Beyond NaNoWriMo

Whether you made a fantastic effort at NaNoWriMo or not, life goes on. Our December motivational post for writers comes courtesy of Infinity Publishing. Here is the link to their recommended author apps.

Personally, I already like using 'Writeometer' to keep me focused for article deadlines, and I will surely use 'Avoid People' when I need to seek out a quiet place to write.

Here is the full list from Infinity:


Writeometer
This handy app will become your go-to spot for increasing your word production and keeping records. It includes a 25-minute timer for those who write using the Pomodoro Technique, spots to include your daily word count, charts and graphs to see your progress, records on all your works in progress, and even virtual treats for reaching your word count goals. Free, available on Android.

Songza
If you're the type of author who likes music when you write, this is the perfect app for finding the right mood music for your current scene. Songza offers a variety of music based on moods and time, instead of artists or genre. For example, on a recent Saturday morning, Songza offered music for trimming the Christmas tree, cleaning the house, taking a nap, or recovering from a hangover. Search for music by activities, moods, decades, and more, or just let Songza suggest something for you. Available on Android or through your browser.

Wi-Fi Finder
Available both on iTunes and Android, this is the perfect app for the author on the go. Wi-Fi Finder will search your surrounding neighborhood and show all the free wi-fi spots that are available around you. Ideal for road trips or even just when you need a different environment for your writing once in a while.

Avoid Humans
Love to work at coffee shops and outdoor plazas but have a hard time working in a crowd? Avoid Humans takes on that challenge admirably. Click on the app and it will show you bars, coffee shops, restaurants and other places with wi-fi, all with little to no crowds at the present time. Solitude away from your desk: the best of both worlds.

The Brainstormer
Fiction writers who do book series have a unique problem. They use the same environment and the same group of characters in all of their books, but they need to write a different story around them multiple times. When the new plot ideas just won't come, The Brainstormer can be a help. It creates endless combinations of plot or conflict, style or setting, and subject or location. Mix and match until you find one that fits your series. In the App Store for iTunes.

Podcast Republic
Keeping up with the business end of writing can be a tough job. Luckily, dozens of authors and publishers broadcast weekly audible shows each week on that very topic. Podcasts can give you valuable information on any subject, giving you down time from your writing while still not goofing off. Podcast Republic, like many other podcast aggregators, allows you to search for podcasts by topic, saving and updating your favorites each week.

More NaNoWriMo...motivation

Alright, of course you can't write a bestseller in a month, but Writers Relief staff has a great piece on four NaNoWriMo books that went on to become bestsellers!  Ever heard of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen? Of course you have!

Bounce on over to Writers Relief here, or click the image below.

The real work of a writer

Thanks to Joan Dempsey, www.joandempsey.com, for posting this quote in her Revise with Confidence newsletter today. Joan's online classes are every writer's dream. She offers an escape from fear and doubt, while providing the structure and motivation to finish your writing projects with confidence. 

Notable Quote

A writer's real work is the endless winnowing of sentences,
The relentless exploration of possibilities,
The effort, over and over again, to see in what you started out to say
The possibility of saying something you didn't know you could.

~ Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several short sentences about writing

NaNoWriMo ~ Is this your year to succeed?

November is National Novel Writers Month.

Even making the effort to write daily, and to write about 1,600 words a day will give most writers a great start on a manuscript. Using the event as a reason to write every day has its rewards, whether you choose a novel, essay, nonfiction, or commit to blogging daily.

The people at Stop Procrastinating App have created a clever infographic. Below is just a snippet to get started.  See the full chart here: http://www.stopprocrastinatingapp.com/nanowrimo

Read more at the source: See the full chart here: http://www.stopprocrastinatingapp.com/nanowrimo
Also visit NaNoWriMo at http://nanowrimo.org/. And good luck on your writing in November, and beyond.

Your weekend motivation ...

                   “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

                                                                                                                    – Ernest Hemingway

Readers and Writers

In "The Faith of a Writer," by Joyce Carol Oates [still living, still tweeting...], the author speaks of the many great writers who owe their love of their craft to their impressioinistic reading in adolescence.

