by Michael Cristiano
So, you say you have a dream, Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. of prospective fiction (or nonfiction) writer. Well, so do I, and so do millions of others around the world. That is to write a book, but not just any damn book: a book that will be good enough to publish.
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Written Word Media (WMD) recently published a must-read article with the top publishing industry trends for the new year, written by Clayton Noblit. I am sharing here a summary that includes their main points.
A 2019 survey revealed that half of all Americans over the age of 12 have listened to an audiobook in the past year. Additionally, audiobook listeners trended younger. Fifty-five percent of listeners were below the age of 45. The survey stats showed an increase from 2018, and the expectation is that audio will continue to grow.
With better access to audiobook creation and distribution, WMD expects to see more audiobooks in the marketplace in 2020. Marketing audiobooks remains a challenge for authors but effective marketing will become more important as the space gets more crowded. Deeply discounted audiobooks are hot…
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The Kindle Unlimited per-page rate was 0.004664 in December, 2019. It’s down from December, perhaps from holiday Kindle sales, but close to what it had been in October.
The KDP Select Global Fund rose to a new high of $26.2 million for December, 2019.
Write Happy, Be Happy
Author of the Improve Your Math Fluency series of math workbooks and self-publishing guides
Ronita Mohan recently wrote about some of the social media marketing trends for 2020. I kick off the new year posts with another take on the same subject: how to use social media to promote your books.
Being a successful writer means not only having the inspiration to create something that really resonates with people but also being able to present yourself and your work to the readers. The latter is especially important if you are an aspiring author who is just starting to get your feet wet at writing and your name can’t attract readers just yet. Even well-established writers have to do some sort of marketing so there is no shame in developing a marketing plan to put your work in front of your potential readers.
Some of the essential things, like developing a marketing email strategy, have been covered in my email marketing series of…
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by Michael Cristiano
When it comes to writing, there is nothing more daunting than writing a novel. Okay, maybe attempting to write a saga of twelve novels is a little bit more daunting, but let’s stick to just one for now. In my opinion, writing a novel is a little more difficult than say a short story or a poem. That’s not to say it’s more difficult than writing a good short story or poem, that’s just to point out that short stories and poems don’t generally run 60,000+ words — unless you’re Homer and write two epic poems that come in at over 200,000.
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I apologize for disappearing for a few days. I took a few days off and went to stay with friends in a small village at the foot of Mount Parnassus.
As part of their wonderful hospitality, they took us to visit a Byzantine church; Panagia Skripou.
Readers often comment on how the mystical and real mix in my works. This is hardly surprising, as I was raised with stories like the one surrounding this church.
The church was built by Leon, head of the Emperor’s personal guard, in 874. We know this from one of several signs that decorate the church interior. Indeed, the very name Skripou seems to derive from scriptus, Latin for inscription.
An inscription on Panagia Skripou (source: Wikipedia)
We visited on a cold day, about to snow:
Thankfully, the inside was warm enough. They were decorating it for a Christening about to…
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by Vic Salinas
In my experience, writing battle scenes is a very dangerous endeavor. A writer has to walk a fine line between giving too much away and giving too little. While this is true of writing in general, it is especially true of combat.
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I took advantage of the holidays to finish a new short story. It is inspired by Andy Weir’s short story, The Egg, and combines elements from my sci-fi fantasy series, Pearseus, such as The Waters of Oblivion (also referenced in Pearseus), with some more recent thoughts. I hope you enjoy it!
Waters of Oblivion
While I wait for you, I take in the beach. This is my home. The deep, calm sea—too dark to make out anything but the soothing waves that lap my feet. Dark silhouettes surround me. They would crowd the beach, were it not for its immensity. Old and young, men and women, take slow, dazed steps into the abysmal waters. Guides like me help them in. Not that you need us for this. Ancient, forgotten instincts would drive you forward even if we weren’t there. But we pride ourselves…
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Everyone always says to be original in your writing, but are we oversimplifying things? Can anyone be original anymore, and what are the pitfalls in striving for originality?
“Originality is merely an illusion.” -Isaac Bashevis
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I haven’t written about Twitter in a while, so I hope you’ll enjoy this post. If you want to read more on the subject, check out this older post, Show, Don’t Tell, on Twitter.
Manoj Rupareliya, an Online Marketing Expert and Blogger, has kindly written for us this guide for authors using Twitter. Manoj is an experienced writer himself, specializing in the fields of technology, blockchain, crypto, AI, Digital Marketing, and SEO. All his posts are aimed at providing credible help and insights for readers who want to stay updated all the time. Connect with him on Linkedin and Twitter.
Writing a book is like creating a world, whether it is fiction, non-fiction or even a mentoring book. But with digital evolution, book readers have changed their reading habits. You will now find them on digital platforms such as mobile phones and…
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