Ways to Build Your Author Network

Writing is often a lonely endeavor. You need a network of writer friends to celebrate the amazing times and help you when things aren’t so great. Here are some ideas of ways that you can build or add to your network of writers.

• Follow other writers (especially ones in your genre) online. Sign up for their newsletter.

• Look at the other authors who share your agent.

• Look at the other authors who you share your publisher.

• Meet other authors who live near you.

• Join a writing group. This was the best thing that I did for my writing career. They offered book events, all kinds of training, and camaraderie.

• When you meet an author, follow them on social media. Make sure to add them to your contacts.

Here are some things your network can help you with

• Partner together for in-person and online events.

• Find writing opportunities like anthologies and upcoming events.

• Share each other’s social media announcements.

• Promote each other's events and help them celebrate.

• Partner for newsletter swaps, guest blogs, or other promotional ideas.

• Build up a group who could help you with blurbs.

• Find advice and recommendations on writing, publishing, and agents.

What You Can Learn from Setbacks

The writing journey is really a rollercoaster ride with a lot of highs and lows. Everyone experiences the great and the not-so-great moments. No one likes the latter, but there are things you can learn from them.

• When something disappointing happens, see what advice you can glean from it. Can you make improvements in something you’re doing?

• Allow yourself time to process bad news and to grieve. Sometimes, the news is devastating.

• Don’t reply or respond when you are upset or angry. Take some time to process and craft your response.

• Rejection Slips - If you’re fortunate enough that the agent or publisher provides you with feedback about the reason your work was not accepted, read it when you’re not emotionally charged. See if you can incorporate the advice to improve for next time.

• Bad Reviews - Everyone gets them. You can have hundreds of good reviews, and that one bad one often sends writers into a tailspin. Reviews are nice, but they are mainly for other readers. If you read them, see if there is a nugget of wisdom in the response. If not, ignore it and move on. You will not be everyone’s cup of tea, and you don’t like every book you read. Don’t reply or argue with the reviewer.

• Critique Group Feedback - You will get lots of feedback from your critique groups or partners. Read it when you are not emotional. Change what is wrong or what needs to be improved. But you don’t have to make every change that is mentioned. Make sure you’re not losing your voice in the rewrites.

What have you learned from a setback?

Valuable Lessons Learned from Critique Groups

One of the best things I did early in my career was to find a critique group to help me hone my writing skills and to test out plots. I’ve been in several of all sizes through the years. Some were in person, and others were virtual. Here’s what I learned and what worked for me.

• I write cozy mysteries, and I focus on groups that are made up of mystery writers. I read mysteries and thrillers, and I understand the conventions. I am able to provide good feedback on others’ work when I know the genre.

• When I was starting out, my first critique was a mixed group of published and pre-published folks like me. That was helpful. I was in the same boat as the newer writers. The people with more experience had great insights and ideas to share. As the years went by, critique groups come and go for different reasons. My last two groups have been with published mystery writers, and that helps me at this stage in my journey.

• You will get a lot of feedback and comments about your writing. It took me a while to figure out what changes I should listen to. In the end, it is your work and your voice. If it’s a procedural thing or a plot hole suggestion, then I usually make the change. In my first group, there were fifteen members. When we would go around the table for comments, half would say change something, and then the other half said don’t change it. It was confusing. I finally had to go with the change that would best mesh with where I wanted the story to go.

• You cannot take the critiques personally. It’s hard. You have worked so long on your manuscript, and now someone is tearing it apart. But my goal was always to improve my work and make it the best it could possibly be. It did take a while to build up a thick skin that I could listen to it and not get my feelings hurt.

• It helps to set the rules of the group before you start. For my groups, if you see grammar or spelling errors, point them out in your notes, but don’t spend the group time talking about them. Save your comments for plot holes and the craft of writing.

• Getting a variety of feedback helps me as a writer, and it prepared me for editor, agent, and publisher feedback and reader reviews.

What would you add to my list?

Things New Writers Need to Know

Here’s my list of things new writers need to know (and things I wished I had known when I started.)

1. Start early. I didn’t think about writing a book until after grad school (and I didn’t get published until my forties).

2. Find a writing group. You need the support and opportunities that it can provide you. I have met so many amazing and generous people from my writing groups.

3. Writing is a business, and you have to treat yours like one.

4. There are a lot of administrative and marketing tasks involved in the life of published authors.

5. Get serious about your writing and stay focused. Otherwise, you may never finish that book.

6. Write the first draft. Get it written. Stop revising the first four chapters over and over. You can revise it during the editing stages. (This is why my first book took five years to write.)

7. Guard your writing time. If you don’t, it will slip it away. I have to treat it as work.

8. Keep your computers patched and secure. Make sure you have anti-virus software. Back up your files regularly. There is nothing worse than losing a file, especially if it’s your manuscript.

