Product Placement
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Origami Around
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Sade Olutola
DEAR READER
wallacepolsom
taylor price
Cosimo Galluzzi
cherry valley forever
noise dept.
ellievsbear
Today's Document
tannertan36
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Kaledo Art
NASA
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Show & Tell
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@banginwrites
So since I’m curious about everyone’s works: If you’d like to, I’d love to read the last bit you wrote for your most recent wips! Or even an excerpt that you really like within your story. Whether your comment or reblog this with the writing is great either way, I’m excited to see what y’all got!
not me daydreaming about being interviewed about the process of writing my best-selling novel instead of… you know… figuring the plot out 💀💀💀
Save money when self-publishing
Although self-publishing could technically be free, it will cost money to put a quality product out there. So, this list isn't going to tell you to forego an editor or anything like that. Instead, here are some tips for saving money while still publishing a high quality book.
1. Pre-made cover
Unless you are a graphic designer with experience in book covers, you shouldn't design your book cover yourself.
But, it can be VERY expensive to have a custom cover designed.
So, look through pre-made covers and purchase one that makes sense for your book. This won't always be possible, but it's worth trying.
Most covers are available for e-book, and designers are often open to creating a full spread for print for a small added fee.
thebookcoverdesigner.com is my favorite site for pre-made covers.
2. Learn to format
You can pay someone to do the interior formatting for your novel, but that's really expensive.
So, learn to do the formatting yourself.
For Mac users, Vellum is a great and easy tool.
For those of you with PCs, like me, you'll have to learn some more skills.
For epub and mobi, I love Reedsy. The free online software is easy to use. However, you can't use different fonts, which is a bit of a bummer.
For print books, you can actually do high-quality formatting on MS Word. It can take long and be frustrating, but I find it quite fun.
3. Use beta readers and critique partners
Okay, so I may be telling you to forego one type of edit: developmental.
This won't work for everyone. If your book has major plot problems or character development issues, you will need a developmental edit before publication.
But, it's always worth getting beta readers and critique partners first. They read your book and give feedback FOR FREE. And they focus on the story in the same way a developmental editor does.
This can be a great way to assess your plot and characters without paying for an editor.
If, during the process, you receive a lot of negative feedback and you're struggling to fix it on your own, you'll probably need a developmental editor.
But if you use multiple rounds of beta readers and critique partners and the feedback improves, and you fix the problems yourself, you don't, in my opinion, also have to pay for a developmental edit.
4. Don't create an audiobook (at first)
Many self-published authors want to debut with a bang. They want their first book to be available in every possible format.
I agree with this in most respects, but not when it comes to audiobooks.
I think the ROI is actually quite low, especially with Audible screwing over authors with their royalty system.
And it's very expensive to produce a high-quality audiobook - you can't just narrate it yourself.
So, if you publish the book and it does really well and you make enough profit, maybe consider releasing the audiobook a few years later.
5. Use free ISBNs
Each version of your book (ebook, paperback, hardback, audiobook etc.) needs its own unique ISBN.
Depending on the country you live in, you might need to buy ISBNs. Luckily, in South Africa, my country, the National Library issues free ISBNs.
However, Amazon KDP offers free ISBNs for you to use. The only snag is that Amazon will then be listed as the publisher, not you or your publishing company.
If that's something you don't mind, I would recommend using the free ones.
So, those are 5 ways to save money when self-publishing. I hope that this can be useful to you guys.
Reblog if you found these tips helpful. Comment with your own advice. Follow me for similar content.
I find the fact that many writers have a lot of unfinished WIPs with even more joining the pile quite beautiful, actually.
We have so many stories within us that can't wait to be written down and shared because we're so excited about them.
Isn't it wonderful that we all have that many amazing ideas?
Read The Worst Full Moon | BetaBooks
Hey guys, I’m writing a new book! I would LOVE some feedback on this one, so give her a shot!
After accidentally murdering her lover on the full moon, werewolf Mena must leave everything she knows behind to escape for her life. She sets out for an uninhabited land to keep her dangerous condition away from others, meeting helpful traveler Noctu along the way. Wanted for murder and hiding her secret from Noctu, she encounters another strange werewolf for the first time ever and grows worried when it seems to be following her. Her journey proves even harder when a werewolf-hating bounty hunter sets his sights on her. Mena must navigate her difficult journey while staying out of trouble and dealing with the memory of her dead lover that haunts her.
