What is NaNoWriMo and 11 Reasons You Might Have Joined

Do you hear that? A mix of jungle drums and Jaws music, equal parts menace and madness? It starts every October, in your fingers as a tingle, travels up your arms, into your belly, and washes over your five senses like hot lava from Krakatoa.You try to fight it, act like there’s nothing wrong, but … Continue reading →

8 Tips to Prepare for NaNoWriMo

Every year, thousands of people jump into the massive time commitment called NaNoWriMo. They vow to write 50,000 words by November 30th at midnight. Few make it, but many benefit. Here are some tips to help you if you’ve chosen to participate: Each day, write until your mind throbs like a thumb hit with a … Continue reading →

Amazon accepting submissions from authors ($1,500 advance on offer)

Originally posted on Dianne Gray author:
This morning I received an email from Amazon. I’m not a US citizen, nor do I have a U.S. bank account and U.S. social security number  – but I’m sure many of you out there do, so take a peek at this. ******* Dear Author, Thanks for subscribing to receive…

Ten Favorite Words–Part I

I love words. I keep a list of my favorites, the ones that draw a mental picture that involves taste and feel as much as sight and sound. Here are my top ten: abecedirian–means what it says–a beginner.Rudimentary. The abc’s. bandog–a large and fierce chained dog. This one’s appealing mostly because I love dogs. caliginous–murky, … Continue reading →

8 Free Online Marketing Tools for Writers

Last week, I covered 6 FREE Online Tools for Indie Writers. Today, we’ll market your book. There’s a lot of internet information on this subject, so I’ll focus on FREE tools that will boost your sales. I like Free. When you’re a new writer, with no revenue stream, that’s important. Blogs This is a great invention for … Continue reading →

Book Review: So You Want to Write a Guest Post

So You Want to Write a Guest Post: An Author’s Guide to Promoting with Guest Blogging (Smashwords 2011) is Jaime McDougall’s first book in her fascinating series on self-marketing for busy writers. I do a lot of blogging as well as guest posts, and was interested in how McDougall’s advice compared to my experiences. First, … Continue reading →

ABNA’s Back!

It’s that time of year again–for the fourth year. Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (a cozy ABNA to us repeaters) is taking submittals starting January 23th and ending when they get 5,000 or Feb. 5th–whichever arrives first . In the world of writing contests, there are a few details that set this one apart: There is … Continue reading →

Nominate WordDreams For The 6th Annual Top Ten Blogs for Writers Contest

Well, readers, it’s that time of the year again! Write To Done is gathering nominations for their Top Ten Blogs for Writers Contest, and if you believe that WordDreams should be on the list this year, please visit this page and leave your nomination in the comments section. Be sure to do the following when … Continue reading →

What’s an Amazon Vine Voice?

Then Amazon made me a Vine Voice.

Here’s what I found out: Continue reading →

ABNA Update–I’m In (Uploaded I Mean)!

I had a busy weekend. ABNA is taking entrants starting today. I had to go through all 400 pages of my book (I got it down to 399). I looked for technical stuff, grammar and spelling, egregious plotting errors (I found my main character chatting in a scene she wasn’t in–I fixed that)  because that’s … Continue reading →