Top Five blogs for writers:

1.  Storytech - http://thewritersjourney.com/
2.  Larry Brooks  –  http://storyfix.com/
3.  Art Holcomb  -  http://artholcomb.blogspot.ca/
4.  Randy Ingermanson  –  http://ingermanson.com/
5.  http://writerunboxed.com/

Top Five writer’s craft books:

1. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas
2. Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
3. Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood
4. Conflict, Action and Suspense by William Noble
5. Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias

Top Five words of advice for beginning writers:

1.  Write poetry - learn to write tight, making every word count; learn to hear the rhythm in language.
2.  Read many genres, and analyze what you read; the same with movies- learn what works & what doesn't.
3.  Learn English grammar and spelling; these are the tools of your trade.
4.  Join a writing critique group - learn to give and accept honest criticism.
5.  Think beyond the cliché - learn to reach deeper for a unique story that only you can write.

Staring at the blank screen? Can't quite force your... paws... to start tapping out words? Maybe even getting to the laptop was a challenge?

We're not talking about writer's block here: you've got a story you're eager to write, the characters are screaming in your head to be released onto the page... so what's holding you back?

LMS - Lazy Muse Syndrome - has paid you a call, and she's brought along her BFF, Procrastination. Procrastination will present you with something you'd rather do - and it has to be now, because today's the last day that movie will be showing, for example - or with just this one thing that you should do first - that phone call, maybe, which leads to another thing and another...  

When or if you get through Procrastination, and bring up the page, and type "Chapter One", Lazy Muse jumps in. She'll spit out two sentences, or three paragraphs... and suddenly you find you're thirsty, or hungry, or need to pee. When you get back, there stands Procrastination, just waiting for you again.

I don't need to go on. If you're reading this, you get it. The question is, how do you get rid of it?

You tell yourself the problem is will-power, or time, or too many other commitments, but the real problem is: SIZE. Let's face it, a novel is huge: 90,000 words, 300 pages, a WHOLE BOOK - gasp! It doesn't matter if you've already written a dozen of them - or in my case eight - the very thought of starting something that size makes me hyperventilate. What if I can't do it again? What if it takes forever? Shouldn't I just do this one little thing first? If I'm going to be writing this book for the rest of my life, do I really have to start today? Why not tomorrow?

Really, the issue behind all our fears is size. Would you jump off a step stool? Would you jump off the Empire State Building? Would you talk to two people about your book? Would you like to talk in front of two thousand? Would you walk through a shadow? Would you walk through a long dark tunnel? Would you climb a hill? Would you climb Mt. Everest? It's all about proportion.

The trick is convincing yourself that this MAMMOTH, LIFE-LONG COMMITMENT is really not that big a deal. Telling yourself? Nope, convincing yourself. It has to be believable. Your inner muse isn't stupid. And if you want to convince yourself, it has to be true. So how do you turn this mountain into a series of mole-hills?

Big Business uses the mnemonic acronym SMART to reach goals. But we don't want big, right? We want SMALL. So that's the acronym I use.

S - specific. Going to a movie is specific; making a phone call is specific; writing a novel? Not so much. In order to make a task specific, you have to know exactly what it looks like, what's involved. For a writer, that means plotting. I know, some authors hate to plot. But you can't build anything without some kind of blueprint, and the clearer the blueprint, the more manageable it will seem. Remember, you're trying to convince yourself this is doable. So whether you plot a lot or a little, you need to have some idea of where this novel starts, where it's going, and where it will end. Who are the characters, what are the main plot points, how  will it conclude? The more you know, the smaller the actual task of writing it will seem. Having trouble with this? Just pretend that plotting out your novel is a way of delaying writing it, and you will have Procrastination on your side!

Once you know what your novel specifically looks like, you can turn writing it into convincingly bite-sized pieces. We already do this for the readers, so they won't be daunted by the prospect of reading it - we call them chapters. So now do it for yourself. The right size of each writing chunk is very individual; you need to consider the rest of this acronym to determine what will work for you.

