How to rekindle your love of writing

Found this today ...
 
 
Writing is a lonely process.

It takes a lot of courage to sit down and write day after day, week after week, month after month. The struggle can continue for years, while self-doubt, criticism and fear bully you like a gang of thugs.As if that’s not torture enough, you may want to move beyond writing for yourself, and pursue publication.

 

Then, the real challenges begin: losing writing contests, diminishing support from family and friends because you’re gasp…still unpublished?

 

Don’t forget rejections from agents on stories you’ve slaved over, pouring your heart into each word. That is, if the professionals bother to answer you at all. Silence is the new rejection.

 

If you aren’t careful …… you might destroy your love of writing.

 

 

To read the rest go to -  http://writetodone.com/love-of-writing/ 

 

About the author:

 

Marcy McKay is the Energizer Bunny of Writers. She believes writing is delicious and messy and hard and important. If you’ve ever struggled with your writing, you can download her new, FREE eBook, Writing Naked: One Writer Dares to Bare All. Find her on Facebook!

Amazon v Hachette

See authors latest letter to Amazon going to their board members

 

http://www.authorsunited.net/

 

Trying to imply that Amazon directors do not know what their officers are doing in such an important issue is in my business experience doomed to failure.

 

The letter does make a fair point  about books and toasters -

Amazon has every right to refuse to sell consumer goods in response to a pricing disagreement with a wholesaler. But books are not mere consumer goods. Books cannot be written more cheaply, nor can authors be outsourced to another country. Books are not toasters or televisions. Each book is the unique, quirky creation of a lonely, intense, and often expensive struggle on the part of a single individual, a person whose living depends on his or her book finding readers. This is the process Amazon endangers when it uses its tremendous power to separate authors from their readership.

 

As there are so many books for sale readers have alternatives. 

 

I am not clear looking at the list of authors whether they are all published by Hachette. There are some notable absentees does this mean they do not share the same view? 

 

Who will blink first?

 

Douglas

Russell Blake and NYT Best Seller

http://russellblake.com/nyt-bestseller/

I have put up many of Russell's blog advice articles on this news page out of the thousands of blogs and other advice sources I have received or read during the last 4 years. Russell demonstrates by his book sales that his advice on writing and marketing does work.

Douglas

Guardian Legend Self Published Book of the Month

Gary Smailes from Bubblecow has drawn my attention to the competition.

 

The Guardian Legend Times Self-Published Book of the Month prize has been established to celebrate and showcase the best self-published novels out there. The winning novel will be selected by a panel of industry judges each month and reviewed in the Guardian.

The Guardian is the first national newspaper to champion self-publishing on a regular basis. The prize has been created with Legend Times, an award-winning independent publishing group, with companies including traditional fiction publisher Legend Press and a self-publishing company New Generation Publishing.

The prize is launched in response to the growing presence of self-publishing within the book industry. No longer can the mainstream industry ignore what the general public have been reading and enjoying for a number of years, with many self-published authors outstripping the sales of novels published traditionally.

Judges for the prize are Lauren Parsons (Commissioning Editor, Legend Press), Sophie Lambert (Literary Agent, Conville & Walsh) and authors Stuart Evers and Polly Courtney. Submissions will open on 1st of each calendar month and close on 18th.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/08/the-guardian-legend-self-published-book-of-the-month

 

 

Douglas

Do You Know The Secret Sauce That Turns Stories Into Magic?

Let me tell you a story.

Once there was a writer who had a dream.

To live, work and thrive by telling stories that made people smile, swoon and weep. Read on ...

http://writetodone.com/conflict-story-telling/

Thanks Mary

Douglas

 

 

 

More good writing advice from Russell Blake Tips 2 and 3

http://russellblake.com/craft-tip-2-senses-sensei/

http://russellblake.com/craft-tip-3-how-to-write-more-faster/

Thanks Russell

Douglas

Bardstown Writers' Group

During the visit to Compton Verney last month I met Jacci and Bren from the Bardstown Writers' group in Stratford upon Avon.

As a follow up I went to their meeting last evening in the Shakespeare Centre. There were 18 members present. I was made very welcome, told them about my writing career and listened to and even made some comments. The first half of the meeting was formal minuted business. Their members report on the Compton Verney visit was more positive than mine.

For the second half of their meeting they had a visiting speaker Hayley McKenzie from her firm Scriptangels - http://www.scriptangel.com/ - talking about the submission of scripts for films and TV. If one thinks the traditional book publishing submission and rejection system is a jungle then experience an even denser and wilder one for submitting scripts. Although it seems the rewards for a successful script are high there is unrelenting pressure thereafter to submit more material if for a series. If I heard correctly it costs some £1m per hour to produce a new TV programme. How can this be I ask?

The group has prepared an anthology of their work which is going to be launched in October at Waterstones in Stratford. I said I would put details on the Inkplotters' site. My views on the practicalities and viability of such publications have not changed. Why not just use the Writers' Group web site?

They meet on the second Tuesday of each month so next meeting is 14th October 2014. I may go again and if anyone would like to come I would be happy to provide a lift.

http://www.bardstownwriters.btck.co.uk/ for more details

Douglas