Author Archive

Let’s face it, without the odd slither of tension, life would be dull and boring. Well, it’s the same story when it comes to writing – without a little tension in books, they become tedious too. By creating tension in your writing and raising the emotional level of the text, the reader is forced to remain interested in the story. Unfortunately, many writers are afraid to add tension, as they think people can’t handle it. However, they’re as wrong as wrong can be!

Creating tension in your writing involves constantly raising the stakes for your character, so he/she has to work hard to get what he/she wants. Tension hooks readers and ensures they continue to turn the pages. Authors use many tricks to invoke tension in their books. Here are a few methods of creating tension in your writing that you might like to try:

* Time Limit. If something has a time limit it signals automatic pressure. If your character has to reach his/her goal by a certain time, mental and emotional tension are a cert.

* Dialogue. Conversations between characters can elevate the tension. For example, if your protagonist wants something from the other character but doesn’t want that character to know.

* Pacing. Well written fiction ebbs and flows to match the pacing of the story. Each time your character hits a crisis point, the pacing should speed up. Once the crisis has been solved, tell the story at a gentler pace. Not long after another crisis appears, greater even than the last. The ebbs shorten as the plot quickens, finally reaching a climax. Your reader will anticipate these peaks in the tension, and as a result won’t be able to put your book down.

* Sentence structure. Short sentences with active verbs signal tension. On the other hand, long, meandering sentences filled with adjectives and adverbs indictae a relaxed pace.

Different genres require different kinds of tension. Tension is generally much greater in young adult novels, but in one form or another, tension must be present in all books in order for them to sell.

Can you think how the last book you read affected you? Perhaps you shed a few tears at a particularly sad (or happy) moment? What caused you to react like this?  It’s ultimately to do with characters, timing, plot, believability, and of course tension!

Researching the market for your book’s genre is essential if you want to successfully target your book and win the attention of publishers and agents.

Here are some examples of genres:

Mystery

The characters of mystery books are usually fictional but they behave in realistic ways. There is a problem that needs to be solved. A mystery may include a detective or a spy as a main character.

Biographies

A biography is a book of true stories about the life of a real person. The author is a different person than the book is written about. The person in the biography can be dead or alive. The author describes how the person affected others.

Fantasy

A fiction story where there is a struggle between good and evil. Often there is also magic. The characters or objects do things that couldn’t happen in real life.

Poetry

This usually touches your feelings. It may or may not be written with rhymes. Poetry books are often read aloud.

Realistic Fiction

The characters behave in realistic ways. There is usually a problem or conflict to be resolved. The book is set in modern times.

Historical Fiction

Some characters may be real and others are fictional. The story takes place during a period in history. Real events from history can be mixed with fictional events.

Science Fiction

These stories are written with future ideas such as space travel and new technology. The characters are fictional.

Non-fiction

These books provide true facts and information about different subjects.

Romance

A story about character’s relationships, loves, affairs or engagements.

Horror

A story designed to scare or frighten the audience, through suspense, violence or shock.

Reference

These books provide true facts and information. Some examples include: dictionaries, almanacs, atlases, thesauruses, and encyclopaedias.

Your Book’s Genre

Your job as a writer is much more than just writing. Anybody can sit down and write a story, that’s simply a matter of sitting down and typing three or four pages a day until its done. But not every book is saleable, not every saleable book will find an audience, and not every book that finds an audience will be able to bring the readers back for more of what the writer is selling.

It is essential as a writer to know everything about your book before you begin writing it. You must know the genre, other authors who write for that genre, the readers, etc.

When preparing your book for submission to an agent or publisher, it’s essential that you define your book’s genre correctly.

The reason for this is that the genre of your book will determine the agents and publishers you will eventually approach. Get it wrong and your book will be rejected time and time again.

Publishers are set up to sell one type of genre. Even large publishers are split into genre defined departments and imprints.

Selling a cook book is very different to selling a horror novel. They have different readers, but also different marketing approaches and design aspects. This means publishers have an internal team dedicated to selling one type of genre. It’s your duty as a writer to correctly define your book’s genre and then choose the right agents and publishers who can sell books of your chosen genre.

