Skip to content

Amazon

10 Top Tips About Bad Reviews

On Bad Reviews All writers suffer bad reviews. If you’ve got one or more from readers, viewers or places you’ve submitted (such as film festivals, agents, publishers, or elsewhere) you will know this heartache. You’re hurt, confused and probably can’t stop obsessing about them. Those bad reviews may be all you can think about, even at the expense of the good ones. This is NORMAL. Our stories are our babies. We’ve spent oodles of our time on them. We’ve probably made all kinds of sacrifices to get them written, submitted, published or produced. Supersadface. So how to deal with these… Read More »10 Top Tips About Bad Reviews

Share this:

5 Reasons Why I Switched from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing

Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing Two years ago, I thought all my prayers had been answered after landing a traditional publishing deal for my uplifting trilogy of novels. However, upon regular bouts of pulling my hair out and eye rolls a-plenty, I quickly felt the siren call of self-publishing. I took the leap earlier this year. Why would I do such a thing? Read on . . . 1) Creative control You won’t be surprised to learn that, as an author, I am a creative beast. Emphasis on the word ‘beast’. Even though my previous publisher was a huge advocate for… Read More »5 Reasons Why I Switched from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing

Share this:

How to Build a Book Launch Team

About Book Launch Teams If it’s time for you to launch your next book on Amazon, the best thing you can do for yourself is to get a great launch team. This is a group of people that will get an early copy of your book, read it, and give a review that will be posted when the book is published. In reality, you can get much more out of a good launch team and give your book long-term success. What Is A Book Launch Team? The book launch team is a group of people, either fans of your previous… Read More »How to Build a Book Launch Team

Share this:

5 Reasons To Write Novels

National Novel Writing Month aka NanoWrimo starts today!!! To celebrate, this November I’ll be asking author friends to stop by on B2W to share their thoughts on writing novels. To kick off, here’s best selling indie author Stevie Turner (A HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS) to share her insights on why she writes novels, in the hope that if you’re wondering whether to dip a toe in the writing pond this NanoWrimo, you’ll dive straight in. Enjoy & over to you, Stevie! 1) If you like doing it I reckon you’re either born creative or practical. If you’re creative, sooner or later that creativity… Read More »5 Reasons To Write Novels

Share this:

4 Lessons On Writing A Killer Logline

You have just completed writing the world’s greatest screenplay. Congrats! Now it’s time to show it to the world and prepare to cash that million dollar check that assuredly is coming your way. Hold on tiger. Before any production company, or producer, is going to read your unsolicited script, you are going to have to entice them with a little literary foreplay. We call this a logline. A logline is defined as one sentence that provides enough information about the protagonist, antagonist, setting, genre, and story that the reader can fully grasp what the film will be. The logline must… Read More »4 Lessons On Writing A Killer Logline

Share this:

8 Tips For Perfect Pitches & Super Selling Documents

Selling Documents If you want to sell your writing, you need to understand what selling items/ documents you need. These are invariably … A great, pithy longline (aka ‘short pitch’ if you’re a novelist)  A One Page Pitch or Synopsis A 3-4 page treatment (aka ‘extended pitch’ aka ‘sizzler’) I spend a lot of time reading and hearing project pitches, both at work and in my own time. I read even more on social media and various message boards and bulletins. Inevitably, I see scribes repeating the same mistakes, over and over. So here are my thoughts for you on grabbing… Read More »8 Tips For Perfect Pitches & Super Selling Documents

Share this:

Authors & Book Rights: 5 Key Truths

I became aware of  @Tom_Chalmers on Twitter via his publishing company @Legend_Press, who are currently running the Self Published Book Of The Month initiative with The Guardian Newspaper. I thought this sounded such a great idea, I Skyped with Tom recently; he told me all about his other company, IPRLicense and how understanding licenses can benefit Indie Authors in going after lucrative deals, so I asked him to write this guest post for us as part of B2W’s Indie Authors Week. Enjoy! There’s a famous exchange in a court room which continues to be one of the most quotable scenes in… Read More »Authors & Book Rights: 5 Key Truths

Share this:

3 Ways To Transform From “Self Publisher” to “Indie Author”

   Self-publisher. Vanity Press. Independent Author. You say tomater, I say tomato, right? Not at all. Unless you’ve been locked in Christian Grey’s Red Room of Pleasure for the past few years, you’ll be aware of the self-publishing revolution. The success stories are fifty shades of publishing folklore – but it isn’t universally good news. Now that any muppet with opposable thumbs can become a published author, it’s incredibly hard to make your work stand out. Assuming you haven’t chosen traditional publishing – or it hasn’t chosen you – there are broadly three ways to get your book out there:… Read More »3 Ways To Transform From “Self Publisher” to “Indie Author”

Share this:

5 Reasons Bullying Happens At School

Today, my youngest ever Bang2writer, Harri (just 12 years old!) is talking about his new book and why he thinks kids get bullied at school and how bullies are created … This is a great opportunity for adult writers to see school from a kid’s perspective – I found number 5 particularly useful, I’d never thought of this being a useful way of avoiding bullies! So make sure you check out the post and Harri’s sites and profiles — and buy his book! Enjoy! It’s About Being “Different” … 1) Talents For example, if you’re particularly good at something like… Read More »5 Reasons Bullying Happens At School

Share this:

5 Top Tips On Visuals For Your Novel From Hollywood Blockbusters

I love RJ’s ideas here, especially the notion of a “mental back pocket” and using “ordinary” places and experiences to evoke EXTRAORDINARY detail in your novel! Nice on RJ … Enjoy! What makes the pages of an action thriller turn into a treat for the mind’s eye? It is a question that has a one word answer: visualisation. My name is RJ Mitchell and I am the author of a Glaswegian crime thriller series which has just seen its third novel “The Longest Shadow”, published on November 21, by Fledgling Press of Edinburgh. I am an ex-cop from Glasgow and my… Read More »5 Top Tips On Visuals For Your Novel From Hollywood Blockbusters

Share this:

12 Things To Think About Before Rushing Into Self Publishing

“So, you’re a writer. And what exactly do you write? Ah, interesting, so you write a little like…?” OMG, has your heart just sunk? How many times have you gone into a meeting, all pumped up and ready to sell your soul? And then it comes, that sneaky little searching question, the answer to which tells the publisher or producer – whoever – whether you have that original voice that makes them want to work with you. Standing out from the writing crowd is hard. Standing out and making a living from it is even harder. So the lure of… Read More »12 Things To Think About Before Rushing Into Self Publishing

Share this:

6 Reasons NOT To Have A Prologue In Your Novel

So I’ve been reading a lot of spec novels via the Bang2write script reading service and downloading various free self published works for my Kindle app on my shiny new iPad (why the hell didn’t I get one years ago? Oh yeah, no money and the whole technophobia thing). Anyway, of the many spec or self published works that have crossed my radar in recent weeks, I’ve noticed some similar issues, all relating to prologues. Here are my thoughts on  NOT having one and why: 6. Your story starts too early. All too often, prologues in spec novels are boring… Read More »6 Reasons NOT To Have A Prologue In Your Novel

Share this: