Editor Stacy Boyd’s (free) tips for pitching your book – “I just saw a newsletter advertise “pitch coaching sessions” to get writers ready for RWA. They were $125!! Here’s my FREE coaching session for writers pitching novels at RWA: 1) Treat this like a job interview. You should be professional and friendly. 2) If you’re nervous, just say so. Editors and agents are familiar with nerves and some of them may be nervous themselves.”
Novel Rocket: 5 Common Mistakes New Writers Make – ” Too Much Backstory Everyone falls in love with their characters, and we want everyone to know everything about them so they can fall in love with them too. But what new writers don’t realize is that you don’t have to tell a character’s entire backstory to hold a reader’s interest. In fact, the less you tell up front, the more intrigued your reader may be about your character.”
16 Tips on How to Survive and Thrive as a Writer | Live Write Thrive – “Realize you can improve every aspect of your writing, editing, publicity, marketing, sales, distribution, etc. Push the bar higher and keep reaching beyond your comfort zone.”
The 3 most important things to know about #rwa12 (or any conference) – “You’ll get out of the conference what you put into it. You’d be surprised at how many people you’re jealous of for having a great time, holding avid conversations with others or seeming to be everywhere at once are really closet introverts. Many of them are putting themselves way beyond their comfort zone in order to get the most out of the conference and you may have to do that as well. Introduce yourself to people, attend lots of workshops–not only are they amazing in helping grow your writing, but you can make contacts just by chatting up the person next to you in the workshop before and after! Get out of your room, ask the people you do know to introduce you to people you don’t know, sit at the bar by yourself (I meet a LOT of people this way) and chat up the person next to you if they’re wearing an RWA badge and don’t seem to be engaged in doing anything else. There are so many things you can do to make this experience not only fun, but professionally worthwhile. But only you can make yourself do these things. Now is not the time to let shyness or lack of confidence get the best of you.”
