Category: Uncategorized

I recently found out that I’ll be writing a fourth Memphis Barbeque book. Good news! I’m really excited about spending more time with Lulu.

The tricky part was figuring out when I can deliver the manuscript to Penguin.

I’ve got the second book for the Southern Quilting series due in May (book one, Quilt or Innocence debuts in June 2012).

I also have a project I was working on independently. Let’s just say that that’s the one that’s now been put off until probably late summer of next year.

I’ve found that I can comfortably write three books a year. That’s just without me completely freaking out about deadlines and promo.

I was a little nervous about setting a deadline for the Memphis book that was too close to the Quilting series book. Although in that amount of time, I should be able to write a couple of books, sometimes life (holidays, kids, boring-but-essential stuff) knocks me a little off-track.

My editor for the Memphis series brought up a very good point to my agent—production time. Production time is really what’s trouble in publishing. There’s marketing and covers and catalogs and it all takes time. Usually, it takes about a year.

So I just had a release November 1, which was the third book in the Memphis Barbeque series. If I turned the book over to Penguin in, let’s say, October 2012 (which would be a piece of cake for me to make) …it would be another year for the book to launch. An October 2013 release…and the last book came out November 2011. Nearly two years between books. No. Not a good idea.

Obviously, keeping that in mind, I bumped up the time that I agreed to deliver it by. And I’m hoping that I can hand it in earlier than I’m contracted for because I immediately got what seemed like a really solid idea for the book and several different angles to work the mystery. In fact, I started making some real progress on it and had to stop and switch back to the other book (which is due first.)

On the reader end of things, lag time between books can be frustrating. My son was fussing about one of his favorite authors who is writing two series at once and how long it was between his releases. “Can’t he write faster?” he complained.

It made me wince. I explained to him that an author can write really quickly and still have a long period of time between books, especially if he had more than one series. There’s such a thing as quality control, too.

But then my mother pointed out that I just released a Myrtle Clover book, myself…the first one since 2009. That was a two-year gap, too. Sales have been brisk for Progressive Dinner Deadly, but—I believe most of the readers are new to the series. In fact, I’ve noticed a decided uptick in the sales for the 2009 Pretty is as Pretty Dies as a result.

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that you might sacrifice some of your old readers if you have too much space between books…although, with the right promotion, you may pick up new readers willing to read the books out of order.

With that in mind, I think it must be very important to write books as stand-alones if you’re going to have long spaces between them. The spacing with the next Memphis book won’t be that long, but I’m still planning to make sure no one gets completely lost when they read it.

How far apart do you space your books? As a reader, when do you start looking for a new release in a favorite series?

Please remember I’m giving away a 1000-word critique from The Bookshelf Muse. Just send an email to me at elizabethspanncraig (at)gmail (dot) com with “contest” in the subject to enter. Entries accepted through November 21. The randomly-chosen winner will be announced here November 22. Thanks, Angela and Becca!}

by @elizabethscraig

Below are the writing-related links I tweeted last week.
The Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine, designed by software engineer and writer Mike Fleming, makes all these links (now over 12,000) searchable. Sign up for the free monthly WKB newsletter for the web’s best links and interviews:http://bit.ly/gx7hg1 .

A Storytelling Life: http://bit.ly/so13Q5 @canteenmag

There are no guarantees in writing. Be confident anyway: http://bit.ly/sryDGG @HopeClark

An agent on authors and book piracy: http://bit.ly/w4cyKw @RachelleGardner

On avoiding stereotypes in our writing: http://bit.ly/t01kNz

Tying the pieces of a chapter together: http://bit.ly/ugsgQD @JulietteWade

The Benefit of Selling at Craft Fairs: http://bit.ly/uBBNes

6 Meta Tips for Book Marketing Success: http://bit.ly/vhj7Qe @JFBookman

20 Synonyms for “Expert”: http://bit.ly/urj4TT

Ideas For Authors Stuck on Superhero Names: http://bit.ly/voWv4Z

1 writer’s favorite opening lines in SF and Fantasy: http://bit.ly/uqxpg1 @amsmibert

Brontëmania: Why the three sisters are bigger than ever: http://ind.pn/tkJzgO (The Independent)

