Curated

How Long Should My Book Be?

“What is the best length for_______?” (Fill in the blank with niche/genre or fiction/non-fiction or eBook/print book.)

That has to be one of the most-often-asked questions I get from clients and students.

In a moment I’ll share a quote with you that echoes what I always say.

First though, I want to share a post on The Future of Ink by author Nina Amir, called What’s the Correct Length for an Ebook?

In it, Nina talks about lengths for various types of books; both print and digital, and fiction and non-fiction.

The quote from Nina that’s the same as the one I personally use with my students?

It’s a simple rule:

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…each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story or provide the information required. Thus, you could say each manuscript should only be as long as it needs to be. Tell your story or share your knowledge in as many words as necessary—no more, no less.

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That’s it in a nutshell, but the article WILL give you some statistics that can be very helpful.

Please share what you’ve found to be your own personal “sweet spot” for word count, and do you write fiction or non-fiction?

Much Happiness and Success!

Can You Write 10,000 Words in a Day?

Today I want to share a blog post that I read a while back that totally inspired me.

It’s by author Rachel Aaron, and it tells the story of how she went from writing 2k words in a day to 10k words! It’s a long post, and she tells you exactly what she did.

How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day

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According to Rachel:

Drastically increasing your words per day is actually pretty easy, all it takes is a shift in perspective and the ability to be honest with yourself (which is the hardest part).

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Read the post and see if it doesn’t help with your writing productivity! With the first annual National Writing Date Day coming, wouldn’t you like to make the most of your date?

Much Happiness and Success!

Getting Banned from Amazon Pre-Order Privileges

The ability to allow pre-orders of your books is a new function on the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. It sounds like a pretty handy thing to offer, but before your rush into it, maybe you should read about Derek Murphy’s experience with getting banned for a year due to an error in the system: How to use Kindle pre-orders to pre-sell your self-published book

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Advice from Derek:

Make sure you upload a final version of your book at least 10 days (2 weeks to be safe) before the publishing date, since the consequences appear to be dire.

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Much Happiness and Success!

Literary Word Counts

When you love books, there is only one thing that can be said about the Literary Word Count Infographic posted on Shortlist.com and that’s “awesome!”

No quotes from this one. You just have to go soak it up.

Much Happiness and Success!

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

Do you hang onto your writing way too long, trying to make it “perfect?” Don’t feel bad if you said yes, because I struggle with that too.

But if you take a look at some heavy-hitter websites in their early days, you will see that they were far from perfect. Some of them were downright…homely.

I’m not saying you should release a book that lacks the basic qualifications (spelling, grammar, decent editing) but maybe you should re-think the perfect thing.

Mashable.com shows us What the World’s Biggest Websites Looked Like at Launch.

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Think about it…

It’s hard to imagine that the treasured websites we all use today were at one point just scribbles on a piece of paper, or the brainchild of a 19-year-old college student.

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Yes, websites and books are completely different things, but step outside of your self-critical brain and see how this can apply to you.

You have something to share with the world, so go share it.

(And don’t be perfect; be published!)

Much Happiness and Success!

Writing Contests from Writer’s Digest

The first time I was ever published in my life was at the age of 14, and it was due to a writing contest I had entered. (No, I won’t share that particular piece of writing; it was a very angst-filled teen-aged love poem.)

In this day and age, writing contests are everywhere, and some of them carry quite lucrative rewards for winners.

Writer’s Digest has a whole list of contests and I suggest bookmarking the page and returning to it often.

There are contests beginning and ending all of the time over there, and there is even one for micro-fiction (750 words or fewer) that occurs every other month, based on a writing prompt that they supply.

One of the big bonuses of winning a WD contest (beyond the prize) is the recognition. WD is probably the most-read writer’s magazine in the world. Having something you wrote published with them is no small feat!

Writer’s Digest List of Contests and Competitions

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By entering and winning a Writer’s Digest Competition, you can:

Get published. Your writing could be published in the pages of Writer’s Digest.
Get discovered. You could have the opportunity to meet with editors and agents at the Writer’s Digest Conference.
Get recognition. Winners are listed in the magazine, on our website and at the Writer’s Digest Conference.
Get feedback. Experts in the writing community will judge and provide feedback on your work.
Get cash. You can even win one of our cash prizes.

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Go win something! (And be sure to tell me about it when you do. I love hearing about the success of other Freestyle Authors!)

Much Happiness and Success!

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