Practicalities of writing different genres

I’ve heard it said numerous times, “Don’t switch genres. Every time you do it is like starting all over again.” Yet authors still switch genres, myself included. My experience of writing in different genres (non-fiction and contemporary) I started by writing non-fiction and never dreamed that I would write novels. All of my non-fiction was …

Publishing Tip | Tell Me a Story, the Audiobook Revolution

“Tell me a story,” is one of the most ubiquitous and insistent requests a young child is likely to make. And the love of hearing a story is something we never out-grow. I love to read, both from paper books and electronic devices, but hearing a story is a different experience altogether. Learning Styles When …

Narrated by the Author: Five questions to ask yourself before you record your own audiobook

Audiobooks are big business. According to some they are ‘the new reading’. Whether or not they are going to take over from traditional written books remains to be seen. But the trajectory of growth is undeniable, with the Audio Publishers Association recently revealing double digit growth in audiobook sales for the tenth year running. Some …

Writers Life | Writing in series – the whys and hows

When you think of fiction, almost immediately book series come to mind. Whether it was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books, or  Agatha Christies’ Hercule Poirot detective stories, or Harry Potter. Series grip readers’ minds and are much easier to market. One of the difficulties nowadays with traditional publishing is that many …

Throwback Thursday | Two Ways to Publish (and One Way Not to Publish)

There are basically two ways to publish a book: You can hire people to help you publish your book. Or you can pursue a publishing contract. What you shouldn’t do is sign a contract with a “self-publisher”. 1. Hire Help Savvy self publishing authors do hire people to help, especially editors and cover designers. None …

Throwback Thursday | Publishing Options in Australia

What if I told you that publishing options were right under your nose? During my BA in Professional Writing, I was given both encouragement and preparation for the blatant reality: getting published in Australia is not easy. The competitiveness of the field was clear to me the moment I peeked outside the classroom. While rejection …

Introducing Sunrise Publishing (and a Call for Submissions)

Sunrise Publishing is the latest initiative from bestselling and award-winning author Susan May Warren, partnering  with Lindsay Harrel. The two authors conducted a Facebook Live presentation on 30 September (well, 1 October New Zealand time) sharing the story behind the new collaboration, and announcing their submissions process. Sunrise are currently open to submissions from US …

The big lesson in being a debut novelist

My debut novel launched yesterday. Among the tears, excitement, nerves and sense of satisfaction was a lesson that I’ve learned over the nine months it’s taken The Baggage Handler to go from Word document stored on my computer to an actual book I can hold in my hands. This is the lesson: how to balance …

ACW Writing Resources

Writing Resources for Australasian Christian Writers (ACW): Book Publishing Book Marketing Writing Craft Omega Writers One of the logistical challenges we’ve encountered in moving a five year old group blog to a new platform is how to connect the archived posts from the old site. We didn’t want to lose access to the wealth of …

Paths to Publishing: Self-Publishing

By Iola Goulton @iolagoulton Over the last two weeks, we’ve looked at two paths to publishing: working with an agent to attract a major publisher, and publishing through a small press or micropress. This week we are looking at the third option: self-publishing. Self-publishing has soared in popularity since the release of the Amazon Kindle …