Weekly roundup of links for historical writers by @2nerdyhistgirls: http://bit.ly/s6qnuE

Freelancer’s Survival Guide–Giving up on Yourself: http://bit.ly/vQqtvK

Concise Internet Marketing Basics for Authors: http://bit.ly/u4Nx1E @ianirvineauthor

New entry on the character trait thesaurus: independent: http://bit.ly/sysPVM @AngelaAckerman

Go Farther, Faster, By Limiting Your View To Three Steps Ahead: http://bit.ly/vFymdI

95% of All Authors Will Never Indie Publish: http://bit.ly/s0Duhi @DeanWesleySmith

How Do You Know Which Rules to Break? http://bit.ly/uXvU37 @KMWeiland

Why you should submit your best blog posts as guest posts: http://bit.ly/w1Esuq @problogger

The Elevator Pitch: A Guide for an Internet without Elevators: http://bit.ly/rrE39m @GoodInkInc

11 NaNoWriMo Books That Have Been Published: http://bit.ly/rsvzTP

5 Ways To Self-Publish Your Way To Your Own “Cottage Industry”: http://bit.ly/unOMLT @bradvertrees

Making our fiction more authentic: http://bit.ly/vVWf55 @Janice_Hardy

5 tips for writing what you don’t know: http://bit.ly/u3itr5 @stephbowe

Freelancers: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Job Queries: http://bit.ly/s2ZG82 @freelancewj

An editor states that too many modern novels are assembled for a market: http://bit.ly/uns6dQ @guardian

The Business of Screenwriting: Weather vanes: http://bit.ly/rAKvWG @GoIntoTheStory

NaNoWriMo: Resistance: http://bit.ly/thbKKT

Losing Control of Your Books: http://bit.ly/tMBcPG @PassiveVoiceBlg

Treating the Pain of Rejection: http://bit.ly/sanRZ0 @AshKrafton

D-I-Y Publishing—New Tricks for an Old Dog: http://bit.ly/rAQxQJ @LawrenceBlock for @AnneRAllen

Why confidence is so important for writers: http://bit.ly/v1mXX7

A checklist for deep POV (in 1st or 3rd person): http://bit.ly/uN0y5R @JulietteWade

A synopsis critique: http://bit.ly/upr6az @nicolamorgan

An Agent on Query Personalization: http://bit.ly/tR30HX @Kid_Lit

3 tools for curation: http://bit.ly/rvu8Kp @JaneFriedman

How To Get Published In A Magazine: http://bit.ly/vDlr14 @mrsionsmith for @BubbleCow

The Value of Professional Copyediting: http://bit.ly/urLL0k @magicalwords

Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes: Writing the Opposite Gender: http://bit.ly/uJMLVR @FantasyFaction

Comparing E-Readers And E-Reader/Tablets: Kindles, Nooks, Sony, Kobo: http://bit.ly/vdIZs1 @sdkstl

3 Good Things About Writing Part-Time: http://bit.ly/utzugK @BookEmDonna

The Art of Staying Sane: http://bit.ly/rEkWRF

Confessions of a NaNo Newbie: http://bit.ly/uE0r8r @RC_Lewis

A cheat sheet for writers: http://bit.ly/sKlXLW @peter_halasz @litdrift

Why Developers Are Interested in Kindle Fire and What It Could Mean for Publishers: http://bit.ly/tscByv @JDGreenGrass

10 Famous Literary Characters and Their Real-Life Inspirations (The Atlantic): http://bit.ly/tIGVY3 @flavorpill

A writer rails against a dialogue rule: http://bit.ly/uKvF0R

3 Vital Steps to Creating Your Protagonist for NaNoWriMo: http://bit.ly/rVXrwC @VictoriaMixon

Goal Setting For You And Your Characters: http://bit.ly/rtfTrK @plotwhisperer for @thecreativepenn

What you have to (un)learn to be a writer: http://bit.ly/tSTy8z @jammer0501

The importance of adjustable writing goals: http://bit.ly/tD6dAq @DeeScribe

Best 11 Free Online ePub Converters: http://bit.ly/sJ3EDD @FreeNuts

Cover Trends in YA Fiction: Why the Obsession with an Elegant Death? http://bit.ly/sVmNLR @syntactics

