Quips and Tips for Successful Writers

Connecting with other writers can help you sell your writing, increase your blog readership, and make you a successful writer! These tips for building a strong writers network are from George Angus of Tumblemoose - he’s one of the most community-minded scribes I know.

Before his tips, a quip:

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” - Herman Melville.

Says George: “We are the most fortunate generation of writers there has ever been.  Instantly, we can put our writing out into the world, receive feedback and connect with other purveyors of the craft.” Connecting with other writers helps us figure out who we are as writers and connects us in an isolating land.

For more tips on being a successful writer, click on Dojo Wisdom for Writers: 100 Simple Ways to Become a More Inspired, Successful and Fearless Writer by Jennifer Lawler. And, read on for George’s tips for building a strong writers network… Continued

To be a successful writer, you need to identify and break your bad writing habits. These tips will help you achieve your writing goals - whether you want to sign on with a literary agent or write more regular blog posts!

Before the tips, a quip:

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” - Richard Bach.

If you have the bad habit of giving up on article pitches, book proposals, or novels - then you’ll never be the successful writer you dream of! These eight tips for breaking bad writing habits should help. And, if your bad habit involves writing skills, click on When Good People Write Bad Sentences: 12 Steps to Better Writing Habits by Robert Harris. Continued

Whether you’re a self-published author, traditionally published author, or a writer who wants to be published - you’ll find something useful in these tips for marketing, promoting, and selling your book! These ten tips will smooth your journey to the bestseller list.

Here’s a tip for writers trying to get published:

“We’re looking for authors who will work hand-in-hand with us and find promotional opportunities for their books,” says Pamela Krauss, editor at Clarkson Potter.

Fellow scribes, you need a writer’s platform to get published. For thousands of tips for promoting your book - whether you’re published yet or not - click on 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer - it’s a powerhouse of tried-and-true ideas. And read on for ten tips for marketing your book. Continued

My three Quips and Tips blogs are linked by blog buttons or widgets; here are nine tips for creating your own blog button or widget — plus three reasons why a widget could be important for your blog!

Before the tips, a quip about writing that totally applies to blogging:

“Write while the heat is in you,” said Henry David Thoreau. “The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.” 

When you have an idea for your blog, book, or writing career - act on it now, fellow scribes! Don’t let your iron get cold, don’t let your inspiration die. If you want to create a blog button or widget (or write your book, or pitch an article), then start now! Okay, here are nine tips for creating a blog button or widget… Continued

Whether you’re a writer preparing to do a television interview or still visualizing the day it happens, you can’t miss these seven tips for TV from freelance writer and blogger Susan Johnston! She recently appeared on ABC, discussing an article she wrote about job interviews.

Before her tips, a quip:

“To me, every interview, even if you love the artist, needs to be somewhat adversarial,” says journalist Chuck Klosterman. “Which doesn’t mean you need to attack the person, but you do need to look at it like you’re trying to get information that has not been written about before.”

Here’s television interview tip number one: be prepared to answer questions you might not expect! As writers, we know how important it is to share exciting new information — and we might be asked to cough it up unexpectedly. For more tips on radio and television interviews, click on Media Training 101: A Guide to Meeting the Press by Sally Stewart. And, read on for Johnston’s seven tips for television interviews for writers… Continued

These five tips for repurposing your old blog content will help you highlight the best of your old blog, posts while giving readers new information. Why waste the work you’ve already done and the ideas you’ve already created? These blog writing tips will help you think about your old posts differently - which could translate into thinking about your writing differently!

Before the tips, a quip:

“Blogging is best learned by blogging…and by reading other bloggers.” - George Siemens.

Same with writing! The more you write or blog, the better you’ll become. Like any muscle, good blogging and writing takes practice - and constant exposure to the blogs and writing you enjoy. For more help with blog writing, click on No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason. And, read on for my tips for repurposing old blog content… Continued

Freelance writer and blogger Susan Johnston - The Urban Muse - shares five tips for increasing your blog readership, which are proven effective!

“Making money from blogging requires you to do only two things: drive a lot of traffic, then maximize the income from that traffic,” says blogger and “dot com mogul” John Chow.

Monetizing a blog isn’t easy, but there are several proven ways to generate traffic and raise your blog’s readership, satisfying Chow’s first suggestion (what do you with that traffic to generate revenue is fodder for another post).

For dozens (maybe hundreds!) of tried and true ways to increase your blog traffic, click on ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett — or visit ProBlogger. And, read on for five tips for increasing your readership…. Continued

Successful writers have to connect with their readers ”in person” (as well as in print) if they want to create and maintain an upwards momentum. I’ve found that some wildly popular published authors - Jodi Picoult, for instance - are open to actually connecting with readers - and others are completely inaccessible. Guess which ones will be popular longer?

Learning how to connect with readers isn’t just something that published authors need to do to sell more books…it’s something all writers must do if they want to be successful. Connecting is a habit for successful writers!

“A writer should say to himself, not, ‘How can I get more money?’ but ‘How can I reach more readers (without lowering standards)?’” said Brian Aldiss.

Connecting with your readers is an effective way to spread your reach, which will translate to more book and article sales, and more money. Let’s face it, writers have to eat — and they long to be read. So, here are five ways to connect with readers for successful writers - based on my recent experience with Jennifer Weiner, Jodi Picoult, and RL. Stine. Continued

These quotations from published authors on the dreaming and writing process is a follow-up from my How Dreaming at Night Inspires Famous Writers post. Thanks for the nudge, c.a. Marks

First, a writing quip:

“There are two kinds of [successful] writers: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder.” - Brian Aldiss

You can use your dreams - both night dreams and daydreams - to make you think and wonder, and make you a better writer! The following quotations from published authors about dreaming at night are from Writers Dreaming: William Styron, Anne Rice, Stephen King, and 23 Other Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process by Naomi Epel… Continued