Life in our house is a little crazy right now. My husband is participating in a clinical trial for lung cancer at the Mayo Clinic to treat. One of our daughters has been dealing with her own medical problems, so I thought I would do something different this week by sharing 12 things about me. What does your ideal day look like? My ideal day would begin with me waking up to a quiet clean house. I would have a strong cup of coffee and spend the day writing. At noon, I would go to lunch with my daughters and Read more…
Most authors use beta readers to help them prepare their book for publication. It’s extra work and takes more time, but this is a step you won’t want to skip if you want your book to be as good as possible. How do you get beta readers? What do they do for you? Beta readers go by several different names Beta readers Street Team Advance Readers Launch Team Book Crew Review Crew I call my beta readers “Advance Readers,” because they read my book in advance of it being in its final form (more about that later). What do Beta Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I’m going to explore how to approach your writing like an Olympian in training, as I answer the #IWSG question for August. What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey? I am not athletic by any stretch of the imagination. Believe it or not, I’ve never even watched the Olympic Games. But I do find the accomplishments of Olympians Read more…
You may be wondering why I am posting on Thursday, this week, rather than Wednesday, as I usually do. It’s because this week I am in Australia (okay, not physically, but my heart is there)! Meet Sue Loncaric Sue lives in Brisbane, Austrailia where she is a midlife blogger at Sizzling Toward 60 & Beyond. Sue has invited me to be a guest on her Over 50 & Thriving Series. Sue helps women over 50 embrace life with an ageless attitude. I met Sue this past April when I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Her blog quickly became Read more…
There are several things to keep in mind as you approach formatting your ebook. An ebook isn’t just a paperback that you can read on your e-reader. It has distinct properties that make it not only different but in some cases, better than a print book. After all, a paperback can’t transport you to a linked website. You also can’t change the font style and size nor have a linked table of contents in a paperback. These unique aspects of an ebook bring with them some, “side effects” if you don’t format your ebook properly. For example, because the reader Read more…
Today I will be exploring Amazon Author Central. What is it? How do you set up an Amazon Author Page? What can it do for you and your audience? Let’s start with Amazon Author Central. What is it? Amazon Author Central is your go-to place as an author who is selling books on the world’s largest online bookstore. There, you can find links to tools you can use as an author to write your books and sell them on Amazon. You can find the reviews people have left for your books as well as your sales statistics. I think the Read more…
Recently, another website copied one of my blog posts. They copied it word for word, including the images, with a few exceptions. They removed all of my links and said that they had authored the piece. The other strange thing was that there was no way to reach anyone in charge of their site. There was no contact page or any links leading to anyone with whom I could communicate. This is called webspam. It’s different than linking to a post or even reposting. Webspam is stealing. It’s a real problem and needs to be dealt with. Or does it? Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I’m going to explore my writing goals, past, present, and future as I answer the #IWSG question for July. What are your ultimate writing goals, and how have they changed over time (if at all)? When I was young I wrote a lot of poetry. My writing goals were very romantic. I can’t imagine writing a poem now. Perhaps I’ve grown too jaded, too Read more…
In today’s post, I will be giving you a behind-the-scenes look at me putting together my next book, Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with your Cancer. Today, it’s all about making your book look good with the right formatting. Making Your Book Look Good starts with no formatting at all I’ve found this to be incredibly important. To help you see the transformations process that happens when you are making your book look good I have taken some screenshots of my manuscript along with some hints. Putting Your Best Font Forward With print projects, I often forget about Read more…
In this post, we are going to look at editing your manuscript. When people think of editing, they tend to have flashbacks to their 4th-grade grammar class when they were parsing sentences and ensuring the spelling and punctuation was correct. We have moved up to the big leagues now. Editing your manuscript has gotten a lot more complicated. For one thing, there are different types of editing. Whether you hire an editor (recommended), have a smart friend help, or do it yourself, you will need to be familiar with the various types. Because of everything involved in editing your manuscript, Read more…
I am big on using an outline in my writing process. Since (for now) I would like to avoid the whole pantsers vs. plotters debate, I will focus this post on outlining your non-fiction book. There are several reasons I recommend outlining your non-fiction book … Outlining your non-fiction book will help you come up with ideas Think of it as a method of brainstorming. You are getting all the ideas that have been swirling around in your head, out and onto paper. Some of these ideas will work and will be worth exploring deeper. Others will seem disconnected from Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I’m going to explore character names as I answer the #IWSG question for June: Which is harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names? I have a much harder time coming up with a book title than I do good character names. While a book title needs to be catchy and clever, there are some good guidelines and tools available Read more…
You’ve written your book proposal and decided that your idea for a book is definitely worth pursuing. As a self-published author (or an independent blogger) you will want your content to look as professional as possible. This means doing some of the same things professional publishers do. In this “Behind the Scenes of Self-Publishing” post, I will be sharing why it’s important for every self-published writer to have a style guide. Create your style guide, or adopt one that someone else has created, early on in your writing process (the earlier the better). In your style guide, you will answer Read more…
According to one survey, 81% of people believe they have a book in them. Unfortunately, most people don’t. They might have a story in them, but a book is another thing, entirely. A book is written for an audience. In the past, publishers have asked the questions that ensured whether or not a book would likely sell. Writers answer these questions in the form of a book proposal. With the ability to self-publish, no one is asking these questions. Today, most writers: Don’t know what sells Overestimate the demand for their book idea in an already saturated market Overestimate their Read more…
I am in the middle of preparing a series on self-publishing, behind the scenes, So this week I decided to write about something a little lighter, a little more personal. I pulled a question from my Jar of Ideas. The question is as tame as it gets: “What is your favorite food?” I love sushi. Who are your friends? A wonderful blogger friend of mine recently posted a thought-provoking blog entitled, Can Someone You’ve Never Met Really Be Your Friend? One important aspect of being someone’s friend is trusting them with personal information about yourself, and they, in turn, reciprocate. Read more…
In preparation for my upcoming book launch, I’ve been gathering questions my readers have about the process of writing Facing Cancer as a Parent: How to help your Child Cope with Your Cancer and getting it ready to publish. The release date for Facing Cancer as a Parent is coming up, soon. I am formatting the book for print right now. Some formatting issues have put me behind schedule. My goal is to have it out by July 4th. In the meantime, here are some Q and A about writing Facing Cancer as a Parent. Facing Cancer series seem to be part how-to and Read more…
This year, for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, participated with both of my blogs, Facing Cancer with Grace and Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker. That meant doing the A to Z posts for 2 blogs (26×2) plus the Theme Reveal for each blog (+2 more) and the retrospective (I’m only doing this one and linking to it from Facing Cancer with Grace). That’s a total of 55 posts in one month! For the Facing Cancer with Grace site… I chose to write with caregivers in mind. At this time, I have been deep in the mire of caregiving, so this would Read more…
It’s spring! It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Even though it seemed like it would never arrive, spring is here! Today I will explore whether the season inspires me to write, or not, as I answer this month’s IWSG Day question: It’s spring! Does this season inspire you to write more than other seasons, or not? The Short Answer No. I always want to write. But… But each season inspires me Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is Z Black and White: Approach Zebras with Caution. What do zebras have to do with creativity? Not much, but avoiding them has a lot to do with being more creative, more responsibly. To introduce Read more…
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