I so appreciate this post. This summer has been nothing but distractions. Our dog died and the hubby wanted a new puppy. Guess who has him while hubby is working? Now the puppy is at puppy school and the painters are here. Total disruption. The house is in boxes and is being shoved from room to room. Music blares. Fumes threaten to take me to bad places and it's over 100 outside. When the painters finish, the puppy will come home. And on and on it goes. And this is empty nest!
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. I find distractions to be such a challenge in the summer--almost as if the whole season is spent shifting modes. There's something magic about routines changing, and something disruptive, too. I'm going to aim for an hour on the page, an hour reading, and then keep a notebook with me for those little moments when I have a thought. Good luck with the puppy!
I love how gentle your writing is - it may be something to do with the layout of your newsletter, but that is the word that comes to mind today.
I also love the amount of white space you put in. Makes it so much easier to read. Thank you.
Re the titles - On Writing for Children and Young Adults - or - On Writing for Young Readers - is this book about writing for a specific age range? If I had to choose, I would choose the second title but I'm not sold on it.
Or are you writing for all readers who are interested? Some mature readers prefer to read books classified as YA or even younger. And some readers bounce all over the place (me).
Maybe you could say, On writing for readers who are looking for the magic that can be found in books for younger readers.... or something like that!
Whatever title you eventually choose, I am sure it will sing to you like a pure, accurate tuning fork!
Your thoughts on the subtitle are really helpful. The book is actually a 'How-to-write' book so maybe 'On writing for...' is the part that isn't working. "How to write for young readers, maybe. I'll have to talk to U of R press as I just submitted the draft. Thank you so much for your feedback. And I love the word gentle. I'll hold onto that today xox
When you have published that book, then write a book on what to do when the MS is finished! I have found that compared to what I am facing now, that was the easy bit.
My MS is done, and now I am having to push through the unknown forest of options! Whether to print, epublish only or what! What to write in the author blurb.thank you. Etc.
Luckily I am having coffee with a local author next week who has published in all formats so she is going to share with me, what she decided and why. I live in New Zealand and it is such a small market.
I suggest that a book called, for e.g. 'What happens now I've written my story?' Or
https://arthurslade.substack.com/ He writes all sorts of books and shares so much about the world of getting books into the hands of readers (and he's a really great guy!)
It's so difficult to navigate the path of how to get a book into the world. And there are so many elements. In Saskatoon (which is far away), we have the fantastic Arthur Slade who gives a lot of advice on publishing: traditional vs hybrid vs self etc. He's really knowledgable about this. I'll see if I can put a link to his substack here for you (that might take some figuring)
I so appreciate this post. This summer has been nothing but distractions. Our dog died and the hubby wanted a new puppy. Guess who has him while hubby is working? Now the puppy is at puppy school and the painters are here. Total disruption. The house is in boxes and is being shoved from room to room. Music blares. Fumes threaten to take me to bad places and it's over 100 outside. When the painters finish, the puppy will come home. And on and on it goes. And this is empty nest!
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. I find distractions to be such a challenge in the summer--almost as if the whole season is spent shifting modes. There's something magic about routines changing, and something disruptive, too. I'm going to aim for an hour on the page, an hour reading, and then keep a notebook with me for those little moments when I have a thought. Good luck with the puppy!
I love how gentle your writing is - it may be something to do with the layout of your newsletter, but that is the word that comes to mind today.
I also love the amount of white space you put in. Makes it so much easier to read. Thank you.
Re the titles - On Writing for Children and Young Adults - or - On Writing for Young Readers - is this book about writing for a specific age range? If I had to choose, I would choose the second title but I'm not sold on it.
Or are you writing for all readers who are interested? Some mature readers prefer to read books classified as YA or even younger. And some readers bounce all over the place (me).
Maybe you could say, On writing for readers who are looking for the magic that can be found in books for younger readers.... or something like that!
Whatever title you eventually choose, I am sure it will sing to you like a pure, accurate tuning fork!
:-)
Hi Justine,
Your thoughts on the subtitle are really helpful. The book is actually a 'How-to-write' book so maybe 'On writing for...' is the part that isn't working. "How to write for young readers, maybe. I'll have to talk to U of R press as I just submitted the draft. Thank you so much for your feedback. And I love the word gentle. I'll hold onto that today xox
When you have published that book, then write a book on what to do when the MS is finished! I have found that compared to what I am facing now, that was the easy bit.
My MS is done, and now I am having to push through the unknown forest of options! Whether to print, epublish only or what! What to write in the author blurb.thank you. Etc.
Luckily I am having coffee with a local author next week who has published in all formats so she is going to share with me, what she decided and why. I live in New Zealand and it is such a small market.
I suggest that a book called, for e.g. 'What happens now I've written my story?' Or
'Now what?' would go well with the book above.
:-)
https://arthurslade.substack.com/ He writes all sorts of books and shares so much about the world of getting books into the hands of readers (and he's a really great guy!)
It's so difficult to navigate the path of how to get a book into the world. And there are so many elements. In Saskatoon (which is far away), we have the fantastic Arthur Slade who gives a lot of advice on publishing: traditional vs hybrid vs self etc. He's really knowledgable about this. I'll see if I can put a link to his substack here for you (that might take some figuring)