The co-owners of Castle Gate Press, Phyllis Wheeler and Suzanne Hartmann, attended the Realm Makers Writing Conference for Christian Speculative Fiction this past weekend. While they are both exhausted, the atmosphere of sharing and the sense of family energized and renewed them. Sensing these qualities–which Castle Gate Press also promotes–poured out in a larger arena and touching every attendee, […]
Three suggestions for what to say in your author newsletter
Marketing experts tell us the very best way to sell books is to gather a tribe on the Internet. You come up with a great short story that your ideal reader will love, and you use it as a carrot to get the right people to sign up for your newsletter. Next problem: what do […]
We’ll be at Realm Makers!
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost time for the Realm Makers Christian Speculative Fiction Conference, but it’s only a few weeks away. Phyllis and Suzanne will both be there to represent Castle Gate Press, so we’ve been planning, making arrangements, and preparing our costume for the awards banquet. We’ll be taking appointments to hear about […]
How not to blog
Scheduled to write a blog post? Be careful what you write. You don’t want to waste your time. Internet marketers know this axiom about blogging, but many authors don’t, in my experience. Here’s the axiom: give your readers what THEY want, not what YOU want. A typical blog reader who is a stranger to you […]
What’s a fiction author to say on social media?
I have always wondered what a great topic would be for engaging the public on social media, for an author. I had an “aha” moment when I was listening to a podcast recently. Tom Corson-Knowles, a successful indie author, had a suggestion. He said novelists should post excerpts of their work that they’re not too […]
Get busy on that email list, authors!
Setting up an email list seems like a lot of bother to many authors. They’d rather use Facebook, Pinterest, or whatever. It’s easier and more fun. Who needs an email list? You do. Marketing experts tell us the email list is the key to success, as I’ve said before. Here are some reasons: People reading […]
Point of view: how deep?
Editors these days will typically steer a writer to use “deep point-of-view,” or deep POV. It’s a writing device where the reader learns only what the current POV character sees, feels, or thinks — until the next scene, when the POV character may be someone else. If there are one or two POV characters, the […]
Writers, what do you do about a sagging middle?
We’ve all read books with sagging middles. The story starts out with a bang and then seems to … sort of .. meander around a bit. If we are persistent we may find that the story settles down to a strong, bang-up ending. But with a sagging middle, most readers will never get there. So, […]
For writers: Conflict is the root of your story
The root of a good story is always conflict. The more, the better. But you don’t like conflict in your own life. No one does. You’d like to be nice to your characters. Give them easy lives. Get over it. You’ve got to have conflict to keep people turning pages. How to set up conflict? […]
Increase your SEO IQ: One key way to making your website more findable
To make your website better-known, you need to get some better-known websites to link to your website. Google and other search engines rely on page rank signals in their algorithms. You can increase your page rank (and likelihood of getting found) by getting higher-page-rank websites (loosely translated as “better-known” websites) to link to your website. […]