“Writing a book is so easy.”
Yes. Writing a book is the easiest thing in the whole world. In fact, let me show you just how easy it is!
Goal: change all this paper into a book.
Eh, not that hard. I mean, you just have to read, right?
Maybe scratch a few notes in the margins as reminders.
Yeah, writing and editing isn’t time consuming or painstaking at all.
In fact, I find it quite relaxing. Good meditation. No stress whatsoever!
I mean, it’s not like writing a book involves any train of thought or decision making, like when to cut scenes, because whatever you write is perfect and there to stay!
I mean, come on, it’s not like I’m going to rewrite the first chapter 51 TIMES to make sure it’s how I want it, right? That’d be crazy.
And no, it’s not like I spent over 3,000 HOURS READING AND REVISING 14 DRAFTS OF THE BOOK to make this book readable.
No sweat, no tears, no blood, and DEFINITELY no coffee stains.
Nope, writing is the easiest job in the world. I don’t see why anyone thinks otherwise. I mean, all we do is scribble words and take a few out, right?
We feel no satisfaction AT ALL when we receive a shipment of the final product for a book signing. *yawn* BOR–ING.
Nope, we don’t get excited at all. It’s just another day in the life.
And the sequels? Bitch, please. That’s child’s play.
You’re right. Writing a book is so easy. It’s not stressful, not exciting, and it’s definitely not worth the reward of holding something that USED TO BE EXCLUSIVELY IN YOUR HEAD AND NOW YOU GET TO SHARE IT WITH THE WHOLE WORLD.
This is terrifying.
:->
I found the post OMG
Picked up my first book idea from high school senior year,,, It's definitely looking better than when I originally wrote it 👉👈
What do you think of trans women? Personally as a trans woman I think there are no words in the english language to describe how amazing we are
I think you're great and trans women are always the best at choosing names??? I met a trans woman once whose name was Aphrodite. Straight up. Killer name if you ask me
More details about Aphrodite: I met her and her girlfriend in line for an LGBT club the Christmas before the pandemic. She was so stunning. She was tall, her bone structure was like that of a Greek statue, and she had this gorgeous long curly hair that just looked so healthy and shiny. I've never seen healthier looking hair in my life. Her makeup was subtle but unmistakably glittery. She approached me to tell me that my eyeshadow was gorgeous and asked me where I got it. Inside the club she then told me I was the most beautiful woman on earth and vanished into the night.
I don’t think you just met a trans woman I think you met the actual fucking Aphrodite
And I will never forget her.
This means Aphrodite is a trans woman
She's Latina too since I'm Brazilian and this happened near my hometown!
Aphrodite also spoke just.. so calmly. Like she knew without a shadow of a doubt that eventually everything was gonna be ok. She gave me a feeling of peace.
When she told me I was beautiful she didn't just go "OMG YOU'RE SO PRETTY". Instead, she approched me at the bar inside the club, looked at me for a few seconds, smiled fondly, twirled a piece of my hair not flirtatiously, but like a grandmother who hasn't seen their grandchild in ages, and said to me in Portuguese "você é linda de parar o coração" (aka, "you're beautiful enough to stop a heartbeat"), gave me another smile, and then disappeared- never to be seen again.
No you literally met Aphrodite
any tips on editing?
Editing! So exciting!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never known a writer without a strong opinion on editing. Some people love it, some hate it. I’m hoping these tips might slowly push you to the latter.
Disclaimer: I don’t do a ton of editing. I spend most of my time trying to get my novel ideas to actually work on paper, and haven’t made it to that point yet. However, I have made it there with a few short stories, and while most of the advice probably transfers over, take this with a grain of salt if it doesn’t work for your particular wip.
Without further ado, here are some of my tips on editing your writing!
First, get rid of the idea that editing = trashing your work. Lots of writers are afraid of editing because it’ll make them realize everything they don’t like about their work. In reality, we edit our work to improve it and help it grow, not to criticize our first draft, which is undoubtedly not going to be the best work we’ve ever produced.
Whenever possible, always do your first bits of editing on paper. There’s definitely a psychology behind scribbling all over your manuscript and how it helps you make more thorough edits. If you don’t have access to a printer, try an annotation app on a computer or tablet.
Before an editing session, make a list of the things you want to accomplish in that session. “Add more physical description”, “enhance the relationship between chars. A and B”, and “break down chapter 4” are all examples of notes I wrote to myself while editing this year. That way, you’ll know what to keep an eye out for while rereading.