How you determine your book’s genre is not as straight forward as it may seem. The development of online bookstores such as Amazon, have created some debate over a definitive list of genre. The reality is that though all of the publishing industry agree on the broad genres, there is much debate about sub-genres.

My advice for a first time writer is to turn to Amazon to help define your book’s genre. Collect a list of five to ten titles you feel are similar to your own, then look on Amazon to see how each is categorised. This should give you a good idea about your own book’s genre.

Love & light

The Word Queen xx

Authors have been self publishing their own books successfully for over one hundred years.

Take a look at this list of a few of the well-known authors who all began their amazing writing careers by self publishing their own book.

Oscar Wilde
Rudyard Kipling
George Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
Beatrix Potter
Deepak Chopra
Virginia Woolf
John Grisham
Christopher Paolini (Eragon)

So if they were able to do it, all those year’s ago, there’s nothing to stop you from doing the same. All you need is access to a computer and an internet connection.

There’s never been a better time for self publishing your book to sell it internationally. Not only can you use modern publishing methods to keep your book ‘in print’ for as long as you want, but you can expand your writing talent and publish more and more books every year, or even every month depending on how much time you have.

But remember, when self publishing your book you must carry out all the work that a traditional publisher would have done on your behalf. This includes printing, shipping, distribution and paperwork.

Here are some tips to help you along your self publishing journey:

• Make sure your book is proofread thoroughly. It will look bad on you and your book if it has typing errors and/or poor layout. It’s worth the money to hire a professional editor to read your book.
• Add a great description to your book. That way, it’ll attract more customers.
• Publicity is the key, so spend some time learning how to promote your book effectively and to the right target market. Note: Later lessons in this course teach you lots of ways to promote your book.
• Research has revealed that book-buying customers look at three things: The front cover, rear cover and table of contents. Take the time to make these three places sing and spend money on them if you have to – the time and money will pay off.
• List your books on Amazon.com. Allow plenty of time to write the ‘publisher’s comments’ and make sure the text is precise, grammatically flawless and well written. Potential book buyers will use this to make a decision about buying your book.
• Send two copies of the book to Amazon.com (following instructions at their site) so that the book can be made available on the ‘search inside this book feature.
• Write intelligent and interesting reviews of similar subject books at amazon.com, and create a signature.
  Send free copies to anyone who may have an interest in this topic and ask that they write a review at amazon.com. Books with no reviews at amazon.com have a very low sales rank.
• Start a website and link it to the Amazon bookstore. Sell your books through your website.
• Aggressively market your book through press releases, articles blogs, websites, and any other way that you can think of because marketing is the core activity that will ensure that people know and buy the book.
• Get your book into book fairs like BookExpo America and the London Book Fair which will give you access to the traditional publishing industry – several third parties offer this kind of book marketing for a nominal fee.
• For best results, the subject (or shelving category) of your book should be part of the title, or at least the sub-title. This way readers will find it in catalogues and databases whether or not they know name of the author or book.
• Get a proof of your book before it goes to print. If you don’t like how your book looks, you can make changes before you pay a lot of money for 1,000 flawed copies.

Wishing you the best of luck if you decide that self publishing your book is for you!

Love & Light
The Word Queen xx

Marketing your book via social media is a powerful tool, as it allows the author to build a relationship with the reader. Not only that, but it doesn’t have a direct monetary cost associated with it. The only cost is your time. Using Twitter to sell books is very powerful indeed!

Twitter is a brilliant way to connect with and build relationships with users. I have around three thousand followers on Twitter and every time I write a new post or come across an interesting article, I send it to three thousand people.

Never underestimate the power of using Twitter to sell books. 

As Twitter is such an important tool for selling books, I’m going to explain some effective tips and advice to use in order to boost sales.

Twitter Tips

Firstly go to www.twitter.com and create an account. Make sure you upload a clear, quality photo of yourself to your profile. People will want to see what you look like and who you are and if you leave the photo area blank, or use a fuzzy one, this doesn’t look very professional. If you upload a nice photo of you holding a copy of your book, that’s even better.

