Blog | Page 2 of 19 | Jane Friedman

Upcoming Events and Classes with Jane

This spring, I’ll be on the road speaking at a wide range of events on the East Coast (and one in Europe).

The Myth of the Natural Writer

There’s a legendary joke about the writing life, often attributed to Margaret Atwood. It goes like this: A brain surgeon and a writer meet at a party.

5 Ways to Market Your Audiobook Without Ads

Just like print editions, audiobooks have established outlets for marketing and promotion. Attorney and audiobook editor, director, and distributor Jessica Kaye tells writers and publishers how to make their audiobooks as highly visible and widely available as possible–without the use of advertising.

When You’re Just Not Ready for Rejection

Rejection is painful, and there’s no avoiding it as a writer. But you don’t have to submit before you’re ready to deal with it. Writer and blogger Shana Scott offers some perspective on the conventional “publish or perish” advice.

8 Mundane Elements You Should Cut From Your Story

Realism has its role, but don’t let it bog down your novel. The right balance of brevity, helpful details, and smooth flow preserves the story’s dramatic tension and keeps the pages turning. In this guest post, bestselling author Jordan Rosenfeld outlines the pitfalls that can bore your reader, and how to avoid them.

Simplify Your Submissions to Literary Journals

The commonly accepted strategy in literary journal submissions—”study the publications you submit to”—can discourage emerging writers. Here’s an alternative.

Writing for Audio: Understanding Attunement

Successful writing for audio formats requires awareness of how a listener’s needs differ from a reader’s. In this guest post, playwright and fiction writer Jules Horne describes and illustrates key ways a writer can achieve listener attunement to the story.

Beta Readers: Who, When, Why, and So What?

Use of beta readers is widespread, but surprisingly little has been written about how writers actually use them and how they help—or if they do.

Schmoozing for Introverts: How to Network Like a Pro

Learn a few simple tricks to schmooze like a pro at your next writing conference—or at least operate like a less awkward version of yourself.

Changes to Amazon Advertising: What Authors Need to Know

Amazon has updated its advertising tools for authors, with mixed results. Kindlepreneur’s Dave Chesson breaks down the pros and cons of the new advertising modes, improved dashboard, and better ad targeting in Amazon Ads.

When Words Are What You Love Most of All

The writers who visit you in class, when you’re still a student—especially if you’re young and impressionable—these writers stick with you for a lifetime.

When Your Query Reveals a Story-Level Problem

When novelists struggle to pitch their work, it may have more to do with the book itself than the query letter. Editor and book coach Susan DeFreitas discusses three reasons why a promising work never lands a traditional deal.

A Primer on Estate Planning as a Writer

Whether you start writing as a child or in your golden years, it’s never too early to learn about estate planning. You may wonder which is best, a will or trust, for bequeathing your written work. Both have their advantages. Here’s what you need to know.

3 Types of Contracts Every Writer Should Understand

Publishing relies on contractual relationships, but not all contracts are equally enforceable. Here’s what you need to know about forms of legal contracts.

The Myth of Plan First and Write Later

You don’t have to choose between planning and “simply writing.” Do both, at different times, all the way through the novel writing process.

How to Grow an Email Newsletter Starting from Zero

Here is a step-by-step guide to building an email list of thousands within one year—primarily through giveaways and Facebook ads.

Voice Is How You Dance on the Page

Voice: It’s either there in the writing or it’s not. And some writers haven’t developed or “found” their voice yet.

Don’t Focus on Marketing Tactics at the Expense of Strategy

One of the hardest things to do—for any individual, organization, or business—is to define a vision and strategy. It involves diving deep into one’s strengths and weaknesses, and understanding the market opportunities and threats. Talking strategy usually means dealing with uncomfortable realities, as well as risking disagreement with others.

The Inner Struggle: How to Show a Character’s Repressed Emotions

If a character is repressing an emotion, real-world behaviors can show it. Readers will catch on because they’ll recognize their own attempts to hide their feelings.

Building a Platform for Your Work When You’re Unpublished

When I finished my biography, I studied how to get it published. Websites advised: platform, platform, platform. But I had no relevant background. Now what?

What Is Public Domain? (And Why 2019 Is a Big Year)

Today’s guest post is by intellectual property lawyer and novelist Brad Frazer (@bfrazjd). The “public domain” is not a place. It is a term used to describe works of authorship (books, movies, poetry, artwork) that either due to their age or their legal status under U.S. copyright law, the ability of the putative copyright owner […]

The Tricky Issue of POV in Memoir

While it’s possible to write memoir from your own authorial POV (because you know more today than you did then), the most engaging memoirs are ones in which the author sticks to their POV at the moment of events.