M - measurable. Your lazy little muse might not want a big task, but she wants a big reward, and she's not very patient, either. She needs constant affirmation. That feeling of success, of accomplishment? She's addicted. Making her wait till the whole bloody novel is written just won't work - she'll go somewhere else, where they understand her better. You have to give her a day's pay for a day's work. How will you measure a day's work? Some people say, "I'll write for this long every day." I've never found time to be a good measure of writing. I mean, does it start when you sit down, or when you actually start typing? If you take a washroom break, is that time out, or is it part of your daily hour? There are a hundred ways Procrastination can still operate while you're sitting in front of your laptop. How can your muse leave with a sense of accomplishment if she cheated? 

Chapters are an option, and you can feel legitimately good about completing a chapter, but chapters differ in length. Writing is slower than reading, so writing an entire chapter (especially if you write, say, 8,000 word long chapters) every day may be unrealistic. I prefer word count or page count as a measure. It's quick and clear.

A - achievable. Here's where you take into account your personal circumstances. How much time a day can you realistically devote to this? What are your other daily obligations? Are you a fast or a slow writer? Your muse won't be happy if you never achieve your daily goal, so be honest about this. Better to aim low and feel wildly successful than to aim high and constantly fail. Remember, you're trying to convince yourself this is a SMALL doable task, not confirm your fear that it isn't.

L - length. How long will you do this for? Everything looks smaller when there's an end in sight. So when you're setting your daily rate, consider how long it'll take you to finish at that rate. Is there a deadline for completing this novel? How serious is that deadline(is it a 'like to' or a 'must'?) You might want to adjust your daily goal after considering this, but you still have to be realistic. Don't worry if the end is 10 months away - if you'd started it ten months ago, you'd be done NOW. And there will be a now. Until then, focus on each day.

L - life. Will this schedule allow you to enjoy your life? There are still movies to see and phone calls to make. The goal is not to avoid all temptation. Temptation is great - I succumb to it regularly. The most important trait that creative people share is a sense of playfulness.
That fun thing you want to do? That half-hour of daydreaming you feel guilty about? I guarantee you, you won't write anything if you don't make time for them.

There you have it. A SMALL task awaits you. You can get today's chunk done before that movie begins, and still have time to make the phone call!  So go to your laptop right now and type in: CHAPTER ONE.

With the stigma against self-publishing fading and traditional publishers being increasingly unwilling to take a chance on a new book, emerging authors are faced with the question: which route should I take?
There are success stories - and statistics of failures - for both routes, so deciding which route will lead YOU to success may seem like a high stakes crap shoot.

In January I began an experiment. I sent my completed historical fiction novel to my NY agent, Carrie Prostritto, whom I had recently signed with, and I self-published a  science fiction novel. I decided to analyze the results of both routes to publication for timing, personal satisfaction and financial gain. To learn more about how I set up this experiment  read my original post, An Experiment in Publishing.

The early results of this experiment are given in the three posts under the category 'publishing experiment'. It's now been a full year, so here are the comparative advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing and traditional publishing after a year.

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING MODEL - My agent has received several positive comments about my historical novel, The Sorrow Stone (SS), but no purchase yet. She suggested I write another more typical historical fiction novel, and sell SS as my second book. We discussed a couple of ideas, and I began detailed research on one. I am now writing, and excited about it, while she continues to send out my first novel.

SELF-PUBLISHING MODEL - Meanwhile my self-published science fiction novel, Walls of Wind (WoW), is steadily increasing in sales each month. I am now selling 40+ e-books a month and receiving 4- and 5-star reviews from readers all over the world. In order to build on this base I wrote a second science fiction novel, called The Occasional Diamond Thief. The most exciting development here is that while at I was speaking at a conference (part of marketing WoW) a publisher became interested and bought the print rights to The Occasional Diamond Thief.
,
Timing: Still no sale on the traditional route, despite my agent's efforts. And I will be writing another book with no guarantee that it will be published, either. This is not, I believe, reflective of my agent, who is excellent, or my book, which continues to receive favorable comments, but of the current conservative attitude of publishing houses.
As for the self-published route, sales are increasing as I learn more about marketing, and I know my second SF
book, The Occasional Diamond Thief, will be published electronically by me and in print April 15 (Canada) and May 15 (USA).

