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Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Indie Author Series

The Indie Author Series is a weekly column that focuses on the ins and outs of self publishing. Regular contributing authors and guest authors share tips and advice on a variety of topics, such as how to create an e-book, what goes into a good cover design, how to get to your book into the hands of your readers, and much more.

Writers have more publishing options than ever before and it's important to understand those options so you can make the best choice about your publishing career. Traditional houses, small presses, digital only, self publishing--and those options continue to grow. There's no one path to take anymore, and personal preference plays a large role in a writer's publishing decision.

The Indie Author Series runs on Thursdays.

A sampling of the Indie Author articles

See all Indie Author Series articles

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Meet the Fiction University Faculty

With the new look comes new faces, and the Fiction University family is growing. We're pleased to introduce the faculty--the authors, editors, and publishing professionals who will share their tips and techniques and help you on your writing and publishing journey.

Our visiting professors bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, with articles on craft, publishing, marketing, social media, and even the struggles every writer goes through.

Janice Hardy (Founder)

Janice Hardy is the author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, where she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. Her non-fiction book, Planning your Novel: Ideas and Structure is due out early in 2014. She's represented by Kristin Nelson, of Nelson Literary Agency.

Janice created Fiction University as a way to pay forward the support and advice she received during her path to publication, and to share her love of writing and passion for helping writers improve their craft.

She lives in Georgia with her husband, one yard zombie, three cats, and a very nervous freshwater eel.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

WIP Diagnostics: Is This Working?

WIP Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and I diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

These diagnostics are used as a teaching tool to provide examples and advice in actual works in progress. I focus on the question(s) asked, and analyze the submission as it pertains to that question or questions. It's not a traditional critique, it's about answering the writer's question(s) and letting them know if they're doing it right, wrong, and what they can do to improve that technique.

Currently, I alternate critiques with editor Maria D'Marco.

WIP Diagnostics runs on Saturdays.

The rules for submitting are pretty simple:

Be willing to have your work and my comments posted publicly on the site.
Submit 250 words of your work (give or take). A few extra sentences or a paragraph to finish a moment is fine. If you'd like to provide an explanation to understand the scene, that's fine, too, and it doesn't count in the 250 words. A little background information usually helps me with my critique since I know what you're trying to do. Note: Don't cut it down to this size just to fit the word requirements and get to "the good stuff" in 250 words. What you cut, is often what's needed to understand the scene.
Ask a specific question about writing. For example, if you're not sure if you're showing or telling, or you want to know if you're doing point of view correctly. The question needs to be something that I can diagnose and talk about, so no, "Is this good writing?" type questions please. That's subjective and I can't help others there. However, "Does this opening work?" is fine. "Does this scene work?" is also fine. I can pinpoint why a scene does or doesn't work and offer helpful feedback there.
Say what your market or genre is. What works for YA romance is a bit different than what an adult thriller needs.
E-mail to janice (at) JaniceHardy (dot) com with "WIP Diagnostics" as the subject line. Just paste the submission into the body of the email.

And that's it. Submitters are welcome to revise and resubmit if they'd like, but they don't have to.

Resubmits

If you'd like to revise and resubmit that's okay--but only if the new submission has substantially changed. Here's a great example of a re-submit that made more than just superficial changes, and here's another that revised well. Just let me know it's a revision, and please add the link to the original post so I can find it more easily.

A sampling of WIP Diagnostic articles:

See all WIP Diagnostics (RLD) articles

How They Do It

How They Do It is a weekly column that invites guest authors, bloggers, and other industry professionals to share their writing process and tips. They discuss everything from how they write to how they use a specific technique like dialog or description, to outlining vs pantsing. Its purpose is to show that every writer writes differently, and there is no "right" way to write. There's just finding your way.

How They Do It articles run every Tuesday.

A Sampling of How They Do It Articles:

See all How They Do It articles

Interested in being a guest author at Fiction University? Email me at janice (at) janicehardy (dot) com

Guest Post Details

Guest posts typically run 600-1000 words, plus author bio, links and book blurb (if applicable). Topics can include anything writing related, from tips on craft to dealing with writer issues, from publishing and marketing to social media and fitting writing time into your life. Guests don't need to be professionally published (though they usually are in some way) as long as they have helpful advice/experiences/wisdom about writing to share.

Suggestions for Topics

This site is all about the How-To, so posts that dig into a technique or discuss how you handle it are well-received. What are you passionate about? What are you really good at? What struggles or tough aspect of writing have you overcome and how? What shows off an aspect of your book? (it's okay to promote as long as it's also helpful information to my readers).

Guest articles are scheduled months in advance, and I'll always try to accommodate a release date when possible. I'm also happy to pencil in someone for a spot later in the year.

Full Tag List

The following is a complete index of the blog contents by post tag. The links will bring up a complete listing of all articles tagged with that keyword. (Last updated April 17, 2013)

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