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Storyville: Ten Tips for Successfully Publishing Your Stories
August 8th, 2013
I know that we’ve talked about a wide variety of craft, process, and submission techniques here in Storyville, but what I’d like to do today is give you ten of my best tips to help you get your stories published. Based on five years of sending my work out, here are the most successful ideas I have for giving yourself a good shot at getting accepted. Obviously, it’s always about the writing, your compelling stories, your unique voice, well written, with emotional impact. But there are other factors that can help tip the deck in your favor.
Read Column →The Blagger's Guide to Franz Kafka
August 7th, 2013
To blag (v): to sound like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t The Blagger’s Guide to Literature (n): an invaluable resource for those who wish to blag about books without actually reading them.
Read Column →5 Ways to Get Rid of Your Damn Empty Modifiers
August 7th, 2013
I discussed the need to get rid of empty emphatics when I gave you 8 words to seek and destroy in your writing, but just saying that you should get rid of a thing doesn't say much about the right way to do so. Today I'm going to show you a few of my favorite ways to get rid of your empty modifiers.
Read Column →Ask The Grammarian With Taylor Houston—Now Taking Your Questions
August 7th, 2013
One of the most exciting and helpful features we offer in the LitReactor Magazine is our series of columns geared at answering reader questions. As you know, Erin Reel-—publishing and editorial consultant, writing coach, columnist and blog host—led this feature with her masterly 'Ask The Lit Coach' series of columns.
Read Column →Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading David Peace?
August 6th, 2013
Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well deserved readers.
Read Column →Priming The Pump: Selling Your eBook On Amazon Isn't As Easy As It Seems
August 5th, 2013
The current wisdom states that right now there has never been a better time to become an indie author by publishing eBooks for the Kindle and other devices. While I firmly believe this to be true, there is another reality which is also true and should sober the wide-eyed naïveté of any would be author. In truth, many more books are being released on Amazon than actually sell. When an author releases a book, they are more likely to simply watch their book's ranking plummet each day as no one buys it than they are to become a successful eBook author.
Read Column →Peeling Back the Onion: 5 Books That Subvert Narrative Expectation
August 5th, 2013
All great stories incorporate some level of suspense, even when they're not conventional mysteries or thrillers. Authors pose the audience questions about the characters' actions and the overall development of the plot. Often, these questions are the same for any given genre. So in love stories, for instance, we wonder whether the couple will get together/stay together/get back together.
Read Column →10 Stories by Ray Bradbury That Would Make Great Movies
August 2nd, 2013
Okay, I know what you’re thinking... it’s not like there have been a lack of motion picture adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories. But it’s hard to argue that the handful that have been made (Rod Steiger’s The Illustrated Man) are good adaptations (Francois Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451), or even all around decent films (the abominable A Sound Of Thunder). I think most Bradbury fans will agree that, at best, these films have, thus far, been interesting footnotes to the original written works.
Read Column →Five Legal Issues All Writers Need To Be Aware Of
August 2nd, 2013
Header image via Wikipedia Commons Have you wondered whether your work is protected by copyright? Or whether you can write a story based on people you know? This article delves into five legal issues frequently encountered by writers.
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