Posts Tagged ‘The Write Life for You’

Advice on Self-Publishing by Shon Bacon

By • May 10th, 2010 • Category: The Write Life for You

New writers who are at that stage of deciding if self-publishing is the route for them should stop and seriously think about the time and energy that is involved in the process.



Finding Agents & Editors by Shonell Bacon

By • Apr 6th, 2010 • Category: The Write Life for You

Unlike other articles, what this post does is highlight some places on the Net that offer excellent advice, resources, and databases to help you find a literary agent or editor. What you will notice, once you’ve checked out these resources, is that several key components seem to resonate…



Building the Author’s Ethos – Part Two: Developing a Marketing Plan

By • Feb 28th, 2010 • Category: The Write Life for You

It is important to think about MARKETING. It is important to think about this even before you go about looking for agents and editors because there are some agents who want to know how you plan to promote your work.



Building the Author’s Ethos – Part One: Writing Philosophy by Shonell Bacon

By • Jan 31st, 2010 • Category: The Write Life for You

One book written does not a writing philosophy make. Your writing philosophy will no doubt change as you move through your newness as a writer and develop yourself.



Writing Your Query Letter by Shonell Bacon

By • Jan 3rd, 2010 • Category: The Write Life for You

If getting your manuscript in the hands of an agent or editor is your goal for 2010, you will need a strong, titillating, one-paged query letter.



Writing Your Synopsis by Shonell Bacon

By • Dec 12th, 2009 • Category: The Write Life for You

The synopsis is not a tool for you; it’s a tool for an agent or an editor, for someone you hope will like your story idea enough to want to read the whole manuscript and will want to BUY it.



Formatting by Shonell Bacon

By • Sep 30th, 2009 • Category: The Write Life for You

Many of the formatting rules will no doubt make you go, “Duh, thanks, Shōn,” but you’d be surprised at how many people forget one thing or decide not to do something a specific way because they like the way they do it better.



Modifiers by Shonell Bacon

By • Sep 1st, 2009 • Category: The Write Life for You

Use modifiers that are strong. “Pretty” is not a strong adjective. It doesn’t convey much, and if your purpose is to add detail and visuals to your story, you have done yourself a disservice in using it. Same goes for words like “little,” “very,” and even “good” and “bad”; they are too general and do nothing to add to your story.



Punctuation by Shonell Bacon

By • Aug 2nd, 2009 • Category: The Write Life for You

We all know that words and how we manipulate them are the backbone to writing a good story, but what helps the reader to understand everything we write is the punctuation we use with those words.



Capitalization by Shonell Bacon

By • Jul 1st, 2009 • Category: The Write Life for You

Some of these will sound SO obvious, but having been an editor for the last seven years, I can tell you…writers (including myself) often miss the most obvious of mistakes while rereading and revising their work.