource.
My favorite independent bookstore is Books Along the Teche right in downtown New Iberia. When I was looking for independent bookstores in nearby cities to sell my books, I couldn't find any. Not one in Lafayette and one used book store in Baton Rouge. I am very grateful to Maple Street Bookstore in New Orleans and Lemuria in Jackson, Ms. for holding book signings.
I'll be in Chicago this summer visiting my daughter so I plan to visit Anderson's.
I love the poem! Thanks for always having great ideas. I remember visiting Anderson's booth at IRA conferences. They always blew me away with the choices. I can't imagine visiting the store, an item for my bucket list.
Congratulations on reaching a milestone. Continuing to write good information on a blog is hard work! Thanks for all the great tips over the years!
Wowie, congratulations on your anniversary! That's a lot of great posts! Keep 'em coming!
Thanks, Carl. I love the name "Words Worth Books." Thanks for sharing another great Chicago area bookseller, Mary Jo. Reflections on the Teche, we're glad you found us, too. :-)
Elsie, I think it's great that visiting Anderson's is on your bucket list. Hope you get there soon. Kym and Kate, thanks so much for the congratulations. Hope to see you both soon.
I'm so proud of my blog and fellow bloggers!
I so appreciate our readers, those long-time, those new.
And I love the shout-out folks are giving independent bookstores. :)
Congratulations!!! I loved your poem --- especially this line: "Sowing words on glowing screens."
Thanks for so much information in your post. I haven't heard of Bloglovin' and will look forward to reading the comparison to Feed.ly. I'm not sure what I'll do without Google Reader.
I'm so excited about your Anderson's Give Away. I live near Columbus, Ohio and love going to Cover-to-Cover. I've always wanted to visit Anderson's as I always "visit" when they are at NCTE. I've yet to visit Anderson's live, but it's on my list!
Congrats!!!
Cathy
Happy anniversary. Love blog contests. They really help grow your readership. Saw this contest on CLN's FB page and I cannot wait to read new posts :)
Love the poem too :)
Thanks for sharing about Cover-to-Cover, Cathy. And welcome, Sera.
Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO--there is no better! :)
Thanks, Margo!
My two local indies are Pages in Manhattan Beach, CA and Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach.
My hats off to both these fab stores!
Yellow Book Road in San Diego - the best children's bookstore around!
Thanks, Heidi!
Congratulations on your Blogiversary! All your blog posts add thoughtful content about children's literature. I appreciate the reorganization of links and am going to try to pay more attention to Wednesday Writing Workout.
Thanks for the feedback, Joyce. Let us know if you find any of the workouts particularly helpful.
A Room of One's Own in Madison, Wisconsin. It's got a great vibe and a really nice selection of titles.
Thanks for telling us about another great independent bookstore, Pat!
So glad to have found you from Linda, over at Teacher Dance!! Looks like I have something to occupy my reading and writing time in the upcoming days! Excited to check out your writing workouts!!
Oh! And I am in Minneapolis, and in love with Rumphius Books!
island Books is our local indie. They carried my students' genre brochures several years ago. I love to spend time and money there.
I'm glad you found us too, JenB. Thanks for sharing your indie favorite. Welcome, Ramona. Could you tell us what town Island Books is in?
Congratulations on your blogiversary. I love Hickory Stick Book Shop in Washington, CT. and Creekside Books in Skaneateles, NY.
Your poem is a delight, April! I am so happy to be able to follow the bloggers! Wish I had found you longer ago, but now's all that matters. Hooray.
Thanks for sharing not one, but two, independent bookstores with us, skanny17. And we're glad you found us!
Happy Blogiversary! April's poem is delightful!
Unfortunately, we don't have an Indie in our town. That would be a dream come true. I would love to have one in Abilene, TX.
Thanks for your comments, Penny. Maybe someone will open an indie near you soon. :-)
Thanks for the giveaway. Congratulations!!! You are awesome!
I love Anderson Bookstore in Naperville, IL. I frequent it often with the family!
Happy Blogiversary! Fun poem and great post. Thanks for all the pearls of wisdom!
Congrats on all of the wonderful posts! I'm in Rogers Park, but like visiting 57th Street Books in Hyde Park, and Myopic Books in Wicker Park. Wood love to get a great bookstore in Rogers Park...