Risky Business: Forces of Nature, Acts of God, and Other Reasons a Book Can Flop: http://bit.ly/tP53am @syntactics

An agent on confusing agent behavior: http://bit.ly/rOkkIg @RachelleGardner

A reminder to look at cliches in our writing: http://bit.ly/rqeiML @GalleyCat

Self-Publishing Strategies in 18 Slides: http://bit.ly/uZXraO @JFBookman

Whether to Use “Whether” or “If”: http://bit.ly/sugtry

More on Criticism, Confusion and NaNoWriMo Nausea: http://bit.ly/rJHRyN @storyfix

Searching for the formula to deliver illustrated books as ebooks: http://bit.ly/vdfcww @MikeShatzkin

Write the Right Dialogue And Dialect Into Your Women’s Fiction: http://bit.ly/v0jdKM @AmySueNathan

Why readers may hate indie writers: http://bit.ly/sBxqsq @HickeyWriter

Build or Boost Your Author Platform by Reviewing: http://bit.ly/uicc5B @JanetBoyer

Tips for good author blogs and things to avoid: http://bit.ly/tk0wYL @SharlaWrites

5 Steps for Completing Character Arcs: http://bit.ly/uA9sDB @keligwyn

Dual monitors– writing in a parallel universe: http://bit.ly/vgupzz @junglereds

20 tips for approaching agents and editors: http://bit.ly/ty8ZgJ @nicolamorgan

Using public domain characters in our writing: http://bit.ly/tI7sXa @fuelyourwriting

Writing Lessons from a Mannequin: Building Character: http://bit.ly/urJEaq @catewoods for @WriteAngleBlog

SEO Tips for Your Author Website or Blog: http://bit.ly/uZ4Lzh @CuriosityQuills

Signalling Viewpoints (using archaeology & artifacts to design stories): http://bit.ly/uKCpv6 @GeneLempp

Teacher/Writer Interface: http://bit.ly/tCKE3K @lesliesullirose

Facing Your Fears as a Writer: http://bit.ly/vma9Wy @danyelleleafty for @QueryTracker

5 Tips for Creating Shareable Blog Content: http://bit.ly/ug2aI6 @smexaminer

Contracts on Fire: Amazon’s Lending Library Mess: http://bit.ly/tgbb1Y @PassiveVoiceBlg

5 Things to Know about Publicity Before You’re Published: http://bit.ly/saVXaL @booksparkspr

Does age matter for writers? http://bit.ly/vgPf9f @RachelleGardner

Questions that readers ask writers: http://bit.ly/s7q5yX

Thanks @PassiveVoiceBlg: Writer’s Knowledge Base – A Great Resource for Authors: http://bit.ly/w4gEAb

“Writing away madly, he made this fatal little mistake.” : http://bit.ly/vA67AT @Storyfix

NaNoWriMo Tip #16: Consult a Plot Doctor: http://bit.ly/tF67e9 @galleycat

The Undercover Soundtrack – Nick Green: http://bit.ly/ufmrv6 @DirtyWhiteCandy

17 things 1 writer has learned: http://bit.ly/tfZv25 @artzicarol

The climax of a book is the whole point: http://bit.ly/t6SQDa @VictoriaMixon for @JamiGold

Making your characters fall in love on the page–avoiding “instabond”: http://bit.ly/u1Bvdc @FantasyFaction

Should you translate your ebooks? http://bit.ly/tLNptm @rule17

Editing Your Manuscript… After Feedback: http://bit.ly/vsZ09W

Nanowrimo: The Good & The Bad: http://bit.ly/ucEaAB @magicalwords

Building a Global Business by Trusting in Translators: http://bit.ly/uj6E11 @Readuxreads for @PubPerspectives

Why Social Networks are Important for Writers: http://bit.ly/vsNtGo @Sarafurlong

Helpful tips for interviews: http://bit.ly/uNgQzw @BevVincent

Why Every Story Needs a Zombie: http://bit.ly/tFlxBz @JodyHedlund

9 Pieces of Bad Writing Advice it’s Best to Ignore: http://bit.ly/u8Cbc0 @AnneRAllen

How to Give Meaning to Every Word You Write: http://bit.ly/uLZD6z @writeitsideways

