Business of Writing

Public Speaking for Writers

November 16, 2015November 15, 2015Business of Writing

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

By this point, I’ve made my peace with public speaking. I’m even able to look forward to it with a small sense of anticipation—that I’ll get an opportunity to share information.

I think that my main issues remaining with public speaking are that I don’t enjoy:

Talking about myself
Talking about my books

And I know this seems bizarre…after all, isn’t that the whole point of public speaking as a writer?

But the truth is, I’m rarely asked to talk about myself or my books. I’m usually invited by writers’ groups or conferences or schools. When I am asked to talk about myself, I frequently fudge a little and talk instead on the writing life. Because I’d always rather talk about writing than about me.Continue reading

Time Savers for Writers

November 13, 2015November 9, 2015Business of Writing

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Frequently I find that I need the same information over and over again for a wide variety of different tasks. I might be signing up to have my book considered for translation, or pitching BookBub, or submitting my book to a library for consideration. I spent a lot of time looking the same information up online over and over again.

I finally realized that I would save myself a good deal of time if I compiled these things into a document that I could easily put my hands on…and do it for all of my books.

Amazon Affiliate links for all books in digital and print form. I’m an Amazon Affiliate, which means that when a reader clicks on one of my tracking links to get to my books on Amazon, I get a small commission based on what they buy when they’re on the site. It’s a passive way to make a little money. For a while, I was plugging in my book’s links into the Amazon Affiliate link generator, copying the link, and putting it wherever I needed to list it (Wattpad, Facebook, etc.) Continue reading

Getting Feedback and Being Part of a Community

November 6, 2015November 2, 2015Business of Writing, Tools for Writers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Self-published writers frequently hear that they need to pass their books by beta readers or critique groups first before sending the stories on to freelance editors (fewer corrections in a book means a less expensive editing process).

Some writers never even get as far as needing a beta reader because they didn’t seek out encouragement and support from the writing community.

But sometimes it can be tough to know exactly where to find these beta readers and online support. Here are a few ideas.

First Readers/Beta Readers

Online critique groups and beta readers. Sometimes I think we can run into the same problem that we can with in-person crit groups…we might be much better or much worse than our crit partner. But we also have more of a selection to choose from in terms of writer experience.

There are resources to help you connect:Continue reading

Trying New Things for More Visibility

November 2, 2015November 2, 2015Business of Writing

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The business side of writing seems to take more and more time.

If I knock out my writing goal first, though, I don’t have that uncomfortable sense of being conflicted. And I remind myself that whatever time I spend putting my content “out there” should be repaid later on by sales. Hopefully.

AmazonCrossing. Although I think there is still a huge untapped English-speaking or ESL audience out there in the digital reading market, I’ll admit to an interest in translation. After all, if I want to relax with a good book, I sure as heck want to read it in English. Reading it in French (my high school and college foreign language) would be a struggle and certainly not as relaxing.

AmazonCrossing is the arm of the retailer that’s working on projects for translation. I pitched them a book and am waiting on a reply. We’ll see. I have a feeling it’s tricky to get in.Continue reading