Personal Satisfaction: Two or three publishers my agent sent SS to let her know they loved the story, or loved my writing style, but their marketing department had reservations - they would like to see something else by me. This makes me feel a bit like a kid in school trying to guess the answer the teacher wants. But working with an agent to determine my next project was satisfying, and I am optimistic that this next one will sell.

As for self-publishing, well it did lead to an offer by a traditional publisher - EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Although this is the goal of some self-published authors, I find so many aspects of self-publishing satisfying that I chose to retain the e-rights and self-publish the e-book. By doing so I have unintentionally added a third twist to this experiment: the hybrid book, which is jointly self- and traditionally-published. It will be interesting to see whether that is the best route of all.

Financial Gain: While there is a financial gain in selling 40 e-books a month, marketing, especially live marketing such as speaking at conferences and book tours, (which is necessary to stop being an unknown author), more than wipes out any financial gain.  But whatever route you take, you will have to invest in your future if you are serious about writing as a profession. The advantage to self-publishing is that it gives you a book, proof that you have something to speak about when you offer to speak. It's a door-opener now, not a door closer, thanks to those self-published authors who have really made it.

In conclusion, both models have a lot to teach an aspiring author. The years I spent honing my writing and story-telling skills while I was receiving feedback and rejections from agents and traditional publishers made me a better writer. Self-publishing required me to learn all I could about marketing my books - there's no one else to do it for you when you self-publish - so I gained the marketing skills that are, in fact, essential no matter which route you take. And that combination of writing AND marketing skills led to the sale of the print rights of my third book in this experiment. The publisher bought me, not my book: an author who can get 5-star reviews on her self-published book AND who knows something about how to sell the books she writes.

Success? We shall see. I certainly haven't hit the big-time (or even the middle rung on the ladder to success), but I feel like I'm definitely going in the right direction, and I'm much closer to reaching at least moderate success than I would be right now if I was still only following the traditional route. But who knows? My third book, a hybrid outcome of self-publishing, may take off. Or it might not. My next historical fiction, developed with suggestions from my agent in the traditional route, may be the object of a publisher bidding war. Or it might not. We'll have to wait to see which route is successful.

But I can say for sure right now that I am much happier juggling three balls in the air, and far less frustrated, than I was when I was only pursuing the traditional route. And it's likely that success in any route will increase the chance of success in the other routes.

An attack on our Parliament. Impossible! Incroyable!
The end of our innocence? The result of forsaking our peacekeeping image on the world stage?
Or a single man, frustrated because his passport was revoked, he couldn't get somewhere important - you make do.

A dead soldier in a kilt, who expected a boring day, and should have had it.
A nation in shock. We cancelled a hockey game.

Oh Canada, my backwater country, where I am more likely to see a bear than a man aiming a gun. That's okay.  I'll take the bear.
Or don't I have that choice any more?
Here is the choice I do have: I will not see a man with a gun when I look at a person who doesn't look like me.

Tomorrow, Canada will be boring again.
We'll talk about the weather. The NHL will resume our hockey games.
When I walk in the woods, I'll watch out for bears, especially in the spring when they're hungry.
And when I pass someone dressed differently from me, I will see my neighbor.

September 30: the FINAL day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to...

Now that you have your marketing plan in place, and you're regularly spending an hour or so a day on the ongoing marketing mediums you've chosen to focus on, it's time to get back to the reason you started all this in the first place - to write!

The most important thing you can do to market your book? Write the next one! And the one after that!

This IS a marketing move, because you don't know when something that strikes a chord with you will also strike a chord with your public. F. Scott Fitzgerald's favorite of his books was not The Great Gatsby - way and above his most successful and popular book - it was Tender Is The Night. But anyone who likes Gatsby, wants to read his other novels, too.

