Stabbing of Salman Rushdie Demonstrates the Power of Words
By: Ginger | Posted on August 19, 2022
As a child, if someone called you a name you may have responded with the sticks and stones song, in an attempt to show how you were unbothered by mere words. And yet, nothing could be further from the truth. Words have tremendous power, and as we’ve moved into a more digital age, we’re seeing more evidence of that than ever before. Words can lift us up, or bring us crashing down. When used truthfully and logically, they can change our minds for the better, but when twisted or corrupted they can make us believe in things that aren’t true. Words push us one way or another because they appeal to our emotions, which also means our experiences shape how we interpret or react to them. That was certainly the case when Salman Rushdie published his fiction book The Satanic Verses more than 30 years ago, which instantly became one… Read More >
What can Taika Waititi teach us about Storytelling?
By: Ginger | Posted on August 12, 2022
There are plenty of places to look for inspiration when it comes to writing, and it’s not always from the famous authors that we grew up with. In an informal series of articles, Ginger has been delving into writing greats such as Lee Child and Ian Fleming, breaking down the lessons he thinks we can all take from their work. This week, however, Ginger is mixing it up just a bit, by looking at moviemaker Taika Waititi. After all, writing comes in all forms, as do authors, and the more well rounded the group you learn from, the stronger your own writing arsenal will be. Thor: Love & Thunder recently hit the cinema screens, and while it hasn’t achieved the same critical success that its predecessor, Thor: Ragnarök did, the movie has nevertheless passed $600 million at the global box office and once again established director and screenwriter Taika Waititi… Read More >
The Essentials of Speechwriting
By: Matthew Hughes | Posted on August 5, 2022
Novel writing isn’t the only way to make money as an author. At the beginning of this year we discussed a few non-traditional writing paths, but today we have a guest blogger bringing you an idea we didn’t cover during that podcast discussion. Not everyone is aware that while politicians and business leaders are great at delivering speeches, they’re often just reading the words that someone else has written for them. Before he was a multiple award-winning novelist, Matthew Hughes spent decades as a freelance speechwriter, putting words into the mouths of many talented orators. Speechwriting can be a well-paying gig, but if you’re thinking about trying to break into the industry, it helps to have an understanding of the essential components that make up a good speech. And that’s exactly what Matt is here to go over with us all today. These days, I write science fiction, fantasy, and… Read More >
Should your Amazon ads use keywords or ASINs?
By: Ginger | Posted on July 29, 2022
Advertising on Amazon is the advertising foundation for many successful self-published authors, but it has a notoriously steep learning curve in order to prove successful. One common conundrum for rookie advertisers is whether to use keywords to try and find new readers, or advertise using ASIN numbers. There are different schools of thought about this approach, so Ginger is dedicating this week’s blog post towards helping you decide which option might work best for your books. What is the difference between keywords and ASINs? Every product for sale on Amazon has an ASIN, which stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It’s a 9-digit code that quickly identifies exactly which product you’re trying to specify out of the millions of things you can buy on Amazon. Self-published ebooks have their own unique ASIN, while paperback books (even the Print on Demand ones made using Amazon’s printing services) have a publishing… Read More >
Latest Tips for Advertising on Amazon
By: Ginger | Posted on July 22, 2022
Over the years, we’ve posted multiple blogs about how to get the most out of Advertising on Amazon. However, things change – and some of the the advice Ginger has given authors a couple of years ago isn’t necessarily what he’d recommend today. So here are a few of his latest thoughts on how Advertising on Amazon is working these days, and what authors can do to take advantage of the changes. A Changing Landscape Technology changes. It’s inevitable. If it wasn’t, we’d still be stuck using the same interface and operating systems we were a decade ago on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. There are multiple reasons why ecommerce and social media platforms update their layout and interface, and many of the choices the folks in Silicon Valley make don’t necessarily make a lot of sense to the likes of us. However, there’s no use complaining about these updates… Read More >
Aspiring Authors: Defend Yourself from Negativity
By: Ginger | Posted on July 15, 2022
If you’re already an author, you’ve likely been faced with someone, at some point, that didn’t believe in you. Whether it came from a place of love (trying to save you from “inevitable” failure) or malice, most of us have had a naysayer or two in our lives that told us we would never make it as a writer. But if we had listened to them, where would we be now? I know I’d still be stuck behind a desk at a day job I hated, as I was for many years before I found the courage to giving writing a serious try. To paraphrase a famous saying, the journey of a thousand books begins with the first word put down on a blank page. Sure, you may have to push past all the doubters in your life to get started on that journey, but if you keep the facts that… Read More >
A Template for Your Book Launch
By: Ginger | Posted on July 8, 2022
Most established authors have their own strategy for book launch that they swear by, but while there are probably a lot of similarities, it’s likely there are just as many differences between them as well. That’s because every author and book is different, and what works for some may fail for others. As with so many things, you have to test and try different things to find what works best for you, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to have a starting point. This week, Ginger is sharing his own template for launching a book in the hopes that it can help both authors that are starting out, or more established authors that might be looking to try something new. Even if it’s not an exact fit for your own launch, hopefully it will at least be enough to point you towards the path to success. The other day,… Read More >
Building Believable Love Between Characters
By: Ginger | Posted on July 1, 2022
Strong characters are at the foundation of any successful novel, and making sure that readers can see the emotions and feelings that your characters are experiencing about themselves, or for each other, will ensure that your story stays with them long after they finish the book. That’s why so many stories include some aspect of love between characters. With love being such a strong and universal feeling, including it is rarely a bad idea, regardless of your genre. That means even if you aren’t writing a romance, or if romantic sub-plots just aren’t your thing, you can still include other types of love between characters, such as the love between family or very close friends. Regardless of the type you include, for it to work it has to feel real, which means that – just like in life – it’s not enough to just say the words. Luckily, there are… Read More >
Speak Directly to your Readers by using Avatars
By: Ginger | Posted on June 24, 2022
Having a small group of fans willing to read early drafts of your work (or even Beta Readers) can sometimes be helpful towards making sure you’re hitting your mark, because you’re not just writing for yourself, you want to have your story appeal to a wide variety of other people as well. So what do you do if you can’t (or don’t want to) share an early version of your story with others? It may seem like a radical or strange idea at first, but Ginger is here to propose his own alternative, taken from his personal experience working with user experience designers. By imagining a small group of readers that represent the audience he wants to connect with, he uses these personalities as a sort of focus group of Avatars that help him ensure his story is connecting with the types of people that he thinks will be reading… Read More >
What can Lee Child teach us about writing?
By: Ginger | Posted on June 17, 2022
With each new book we publish, our writing improves and we become better authors. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from others, as well. By standing on the shoulders of giants, we might even be able to speed up that process, not to mention learn a new trick or two. And when it comes to thriller writing, Lee Child towers above all the rest, which means he might be the best person to teach us a few things. That’s why this week, Ginger is digging in to what makes Lee Child so successful and breaking it down for us in a way that makes it easy for us to use in improving our own writing. Amazon Prime has a hit on their hands. The first season of their streaming series Reacher, based on the character and books by Lee Child, became the first Amazon production to ever win the… Read More >
