I specialise in editing fiction, but I’ve recently had a few enquiries about memoir. I thought I’d share a few tips and resources on memoir today. What is a Memoir? Memoir is a non-fiction book about you, the author. It’s not your full life story—that would be an autobiography. And it’s not about someone else—that …
I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about Michael Hauge’s Six-Stage Structure since attending his all-day session at the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference in August 2016. I did write a summary post (Identity, Essence, and God), but I didn’t cover the detail of his approach to writing novels and screenplays. I couldn’t. …
There are many “rules” to writing good fiction. One of them is to keep backstory to the back of the story, to not use any backstory in the first fifty pages. Is this a good writing tip, or more bad writing advice? Don’t we need to introduce our characters to the reader at the beginning …
Publish Like a Boss! by Honoree Corder and Ben Hale is the second book in their joint three-book series. I read and reviewed the excellent Write Like a Boss! a couple of months ago, and wrote a post sharing Ben Hale’s fascinating (and detailed) editing process. After reading Write Like a Boss!, I was keen …
Marketing. It’s the part of writing and publishing that authors enjoy least (well, most authors). But marketing is a necessary evil no matter whether you are trade published or self published. And a solid author platform—including a website and maybe a blog—is the foundation of good author marketing. If even the thought of establishing an …
It’s December already! The blogs have been a little quiet this week—perhaps everyone is recovering from Thanksgiving. But there is still plenty of news! Publishing Christian Fiction Genre Library Journal has published an in-depth spotlight on Christian Fiction, from writer and reviewer Julia Reffner. The article, A Delicate Balance, shows what efforts the major trade …
Over the last two weeks, I’ve covered what needs to be included in your book’s front matter, and what needs to be included in the author information. Today we’re looking at what else goes in your back matter (also known as end matter). Back matter is the information at the end of a book, what …
Another week gone! What have you been reading and writing this week? Or have you been too busy with Thanksgiving? Writing Getting the First Page Right Jeannie Nash shares the six things she wants to see in the opening pages of a novel in What We Can Learn About Starting Strong from Mr. Penumbra’s 24 …
Author information is part of the front or back matter of the book. Some authors and publishers include it at the front (mostly older trade published paperbacks). Others include it in the back (especially ebooks, but also modern trade published paperbacks). There is no absolute correct order in which the front and back matter should …
We’re more than halfway through November already! For those of you attempting NaNoWriMo this month, how are you going? I’ve flunked. But I have written and loaded a heap of blog posts, almost finished the visual rebranding for a group blog (we’ll roll that out over the Christmas break), and I’m currently doing two online …
