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.

 
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By Jill Noble

The Boring Beginning. Statistics show that when a reader is choosing a book, they read the back cover or book blurb, and then they flip open the book to read the first few pages. Many authors seem to forget they only have a few sentences in which to capture the reader’s attention. Start your book off with a bang by choosing a catchy opening sentence (and then deliver by following through), and use action and dialogue rather than exposition or narrative. You only have a few minutes to get and keep a reader’s (or editor’s!) attention; use your time wisely.

Incoherent Writing. You’re the author…you know exactly what’s happening in your book at all times, because the story is in your head. But sometimes details get lost in the translation, and some writers have a difficult time getting everything straight on paper. Make sure you’re starting your book in the right place (generally, this is the moment of “change” for your main character). Don’t dump whole boatloads of back story at once-dribble in a little at a time, on a “need to know” basis. If you have a complicated plot, make a plot grid or outline, and use it as a map when writing your story. A volunteer BETA reader is often helpful in spotting areas where a reader might think, Huh?

 
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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.

 
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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.

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By Cindy A Christiansen

I’ve been judging romance contest entries again. I have found several mistakes that I continue to see over and over. Interested in knowing what they are? Well, I am only going to cover one in this article – conflict. I’m not talking about your garden variety arguing, bickering or fighting. That’s not the kind of conflict I’m talking about. I’m talking about floods, deaths, commitments, fears, love, ambition. The list goes on. Without conflict life might be easier, but it certainly wouldn’t be as interesting.

Obviously, conflict motivates your characters as well. They have to have a plan of action but then something gets in their way. Give your characters strong goals to work on through the book. An author just can’t tell a story about this or that. Let’s face it, we all can’t be Seinfeld. But even on that show the characters are going to do something and then an event happened. The important part to remember is that life doesn’t just happen. Head your characters in a direction and then throw a bucket of water at them.

There are three main types of conflict you can toss at your characters: circumstantial, personal and relationship conflict. Let’s discuss each one:

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