Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 02/09/2016
Summary: Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
In this new series, I want to explore some of the classic writing advice given to authors and provide my opinions on any experiences with them. I don’t do this because I think I’m some brilliant writing authority – far from it. Rather, I’ve learned the most valuable writing lesson of all, one that you’ve probably heard, but that takes a long time to sink in:
There is no magic secret to writing. You just do it, and every writer does it differently.
Here’s the second Respect the Reviewer article I’ve written (the first can be read here). This is for all authors out there. While some tips might be obvious others you may not have thought of, either way I hope some of these tips will help you find a reviewer and go about contacting them the right way.
All authors know the importance of getting book reviews. Not only can a good book review encourage others to buy your book but if you get enough of them your book will be listed higher on amazon (or so the rumour goes). But how can authors go about contacting reviewers? And what’s the right or wrong thing to say and do when asking and waiting for a review?
When I started this blog three years and 586 posts ago, I wasn’t sure where to take it. I knew I wanted to connect with other writers so I used that as the theme. Now, thanks to the 430,000+ people who have visited, I know much more about the ‘why’. Yes, it’s about getting to know kindred souls, but there is so much more I’ve gotten from blogging. Like these:
SUMMARY: Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.
Did you know there is one super easy way to ratchet up the tension in your novel? It doesn’t take much work on your part, but it creates an immense amount of pressure for your characters. And we all know that pressure=tension=page turner.
So what is this one little trick? It’s nothing fancy, I assure you. But it’s something that many authors use and many forget about.
I read a lot of blog posts over the course of a week. A lot. And most of them don’t come from my WordPress Reader, where the blogs I’ve subscribed to are listed. I find most of them on Twitter blog share days, where bloggers can share their interesting content with specified hashtags, expanding potential readership.
We all know getting the potential reader to click the post is job one – we do this with an interesting title, pictures, and the text blurb. Job two is keeping them there. So for the love of all things holy, if you are a blogger, please don’t do things unrelated to your content that make me close your window. I want to read your interesting insights, and I’m sure I’m not alone. If I enjoy the content and there’s nothing there that hurts my brain, I’ll likely subscribe to your blog.
I’m an author, and I know firsthand how difficult it can be to get the word out about your book. If you’re frustrated with your book sales, consider advertising here.
For those of you who are authors, indie or traditionally published, there is an option to advertise your book here on this website. There are several options, including the sidebar book cover images that you see on either side of this post.
Having just finished reading The Last Unicorn, I’m not at all sure what to say about it, or how I feel about it. I felt vaguely enchanted by it — not in the sense of it being twee and sweet and Disney, but in the sense of it having a hold over me. I loved the writing, the richness of it, the strange and new descriptions, e.g. “the air hung shiny as candy” — things that don’t quite make logical sense, and yet, you know what they mean.
Well, for today, I thought that I’d take a very quick look at one of the more basic rules for making fictional “worlds” seem more immersive and realistic. This is because I happened to see an absolutely perfect example of this rule in action fairly recently.
So, what is this particular rule? Well, the rule is that the language in your story or comic should reflect the area that it has developed in. Whilst your story or comic itself should obviously be written in your own native language, a lot of linguistic changes can be shown through things like expressions and idioms.
