How Do We Help Authors To Publish At The Writing Gym?

How Do We Help Authors To Publish At The Writing Gym?

by | May 12, 2019 | Writing | 0 comments

How Do We Help Authors to Publish at the Writing Gym?

What is the whole intent of the Writing Gym?

We help you finish, publish, and sell your novel.

 

VIP Membership

You first join the VIP Membership where we help you finish your novel.

Publishing Mastermind

Once you’ve finished this step, you can move on to the Publishing Mastermind where we spend some time revising your manuscript to publishable.

Novel Selling U

Finally, you move on to the final step–Novel Selling U.

If you’d like some more information about what we do in the Writing Gym and how it is that we help authors to finish novels, to publish novels, and to sell novels, I would love to chat with you.

You can put yourself directly in my calendar. And until then, happy writing!

Writing To Publish or Spinning Your Wheels?

Writing To Publish or Spinning Your Wheels?

by | Jan 23, 2018 | How to Publish, Writing | 2 comments

Writing To Publish or Spinning Your Wheels?

There are three main mistakes I see writers make when it comes to their writing. They want to publish, to see their name on a book, experience the joy of a book signing, and eventually make real income off their books.

They feel it, they taste it—but then they miss the mark on making the right steps to publication.

If you’re serious about becoming a published author, of living the lifestyle of a successful multi-published author,

Here are the top mistakes to avoid.

  1. NOT INVESTING THE TIME

Many would-be authors think they can just write a first draft, call it a book, and start collecting checks. While, in this digital age, that is actually possible, that doesn’t mean it’s going to lead writers where they want to go. If you just want your book on Amazon to get some bragging rights, this strategy might work. If you actually want to build a fanbase to become a prominent author with a following & bookstore book signings, your 99 cent Amazon ebook is not going to get you there.

  1. THEY’RE NOT WILLING TO INVEST RESOURCES

Many authors come to me wanting to be a success. They know they’ve got a story to tell and that know it will appeal.  

Still, they want to do it as cheaply as possible. They seek out cheap editors or no editors at all and wonder why they’re being rejected time and time again.

Writing a book to publication is like anything else out there—you get what you pay for. If you invest nothing or a small amount, you can expect no to little results.

Most writers tell me that publishing a book has been a lifelong goal. If you treat your writing like the serious life goal that it is, if you invest resources into making your dream a reality, then you’ll get big results.

  1. THEY THINK PUBLISHING A BOOK IS A DIY PROJECT

Writers can be independent people, self starters—lone wolves, if you like. That’s all well and good; you need some gumption to write a book and put it out into the world. The downside of this attribute, however, is that these types of writers think they don’t need any help to publish—it’s easy, right? What’s the big deal?            

Of all the mistakes, thinking publishing is a Do-It-Yourself project is the one where I see the most wasted time, disappointment, and writers who give up on their publishing dream altogether.       

Even worse, if these kind of writers are not willing to invest, they grasp for and cling to all the free writing resources they can, like a lifeboat in a rough sea.

Can authors publish on their own? Sure. There’s an exception for every rule, but DIY publishing success is an anomaly.

Let’s look at it this way (because you all know I love a good analogy): In a pinch, I could change my own car oil. (I’m resourceful like that) But if I needed a new transmission or axle? Well, I would take it to a professional. Could I try to do it myself? Sure. Auto parts stores abound in every town in the US & I’m sure there are a plethora of AutoRepair 101 videos over on YouTube.

But I am not an expert mechanic. Let’s say the free YouTube video says to loosen the thingamabobber. I don’t know what a thingamabobber is. So, I go look it up, and the free video tells me the thingamabobber is under the hoozamawhazzit. I don’t know what *that* is, so I go look that up. And on and on and on and on.

I am wasting my time, spinning my wheels. If I’d just gotten the expert help, the job would be done right. A professional knows what to look for at every stage of the process, and what quality end results should look like. An expert knows what the standards are and what pitfalls to avoid.

Writers who make this mistake end up frustrated, and are, in my experience, the writers most likely to quit writing all together and never see their book in print. Now that’s a crying shame.

However, writers who get the process right, who don’t make these mistakes, see accelerated results—they finish faster and publish faster. And because they’ve avoided the frustration and hassle that the mistakes bring, they enter the publishing process with confidence and the knowledge of what publishing industry standards are and how they’ve met them.

What kind of writer do you want to be: one who makes the same mistakes over and over again out of stubborn resistance? Or one who gets that novel published and moves on to write and publish the next one?

If you’re serious about publishing and tired of spinning your wheels, let’s talk about where you are, where you want to go, and how you can get there. You can drop yourself into my calendar for a phone or Skype chat here.