Split it up! Especially if you’re writing a longer work, editing can be really intimidating. Go chapter by chapter, or give yourself ten pages at a time. It’ll feel a lot more manageable.
Along with that, take your time. Depending on how thorough you are, this can be a painstaking process. This is why books take so long to come out! It’s supposed to take a long time, so don’t stress about getting it done quickly.
Do multiple sessions. Don’t expect to edit your work once and have it ready for print; you’ll need to go through it quite a bit. This is normal! Some authors have revised their books 50 times. You probably won’t need that many times, but don’t be surprised if this takes longer than it took you to write your first draft.
GET A BETA. This is probably the best advice I can give you. A beta will give you a fresh set of eyes, as well as a person to bounce questions off of (see my suggestions here). Your beta reader can be a writer friend, a non-writer friend (more opinions here), someone you meet in an online writing community… as long as they know what they’re in for (and you’re willing to compensate them for their work!), anyone will do.
Break it up. Editing is exhausting sometimes. Have another writing project going that you can work on in between sessions to prevent burnout.
Retype. This is controversial, and believe me, it is a PAIN IN THE ASS. But it’s also one of the most useful editing techniques I’ve encountered. Pull up your manuscript and a blank document side-by-side, and retype it. You’ll find yourself correcting typos, adding and removing details, and editing without really realizing it. I don’t know if I would recommend this for novels unless you really wanna put yourself through that, but I would absolutely recommend for flash fiction, short stories, and individual scenes and chapters that are really giving you a hard time.
Show some love! To keep your morale up, try editing as if you were editing a friend or classmate’s work. Instead of scribbling out that really frustrating paragraph and writing “THIS SUCKS”, mark it with a “having trouble understanding this part”. Instead of just pointing out everything that’s not working, also note where it is! Highlight your favorite snippets, characters, dialogue, etc. Yeah, you have a lot of work ahead of you, but look at all the great work you’ve already done!
Happy editing! (And please send me more questions about writing!!)
Currently writing some underworld King kidnapping a prince and making him his bride
....Wattpad is gonna love this.
has this been done yet
I swear I'm a true fan of whump
not to be boring but I like when evil characters.... well not become “redeemed,” more like they become domesticated. its just delightful when like an evil monstrous little bastard man goes from committing murder to getting mad someone misplaced their costco card or left the jar of mayo on the counter all day.
I just needed to preserve these tags. For reasons.
My eternal struggles as a writer:
Too many ideas and not enough time/spoons to devote to them all
Wanting to write at 2am rather than at a sensible time during the day
Leaving horrendously cryptic and unhelpful notes, such as [NEEDS MORE] in my first drafts. Needs more what?? Atmosphere? Dialogue?? Crocodiles in tap shoes???
Uhhh how do you end a chapter pls
Do you ever just make a sexy villain? Because uh,,,,, *deep breathing noises* s e xy v i l lain--
Two things about constructive criticism:
Unless the person has specifically asked for it beforehand, you should always ask before giving it.
For it to actually be constructive, you have to be able to offer at least a potential solution to the problem. The goal of constructive criticism is to be helpful. "X is wrong :)" is NOT helpful, so maybe try something more along the lines of "X seems a bit out of place, maybe if you shifted it a bit, or tried Y".
Also, a third thing I feel the need to point out, there is a BIG difference between someone else's work not being to your personal preference, and it actually needing to be changed or fixed.
THINGS WHICH MAKE WRITERS ANXIOUS:
not writing
writing
people reading their stories
people not reading their stories
Editing
Not editing
Not having any good ideas
Having too many ideas and not being able to decide which to write
Having one really good idea and worrying they’re not a good enough writer for the idea
Not having the time to write
Having the time to write
Yeah.
Princess and Knight - Preview!
Title: The Princess and Her Knight
Rating: G for Gen (all ages), some cursing though
Summary: After pissing off the wrong woman, Elise Dahlia, a beloved knight to the princess of the land, is turned into a dragon and faced with a dilemma. Princess Ella Ariss finds out her beloved had been turned into a dragon! Now what shall they do? Surely they can’t just run off together on some mountain far away! ...Or can they?
Additional info: This was started a year or so ago, I wanted to make a cute little lesbian story with a princess and a knight, so I hope everyone else enjoys this as much as I do!
