Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 43,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

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3 Ways to Sell More Books on Amazon

Promo Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Author Michael Alvear, who has been a guest on my blog, recently sent me the results of an interesting study he’d conducted.

I’m always interested in ways to move more books on Amazon–which is the retailer I have the most success with.

The cool thing about this infographic is that Alvear’s study shows where Amazon customers focus on a book product page.  This gives writers insights to reader behavior.

An infographic from Michael Alvear shows where readers focus on an Amazon book page.

 

The first insight is that readers do focus on the ‘sponsored products related to this item’ section.  Alvear points out that it makes sense to capitalize on this by placing ads on a competitor’s page.Continue reading

Editing Published Books

Business of Writing

Coffee and cookies on table with book in the background and the post's title, "Editing Published Books" superimposed on the front.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

One of my favorite things about self-publishing is the ability to go back into a published book and make changes.

There have been, unfortunately, a few things that I would like to correct in some of my published Penguin books. Naturally, I don’t have the ability to make those because they’re not in my KDP dashboard.

But with my self-published books, I’ve made quite a few changes to the text.

One reason I might go back in is what you’d expect…correcting typos or small formatting issues.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 43,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Continue reading

Cozy Mystery Hooks

Mystery Writing Tips

A cozy scene with a fireplace in the background, a book in the foreground, and the post title, "Cozy Mystery Hooks" superimposed on the top.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Cozy mysteries are a subgenre in a large field of mystery subgenres.  They’re primarily defined by their use of an amateur sleuth, lack of gore and profanity, offstage murder, and focus on the whodunit puzzle. These mysteries are frequently (not always) humorous, character-focused, set in small-towns, and are part of a series.

They also frequently employ ‘hooks’ or special themes, meant to appeal to the primary reading demographic, as part of the series brand .

Types of hooks: 

The encyclopedic site for cozy mystery fans is Cozy Mystery List.  They list hooks under ‘themes’ and include animal themes, culinary, super paranormal, vacation mysteries, holidays, hobbies (everything from antiquing  to dollhouse miniatures), professions, senior sleuth, and religious.

I was surprised to see ‘senior sleuth’ as a theme/hook.  I know that the agents and publishers that I queried in the early 2000s didn’t consider it one at the time (and it was the cause of many rejections for Myrtle).  Good to see that things have changed.Continue reading

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