3 Book Marketing Mantras: http://bit.ly/sW1qEE @FriesenPress

Your Inner Bad Guy: http://bit.ly/ttsOQb @JulieWuAuthor for @BTMargins

Research for writers–try getting help from experts: http://bit.ly/tAaEiW @swan_tower

An explanation of deep POV: http://bit.ly/uh0SFI @NovelEditor

Become an Expert – Write an eBook: http://bit.ly/vDWAis

10 Tips For Writing Better Dialogue: http://bit.ly/s99TE4 @BryanThomasS

Kindle Fire reviews, Klout doubt, publishing debates–@Porter_Anderson examines industry news/views for @JaneFriedman: http://bit.ly/sTyl5N

NaNoWriMo Tip: Fix your computer screen color to reduce eye strain: http://bit.ly/tTkjp8 @GalleyCat

How to speak publisher – D is for Delivery: http://bit.ly/vycd3W @annerooney

4 crucial steps for hosting a successful write-in: http://bit.ly/tBWy7I @curtrice

An agent on holiday gifts for agents: http://bit.ly/tDNgAI @literaticat

An editor’s response to a query meant to wow her: http://bit.ly/s3vfbN @behlerpublish

The publishing type: http://bit.ly/uxmXfZ @JordynRedwood

A list of “-some” adjectives: http://bit.ly/uQyUd8

30 Writing Ideas for Writing Moms: http://bit.ly/vwNyBr

Conflicts Aren’t all About the Punches: http://bit.ly/u4xYZI @Janice_Hardy

7 Simple Ways Writers Can Pay It Forward: http://bit.ly/rPsnvP @simplywriting

7 truths about writers, rarely discussed: http://nyr.kr/tkTa5C by Ann Beattie for @newyorker

Publishers adding value on the marketing side: http://bit.ly/uo9Atc @MikeShatzkin

8 Ways Freelancers Can Show Gratitude: http://bit.ly/uOLfCN @urbanmusewriter

How traditional publishers are making money: http://bit.ly/vky1ZX

Writing in waiting time for an investigation–crime fiction: http://bit.ly/vuwAvu @mkinberg

Do Indie Writers Need Editors? http://bit.ly/sGq9j0 @camillelaguire

A translation issue in some crime fiction novels: http://bit.ly/vZI9Jk @mkinberg

Examples of behind the scenes sleuthing in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/s17MzW @mkinberg

An agent’s thoughts on the controversial no response= a no: http://bit.ly/rZ1xh1 @greyhausagency

Taking your novel from good to great: http://bit.ly/sx597F @KristenLambTX

Best articles this week for writers–11/18-11: http://bit.ly/uZyA1m @4kidlit

Marketing for the broke author: http://bit.ly/vhJgBj @FantastyFaction

Dropbox: A Primer for Writers: http://bit.ly/skz4YZ @inkpunks

Why Writing Category Romance Is A Huge Gamble: http://bit.ly/sNGyFF @greyhausagency

10 things 1 writer dislikes about your blog: http://bit.ly/tYnra2 @thestorysiren

What makes for a good book? http://bit.ly/uBANKA @LyndaRYoung

Character Beauty in Imperfection: http://bit.ly/sZXXf4 @Ava_Jae

3 Secrets to Not Getting Discouraged as a Blogger: http://bit.ly/tBkNc1 @jeffgoins

A night of rejection, New York style: http://bit.ly/rBGtwH @dmcsween

Confessions of a Guy Who Likes Twilight: http://bit.ly/tYiW2w @write_practice

Join the Typewriter Brigade: http://bit.ly/sLHT6n @GalleyCat

Paragraph power…at the end: http://bit.ly/upF4Pb @TheresaStevens

8 Counter-Intuitive Ways to Improve Your Well-Being & Creativity: http://bit.ly/sMHIo8 @the99percent

25 reasons readers will keep reading your story–by the brilliant/profane @ChuckWendig: http://bit.ly/v39l0U

