Make A Living Writing Romance

By Kimber Chin

There are two main schools of romance writing.

There are those writers that outline or plot the entire book before sitting down to write. There are very detailed plotters. They sketch out everything from character builds to action points. They knew exactly where the book is going.

At the other side of the spectrum are the pantsers. These writers write by the seat of their pants. They simply sit down at the keyboard and start typing. They don’t know what happens next in the story until they write it.

 
(continue reading…)

By Eric M Head

Have you ever wandered into a book store and looked at all the books wondering how they go there? Maybe you are an up and coming author who sees those books on the shelves and you want to know how to get your book right there along side them.

In order to get your book published, it’s important to have an overview of the submission process. After you understand the basics, you will know which course of action to take.

For a book to get published, the author of the book will typically submit a letter to the publisher. This letter is called the ‘query letter’ and it is specifically submitted according to the submission guidelines of that particular publishing company.

When an author submits this unsolicited query letter, it is called an unsolicited submission. A large amount of these unsolicited submissions are from authors who have never had a book published before.

What happens after you send your unsolicited submission is that it goes into a large pile of other unsolicited submissions. The acquisitions editor will then take the manuscripts from this pile to review. If the editor likes your manuscript, he will hand it off to the editorial staff.

 
(continue reading…)

By Eric M Head

So you finally finished writing your masterpiece novel. It took a long time, but you managed to get the story right and you are excited see it as a book on the shelves of your local bookstore. You feel confident that once people read it, they are going to love it.

Before you get into self-publishing, you should know what it is and what is involved.

Book publishing is most often used in association with the large publishing houses that have the necessary equipment to mass produce books; however, technically it means any development, printing, and distribution of a literary work. The main purpose that a book is published is because it is intended to be made available to the general public for reading.

There are many authors who publish their own work. It is not uncommon for an author to sit down, write out an entire book and then financially back their book by putting their own money into publishing it.

(continue reading…)

When you submit your romance manuscript to agents and/or publishers you are probably making simultaneous submissions. Then there are the other things like writing contests, magazine pieces and newspapers. So you are up on what is going on, keep track of your submissions.

Why Keep Track?

First of all, it’s great to know what you have going on at all times just for peace of mind. No one wants to get a letter back from an editor and then scramble to find the materials that they want next. And, there will be a deadline attached that you will trade your arm not to miss.

Another reason to keep track of manuscript submissions is for follow-up. At some point you will want to see what is going on with your manuscript or your query letter. How will you know how long it has been since you first submitted if you aren’t keeping good records?

What Information to Track?

(continue reading…)

By Kimber Chin

There are two main schools of romance writing.

There are those writers that outline or plot the entire book before sitting down to write. There are very detailed plotters. They sketch out everything from character builds to action points. They knew exactly where the book is going.

At the other side of the spectrum are the pantsers. These writers write by the seat of their pants. They simply sit down at the keyboard and start typing. They don’t know what happens next in the story until they write it.

Most writers are a combination of the two. I work out a very brief outline of what I would like to see happen in each chapter, where it will begin and end. I also draft rough character sketches of each key person so I ‘know’ them before writing. After that is done, I let the muse take over. Sometimes my characters go where I want them to go. Sometimes they don’t and I have to rework the outline.

(continue reading…)