How would you like a Lisa Amowitz design for your indie-published book--or a banner design for your blog or website?
I will included up to five royalty-free images and you must agree to accept the cover/web banner as I envision it for you. If you wish a more complicated design, we'll need to negotiate new terms.
OR you can choose three web graphics to promote your book instead--like these:Or you can choose one of my detailed and comprehensive five page critiques.
To give you a little taste of my style, I'm going to share my REVISION RECIPE (this segment originally appeared as part of a larger interview posted on the Istyria Book Blog by the wonderful Bieke and Rachel.
A RECIPE FOR REVISION
Writing a first draft is hard and takes a lot of time, but the
actual hard work comes after that. How do you go about revising and editing
that first draft?
Ah—I think I hinted at the hair-pulling aspect, but let me try to
break this down into something useful for aspiring authors. I’m going to write
it out like a mad-cap recipe for things you need to put on your checklist
.
Ingredients:
5 cups of
character. Know your main character. Know his/her background, idiosyncrasies,
loves, obsessions, fears. Know what they need to learn/find on their journey.
Know this FIRST before you do anything else.
1 cup of
setting. Where and when are they? Contemporary? Future? Past? Research,
research, research. Is this fleshed out? Is it pertinent to the story? Create a
sense of place and atmosphere.
A gallon
of conflict. Character + conflict =plot. Yeah—not conflict, no
story.
Take these ingredients and mix them in a bowl. Add the following
advice that comes largely from a great book I read called Hooked, by Les
Edgerton.
Stir in Make
your you have a first sentence that grabs your reader immediately, tells them
something about your character, and sets up what’s about to happen. Edgerton
calls it the “surface problem”. I call it the catalyst. It’s the event that
sets the story in motion. Your first chapter should create a situation that
tells us something about our protagonist and puts events in play. It does not
have to be the actual situation. That’s why Edgerton calls it the surface
problem. It then leads the protagonist to the “story level problem—the issue
they must solve to get to the conclusion of the book.”
Mix in action
in every chapter. Something has to happen. You cannot just describe things and
let your reader fall asleep…because they won’t fall asleep—they will throw your
book across the room or delete it from their ereaders.
Chop any
words, scenes, dialogue, description that does not move the story forward. ALL
DIALOGUE and settings must add to your narrative. Use description as part of
action.
Add a
pinch of quirky details that bring your story and characters to life but
don’t weigh down the narrative.
Cook on
high heat—keep going! Don’t stop!
Allow to
cool Always be ready to “kill your darlings.” That’s advice from Stephen
King from On Writing. That means be merciless and cut whole chapters,
sentences, even characters that bog your narrative down.
Writing Books I recommend:
Stephen
King’s; On Writing, Anne Lamotte’s; Bird by Bird, Les Edgerton; Hooked.
And most important—write the story YOU want to tell—not what you think
will sell.
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ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!
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