Next, ensure you write an effective profile and use keywords in your text. For example, you should definitely mention that you’re an author, whether you’re a fiction or non-fiction author, the title of your book and what niche / topic / genre it focuses on. It’s always a nice idea to add something a little more personal to your profile too. For example, if you’ve written a book called Vegetarian Cooking, ideally your profile should read something like this: “Non-fiction author of Vegetarian Cooking, including advice, tips and easy recipes for vegetarians and vegans. In my spare time I like traveling, cross stitch and eating chocolate!” Make sure your profile includes the url of the blog you will have set up especially for your book.

Next, you need to start following people. It’s always a good idea here to find the right people to follow… not just any people. In the case of the example above, the best people to follow would be vegetarians and vegans. So how do you do that? Well I’ve found a few ways, which I’ll share with you below:

1. Type keywords relating to your niche in the Twitter search box at the top of the home page. For example ‘Vegetarian’ ‘Vegan’ ‘Vegetarian recipes’. Twitter will then display all the posts containing those keywords and you can through and follow those people. Many of them will follow you back automatically, although not all of them. We’ll move on to that in a moment.

2. Create an account with www.twellow.com – this is The Yellow Pages of Twitter and it’s amazing. Again, use the search box, or the category listings provided to type in your niche keywords and find other Twitter users with those words in their profile. A list will appear and you can follow any of them direct from that page (without having to go to Twitter).

3. Create an account with www.socialoomph.com – this is a Godsend, as you can set up an automatic DM to send anyone that follows you. You can also have Social Oomph automatically follow people who use your keywords either in their posts or in their profile. From the home page go to Direct Messages (which is located on the left hand menu), then choose ‘edit welcome DM’ to write a direct message which followers will receive automatically. I find it works better to rotate your direct messages so you can test and see which one is the most effective.

To add a few DMs to Social Oomph follow the format below: {Are you writing a book or trying to get one published? Msg me with your questions and get your FREE gift here: http://bit.ly/aTEGRh|Hi, Get your free report ’7 Steps To Writing Your Book & Getting It Published’ here: http://bit.ly/aTEGRh|Hi I’m The Word Queen! DM me with your writing & publishing questions. I’ll be happy to help xx} Obviously change the links to your own though, and change the text so it is related to your book. Make sure the auto follow box is ticked.

For some more general advice on using Twitter to sell books try and Tweet at least five times a day and make sure they don’t all focus on your book, with a link to buy it, or a link though to your blog. That will irritate other people, who will get the impression that you’re only interested in selling your book and you’ll be perceived as a selfish marketer. Post links to other related content that you find interesting and help other people in the Twitter community by retweeting their posts, etc… It’s also a good idea to Tweet at least twice a day about your life and what you’ve been up to. And that’s pretty much it when it comes to using Twitter to sell books.

So long as you follow these basic guidelines you’ll gain a large following in no time (and go on to sell lots of books!)

Love & Light

Keidi Keating, The Word Queen xxx

Throughout my busy days – which usually involve a lot of editing, some reading, and unfortunately only a smudge of socialising – I receive a heap of emails asking how to find a literary agent.

Well that’s a good question to ask. And not such a good question to answer. Mainly because I find it pretty boring. But hey, I know you writers NEED this kind of wisdom, so here goes…a blog post which tells you exactly how to find a literary agent (in the hope that I stop receiving so many emails asking the same question)!

And as we all tend to follow instructions far better when presented with steps, that’s just what I now give you…

Step 1. First, make sure your manuscript is finished and polished. It’s always a good idea to have it professionally edited if you can afford it. I can’t stress this enough…NEVER send an unfinished manuscript to an agent, or you’ll be the cause of another grey hair and another rejection.

Step 2. Now that your manuscript is shining bright, spend some time on the internet getting to know the business. Today it’s not enough to have just written a good book. You’ll need to read blogs, talk to booksellers, attend writing conferences, speak to authors, and anything else you can possibly think of. Agents may just be impressed with your knowledge and that’s always a good sign.

Step 3. To find an agent the best way through the door is by getting a referral. An effective way of going about this is to join local writing groups so your work will be seen by other established writers. Another idea is to get your stories published in magazines, sign up to online writer’s communities, and make a tonne of author virtual friends.