Pick up your worn copy and remind yourself of this directive:

"Read widely, read enthusiastically, be guided by instinct and not design. For if you read, you need not become a writer; but if you hope to become a writer, you must read."

If at first you don't achieve, change your name...

Interesting article on BuzzFeed about a frustrated writer. After 40 rejections, the white American sent a submission under an Asian pseudonym, and the poem was then included in the Best American Poetry 2015 Anthology. 

Here's the article and link to the poem: http://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/yi-fen-chou-is-michael-derrick-hudson#.hyOQjJZyx

David Brooks on soft skills

In the Sept. 5, 2015, New York Times, eloquent David Brooks again has an interesting column titled 'The New Romantics.'

Consider the burgeoning use of technology in use today: classrooms, medicine, commerce, even friendship. Yet Brooks sees a door opening to a possible romantic rebirth. Although computers now do much of our work for us, it is possible to consider that this gives us time to turn mundane tasks over to technology, and enjoy more time fir the relational tasks of life, including those that require accountability, authority, or roles such as being a caregiver. These are not transactional jobs, but relational ones, best left to humans, and requiring judgment, empathy, communication, compassion, and courage. The world still needs us!

Read Brooks' column, The New Romantics.

Congratulations to Award Winner!

Three cheers for Shaku Rajagopal! Her new book, Song of the Mountains is the Bronze Award Winner for best Memoir in the 2015 Colorado Independent Book Publishers contest!

Learn more about Shaku's excellent book and her brave journey here: http://shakuraj.com/

Thanks to Writers's Relief for allowing me to share this with you:

With the distractions and excitement of summer's waning days,  Writer’s Relief invites you to free your mind! Read what they have to say about the process of freewriting. It is a great way to focus on your writing even when you don't know where to start, or don't have much time.


This article has been reprinted with the permission of Writer’s Relief, an author’s submission service that has been helping creative writers make submissions since 1994. Their work is highly recommended in the writing community, and there are TONS of freebies, publishing leads, and writers resources on their website. Check it out!

An unusual literary award outcome

AWP Award Series Creative Nonfiction Prize

"Even with our best efforts, our work is not always deemed successful. This year, our judge for Creative Nonfiction, Lia Purpura, did not select a winner for the competition. Because we know such a decision is unpopular, I am writing to explain why this is an outcome that AWP allows in the adjudication of our awards.

"The Award Series guidelines have stated—ever since the inception of the Series in 1975—that the judge makes the final decision and no award is given if the judge finds no manuscript that merits the award. Every entrant agrees to this and other terms before submitting works into the competition via Submittable.

"The outcome of no winner has occurred several times in the 40-year history of the series." 

A reminder that even our best work may not be seen as such by others. So goes the world of the working writer.

Neil Gaiman on writing

Neil Gaimon

 “The secret to writing is just to write. Write every day. Never stop writing. Write on every surface you see; write on people on the street. When the cops come to arrest you, write on the cops. Write on the police car. Write on the judge. I’m in jail forever now, and the prison cell walls are completely covered with my writing, and I keep writing on the writing I wrote. That’s my method.”




 Gaimon and five other writers will help you lighten up and make your writing a joy.
Clickhole: http://www.clickhole.com/article/6-worlds-greatest-writers-explain-how-they-deal-wr-2748

Still writing?

Dani Shapiro, author of Still Writing on writing:

"I write in order to discover what I don’t yet know. To peel back the layers and see what has been previously hidden from view. I don’t choose the form this discovery takes. When I have tried to force the form, it turns around and bites me. And so I have learned to pay attention to what the work itself wants to be. If we’re quiet, the work announces itself. When it makes itself known, we had best pay attention."

Above excerpt from her Facebook post 7/11/15.
We all know how it feels to have dozens of writing ideas floating above our pen, or on our screen.
Read the full post if this feels familiar to you, as it does to me. http://danishapiro.com/on-inquiry/

Helen Gallagher

Is it time to fire Kindle?

Open the book or I won't get paid for writing it!

Amazon announced a new way to pay authors for Kindle book sales... Based on pages read. So you better start writing great books and bigger books if you want to earn more than a few pennies.

