Publishing/Writing Advice

THESE ARE QUESTIONS I GET ASKED A LOT/SUBMITTED QUESTIONS, ABOUT PUBLISHING AND WRITING IN GENERAL. 

1. When you write, do you use a computer or do you hand write?

I hand wrote the first six or eight chapters of Fallen, and I haven’t hand written much since then. I do jot down notes as they come to me, on any writable surface I can find, haha.

2. If you use a computer, what font style, font size, and spacing do you use?

I wrote the Outsider Series, Fallen Series, and Hush in 12pt Times New Roman, double spaced. For the paperbacks of Hush, I used a different font style (still similar to Times). Although, I write with double spaced documents (and upload them to amazon/Barnes and Noble that way) the paperbacks are single-spaced. I’m writing Unraveling in a different font though; I’m using 12pt Helvetica. I don’t really know why I decided to use something different with this one; I guess I got bored staring at the other, day in and day out. Lol. But I always use 12pt and any writer/publisher/agent will tell you to use that in your word .doc

3. How do you self-publish your books?

Amazon: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Barnes and Noble: http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home

Createspace (Paperbacks): https://www.createspace.com/

4. Who does your covers?

Regina Wamba of Mae I Design has done all of the new covers http://www.maeidesign.com/

If you are considering self-publishing I HIGHLY recommend getting a cover designer. Some cover designers are more expensive than others, but go with one that you like a lot of their work. A cover will definitely make or break your book. It’s sad, but true, most people DO judge a book by its cover so you want to have a nice one. J

Here are some other cover designers you might want to check out (I have never contacted/ nor worked with any of these)

http://okaycreations.net/site/

http://damonza.com/

http://www.facebook.com/StephsCoverDesign

http://mooneydesigns.net/portfolio/covers/

4. How many drafts do you do?

I know a lot of authors go through several drafts. Me? I usually do one, BUT after I’ve competed whichever book I’m working on, I do go through and edit it myself (Fighter and Unraveling, are the only ones so far that I’ve had outside help with editing, that’s why there’s mistakes in my early books. Plus, it’s just hard to catch them all) When I read through it, I usually add a lot of info, take out some things, and change stuff. So, I guess you could call that two drafts. Fallen and Hush are the only books that I’ve really gone back and changed a lot of stuff in, during the editing process. I actually started Hush over, about halfway through writing it. My personal opinion is, that the amount of drafts you do depends on the particular book. Sometimes, when you’re writing something, it completely changes about halfway through the book, and you end up having to rewrite parts of the beginning. (I’ll probably do this whenever I start working on The Enchanted again)

5. What’s your editing process like?

With Fighter and Unraveling, my bestie has been helping me edit. So, I send her the chapters, she reads them and makes corrections in red and tells me places that don’t make sense, then sends it back to me and when I’m finished with the book I go back and make the corrections she’s pointed out. (The not making sense part is very important, things will make sense in YOUR head because YOU wrote it, but to someone else, it might not)

Fallen, Forbidden, Outsider, and Insider, I edited completely by myself. Obviously, I missed a lot because the story is in my head, and I tend to skim by accident. Plus, when you’re reading fast, your brain looks at the word ‘your’ and goes, oh, that’s right, when really it should have been ‘you’re.’

I haven’t hired a professional editor, because I looked into it, and it’s REALLY expensive.

If you edit it yourself, before you self-publish or even think about trying to get a traditional deal, someone you trust needs to read through it for mistakes and flow. FLOW is key.

6. During the editing process, how do you stay motivated to keep going?

I’m not going to lie to you, I HATE editing. Absolutely loathe it. 

I know some authors edit as they write, I use to do that, but I just can’t. It ends up making me hate the book, because I end up reading it so many times.

Overall, editing sucks. Writing is the fun part. As soon as I finish writing a book, I go straight into the editing, I hate putting it off, plus I’m excited for ya’ll to read the book so that’s my biggest motivator.

 

7. How do you write so fast?

I’ve been writing for so long now, that I can type really fast. 

My cousins swear that my fingers start to blur when I’m really going at it. Haha. Plus, writing is now my full time job.  I write seven days a week. Some books are quicker to write than others. Not necessarily because of length, but because you’re so into the story you are writing faster. When I was still in school, it took me two years to write 1 book.

An approximate timeline of how long it’s taken me to write each book is something like this:

Fallen- 2 years

Forbidden- 2 years

Outsider- 4 weeks (funny enough, this is the longest book I’ve written, and it’s the one that I wrote the fastest)

Hush- 6 weeks

Insider- I’m going to guess 2 months. I kept going back and forth from this one to The Enchanted so I wasn’t really working full time on it)

Fighter- less than 3 months, it would’ve been quicker but with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and several family members birthday’s in there, I didn’t have as much time.

My advice, is to set a word count goal for yourself. Even if it’s only 500 words a day. This is something I haven’t done until I started Unraveling, and it has worked very well for me. I write approximately 1,428 words a day or more, this averages 10,000 words a week (since I write all 7 days). I usually end up doing a lot more than that number, because it becomes like a game to me, and I want to double it.

I like this ‘word count goal’ system, and I’ll definitely do this from now on. It helps keep me motivated.

8. What the best advice you could give aspiring writers?

Write every day. Even if you think it’s bad, write. The more you write, the better you get. The same goes for anything you want to do in life. You’re never going to be good at it if you don’t practice. ;)

If you get bored with a story, write something else. You have to find the book that clicks for you. I’d tried to write so many books before I wrote Fallen, but somehow Fallen clicked for me.

Don’t get discouraged. People around you can be very… unsupportive if you say you’re going to write a book. Don’t listen to them. If there is a story in your heart that you need to write, then do it. J

 

9. Do you use Microsoft Word to write your books, or something else?

Yes, I do use word. It just works the best for me. I know a lot of authors use Scriviner. They offer a free trial if you want to check it out, I just couldn’t get used to it. Authors that do use it, say it’s hard to navigate at first but once you get used to it, you won’t use anything else. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

Other Randomness

(I will add to this as I think of stuff)

1. Invest in a good computer. (I know this is hard to do in this economy, but if you can, do it. Nothing sucks more than having your computer go out while you’re in the middle of writing a book. I’ve had this to happen to me TWICE.)

2. Find your groove. Everybody has quirks when writing. I HAVE to listen to music and I don’t like to be bothered. (I don’t think ANYONE likes to be bothered when writing, though, haha) Sometimes I have to plan (the plot) or at least write down character names and descriptions so that I can keep them straight. Other times, I let the story flow completely on its own. Some authors start at the middle of the book, or only write certain scenes, and then go back and flesh it out. Just know that there is no perfect formula for writing a book. Everybody does it differently.

If there are any questions you have that I haven’t answered, feel free to comment with your question(s) and I will do my best to answer it and add it to this page.  

Sorry, I had to get some GIFS on here to break up all the serious talk. Haha. ;)


Here's a link to Traditionally Publishing in GIF form, although a lot of it still applies to self-publishing.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/08/the-publishing-process-in-gif-form.html