Step 4. If you don’t land a referral then try to write a query letter describing your work. Change your letter according to the agent you’re submitting to in order to demonstrate your knowledge.

Step 5. Find agents to post your letter to. A Google search is always a good idea. Try to target agents who represent your genre. Before you post anything off, find the agent’s submission guidelines and follow them with precision.

Step 6. Wait patiently for a request to see your partial or in some cases, full manuscript.

So there you go – six easy-to-follow steps so you know exactly how to find a literary agent for your manuscript.

Good luck chuck!

Love & Light,

The Word Queen xx

Hello fellow writers,   Today I have prepared am effective creative writing exercise to help you develop your characters…have fun with it

Take one of your book’s most important characters and concentrate on him / her when completing this creative writing exercise. Answer each of these questions deeply, expanding your responses where possible to include other questions that may arise. 

1. What do you know about this character now that s/he doesn’t know?
2. What is this character’s greatest personality flaw?
3. What do you know about this character that s/he would never admit?
4. What is this character’s greatest plus point?
5. What is this character’s favourite food and why?
6. What colour does this character like the best?
7. What songs does this character sing when no one else is around?
8. What is this character’s favourite film?
9. Does this character have a favourite item of clothing? How about a favourite pair of shoes shoes?
10.  What is this character’s secret dream?
11.  How many brothers and sisters does this character have?
12.  What is this character’s best achievement?
13.  Describe this character’s most embarrassing moment.
14.  What is this character’s deepest regret?
15.  What is this character’s greatest fear?
16.  Describe this character’s most devastating moment.
17.  What is this character’s greatest hope?
18.  Does this character have an obsession? If so, name it.
19.  What is this character’s worst nightmare?
20.  Describe this character’s mother.
21.  Describe this character’s father.
22.  Describe this character’s siblings or other close relatives.
23.  Describe this character’s bedroom. Include three loved items.
24.  What is this character’s date of birth? What traits does he/her have of his/her astrological sign?
25.  Describe a recurring dream or nightmare this character might have.
26.  How would a stranger describe this character?
27.  Who depends on this character? Why?
28.  How would a dear friend or relative describe this character?
29.  What is this character’s most noticeable physical attribute?
30.  Write one additional thing about your character….

Do you see how answering the questions about each of your characters in this creative writing exercise has opened doors where before there were only brick walls?  

If you complete this exercise with all your main characters, you’ll find that your book is completed in far less time, as you’ll feel like your characters are friends you’ve had for years.

For more creative writing exercises like this one, plus lots of amazing creative writing tuition log on to http://www.writeyourbookmasterclass.com and sign up to my 26-week writing, publishing and book marketing course…

Love & light

The Word Queen x

Now for some more tips on how to create a believable setting for your book, continuing on from point three in the last blog post:

4. Make Logical Decisions

Does your setting make sense? Readers won’t buy into a book where the characters are in a world that is dangerous to humans, but where they are able to move around freely without protective suits.

5. Be Creative

Let your imagination run riot and explore the surroundings in your story as you write. Make them as vivid and as real as you can.

6. Keep Your Ears And Eyes Open

Observe the world around you. Some of the best ideas you’ll get for setting could be across the street, or something that you discover on your way to work.

7. Include Details But Not TOO Many

The writer’s job is to flesh out details, but to a point. Give readers just enough information so that they’re able to fill in some details on their own.

8. Use the 4 W’s

Use the four W questions: Who, What, Where, When?

9. Think About Context

Context also has an impact on setting. A beautiful sunny day by itself will seem unordinary, but after leaving a haunted castle, a beautiful day will be like paradise and a character will lap it up! To give a setting a big impact, precede or follow it with a contrasting setting.

10. Consider Your Characters

To create the perfect setting ask yourself about your characters. Are they Southern folk, or Northerners? Do they live in a small flat, or a multimillion dollar mansion? These questions effect setting and you need to pay them some attention.

If you change locations and settings you must update the reader about the new location without it feeling forced. Do it through actions when possible, rather than through overly descriptive prose. Try to bring in the setting details through what the character is doing.

Too much description of setting can kill the reader’s interest. The key is to sprinkle descriptions throughout your story from the characters point of view.