Balancing Your Submission Budget for Literary Journals

Although the world of submissions can be complex and expensive, balancing your submission budget doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you minimize expenditures and maximize profit.

Feeling Envious of Other Writers? Here’s a Solution.

Writer Anthony Doerr once told me something his father told him, and I’ll paraphrase it poorly here: You’re going to get your neck sunburned looking up all the time.

Questions to Consider When Plotting a Scene

Before writing a scene, determine what type of scene it’s going to be. Will it be a narrative scene? High-action scene? Low-energy dialogue scene?

Your No. 1 Secret Weapon: Writing Communities

Building a supportive network takes time and courage. It’s worth starting to cultivate community early on, even if your instinct or preference is to work alone.

Story Planning Books: 3 Approaches to Consider

Plot and structure books aren’t necessarily calling for adherence to a formula—in fact, they warn against it. Here are 3 story planning methods to consider.

Lit Mag Resources You Can’t Do Without

Today’s guest post is by Jenn Scheck-Kahn, founder of Journal of the Month. Literary magazines, also called literary journals or lit mags, are devoted to short-form creative writing. What distinguishes them is what they publish (a single genre or a mix of genres), how often they publish (annually, biannually, quarterly, monthly), and their medium of […]

Using BookBub Ads to Support Your Book Marketing

Many authors use Facebook and Amazon to advertise their books. If you’ve tried these platforms without success or hesitate to spend the money, consider experimenting with BookBub ads.

How to Define and Describe Your Readership: A Confusing Issue for Nonfiction Book Proposals

If you’re pitching a nonfiction book, at some point, an editor or agent will expect you to describe the readership that your book is intended for.

Feeling Stuck? Focus on a Single Sentence

Focusing on the smallest thing you can accomplish: this is the magic trick to making progress or getting unstuck.

Switching Literary Agents: Two Agents Offer Advice

If you’re a writer, how do you know if it’s worth the risk of leaving your current agent? Does past representation impede your ability to find a new agent?

Take Charge of Your Creative Life: The SWOT Analysis

When you understand your SWOT as an author, you can take control over your time. You can stop fighting fires, and start focusing on the things that will truly help you in the long run.

How to Describe Neurodivergent Characters

How do you describe a character with Asperger’s—especially if your story takes place before such a thing had a name?

How to Use Swag to Support Your Book Marketing

Meaningful swag offers the reader something connected to the book and something that’s memorable—but you need something that doesn’t break the budget.

Something to Remember as NaNoWriMo Begins

The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating – in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic,

Marketing Advice Roundup: Best of the Last Year

I regularly read and report on marketing trends that affect traditionally published and self-published writers. Today I’m sharing the most useful articles I’ve found and shared thus far in 2018.

How to Research Your Writing to Ensure Technical Accuracy

Misconceptions pervade popular science fiction. Many, if not most, could have been avoided if the writers spent some time doing research.

How to Understand Your Reader’s Level of Awareness to Grow Your Fanbase

Readers start their journey to find new books in a broad sense, but eventually gain experience and understand more about what they are looking for. By understanding the awareness level of a reader, we can better position our books and gain long-term fans.

5 Tips for Selling Your Books at Events—on a Budget

It can be challenging to make back the cost of your books and the price of a table when exhibiting at a book festival. So, finding cheap but cool things to use at book events is essential.

Don’t Be Too Smart or Clever in Your Book Descriptions

Publishers and authors can use sophisticated language to describe books—to sound unique, clever and smart. But readers describe books in more direct ways.

Writing Immigrant Characters: Avoiding Exoticism

When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are valued in society.

Overcoming Creativity Wounds

There’s no one recipe to overcome a creativity wound, but putting a pen between your fingers and then resting it on a piece of paper is a pretty good start to finding one.

3 Principles for Finding Time to Write

How do you navigate the writing life when you have an intense day job? Does such a thing as work-life balance exist?

6 Questions to Help Nonfiction Writers Find Their Niche

No matter how many books have been written about a topic, there is probably some important facet that has not yet been covered thoroughly or well. A key driver behind success is understanding how you fit into the existing landscape, what distinguishes your work, and why it is likely to appeal to a particular audience.

10 Ways to Build Traffic to Your Author Website or Blog

This post was first published in 2012 and is regularly updated. First things first: an author’s website, whether it gets much traffic or not, is foundational to your career. It offers readers as well as the media the official word on who you are and the work you produce. If you blog, then it can […]