Some Advice On Getting Advice

Before I took that first step into the Indie Publishing world, I vowed to myself that I would always do everything in my power to produce the best work I possibly could. I wanted to be considered a professional author who delivered the goods.

When I am working on any writing project, I always keep that goal in mind.

For me, one way of achieving this goal is to ask for feedback on my work. Once I have written and edited my first draft I send it out to my critique partners. I also do this with cover design. Once my graphic designer has drafted something for me, I send it out to a few key people and see what they have to say. Continue reading “Some Advice On Getting Advice”

Rebekah Lyn Announces New Title

Author Rebekah Lyn is pleased to announce the release of her new novel, Winter’s End.

Musician Michelle Burton just had the best night of her life. Her band Tangled Web opened for Wonderland in downtown Orlando and the crowd loved them. Too excited to sleep she makes a fateful decision to go to work early. The best night of her life turns into the worst day of her life.

Nearby, at boutique Hotel Lago, Stephen Longbottom, acting concierge manager, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the board of directors for Silken Pleasures, a multimillion dollar company based in New York and specializing in high end cosmetics, fragrances and lingerie. Their incessant demands before they even arrive are driving him to distraction. Meanwhile Lizzie Reynolds, his boss is on a romantic ski trip in Vermont leaving him to manage his first solo event.

Winter’s End was released on November 27, 2012 and is currently available from Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Above the Foxhole

It’s good to poke your head up above the foxhole every once in a while and take a look at what else is going on in the world.

As always, the goings-on run the gamut from the wonderful to the weird.

First up, our own Martin Crosbie gets a nice hat tip in this article on Kindlegate over at Digital Journal.

Are you familiar with the term “back-formation?” According to Mark Nichol, of Daily Writing Tips,  “A back-formation is a new word produced by excising an affix, such as producing the verb secrete from the noun secretion.”

Mark says that while many back-formations eventually take their place in the lexicon, there are some newer ones that writers would be wise to avoid, at least in formal writing.

Book-to-movie is the new hotness. Well, maybe not that new. So, what’s coming down the pike? Publisher’s Weekly gives us a list of the 10 most anticipated book adaptations of 2013.

Are words more than characters used to convey meaning? Here’s a piece on the meaning of writing from the National Writing Project.

Last but not least, it looks like the jello is still squishing out from between the fingers of Amazon’s iron grip when it comes to policing reviews. The New York Times sees “swarm”  reviews used as a strategic weapon to attack books.

 

Indie News Beat: Indie Superstar Hugh Howey and Wool

If you haven’t heard of the novel Wool by Hugh Howey, then it’s likely you will at some point in the near future. It has been hailed as science fiction’s answer to 50 Shades, although only in the way that a self-publishing author has broken out, rather than any similarity in content. Wool began as a short story of just 60 pages, first published in July 2011. By the end of that year, Howey had added a further four parts to bring the story up to the generally-accepted idea of novel length. Momentum kept building throughout last year, to the point where today Howey enjoys all the trappings of a successful, A-list fiction author (Ridley Scott has the film rights, Random House are handling the print editions in most territories, and the book’s Amazon page now boasts over 3,300 reviews).

So how did he do it? Continue reading “Indie News Beat: Indie Superstar Hugh Howey and Wool”