Active & Passive Settings

Will your setting play an active or a passive role in your novel? An example of an active setting would be a novel set during a political upheaval, a war-zone, a natural disaster – whereby in each case, the setting will drive the plot in a massive way. You could not write a political novel without involving the setting to a large degree. The setting and the plot are entwined. 

A passive setting does not interrupt the plot. It merely compliments or enhances it. Choosing to write a novel in a city, next to the ocean, or in a rural retreat all serve to showcase the story, but they don’t drive it.

In the case of sci fi and fantasy, setting is of even more importance. You can be as imaginative as you wish and it’s often this depth of imagination which inspires the reader. With historical fiction, the emphasis is on accuracy of detail.

Big Picture Or Detail

A useful way of thinking about your setting is to think big picture and then detail. 

Big picture setting is the broad brush-strokes. It’s the first question to ask.

Another way of looking at the big picture would be to ask yourself – where is this book set and why? 

For example, you choose to write your book in New York because your character has recently moved there because she’s got a new job. Or you choose a place in the middle of nowhere because your character has just been widowed and wants to left alone to grieve. Or you choose a beach resort because your story starts with a couple on honeymoon.

The detail comes in with the smaller brush strokes. Let’s go with the New York example. Does she live in Manhattan or the Bronx? Does she live in an apartment on the third floor or the thirty-third floor? Is the apartment small or large? Is it clean or dirty? Does she share or live alone? What colour is the paint on the wall? Does she have a double bed or a single?  You can get to such a level of specificity here.

Landscapes And Weather

Another important feature of any location is the landscape. How many books have you read which feature a beautiful, break-taking sunset?  Or they feature mountains, deserts, oceans. We have all visited places no doubt where there are stunning landscapes and panoramic views and it is our role as the author to represent these pictures in words.

Weather is important too; try reading a novel and picking out how many times the weather is mentioned, particularly storms! Weather is atmospheric in its own right and as an author you can use the weather to help tell the story and also set the tone for a chapter or set-piece. Choose the season to set your book because it will influence the action.

Cultures And Traditions

Many authors who write about places they have visited, or indeed researched, find that it is a good idea to briefly touch upon the cultures and traditions. This has the effect of adding authenticity and a dash of foreign flavour. You don’t have to go into tonnes of detail. Just enough to embellish both description and narrative.

Landmarks

Landmarks are also something that can be used to good effect whilst writing. Take, for example, The White House in Washington, or Big Ben in London; using either of these landmarks is perfectly acceptable and is not infringing any laws as these are landmarks and in the public domain. Also these are landmarks that many people are familiar with so setting a scene against the backdrop of a well-known landmark allows the reader to draw their own mental picture, while enabling the author to use less description and concentrate on the plot and its characters.

Finally a note on how to go about mixing your locations: when plotting your novel it is an idea to note down the segments of your story and where they might be located. Allocate a location to each event in your story, or concentrate on one location throughout. Either way it can be fun to help the story along using places and landmarks as literary scenery.

To Conclude

The setting and location of your novel are just as important as the characters. Research the general setting, as well as sub-settings along the way.

Love & Light
The Word Queen xx

The key to writing a good setting is making it the base of the story. Setting is as important to your writing as plot, character and emotion. It is a part of all those things.

Creating the perfect setting for your novel is not as hard as you might think if you take the time to consider who is going to be living in it. The characters, action, and ultimately the solution to your novel will determine the perfect setting for any novel. With some consideration to these important elements, your setting will often create itself.

Setting is one of the easier things to create when writing a novel, if for no other reason than half the creating is already done when you get to it. You already have the characters, so you have a framework to build the setting around.

Check out these first three of ten tips for creating an inspiring setting:

1. Get To Know Your Setting – Whether your story is set in a university, London, or a posh restaurant, an interesting setting is critical to good storytelling. And there’s no better way to make it compelling than to know it inside and out. Spend some time checking out your setting, including the nooks and crannies and the history. To learn more about your setting ask it questions like: “How old are you?” “What kind of people come here?” “What are your biggest secrets?” If you want to use a location in your novel that you have never visited, there are ways of collecting enough research to make it plausible. These include the internet, tour guides, like the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, brochures, travel clubs and interviewing people who have visited the locations you want to use. This may sound like cheating, but it is actually how many would-be authors find out about the destinations they use in their novels and there is nothing wrong with this practice as long as the information is accurate.

