In the publishing world, launch day is like a celebration. The event goes off with a big bang and the book starts flying off the shelves. For me, as a self-published author with barely any effort put into my launch…
Tag: writing
Writing a Novel – The Finishing Touches
Naively, I thought that once I had my cover designed, and my manuscript all polished to perfection… that’d be everything I needed to get the book uploaded to Amazon and start selling like hotcakes. Unfortunately, as I’d soon find out,…
Writing a Novel – Cover Design
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover! And yet, everyone does it. We can’t help it, it’s in our nature, which is why it’s super important to have a stand-out, memorable and professional-looking book cover. If those elements are missing,…
Writing a Novel – (Not) Finding a Publisher
Writing a book is hard. Getting people to read it?… Impossible! Okay, not quite… and it shouldn’t be impossible, not in this day and age. With the internet, artists not only have the available knowledge and tools to create whatever…
Writing a Novel – Paying For Feedback
Just to preface this article – having a professional review your work and give notes is normally carried out by the publisher as part of your contract. As you’ve probably guessed, I went down the self-publishing route which I’ll elaborate…
Writing a Novel – Rewriting
As the old adage goes: “writing is rewriting”. It’s an iterative process, and no one – no matter how good they are in the eyes of their readers or peers – can write a pitch-perfect novel in one fell swoop.…
Writing a Novel – Those Nagging Doubts
Self-doubt is a very prominent thing these days, and it seems to come hand in hand with any creative endeavour. It’s the sensation that what you’re creating is shit, that you’re not good enough, and that you will never be…
Writing a Novel – The Actual Writing (aka Drafting)
Writing is hard. Many people who write themselves know this, and yet you’ll often hear stories of how someone bashed a book or a script out in 13 minutes. There are some exceptions that prove the rule, but how often…
Writing a Novel – Research
Some people love to research. In fact, some love it so much that they can get lured into an obsessive trap, digging deep for weeks, months, even years, looking for those extra, neverending details to improve their work (that could…
Writing a Novel – Outlining
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” – Abraham Lincoln I’m a sucker for quotes. The one above is a great analogy for outlining and researching a book. It’s all in…