Not only will you gain new readers with each book you write - readers who will go looking for your other books - but Amazon's logarithms pick up authors with multiple books over authors with only one or two, to recommend.

You can maximize the marketing power of multiple books (how's that for alliteration?) by writing a series. This applies to non-fiction as well as fiction. Once a non-fiction author becomes known as having an expertize in a subject, people are more likely to read his/her next book on that subject. There are many examples of non-fiction authors who have written a series of books on personal finances, health and nutrition, business, you name it.

As for fiction authors, the examples of trilogies and series are too numerous to even start. So instead, here's a list of 6 characteristics of a successful series:
1.  The same unusual/unique characters appear in each story.

2.  The same protagonist AND antagonist oppose each other in each book, though minor characters change.

3.  The setting or location is unusual and repeated in each book so readers come to know and love it.

4.  The protagonist has a crucial goal or need that unfolds and develops throughout the series. This creates a story arc for the entire series.

5.  Each story presents a new crisis which the hero has to resolve in that book, but the larger crises builds throughout the series, to be resolved in the last book..

Some series don't have an overarching goal or crisis other than the consistent protagonist, who is finally defeated in the last story and others have different antagonists in each story, but the best series have both a story arc for each book AND a story arc for the entire series.

Challenge: How can you turn your book, whether fiction or non-fiction, into a series in order to build on the momentum you have started?

CONGRATULATIONS! You've completed 30 days of InSeMaMo!

September 29: the twenty-nineth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to create a marketing plan for yourself.

I've thrown a lot of huge marketing challenges at you this month. Most of them cannot be done in a day, and many of them require ongoing effort. 

Before you begin to feel like you've become a marketer who also wrote a book, instead of a writer who also markets your books, let's try to make this reasonable.

Getting book reviews, a community that will spread the word about your books, and direct sales are your end goals: the first two because they will funnel into the last. Now you need to choose which activities you are comfortable using to accomplish those goals.

Building relationships with the popular book reviewers and book bloggers in your field is crucial to getting the  reviews that will sell QUANTITIES of your books so I would advise getting to know who they are. Reading and commenting on their blogs or their reviews should be one of your regular weekly marketing activities.

Building a community of readers who will buy and spread the word about your books is also crucial, so growing your email list is your second regular weekly marketing activity.

Everything else is optional, so build those two things  into your week and stick to them, whatever else you do.

Do you feel comfortable speaking in public? If so, do that, and take a newsletter sign-up sheet as well as your books for sale when you do.

Do you feel comfortable on Twitter? If so, make time each day to post tweets, converse and retweet for others, and grow your followers, making sure they're members of your target market.

Do you like blogging? If so, compose blogs for your target market, and offer to guest blog often, especially for  influencial, popular bloggers on your topic/genre.

Are you visually creative? Pinterest and Utube might work for you, if your target market hangs out there.

Do you like Facebook? LinkedIn? Have a presence and get to know people there.

Don't try to do it all. Focus on what works for you, and keep it simple. Tomorrow is my last marketing tip, the most important one of all.

September 28: the twenty-eigth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to explore the new site, Wattpad, and determine whether it could work for you.

Wattpad is a social site dedicated to storytelling. Authors, both emerging and already published, write stories on this site which are free for readers. The readership here is huge, and readers can and do discuss with the authors and with other readers the stories they are reading.

Authors can benefit from using Wattpad in three ways:

1. They gain a huge beta readership for a new project and can use the feedback they receive to refine their book before publishing it elsewhere for pay.
2. They can attract new readers by writing short stories which involve the characters in an already published  book or by offering free on Wattpad the first part of a series.
3. They can increase current readers' commitment to them by participating in the direct social connection with their fans that Wattpad offers.

For detailed instructions on setting up a Wattpad account, check out: 
http://writerscircle.com/2014/08/how-to-publish-on-wattpad.html

Or just go to http://www.wattpad.com/writers  and look around.

Caveat: Be aware that any time you offer a manuscript publicly for strangers to read, you are opening yourself to piracy. I don't know whether or not it happens on this site, but it does happen.

