The emerging New Adult market

There's a great article by my favourite author Barbara O'Neal over at WRITER UNBOXED today, on the emerging new adult market.

I'm so excited that Barbara is writing NA (she's the only author I pre-order books for 6 months in advance!) and I have her NA, RANDOM, lined up to read next on my kindle. (She's writing NA under a pen name, Lark O'Neal.)

Go check out the article here 

Debut authors read this!

There's a fabulous article over at WRITER UNBOXED for debut authors.

A must-read!

The ins and outs of indie publishing

After answering many questions offline to interested writers about indie publishing and why I've chosen to follow this path alongside my traditionally published career, I've decided to do a series of articles.

Due to tight deadlines for the entire month of February (& beyond!) I'm not promising when I'll have them done, but if you have any burning questions you'd like answered, now's your chance.

Ask away and I'll do my best to answer in the not too distant future.

Rejecting negativity

A few years ago, I had an article published in RWA's 'Romance Writer Report', titled DEFYING THE DOUBT DEMONS.

It focused on the doubts that constantly plague writers and I had a staggering amount of emails from writers after it was published, thanking me for articulating what we all go through.

Today, I stumbled across a similar-themed article about rejecting negativity by Sophie Littlefield over on the 'Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing' site.

Well worth a read!

Maximising your Amazon potential

Authors, here's a great article by NYT and USA Today bestseller Laura Kaye on maximising your Amazon potential.

Savvy Authors have some great craft stuff so while you're there, check it out.

NANOWRIMO

I've heard the term NANOWRIMO bandied around for years, have never participated, vaguely aware it involves writing a book in a month (or 50 000 words?)

This year has been manic for me.  In addition to writing my usual Harlequin books, I've written a YA adult novel and revised my first mainstream contemporary romance BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD 5 times!

Now, I'm reaching the end of the year, and I have another Harlequin book to write (no idea of plot yet!) and an 'out of the box' YA idea that won't be denied.

So just for the heck of it, I signed up to NaNo.

Why?  Because I've had great motivational success participating in #1K1hr on Twitter (where a bunch of random writers see if they can write 1000 words in an hour) lately.
Usually, I don't need the motivation. When I'm on deadline, I sit down at the PC every night and make sure I write 2000 words a day.
But after a busy year, that extra little boost can help and that's what I'm hoping NaNo will provide.
Frankly, without it, I don't think this book would get written. And if I even get 10 000 words out I'll be happy, because it's better than a blank page.

Some writers don't like the idea of speed writing. And that's just fine, we all work at different paces.
But if you do want to get those words flowing so you can go back and edit your draft later, NaNo is for you.

There's a fantastic series of NaNo tips over at STORYFIX.

And I have a SPEED WRITING article on my blog.

Whatever you decide to do, NaNo is all about the words.
Getting the words out, whether you achieve your goal or not. It's not about pressure or competing with people (though some do thrive under those conditions!)

It's about switching off your internal editor, getting creative, letting the words flow and having fun!

I wish you all flying fingers and many words over the next month.

So who's NaNo-ing alongside me?