Contributed by Children’s Author Linda Wilson As SCBWI meetings, critique group sessions, and so much more offered by our local New Mexico chapter go, the subjects at two recent meetings couldn’t have been more helpful. This month’s post offers highlights from a meeting that presented and discussed Lisa Cron’s book, Story Genius: How to Use…
Author: Karen Cioffi
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning author and children's ghostwriter. She loves to help those who want to be the author of a children's book fulfill their dream. Contact Karen today to get your story started!
Writing and the Winds of Change
“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” This Tray Hurn quote says a lot about the character of different writers. A common denominator for all writers is that they will, at one time or another, be rejected or struggle with a story, an assignment, or some other type…
Should Your Message Rule Your Children’s Story?
I get a lot of clients who want to tell children something through a book. Like a message in a bottle, these people want to send a message in hopes of teaching the reader something … something the author thinks is important. People who want to write children’s stories usually want to teach and enlighten…
Hiring a Children’s Fiction Editor
I’m a children’s ghostwriter and rewriter (editor). I’ve seen a lot of drafts and manuscripts over the years and the one thing that really irks me is when authors hire an editor who doesn’t know what s/he’s doing. The real problem though is that this pattern never ends. I just recently had another client who…
Visuals in Your Book Marketing
If you’re an author, you’ll need to market you and your books. The first thing is you’ll need an author website and visuals should be a part of it. You’ll need visuals for your header, your pages, and each of your blog posts. You’ll also need headers / banners for your social media networks, like…
Book Synopsis, Book Description, Book Review – What’s the Difference?
The book synopsis, description, and review are three book marketing tools that your books will absolutely need. But, when do you need these marketing elements and how do you use them? Let’s look at each one in the order you would use them. The Book Synopsis You’ve written an amazing story – it’s traditional publishing ready…
Tips on Adding Flashbacks to Your Story
Contributed by children’s author Linda Wilson A flashback is a literary device that momentarily departs from a story to a scene in the past. A flashback can be as brief as a sudden thought, a dream, or a memory. Flashback can help give your story depth, and make your main character more interesting. As Diane…
Focus and Writing
When you say yes to everything, you’re saying no to focused things that matter. Things that will help you move forward and create a strong brand. In addition to this, if you spread yourself too thin, chances are none of your books or products will be quality. The idea is to do it right by…
How Do You Plan Your Children’s Story?
You have an idea for a children’s story, but aren’t sure how to get it started. What’s the first step? Is there a first step? Is there a step-by-step procedure? What’s involved? There are lots of questions that may come up for new writers, but there’s really no ‘for every writer’ answer. What will work…
5 Things You Cannot Recover
5 Things You Can’t Recover The stone … after the throw A word … after it’s said An occasion … after it’s missed Time … after it’s gone Trust … after it’s lost I love this quote and wish I knew who originally wrote it. It was originally four things, I added the fifth. While…