Author Life

Writing dialogue comes naturally to some writers, but for others it can be a struggle to create dialogue that sounds realistic and unique to each character.

This episode of the Write. Publish. Repeat. Podcast explains why dialogue is so important and offers tips on writing strong dialogue that is unique to your character and helps move the story forward. We'll be discussing pitfalls of dialogue, "real" vs. "real sounding" dialogue, the sound of dialogue, character specific dialogue, structuring dialogue for the best impact, and technical aspects of writing dialogue.

Tips on how to create an interesting backstory for a character, how to integrate it into the story, how much backstory to reveal, and how to pace the reveal.

This episode will cover, how to get started building your character profiles, the difference between stereotypes and archetypes and how and when to use them, stages of building a character arc, how to develop and use a backstory without info dumping, how to develop faults in your characters that make them believable and relatable, using the right kind of failure, and giving your character something to love so they have something to lose.

This is the first episode in a character development series, so stop back by soon for more discussion on creating character that stand out and draw readers in, as well as a few guest authors giving their own advice.

After our two part discussion of marketing, here's your chance to see what's working for current authors. Guest podcaster and author, Melissa Eskue Ousley, is joining me on the podcast to talk about how to collaborate with other authors, as well as what other marketing avenues have been working for her.

Melissa is the author of The Solar Beir Trilogy and is currently posting her new project Sunset Empire on Wattpad.

Connect with Melissa online at:

http://melissaeskueousley.com/

https://www.wattpad.com/story/46069117-sunset-empire

https://twitter.com/MEskueOusley

https://www.facebook.com/MelissaEskueOusley

Continuing the discussion of how to create a book marketing plan that fits with your time, budget, and life, this episode will cover a variety of topics to help you begin building your marketing plan.

Topics covered in Part 2:

--Author collabortion

--Marketing Timeline

--Long term marketing

--Paid and free advertising

--Genre specific marketing techniques

--Book bloggers and tour companies

Resources mentioned in the show:

Marketing as an author can be overwhelming without knowing where to start and how to build a plan that fits with your budget and available time and effort. In this two part episode we'll discuss where to start with marketing, how to make realistic goals, and specific marketing methods that can help get your book in front of readers.

Topics covered in Part 1:

-Where to start: time, money, effort

-Audience, goals, marketing avenues

-Preparatory Marketing: networking with bloggers, social mdia, branding

-Pre-Release/Launch Marketing: blog tours, book trailers, reviews, pre-orders

-Launch Marketing: email blast, release party (Facebook/Twitter), contacting media, incentives

-Post Lunch Marketing: Reviews, consistency

Following up the discussion on writing a great query letter is one author's personal experience with the query writing and submission process and how social media led to her best rejecion yet!

SeriouslyGina is the author of "For The Love" which she is querying out right now. Gina talks about the recently popular Twitter pitch events and games and how that led to her getting in conctact with several literary agents...which changed the way she approaches sending out query letters.

Get a peak at Gina's experience on her blog: http://seriouslygina.com/2015/08/10/how-twitter-led-to-my-best-rejection-letter-to-date/

You can also find Gina on Facebook and Twitter at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Seriously-Gina/129454477147580

https://twitter.com/seriouslygina

Ready to write your query letter? Not even sure what a query letter is? This episode with go through the basic parts of a query letter along with tips and tricks for writing a query that will intrigue agents and publishers.