All writers have one primary focus—to get published. What makes each of us different is our slant or perspective on the story we’re telling, and how we tell it. It’s true that anyone can write, but writing to get published is another story. To accomplish this, there are four steps you need to include in…
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!
The Author Website: Simple and to the Point
As a former instructor of online classes that taught how to create and build an author online presence, of all the lessons, the most popular one, and the one that sparks the most questions, is how to create an effective author website. While some marketers still lean toward the effectiveness of long copy, especially for…
Book Marketing – Do Not Be Taken to the Website Design Cleaners
There is an abundance of website design and hosting services on the internet. You can get services that handle both the design and the hosting, or services that provide one or the other. Whatever your needs, there is a service out there for you. But . . . consumer beware. Two things to watch for…
Writing – Trimming The Fat
Guest Post by Penny Lockwood (Ehrenkranz) If you check market resources both for printed and online publications [picture books], you’ll find a number whose word limit is below 1,000 words. How do you trim the fat from your manuscript to fit within the tight confines of those word limits? These are words that writers use…
Writing a Book – To Publish Traditionally or Self-Publish
Whether to publish traditionally or self-publish is the question I get most from my ghosting clients. Most new to the writing arena don’t understand what’s involved with either path. This article will hopefully shed some light on the topic. TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHING With traditional publishing, you submit your EDITED and PROPERLY FORMATTED manuscript to publishing houses…
Self-Publishing: 3 Tips to Help You Avoid the ‘I Want It Now Syndrome’
(What’s a ‘Wannabe’ Author to Do?) Self-publishing is a ship everyone wants to sail on. And for good reason. This publishing avenue is quick and cheap. Yes, self-publishing is fast. There’s no more submitting to a publisher or multiple publishers and waiting for (possibly) months for a response. Will they accept your manuscript that you’ve…
Writing with Clarity
Writing with clarity is a common challenge that many writers face. There isn’t a GPS for clarity. And no matter how clearly you think you are conveying a particular sentence, paragraph, or theme, you may not be able to see that you’ve missed the clarity mark. How does this happen? Missing the clarity mark may…
Rhyme in Children’s Stories – It’s Not Always a Fit
Rhyming, when done right, is an excellent way to engage children. Children, as soon as they’re able, love to rhyme words… and this can begin as early as two years old: cat-hat, mouse-house. But to write a rhyming story… a well-written rhyming story… is difficult. You need a good story, rhyme, rhythm/beat, meter, stresses, and…
The Writing Elements Mix – Is There a Right Balance?
Writing can be thought of as a recipe, a handful of plot, a quarter cup of setting, a half cup of dialogue, and a half cup of action and forward movement. Then you also need to add just the right amount of theme, character, setting, and style. Stir it all together, bake for several months…
Be a Better Writer by Writing More
Do you write every day? Do you make sure you get some writing time in each week, if not daily? If you answered yes to these questions, you should have noticed an improvement in your writing and possibly an improvement in the speed at which you can write. But that’s not all. You will also…