Fathoming Amazon: 9 Things You Need to Know: http://bit.ly/s5h8wV @ebooknewser

An agent talks craft, social media, & branding: http://bit.ly/uXAx28 @LauraPauling

Promo–tips for finding readers by thinking outside the box: http://bit.ly/uN0KTC @LAGilman

Twitter—1 size doesn’t fit all: http://bit.ly/t4Xxkq @JaneFriedman

11 Famous Writers Who Were Rejected Before Making It Big: http://bit.ly/uk1Zxd @BubbleCow

A Writer’s-Conference Experience from a Presenter’s POV: http://bit.ly/w3PCTf @RayRhamey

Aligning characters ambiguously (remember The Princess Bride?): http://bit.ly/sgYwPy @JulietteWade

Real Life Diagnostics: Writing for Younger Readers: http://bit.ly/vrvX4q @Janice_Hardy

Revamping a previously-published series: http://bit.ly/uxa5j6 @sharonhinck

The power of freewriting: http://bit.ly/uqDg0O @annegreenawalt

Writing power-ups: http://bit.ly/s4WDd8 @CherylRwrites

Stop apologizing for your art: http://bit.ly/uqfGb0 @JeffGoins

Principles of Plain English: http://bit.ly/vCHdFC

Should authors comment on book blogger reviews? A discussion in the comments: http://bit.ly/vgYceB @Enna_Isilee

1 writer takes a lifetime, plus a week to write a novel: http://bit.ly/ubvOe5

Kindle Touch vs. Nook Simple Touch: http://bit.ly/vcjHOU @PassiveVoiceBlg

Voices: the moment 1 writer realized she was a writer: http://bit.ly/sJgJKh

Writer Beware Alert: Light Sword Publishing, a.k.a. LSP Digital, Returns: http://bit.ly/sEXAQl @VictoriaStrauss

Fear of revision: http://bit.ly/rMzXE2 @JulieWuAuthor for @BTMargins

The Personal Story Arc: http://bit.ly/uR699t @StoryFix

10 Things To Help You Bust Through Writer’s Block: http://bit.ly/tklo7k

6 Elements of Digital Marketing Success for Authors: http://bit.ly/sevdCw @FauzisBurke @AuthorCAWilson

A Writer’s Guide to Developing an Online Voice: http://bit.ly/vrjG39 @SeanPlatt

10 Things You Should Never Include in a Crime Novel: http://bit.ly/vHZLUX @JeanHenryMead

3 Things You Can Leave Out of Your Query, and 3 Things You Should Include: http://bit.ly/uariWc @lydia_sharp

Including hooks in our story: http://bit.ly/rNIY6L

Famous Authors’ Harshest Rejection Letters: http://bit.ly/ssmDTm @TheRealRomy for @TheAtlantic

Please remember I’m giving away a 1000-word critique from The Bookshelf Muse. Just send an email to me at elizabethspanncraig (at)gmail (dot) com with “contest” in the subject to enter. Entries accepted through November 21. The randomly-chosen winner will be announced here November 22. Thanks, Angela and Becca!}

by Anne R. Allen, @AnneRAllen

Hope you’ll join me in welcoming Anne R. Allen to the blog today. Anne’s blog is a great resource for writers…check it out. This week she has a guest post from Lawrence Block.

Finding a beta reader or critique group is essential to any writer’s development. We can’t write in a vacuum. Nobody ever learned to be a good writer holed up in an attic with no one to review his work but the cat. (Cats can be so cruel.)

But it’s good to be aware that not all the advice you’ll hear will be useful. As Victoria Strauss said in her must-read Writer Beware blog “never forget that people who know nothing are as eager to opine as people who know something.”

Even worse than know-nothings are the know-somethings who turn every bit of advice they’ve ever heard into a “rule” as ironclad and immutable as an algebraic formula. Follow their advice and your book will read like an algebraic formula, too.

Here are a few critique “rules” I find more annoying than useful.

1) Eliminate all clichés

Unless your characters are wildly inventive poets, space aliens, or children fostered by wolves, their dialogue and thoughts will include familiar expressions. Don’t rob your Scarlett O’Hara of her “fiddle dee-dees” or deprive your Bogart of “doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.”