9. Go through your “how to write” books and keep the ones that speak to you. Give away or sell the others. Sit down and write! (BICFOK - Backside in chair; Fingers on keyboard). I was reading too much about writing and not writing.

10. Read everything you can get your hands on in your genre.

What would you add to my list?

What To Do When You Don't Feel Like Writing

When I’m writing a book, I try to write every day. Sometimes, the universe conspires against me, or I just don’t feel sitting in front of screen. It happens. Here are some things you can do instead.

• Try to have a normal time that you write every day. (Mine is the early morning and my lunch time.) This gets your mind and body into a routine.

• Guard your writing time. Your time is valuable, and you are pulled in so many different directions. Your research, writing, and marketing time is work. Schedule it if you have to.

• If you just can’t write, give yourself some grace. Work on other “writing” tasks. Create blog posts. Make marketing graphics. Clean up files or emails. Make sure that your receipts and tax information are updated.

• I create a tentative schedule when I’m writing a book. My goal is to write 1,000 words on workdays and 3,000 words on weekends/holidays. I try to stick to that to finish my first draft in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes, I write more to cover for “skip” days or other things I can’t control.

• Exercise. This will clear your head and give you more energy than you realized.

• Do some other project you’ve been dreading. There is always a junk drawer or closet that needs cleaning.

• Work on a craft or make a recipe. These are other creative ways to get your mind working.

What works for you when you don’t feel like sitting down to write?

Spice up Your Mysteries - Just in Time for Valentine's Day

Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. I know not everyone celebrates, but I do because it extends the party from my birthday. This year, it’s on Friday the thirteenth, but that’s another story.

So, let’s talk romance. A few years back when I was the program director for our mystery writers’ group, I invited some amazing romance writers to visit and give us some tips for spicing up our mysteries. (Many thanks to Mary Burton, Tracey Livesay, Avery Flynn, and Lisa Dyson for all their great advice!) The writers’ genres variety from sweet to va-va-voom, and it was a hoot to listen to them describe how to write romantic situations.

I write cozy mysteries that are PG-13, so anything too racy happens behind closed doors. That works for cozy mysteries that are primarily based on bringing the guilty to justice and strong character relationships. But, the industry is changing with a whole lot of new subgenres that blend with other book genres like romancy, a combination of fantasy and romance.

In my first series, my character was devoted to her job, and she really didn’t have much of a social life. And I received a lot of feedback from readers that they wanted more romance to make her seem more like a regular person. (Delanie did have a fling in Secret Lives and Private Eyes, and that caused a lot of conflict for the storyline. Later in the series, she starts dating an FBI agent.)

For two of my cozy series, I’m currently writing books 7-9, and I’m toying with the idea of having a wedding. No spoilers yet.

I think romance is important to any story, and here’s why:

• A little romance livens up the story line.

• It can create conflict for the characters to move the plot forward (or attempt to derail it).

• It makes the characters more human. Emotions are a part of life.

• And romance add some fun elements for the characters and readers.

Do you like a little (or a lot of) romance in your mysteries?

What To Do While You're Waiting...

I never realized how much I would be waiting in my writing life. I am not a patient person. I like websites that respond in three seconds, check-out lines that are short, and quick responses. And I’ve learned, not everyone is on my schedule. There is a lot of waiting when you decide to write or publish a book.

If you want to be traditionally published, there are things you will have wait for. You will wait months (if not years) to hear back about queries, for edits, and for cover designs.

Here are some things you can do while waiting:

• Write your next book, especially if you are querying your first book. If you get a multiple book offer, you’ll need to have that second book ready for submission in year (or less).

• Work on your newsletter and social media followings. If you are querying an agent or publisher, they do look at your web presence. After I sold my first book, I spent a lot of the waiting time between edits building up social media followings. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it to build up a base and a small street team.

• Create or spiff up your website. Make sure it looks like you and your style of writing. Make sure that all of the buttons and links work. The colors, graphics, design, and fonts should be unified.

• Join a writing group. They are wonderful for networking, finding opportunities, and learning about your craft and genre.

• Find a critique partner or group to help you polish your manuscript.

Keeping Track of Your Book Details

I write four series, and I am often asked to provide details about the different books. I have to have a way to keep this all organized. Here’s what I do:

• I keep (and backup) a Word file for each series that includes each book’s ISBN and buy links from a variety of different booksellers.

• I have an electronic folder with the artwork for each book’s cover. I keep subfolders with copies of the marketing graphics that I use.

• For details about me, I have a Word document with a standard small, medium, and large biography. I also have a list in this document of the links to my social media sites.

• For the details of each series, I keep an Excel spreadsheet that has a column for each book. I list details for each character and what books they appear in.

• And finally, I keep a Word document for each series that lists blurbs and reviews by book. If I ever need a pull quote, I have my choice.

What helps you stay organized with your writing materials?