Since I joined Twitter’s #writingcommunity I’ve been overwhelmed with help and advice from writers all over the world. Here I’m sharing just a few of those writers’ platforms, which are constantly being updated as well as more help passed on through their newsletters. Worth signing up to.
I’m categorising by headings to make it easier but they all offer a lot of useful material based on experience. Do take time to check them out – and their books too!
THE CRAFT OF WRITING
@MarianLThorpe‘s AuthorToolBox is full of brilliant ways to help you get writing and get organised.
@EliseIsWritingYA‘s website has a whole section devoted to outlining, revising and editing resources which you can find here, plus a comprehensive section on query letters
MARKETING
@MelissaHawkesx has put her corporate marketing experience to good use in the world of writing. Her blog is full of practical advice about mailing lists, newsletters and other marketing tools. Visit her here
@Emma Lombard also has great advice on building an author platform. Her own is testament to the fact she knows what she’s talking about.
@BowTieWriter (Mike) has a series of videos from establishing author platforms to marketing your pitch and beyond. Done with humour and candid!
Twitter is a brilliant marketing tool and as well as making new friends, there are ways to maximise it to your benefit as a writer.
Emma’s Tips for Twitter Newbies is a must read, as is Elise Carlson’s tips on using hashtags.
Both also have advice on how to go about those pitch things you see flying past every now and then … worth a look.
BEING A WRITER
I’m lucky – now my family is grown up, there’s me, the dog and my husband to take care of. Nevertheless, I have a lot of voluntary stuff going on and that can mean being too tired or not having enough time to write. But if you’re working and have a young family, then being a writer can stretch you. Here’s author Michele Sagan‘s blog post on her experience of managing it all.
REJECTION LETTERS
One of the most important things to learn if you want to be traditionally published (as opposed to self-publishing or paying a publisher) is how to cope with those rejection letters. Writers take rejections personally – although we’re not supposed to – and frequently. But it’s part of the whole production, sending your baby you’ve slaved over for years, edited the hell out of, asked every passing stranger to beta read for you – out to some faceless ‘god’ who may or may not give it a second glance before either sending you a kindly worded email telling you they didn’t ‘love’ the book or feel ‘passionately’ about it, ie no thank you. Or often just not getting back to you at all.
I’m not going into the whys and wherefores of that, only to say the best advice I had on this was from Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help. She had 59 rejections (not unusual), but after each one she looked how she could improve the book and the query letter. And if she had a scrap of feedback contained within those rejections, she pored over it, looked at it every which way and worked out how to use it. She certainly didn’t send the same manuscript out 59 times and wait to ‘get lucky’!
To cheer us all up, here are some other famous books which went the same way, collated by Twitter friend Rosanna. Rosanna’s site is also worth visiting for the beautiful video illustrating her book A Dancer Dies Twice.