2) More! Make it vivid!

Would we really improve Casablanca with “a hill of Moroccan garbanzos, yellow-pale and round, of the kind the English call chick-peas”?

3) Avoid repetition

Not necessarily. Beware what H.W. Fowler called “elegant variation”.

OK: “It was a good bull, a strong bull, a bull bred to fight to the death.”

NOT: “It was a good bull, a strong animal, a male creature of the bovine persuasion bred to do battle…”

4) Eradicate the verb “to be,” especially in the past tense: “was” is the enemy.

Yes, it’s generally wise to avoid the passive voice, which uses “was” in the past tense:

“The cat was laundered by me,” is passive and sounds lame.
“I laundered the cat,” is active and stronger.

But sometimes the passive voice makes the clearest statement: “The cat was abused.”

Real problems arise when amateurs confuse passive voice with the progressive tense, which also uses “to be” (with the present participle.)

“I was just sitting there when the cat owner punched me,” means something different from “I just sat there when the cat owner punched me.” Eliminating “was” changes meaning instead of “strengthening.”

5) Put your protagonist’s thoughts in italics. No. Don’t. Unless your editor specifically asks for this, avoid it. Italics are harder to read.

When you write in the third-person-limited viewpoint, it’s read like first person: no italics or “he thought/she thought” necessary.

“I walked away from the ‘In Crowd’. They were just a bunch of ill-bred alley cats,” can be changed to third person with just a switch of pronoun/noun: “Pufferball walked away from the ‘In Crowd’. They were just a bunch of ill-bred alley cats.” See? Just the same.

6) Characters must behave predictably
Don’t let anyone tell you a character “wouldn’t” behave in a certain way. Only the writer knows if this particular truck driver would read Proust; this bride would run off with the florist’s mother; or that Maine Coon cat would pee on your Christian Louboutins.

7) Describe characters’ physical appearance in detail.
When your English teacher told you to beef up that “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay with long, colorful descriptions of your new kitty, she was looking for a complete page, not preparing you for publication. Brevity is now and ever shall be the soul of wit. The only thing Jane Austen told us about Elizabeth Bennett’s appearance was that she had “fine eyes.” Let your reader’s imagination do the work.

8) Protagonists must be admirable
Saints are boring in fiction, unless they liberate France and get burned at the stake, and that’s been done.

9) If we don’t point out everything wrong, we’re not doing our job
Newbies make a lot of mistakes. (You did too, remember?) But if you list them all at once, they won’t hear what you’re saying.

They’ll hear a personal attack. When a person feels attacked, the brain shuts down.

A critiquer should tell you what’s right with a work as well as what’s wrong. When I was directing actors, I discovered the “sandwich” method is the most effective way to help someone improve: praise/criticism/praise.

All-praise-all-the time does nothing to help a writer’s work, of course, but neither does rigid thinking, power tripping, or misinformation.

My new mystery novel GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY was sparked by a particularly snarky and unhelpful critique workshop I witnessed at a writers conference many years ago.

GHOSTWRITERS is set at a Z-list writers’ conference in the wine-and-cattle country north of Santa Barbara CA. where a young writer appears to have committed suicide after a savage critique.

I couldn’t help the young man who was humiliated in that long-ago workshop, and I’m not sure I ever knew his name (I hope he’s a bestseller now!) But I wrote the novel partly for him—and every other fledgling writer who has been the victim of a nasty, misinformed critique.

Anne R. Allen is the author of five romantic-comedy/mysteries debuting this fall with two publishers, Popcorn Press and Mark Williams international Digital Publishing: FOOD OF LOVE, THE GATSBY GAME, GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY, THE BEST REVENGE and SHERWOOD, LTD.

GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY is available in ebook from at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and will debut in January in paper. You can read more about Anne’s “chick lit noir” mysteries on Anne R. Allen’s Blog or her author page at Amazon.com.

