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Reach a Wider Audience: 11 Foreign Literary Markets
May 6th, 2015
The number of markets that pay for reprints (or even accept them) is pretty low. Typically, once you’ve sold the First English Rights to a story, you’re looking at much lower pay and a much harder sell for any further publication. There is, however, an alternative: Non-English speaking venues. Not all of them are paying markets, but even if you're just getting contributor's copies for your story, they will translate your work for free and you will get a wider audience and more exposure. You're leaving money on the table by ignoring these.
Read Column →So You Want To Edit A Book Part 2: The Dreadful First Rewrite
May 4th, 2015
Hi and welcome back, friends! It's so good to see you again. It feels like it was barely a week ago when we were talking about the Dramatic First Read Through of our books in our inaugural So You Want To Edit A Book series. (Okay, maybe it was two weeks, but who's counting?) Suddenly it's today, and we're ready to dive into the deep end of our Dreadful First Rewrite. Are you with me? Yes? Good! On we go. So. What the hell is the Dreadful First Rewrite? Well, here's what it means to me:
Read Column →How Daredevil Does Dark and Gritty Right
May 1st, 2015
Let’s talk about two of the most abused buzzwords in recent memory. If you’ve consumed any media at all over the last decade you have no doubt heard them so much, tacked on to the front of so many pitches and titles, that they have become white noise. You would think they’ve been overused enough to lose their potency, and yet we still get excited every time we’re promised “dark and gritty” versions of everything from Batman to the Lone Ranger, only to be endlessly underwhelmed.
Read Column →UPDATED WITH WINNER - LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: April Fool's Edition
May 1st, 2015
Flash fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity. Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess. How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or prompt. You write a flash fiction piece using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.
Read Column →Five Captivating YA Fantasies
April 30th, 2015
When it comes to transporting readers to a whole new world, no genre is quite as creative and captivating as fantasy, and in young adult literature, there is a wealth of stories just waiting to take you away. Although every fantasy novel is bound to be rich with imagined worlds and tried and true tropes, no two stories are quite the same.
Read Column →The Element of Surprise: An Anti-Spoiler Manifesto
April 30th, 2015
Pictured above: River Song, a character from Doctor Who. She WILL shoot you if you talk about spoilers. Science has already (somewhat) proven that spoilers don't inherently ruin any chance of enjoying a narrative. In a 2011 study conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego, participants were given twelve short stories, some of which contained spoilerific paragraphs imbedded in the text, some without. Across the board, the readers tended to favor the stories whose plots were revealed ahead of time.
Read Column →Five Ways Scrivener Can Help Your Work In Progress
April 29th, 2015
Writing is like weaving. First, you plan your design, calculating the type and amount of yarn required. Then, you load up your equipment with the necessary colors and lengths of threads. You pull a series of threads together and stretch them taut to define your work’s form and shape. This is the warp. Then you shuttle back and forth in a perpendicular direction with more threads over your warp. This is the weft, the repeating colors and designs that make your work unique and substantial.
Read Column →In Defense Of The Big 6
April 29th, 2015
You all know I love the indies, right? I think I've established that on more than a few occasions. I love their creativity and their willingness to take chances on new authors and difficult subject matter. Hell, my next four books are being published by an indie publisher, so you know I have nothing but love for small and micro presses. But you know who else I love? The Big 6.
Read Column →Comic Book vs. Television: Powers
April 29th, 2015
Superhero adaptations are all the rage these days. So much so that the movies are no longer big enough to contain them all, and they are spilling into primetime television with increasing regularity. The latest to get the small-screen treatment (courtesy of the PlayStation Network) is the Eisner-winning series Powers, created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.
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