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Saturday, April 13, 2024
Independent Writers of Chicago Offers Essential Advice
Friday, April 12, 2024
A Basic Guide for Those Who Dream of a. Writing Career
Get Discovered: Your 6-Step Guide to Shining as a Writer
By Gwen Payne
You’re ready to embark on the exhilarating journey of unleashing your creative prowess and getting your work noticed by the world. You dream of captivating readers with your fiction, inspiring others through your non-fiction, or sharing your unique insights through blogging. Whatever the case, this guide is your roadmap to success. Today, Tales2Inspiredives into six practical steps that will help you get discovered as a writer or author. Grab your favorite writing instrument, settle into your special nook, and let’s begin this extraordinary adventure together!
Step 1: Write Your Heart Out
First things first: you gotta write, write, and write some more! Pour your thoughts onto paper or screen and let your imagination soar. Whether it’s short stories, blog posts, or that novel you’ve been dreaming about, consistent writing is the key to honing your craft.
Step 2: Build Your Online Oasis
Having a vibrant online presence is an absolute game-changer in this digital era. Create your own little corner on the web by starting a blog or website. Showcasing your work in a visually appealing and easily accessible format can go a long way toward attracting readers and potential collaborators.
Don’t forget to sprinkle some social media magic, too! Platforms like X, Instagram, and Facebook are fantastic tools for connecting with fellow writers and engaging with potential readers. Share snippets of your work, show glimpses of your writing process and join conversations using relevant hashtags.
Step 3: Network Like a Pro
Networking isn’t just for those fancy business types – it’s crucial for writers, as well. Attend local writing workshops, join online writing groups, and immerse yourself in the bustling community of fellow wordsmiths. Interacting with others who share your passion can open doors to collaborations, mentorship opportunities, and even publishing connections. This is where traditional marketing, like business cards, can prove invaluable. Start handing them out around town and leaving them at local establishments!
Step 4: Seek Out Opportunities and Promote Your Work
The world is brimming with opportunities, dear writer. Take the leap and submit your work to literary magazines, online publications, and writing contests. Rejection might sting, but every acceptance is a cause for celebration and a stepping stone toward recognition. Remember that all those “no’s“ are just a part of the journey to your “yes!“
Leveraging the tried-and-true tactic of creating a brochure to market yourself is a smart and cost-effective strategy. In today's digital age, you don't necessarily need to hire a professional designer to achieve a high-quality, impactful brochure. Instead, you can use a brochure template available online for free. These templates provide a solid foundation that you can customize to suit your personal brand or business. By adding your own text, images, and custom design elements, you can create a stellar brochure that effectively communicates your value proposition to potential clients or readers.
Step 5: Embrace Lifelong Learning
Writers never stop growing, so keep that curious spirit alive! Go to writing workshops, enroll in online courses, and devour craft books like there’s no tomorrow. The more you learn, the better equipped you’ll be to captivate readerswith your words.
Step 6: Stay Patient and Persistent
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a successful writing career. Embrace patience and persistence as your trusty companions on this journey. Keep writing, learning, networking, and submitting your work. Your breakthrough moment is waiting just around the corner!
You’ve armed yourself with some serious tips, and now it’s time to put them into action:
l Start writing
l Embrace the digital realm
l Network like a pro
l Seek out opportunities
l Embrace lifelong learning
One way to begin is by submitting your work to anthologies. Here is an established series that offers a free contest that includes other value-added benefits to all authors who choose to enter. It’s from writer and editor Lois W. Stern who contributes her talents to TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com:
Tales2Inspire books offer inspirational and motivational stories by award winning authors from across the globe. We also help talented authors on their individual paths to discovery.
MORE ABOUT TODAY’S SHARING WITH WRITERS CONTRIBUTOR:
Gwen Payne is a stay-at-home mom with an entrepreneurial spirit. Over the years, she has mastered raising her two daughters while side hustling to success through small ventures based on her passions - from dog walking to writing to e-commerce. With Invisiblemoms.com she hopes to show other stay-at-home parents how they can achieve their business-owning dream
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Is Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX:) JUST ANOTHER WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING?
IS ACX (Audio Book Creation Exchange) JUST ANOTHER WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING?
My friends and fellow authors kept telling me, “You have such a pleasant speaking voice, why don’t you try making an audio version of one of your Tales2Inspire books. So during Covid, while isolating a lot and feeling a bit bored, I decided to give it a try.
Well first, of course, I had to purchase the proper equipment. You know, without getting too extravagant, I spent about $100 for a decent microphone and pop filter. (The latter is used to screen out some of those extraneous popping sounds caused by recording certain words, especially those starting with the letters p, t, k, b, d, g. Try it yourself. Put a hand up over your mouth as you say words such as pain, kid, bag and you’ll feel the air that pops out of your mouth.)
Next I moved on to the actual recording.
I googled,
How long does it take to record a book, and got the following answer:It takes an average of 6.2 hours to create 1 hour of your finished audiobook. That includes narration, recording, and editing.
And that's for a professional producer - so if you're a novice, narrating and producing your own audiobook, you can expect it to take a lot longer than that. Perhaps I recorded 3-5 finished pages per hour, and trust me that is a conservative estimate. I was constantly listening, cutting, and rerecording. So let's do a bit of math.
Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series V totals 238 pages. Listening time for this recording would total 5 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds, so let's just round it off to 5 hours. Multiply that by the 6.2 hours it takes to produce each hour of finished product: (5 times 6.2 ) equals 31 hours of recording time to create this audio book. My guess is it took me a lot longer than that.
Next I had to upload my files to ACX (acx.com). The ACX wheels spin as you upload each chapter individually. When you first upload your chapters, some of them might be rejected = because the volume is too low, or perhaps because of extraneous noise as a ticking clock you fogot to remove from the room. When that happens, you will have to fine tune those audio files. (Luckily I have a grandson who is tech savvy, so he did that work for me.)
I was required to format a new cover, similar to the original, but in a square shape and informed I needed to remove the Readers Favorite Award sticker I was so proud this book had been awarded.
The payoff must be in royalties, I thought. Here's the rub: If I agree to an exclusive, I receive a 40% royalty, which totals $5.88 per audio book sale. (A non-exclusive yields even less - only 25%, a grand total of $2.99 per sale.)
(Just as a side note, you should know that that’s well below the industry standard of 70% for other digital products like games or apps.)
Authors are given a special link to promote their audio books so that if others order using that link, the author is rewarded. But in their own words, here is how:
“Every time someone signs up through your custom URL you get a $15 commission each month you hit the $30.00 payment threshold.” But what if you don’t meet that $30 threshold in a single month? I contacted AudibleSupport@GroupM.com to ask that question. If i get an answer, I'll let you know.
Is ACX being fair to us authors? I googled this question and found an article written by best selling author, Brandon Sanderson, who thinks not and told how he fought back. You can read his article here:https://www.axios.com/2023/03/30/audible-author-brandon-sanderson-terms/.
Oh yes, one perk I was given was the option to create a PDF document to accompany my audio. I wrote a bit about the values of participating in Tales2Inspire, that it's a free Authors Helping Authors project/contest rolled into one. It took me several hours to make the graphics, but I think they're kind of eye catching and hope perhaps will garner me a sale or two. I pasted it below so my SharingwithWriters visitors and subscribers can see it.
Monday, April 08, 2024
Beth Barany’s Take on AI for Authors--Pro and Con
So, I started playing with Chat GPT back in November 2022 and was annoyed at how it couldn't spit out story ideas that I liked.
I don't have any problems coming up with story ideas and I do understand story structure quite well, so the tool wasn't helpful to me.
Then I tried my hand at using it for editing. And hated how it would rewrite sentences. So dry. So not... me.
Next, I tried having it analyze my writing. That was helpful. It put words to my style that felt like me, approximately.
Which in turn helps me make choices when I edit.
I don't know about you, but I have a hard time seeing myself.
As Kelly Diels says, "We can't see the back of our head."
All the while, I've been studying how to write prompts, so that I can give better directions to Chat GPT.
And then I started playing with marketing, and that's where my excitement level shoot over the roof.
For example, I shared one of my book blurbs and I asked Chat GPT to write 5 Twitter/X posts with hashtags and in a chatty voice.
And I also told it to not invent anything.
I hit "return," sat back, and was about to take a sip of my coffee, when boom, my results were in!
I re-read the tweets and they were decent.
Ah! Now I had a first draft to work from and smiled. I could go to town polishing them up and getting them loaded in our social scheduling tool.
Just so you know I've also had Chat GPT (and similar tools) to write other first drafts for me like:
- writing marketing emails (but not this one!)
- condensing long information
- writing LinkedIn and Facebook posts and Instagram captions
- listing possible sub-ideas connected to a main idea in nonfiction (this is a brainstorming action)
And a sneak peek of what I might bring to the panel during the AI Writing Summit next week.
Details next!
Join us!
AI Writing Summit, April 8-12, 2024. Free event. Sign up here:
I'll be on the panel Wednesday at 1pm PT panel: "AI and Its Impact on the Creative Industry: A Multidisciplinary Perspective panel."
Once you register, notice you'll be taken to another screen to take advantage of the upgrade, an All-Access Pass, which gives you access to the whole summit's recordings, and a whole lot more - quite amazing:
- AI Courses and Toolkits for Writers ($11,674 Value)
- Step-by-Step AI Blueprints ($891 Value)
- Advanced AI Masterclasses ($291 Value)
- Exclusive AI Writing Software Discounts ($100+ Value)
- AI Writers Knowledge Base ($997 Value)
- Advanced Training from AI Experts ($500+ Value)
- AI Writing Summit Transcripts and Audio ($300+ Value)
- Lifetime Access (Priceless)
ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST BLOGGER BETH BARANY
Beth specializes in helping writers experience clarity, so they can write, revise, and proudly publish their novels to the delight of their readers. Her courses are packed with useful hands-on information that you can implement right away. She runs a 12-month group coaching program to help science fiction and fantasy writers edit their manuscripts and get published. She also offers bespoke one-on-one coaching and consulting programs for science fiction and fantasy authors and other adventurous thinkers.
When she's not helping writers, Beth writes magical tales of romance, mystery, and adventure that empower women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives.
Get started on your story world building today with a free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers here: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/.
The Winningest Book in Carolyn’s