2. Let Your Characters Explore The Setting – If you’re concerned that your book’s characters will get bored of hanging out in just one setting, give them a secondary location. It’s up to you to decide what places your characters hang out in and deserve the most attention. If you’re unable to visit a secondary setting, research the location online, or at the local library. If the setting is fictional, dream up the look and feel of it in your mind; bring it to life in the same way as you do with your characters. This is where good research comes into the equation! You must establish the time period, the location, the customs, hardware, construction, instruments, and so on. After you have thoroughly investigated your setting(s), you can then decide how your characters fit into this setting? Most readers need enough details about the setting to know where the characters are, in what time period the story takes place and what the place looks like. If it takes place in a hairdressers, that’s important for a reader to know. But unless the hairdressers has some unusual decorations, or it is in an unusual location, it’s not necessary for the author to describe it. After all, hairdressers all look basically the same.

3. Use The Five Senses – There are more ways to get across a book’s setting than by describing what everything looks like. Your reader has five senses, so it’s important to engage them all.

Next time we’ll look at the remaining seven of these amazing ten tips

Love & Light,

The Word Queen xx

Today we’re going to focus on watering your seeds, so you can watch your ideas thrive.  

Now’s the time to gather your list of ideas and decide which ones you would like to explore further. It’s best not to pick a huge number at this stage, so whittle them down and select your three or four favourite.

Try not to look at these ideas just from your own personal tastes. Remember that your idea has to possess a commercial edge to work well in the big wide world out there. Will it impress publishers and agents? Would you feel proud telling the biggest publishing companies about it, and feel confident it would work?   Here are some ways you can decide exactly which idea to go for, out of your three of four pre-selected ones.  

Write A Press Release

Write a press release for each idea to check that the final book will sell well, even just as a concept. A press release is a one-page news story that elaborates on your book and proves that it is unique and worth looking at. Your press release gives your book a chance to get noticed. Any idea that can’t stand out on a press release is too risky to follow up.  

Ensure Your Idea Is Big Enough

By this I mean make sure that you can create enough gripping content to fill 250 – 500 pages, or however long you want your book to be. It’s easier for experienced authors to work this out than new ones.

After you’ve completed the two steps above you should now have one glistening idea in your head, which is THE ONE; the idea which is going to lead you to produce a best-selling book.

As we’re focusing on fiction books here, the next stage is to determine your characters. This is all part of the watering process, so that your idea grows and becomes stronger. Characters are what make a fiction book. They bring it to life and are the elements with which readers associate themselves the most. Sometimes they might see themselves in a particular character, or an element which is the same as their best friend.

Mentally focus on your idea as much as possible throughout each day. Think about it before you go to sleep at night and mull over it first thing in the morning. Focus is a remarkable thing. Think back to when you were a child. Did you ever play the game with the magnifying glass and the sun in the garden? When you held the magnifying glass so the sun reflected off it for a long enough period of time, the leaves underneath would start burning, right?

Well the same happens with our ideas and our focus. Focus on something for long enough and hard enough and doors open. In the case of a small idea, it then develops into a much bigger one with little or no effort on your part – all you need to do is hold it in your mind! Eventually your little idea sees will transform into a fully grown tree.

The Branches

The branches, or sub ideas of your main idea are just as important as thinking of the idea in the first place. Don’t get lazy at this stage, as otherwise the rest of the process would have been a waste of your time. Sub ideas can hold the jewel to real success.

Repeat the brainstorming exercise in step one, but this time using the same process to find sub ideas. Write your main idea at the top of a sheet of paper and for twenty minutes or so write down all the related ideas you can think of. These sub ideas are what can eventually help to make up your storyline, plot and theme.

To Conclude

Your ideas will grow as and when you allow them to. Use the power of your mind to focus on your ideas and watch them branch into different directions.

Love & Light,

The Word Queen xx