Wow! Two years have passed.

Yes, it was two years ago this April, I finished the final touches on my first pre-school picture book.

Writing and publishing a picture book was a big learning curve.

Took me a year to finish this tiny 32-page book. Whew!

Maybe you have an idea for a children’s book, but like so many, you’ve put off starting because a picture book is a bit different from writing an adult story.

Let me speed you along toward your goal.

I’ve put together a list of 8 things I learned the hard way about writing a picture book.

1. Buy a good PDF program. Yes, some people use MS Word but, trust me, it’s not worth the headaches. I finally settled on  Nitro Pro 10 Page Plus. It’s cheaper than Adobe and easy to use.
2. Writers write and editors edit. Use an editor that understands children’s…

Not exactly luminescent. More like the exact opposite.  

If you are on your dashboard and you go to Reader (I don’t know what dashboard you are using because they keep “fixing it” and this latest fix has REALLY fixed it but good). Open Reader, go down to “Search” and type in your name. See what you get. If you are lucky, you will see most or all of your posts including recent posts.

If you are me, you will find nothing — not the name of your site or your name or any post from your site at all. Almost everyone else can find at least their older posts. In my case, I effectively do not exist in the WordPress search engine.

Why is this such a big deal? Because the search engine — otherwise known as “the database” — is how WordPress hangs together. It’s the core information about…

by Meg Dowell

Sometimes, writing less leads to deeper, more creative thinking.

Have you ever wondered how some writers manage to write thousands of words every day — while you can barely squeeze out 500 words after an hour of trying (and failing) to focus? How do so many successful writers publish so much — even though one success could carry their careers for years?

These are the habits of writers who cannot stop, who refuse to stop, who somehow  do this writing thing and don’t suffer creative burnout in the process.

I came across this great article on Writer’s Digest, entitled Alpha-Blog Soup, by Gabriela Pereira, published this month and can be found Writer’s Digest on:  https://www.writersdigestshop.com/writer-s-digest-magazine-may-june-2-wd0618

I was was totally engaged with the content. It appears there are levels to conquer before I can reach B for Brand! Great article, I thought. “But, I don’t have a brand!” I said aloud. I am a mix-match of a bit of everything,

Starting with A for Audience. Audience? I was hoping for everyone. It turns out my posts are meaningless without a Brand? So, 4 years of meaningless?  Well, I am not one to give up on having a Brand!

Now, taking my lessons from the author, I must find out the following:

1. What themes come across in my novels?
2. What emotions do my stories evoke?
3. Why would readers want to read my novels in the first place?

I am…

Welcome to:

Morgan’s Query Corner:

Answering Your Query Quandaries

GLASS is a YA fantasy. This Cinderella retelling begins after the ball. The glass-maker’s niece and a reformed playboy prince plot to end their engagement is paused when a plague starts sweeping the nation.

A while back, I revised my novel and noticed something that should have leaped off the page during past reviews, but didn’t. I was having a love affair with ‘ing’. These ‘ing’ words were all over the place.

I stopped the revision process and did some research on ‘ing’. I remembered reading somewhere, that the overuse of ‘ing’ words was not a good thing.

Opportunities to overuse the ‘ing’ word are boundless. There are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and even verbs masquerading as nouns called gerunds, all ending in ‘ing’.

So what’s the big deal? What’s wrong with ‘ing’ words?

The overuse of ‘ing’ words mark you as an amateur – Don’t be alarmed if you see more than a handful on one page. Do take a closer look if you see more than a handful in a single paragraph.

While wrapping a soothing sling around the fledgling’s broken wing, Diana was humming, dreaming of her prince…

Mostly Blogging site:

Embarrassed.

I recently was at the receiving end of a question that embarrassed me.

“Janice, have you ever considered making your images more Pinterest friendly?”

Ouch!

Guest author Alice Jackson explains how to spruce up your graphics for Pinterest, Instagram, linky parties, reader engagement, and empowerment of visual learners.

You know the other reason you need a dynamite graphic to accompany your blog post: 64% of your readers are visual learners.

That means most of your readers will learn your information from your image.

Here’s how to make both images and infographics so you can be a better blogger by empowering your readers.

Find out more HERE

Published on A Marketing Expert showing you all you need to know to maximize your book sales.  They have some great articles. Please check them out when you can.

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/amazon-categories-to-maximize-book-sales-a-little-known-secret/