Direct quote from Amazon site: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A156OS90J7RDN

Beginning July 1, 2015, we'll switch from paying Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) royalties based on qualified borrows, to paying based on the number of pages read. We're making this switch in response to great feedback we received from authors who asked us to better align payout with the length of books and how much customers read. Under the new payment method, you'll be paid for each page individual customers read of your book, the first time they read it.

Royalty payments under the new program

As with our current approach, we'll continue to set a KDP Select Global Fund each month. Under the new payment method, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read instead of their share of total qualified borrows.

Read more if you wish. And consider the challenges ahead, as we ask people to turn pages, not just store books on their device. If they don't read it, you don't get royalties!!!

If you are the optimist who finds something good about this, please add a comment below to enlighten the rest of us.

Survey Says... Come on Chicago!

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 2, 2015-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon.com today announced its fifth annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America – just in time for summer reading season. The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format from April 2014 to April 2015, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 500,000 residents.

The Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:

1. Seattle, Wash.											11. Charlotte, N.C.
2. Portland, Ore.											12. Baltimore, Md.
3. Las Vegas, Nev.											13. San Diego, Calif.
4. Tucson, Ariz.											14. Houston, Texas
5. Washington, D.C.											15. Indianapolis, Ind.
6. Austin, Texas											16. San Jose, Calif.
7. San Francisco, Calif.											17. Jacksonville, Fla.
8. Albuquerque, N.M.											18. San Antonio, Texas
9. Denver, Colo.											19. Nashville, Tenn.
10. Louisville, Ky.											20. Chicago, Ill.

The Power of a Podcast

Authors, don't overlook podcasts to expand visibility. See below for a seven-minute interview by Richard J. Lang, discussing his book, Patient Confidential: Tips and Advice to Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System.

Click to Listen: http://www.jenningswire.com/health/podcast-being-a-smart-patient/

The Book of Life on Proust...

Marcel Proust was an early 20th-century French writer responsible for what is officially the longest novel in the world: A la recherche du temps perdu – which has 1,267,069 words in it; double those in War and Peace. It was immediately recognised to be a masterpiece, ranked by many as the greatest novel of the century, or simply of all time. 

The book was published in French in seven volumes over 14 years:

Du côté de chez Swann, 1913

À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, 1919

Le Côté de Guermantes, 1920

Sodome et Gomorrhe, 1922

La Prisonnière, 1923

Albertine disparue, 1925

Le Temps retrouvé, 1927

It was immediately recognised to be a masterpiece, ranked by many as the greatest novel of the century, or simply of all time. What makes it so special is that it isn’t just a novel in the straight narrative sense. It is a work that intersperses genius-level descriptions of people and places with a whole philosophy of life.

The clue is in the title:

À  la recherche du temps perdu

In Search of Lost Time

Full story and photos here: http://www.thebookoflife.org/marcel-proust/

Health-related poetry contest

From the Michael J. Fox Foundation:

April is National Poetry Month, as well as Parkinson’s Awareness Month. A special contest from the journal Health Affairs gives the lyrically inclined in our community a chance to participate in both themes at once by sharing experiences through poetry.
Health Affairs explains:

We are holding a poetry contest from March 26 to April 22, 2015, looking for well-crafted poems that touch on topics related to health and health policy. Three winning poems will be announced at the end of April. Winners will receive a $500 prize, publication in Health Affairs, and two copies of the issue containing the winning poem.

Poems can address any health topic, not just Parkinson’s, and must be written in English. Visit the Health Affairs blog for further submission guidelines.

Poets & Writers comes to Chicago

 

A G E N T S   &   E D I T O R S Chicago: June 20, 2015 Early Bird Price Just $60

Poets & Writers Live is coming to Chicago! Spend a Saturday with us at Instituto Cervantes as we explore the writer's journey from inspiration to publication.   We'll kick things off with a "poetry keynote" by acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee, followed by panel discussions on resources for writers in Chicago; how to prepare the perfect pitch to agents, editors, and other publishing professionals; plus craft talks with poet Roger Reeves, novelist Edward Kelsey Moore, and essayist Jenny Boully; and live-lit performances by Megan Stielstra, Parneshia Jones, and Lindsay Hunter.   A reading and discussion with Chicago literary icons Stuart Dybek and Marc Kelly Smith is sure to be a highlight of the program.

