Blog
Dissecting Books: Reading as a Writer Part 2
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Welcome back to my mini-series on how to dissect books to understand how and why they work. In other words, how to “read as a writer.” I started this series because the advice “writers should read” isn’t explained often enough. Writers can spend hours and hours reading without learning anything about(…)
Creating Promotional Copy That Works: Book Descriptions
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Last month I started a new series on creating promotional materials for our books with a look at tag lines. A tag line is a teaser or a catch phrase meant to capture the emotional tone of the book, hint at the genre, and hook the reader. They don’t tell the(…)
Using Deep POV to Capture Readers’ Emotions
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) The books that we remember the best are often the books that made us feel something. Those are the books we recommend to our friends. Those are the authors we seek out to see if they have more books that will provide us with that vicarious experience again. So it makes(…)
Dissecting Books: Reading as a Writer Part 1
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) One of the pieces of advice that every writer hears until it makes us sick is “you need to read.” And that’s true and valid advice. (And if you don’t love to read, why are you writing?) Here’s the piece that most people miss though. It’s not enough to just read,(…)
Creating Promotional Copy That Works: Tag Lines
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) As is the case with many elements of being an indie author, the complete control we have over writing our promotional material is a double-edged sword. We’re not saddled with promotional copy written by someone who might have read only our synopsis, if that. We’re also on our own, without experienced(…)
Want a Page-Turner? You Need Deep POV
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) I’m posting at Kristen Lamb’s blog this week. She’s been doing a series on deep POV, and I have the honor of being her guest “expert.” I’m talking about how deep POV can make even the less exciting parts of our books, like description, into page-turners. I hope you’ll join me(…)
The Fine Line Between Confidence and Arrogance in Writers
I have a special guest poster for you today. I’m always looking for books I can recommend to newer writers, and so I bought her book Someday Is Here!: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing and Publishing Your First Book. As you might have guessed by the fact that I then asked her here to guest(…)
Do You Find Artificial Intelligence Creepy? Meet Nadine
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Confession time. I don’t like Siri—the voice that speaks to you from iPhones. I probably should. I love the concept of artificial intelligence. Data from TNG and The Doctor from Voyager were two of my favorite Star Trek characters. But I just don’t like her. I’m sure part of it has(…)
Writers – Value Yourself and Your Work
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Over the last couple of months, an online debate has risen about whether creatives deserve to be paid for their work or whether they should work for free or for “exposure.” By creatives, I mean those who produce intellectual property or the like for the purpose of entertaining an audience—writers, musicians,(…)
When To Hire Help And When To Do It Yourself
By Marcy Kennedy (@Marcy Kennedy) One of the most frustrating parts of indie publishing is how conflicting the advice can seem. One of the areas where I’ve frequently noticed this advice dichotomy is in whether or not we should hire out the non-writing work involved in our business. Some people will tell you to do(…)