September 27: the twenty-seventh day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to find out what you can do to make your website mobile friendly.

You've put a lot of effort into designing your website - giving it the tone and look you want, creating quality content, increasing your SEO, blogging, displaying your books and e-books...

And suddenly, the online world is changing. More and more people are going online through mobile devices instead of computers and laptops.

Is your website clear, readable, inviting on a tablet? Is it still a successful marketing tool on a smartphone? If you always access your site on your laptop, check it out on your mobile device (or someone else's if, like me, you don't own a smartphone) and see how it measures up. 

Read this article if you're not happy with what you see:
http://www.copyblogger.com/mobile-friendly-website/
Your site provider might also have suggestions on how you can go mobile.

September 26: the twenty-sixth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to look into creating videos and podcasts to promote your book/e-books.

I will admit up front that this is a challenge I have yet to take myself. New technology isn't my strong suit. But UTube, book trailers and podcasts are too important to ignore. Since I can't advise you on using them myself, I will give you some good links to go to. (Those of you who have used them, please share your experiences in the comments section!)

Three links for creating videos:
http://buildbookbuzz.com/how-to-create-a-video-with-powerpoint/#comment-61346

http://thefutureofink.com/ebook-publishing-repurpose-ebook-content-part-2/

http://thefutureofink.com/blog-to-vlog/

And an inexpensive model: Utube/videos/whiteboards
http://7barrytmartin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/different-ways-to-promote-your-writing.html)

Podcasts work best for authors of non-fiction - create a series of podcasts discussing a few of the points in your book - but fiction authors can use podcasts to read chapters of their stories or short stories based on the characters in your novel.

And finally, here are some tips on maximizing your use of Utube. They apply best to businesses or non-fiction writers, but there's good information here for fiction authors using Utube, also.
http://www.firepolemarketing.com/promote-youtube-videos/

Have you used video to promote your books? Share with us your experiences and thoughts!

September 25: the twenty-fifth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to plan a book giveaway.

A book giveaway is not, in itself, a very good marketing tool. After all, you want to sell your books, not give them away, right? I've heard the argument that it's a good way to get people to try you out if you're new, but I've only heard of it resulting in increased sales if the book is part of a series and the others are up for sale now. Even then, results are mixed. I've seen studies that show people who upload free books more often than not, don't read them. And just because someone puts his name in to win a free book doesn't mean he'll buy it if he's not the winner. In fact, they rarely do, because by the time the winner is announced, the sales appeal of the blurb that made them submit their name has faded.

Marketing is all about persuading someone to do something. When you've put in the effort to make them interested in your book, is the action you want them to take really to sign up for a giveaway?

I've talked to authors who held book giveaways on their Facebook page and their website, and claimed that it increased traffic to those sites tremendously, but didn't increase sales. I've tried a Goodreads giveaway and my 3-5 free days on Kindle, and I got healthy responses, but neither resulted in substantially increased sales.

Amazon rankings only count sales, so you can give away as many books as you want, it won't increase your Amazon ranking.

Goodreads giveaways basically help Goodreads. They're like door prizes you donate to help Goodreads increase its clientele, not yours. And it's the same for most other social sites that run giveaways for you.

Giveaways only work for you when they are used as an enticement to convince your market to do something you do want, something that will definitely increase your sales. The giveaway has to come after the act: do this and  your name will be entered into a contest to receive a free copy of my book.

So when you plan your next giveaway, answer these five questions:

1. What is my end goal? (presumably to sell your books, since I'm assuming we're all authors.)
2. What will achieve this goal? (getting more book reviews? guest blogging? growing your email list? being reviewed by book bloggers?)
3. How can you structure your book giveaway so that it accomplishes #2 in order ultimately to accomplish #1?
4. Is your book the best thing you can give away to accomplish your goal, or should you develop or purchase another item to give away? If so, what?
5. Can you achieve the same goal through a sale or temporarily reduced price on your book rather than a giveaway?