In the mid-day time slot, participants have the option of attending a panel led by Debra Englander, the author of our popular column The Savvy Self-Publisher, or selecting one of three small group sessions led by Jeff Kleinman, Renée Zuckerbrot, or Don Share. Kleinman and Zuckerbrot are both New York City-based literary agents; Share is the editor of Poetry magazine. Each of the small sessions is limited to 15 participants and offered on a first-come first-served basis for an additional charge of $25. We'll finish the day with a Literary Mixer: a chance to meet others, compare notes, and enjoy a glass of wine with your fellow writers. Register today to take advantage of the special Early Bird price of just $60.

New Lit Mag Resource

Enjoy the new launch of Literary Hub, "a single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of contemporary literary life," created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature. 
Sign up for free at http://lithub.com/

Another succcessful five-year mark

Congratulations to Lois Roelof, celebrating the five-year mark on her marvelous blog.


Enjoy a stop at loisroelofs.com and see the variety of witty, poignant, informative and funny material she writes.

Patient Confidential

Happy to see a client's book zoom into the top 100 in his category!   Congratulations to Rich Lang, author of Patient Confidential.

·         Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

   #99 in Books > Business & Money > Insurance > Health

Essential reading for your first and every hospital/doctor interaction.

Writer's Quote of the Month

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. 

~Mark Twain

Rebecca Makkai's advice for "Writer's Butt"

The funny and ever-informative ReviewReview.com shares the following important advice for those who suffer from what I call writer's butt cramps. The linked essay is by Rebecca Makkai, a speaker we recently enjoyed hearing at OCWW.

Writers and editors, are you suffering from backaches, expanding butts, and the host of other problems associated with this fine vocation? If so be sure to check out Rebecca Makkai's "Calisthenics for Writers." Writes Makkai, "Writer’s Butt is a real and tragic thing. You might be making great progress on that novel, but is your seat getting wider with every word count goal?" One exercise she advises: "Bind together seven copies of literary magazines that rejected you, and impale them on the end of a sharp stick. Now do the same with seven more mags on the other end of the stick. Now it’s time for the free lift! That thing must weigh at least ten pounds."

Read her full, funny essay here:  Calisthenics for Writers

"Modern Love" column editor

The New York Times "Modern Love" column on Feb. 8, 2015 may surprise you. Written by the column's editor, Daniel Jones, it explains at length what does and doesn't work for a "Modern Love" pitch, a highly coveted essay market. Take a look, as Jones analysis of submitted essays causes him to consider the concept of good writing. His response is beneficial for all writers.

There is also a notice of a call for stories from college students, with a $1,000 award to the winning writer, for an essay to run in May 2015.

Some authors still write by hand

Mashable has a neat article about authors who write their books by hand. Joyce Carol Oates is said to write longhand for up to eight hours a day.

In an interview with Salon, she said of her process:

"Why is this so unusual? Every writer has written 'by hand' until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming -- this is the process that results in 'writing,' rather than the way in which the writing is recorded."

See the full list here on Mashable.

Quote of the month

Thanks to tireless Brian Scott of freelancewriting.com for sharing this quote:

"If you have a goal, write it down. If you do not write it down, you do not have a goal - you have a wish."

                                                                --Steve Maraboli, author of Unapologetically You

Snow storm reading recommendation

All eyes are on the news about the east coast storm, putting New Englanders at risk and hunkering down at home. CNN's analysis includes tips on what to stock up on. How great that my book, Release Your Writing, showed up in an ad on the same page today!  My sympathies are for those who have to bear such a storm, and the public service workers who have to restore services. My second thought is folks might be buying a lot of good ebooks!

Author, author, it's tax time

Comment from a Release Your Writing reader today...

What? Pay taxes on my meager earnings as an author? Please say it isn't so.

It is true that author royalties are taxable, as well as the revenue you collect from books you sell on your own at events. On the plus side, of course, all your writing related expenses are deductible, so the tax burden may even out.

Infinity Publishing has a nice summary of all the deductions authors are entitled to take. Writing is considered a business expense, unless you don't produce revenue within five years. Then, you are downgraded to "hobby" status.

Read more at Infinity here.