{Note from Elizabeth–There’s been such a great response to this post that I’m foregoing my Friday post today to let Anne’s stand at top-post position until Sunday. Thanks to everyone who has come by, and please remember I’m giving away a 1000-word critique from The Bookshelf Muse. Just send an email to me at elizabethspanncraig (at)gmail (dot) com with “contest” in the subject to enter. Entries accepted through November 21. The randomly-chosen winner will be announced here November 22. Thanks, Angela and Becca!}

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Lately, I’ve been interacting with readers quite a bit. This, honestly, is pretty rare for me. I usually speak to writers twice as often as to readers.

Speaking to writers is easy. I talk about promo or the writing craft, or something specific about writing mysteries.

But I’m frequently uneasy when I’m speaking to readers. I’m more worried about being boring. And I’m more aware that I’m supposed to be promoting the books that are on the table against the back wall.

I also find that I need to really brush-up on my books before I do the talks. The readers have usually read my books more recently than I have.

Lately, I’ve done a lot of reader-targeted programs. I spoke to a group of mystery readers, spoke to a local service organization, and participated in a chat with mystery readers online. In addition, I’ve been on several book blogs.

I actually put a good deal of time into preparing for these events. What I was most interested in finding out was, what do readers want authors to talk about? What’s interesting to them?

So here’s a roundup of the questions I got from readers, in case it helps you prepare for a talk or online chat:

What made you choose to write your genre?
How did you come up with your protagonist?
What kinds of books do you like to read now?
What kinds of books did you like to read as a child?
Is your protagonist based on someone?
Where is your book set?
Have you lived in the place where your book is set?
What made you decide to write a book about ______?
Who is your favorite character?
Who is the victim in your new book?
What are you working on now?
What is your writing day like?
How fast do you write?
Do you write more than one series?
Why do you write under a pen name?
What other writers inspire you?
Do you know ______? (names a writer)
When did you decide to become a writer?
Do you have an English degree?
Do your books have recipes?
Who helps you with your recipes?
Are your books available on Nook? Kindle?
Where can I find your books?
Are your books at the library?
What’s your last release about?
Do you put people you know in your books?
Can I be in your book?
Did you have to do a lot of research to write your books?
Are you on Facebook?
Are there other kinds of books that you’d like to write?
Have you thought about putting your protagonist into (names a scenario?)
How many more books will be in this series?

Hope this helps a little. Want to add to it? If you speak to readers, what questions are you usually asked? As a reader, what would be interesting to you?

Through the generosity of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi at The Bookshelf Muse, I’m giving away one of their insightful 1000 word critiques. Just send an email to me at elizabethspanncraig (at)gmail (dot) com with “contest” in the subject to enter. Entries accepted through November 21. The randomly-chosen winner will be announced here November 22. Thanks, Angela and Becca!

And—Anne R. Allen will be here tomorrow, with a post entitled: 9 Pieces of Bad Writing Advice it’s Best to Ignore. Hope you’ll come by!

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Confidence is incredibly important for writing, but it’s hard to come by.

There have been plenty of times when I’ve wanted to just throw a manuscript in the trashcan when I had a crisis of confidence in it—or in my ability to tell the story. One of the last times was for the book that launched November 1. I got 1/3 of the way through it and seriously considered starting over with a new concept.

There are so many times when we rely on confidence in this business. We have to:

Believe in ourselves enough to finish the draft. Believe enough to spend the time to edit the crappy draft we’ve finished.

Be self-confident enough to have the courage to reach out to others for feedback.

Believe enough in our writing to spend hours researching agents and publishers or, alternately, epublishing options, formatting, and cover design.

Believe enough in our story that we aren’t defensive about it if we get negative reviews.

Of course, there’s hubris too, and that’s not helpful. We’ve got to listen to folks who are trying to help us improve our manuscript or future manuscripts. But it’s also true that it’s important to listen to our gut and carefully weigh the advice we get from others.

It’s the confidence that gets us through the whole process. Or maybe…it’s stubbornness. I’m not sure. :)

How do you talk yourself off the ledge when you’re writing?

Through the generosity of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi at The Bookshelf Muse, I’m giving away one of their insightful 1000 word critiques. Just send an email to me at elizabethspanncraig (at)gmail (dot) com with “contest” in the subject to enter. Entries accepted through November 21. The randomly-chosen winner will be announced here November 22. Thanks, Angela and Becca!