 

Three Must-Know Guidelines to the Writer’s Life

Three Must-Know Guidelines to the Writer’s Life

by | Dec 11, 2015 | How to Publish, How to Revise a manuscript, How to Write a Novel, Why is publishing so hard?, Writing | 2 comments

 

Set up YOUR chat here:

calendar

Three Must-Know Guidelines to the Writer’s Life

6c42527a-57b7-47ff-85a4-aa55347e5fb21) Writing is an art. Although many writers will pay the bills with technical writing or designing social media posts, they are still artists. Art is about experiences, emotions, forms, and substance. Many people can write a grammatically correct sentence. But the writer will know that sometimes you start a sentence with a conjunction such as but because it sounds better. (See what I did there?)

The writer will spend hours agonizing over one line of dialogue or tearing through a thesaurus not looking for a word, but the right word. (See more about that here.) A true writer seeks the right adjectives to convey the reader’s or character’s feelings, and will make the reader feel exactly what emotions they are trying to share. Through painstaking nit-picking diction, that writer will show, not tell the raw human experience. (Remember, the Rules of Writing are Nothing Like the Rules of Real Life.) Great art takes time and practice to produce and writing is no exception.

2) One of the great writing adages is “write what you know.” We’ve all heard it, however, that doesn’t mean the writer can’t expand the breadth of what you know and care about. Brush up on your history for inspiration. Read the science and technology section of a newspaper to gain ideas of what the future can hold. Go to a place you’ve never been before– or even more daring talk to a stranger. Travel. Learn to dance. Weed plants out of the garden. Want your writing to be a pleasure to read? Create a piece that you loved to write.

3) The only writer you need to be is yourself. Write with your own voice. While it’s fun to try on the voices of authors we love, and different purposes have different modes, if the words on the page are not your own, then your voice is not being heard. Why would you leave your voice out of the important writing conversation? You are an important member of the banquet.

There is no correct way, no perfect way to write, to convey an idea, to express yourself. Some writers don’t use standard punctuation marks, some write in regional vernacular, some never use contractions. How you write is up to you. And how do you find your own writer’s’ voice?

You won’t know until you write.

There are many rules and tips about writing, but it’s crucial to remember some of the basics: writing is art, write what you know but learn what you can, and the only writer you can be is yourself. We’d love to have you join us for one of the upcoming writing groups or classes. I also have a few openings in our Writing Gym and I’d love to talk to you to see if we’re a good fit. What are you writing? I’d love to hear about it here.

All of the best & until next time, happy writing.
Annalisa

Writing got you down?

Writing got you down?

by | Nov 4, 2015 | Why is publishing so hard?, Writing | 0 comments

 

Set up YOUR chat here:

calendar

Writing got you down?

 

stpehen-king-quoteThe idea is all around us: writers must read.  Reading makes better writers. However, what’s with all this hype? Is it really true? And most importantly, how can reading get us unstuck and beyond writer’s block?

First of all, reading gives us the opportunity, not only to get lost in a story, but to wonder what moves the author made to take us there.

Thus, how can we learn and get motivated by what we read?

1) Underline passages that call out to you. Put a post-it note on the page to come back to it later.

Sometimes, I revisit marked passages as a kind of writing prompt. What did I like about the passage? Was it a certain word or mood?  Was it the author’s ability to explain something really well?  Try to analyze what made the passage work, and think about ways you could try that on your own. I always find this method gets my creative juices flowing!

 

Reading Writing Tips

 

2) Imitate the author’s style to see what you can learn.

The cool thing here is that you can learn both from authors you like and don’t like!  Take an idea– preparing your favorite dish for example, and try to write about it as Hemingway or Faulkner.  This type of exercise is helpful in noticing what works in a master writer’s style.  It also helps us to see what we are drawn to.  Here’s the thing for me: I have never done this exercise and not  wanted to keep on writing, trying new things.

 

Reading Writing Tips Retreats Workshops Vermont classes

 

 

3) Play with words. Open to a random page in a book you’re reading now, close your eyes, and drop your finger on the page.  Whatever word you land on, use that as a writing prompt.

 

 What would happen if your main character used the words as the beginning of dialogue?  What would happen if you brought the words to life as a chapter title?  Could the idea behind the words be the central focus of a poem?

 

Burlington Vermont Writing Writer Writers workshop classes lern to write well

 

These are all ideas that I get a lot of mileage out of, if you will, as a writer.  Even more satisfying, so many writers over the years have gotten themselves unstuck using these, and other tips I’ve offered in their work with me.

I’d love to hear how they worked for you, so please do leave a comment below or

Tweet: Thanks for the #writingtips bit.ly/1LeqKAM @annalisaparenttweet me.

 

If you’d like more helpful tips to land in your mailbox once a week and to hear about upcoming opportunities to write with me in person, throughout the world, sign up in the brown box above. As a special bonus for a limited time, I am giving away “Five Tested Pro Tricks for Kissing Writer’s Block Goodbye.” Just sign up above and get the FREE download.

Pin It on Pinterest