Faith Kindred

@dragon-snapper Wow. Well, sounds promising.

@draggon-snapper What are the six?

@northerner Ah, yes. Well, here’s some ideas.
1. You can point out some highly successful self-published book. I’m thinking of The Martian, but there are others. Just do a google search.
2. Point out how traditional publishing has changed. They now expect you to essentially sell most of your books for them.
3. Point out how self-publishing has…[Read more]

@dragon-snapper Yeah, I really don’t think traditional publishing is the option for most people, though, like Josiah said, there are some benefits. These benefits aren’t really worth it though in most cases. I mean, you can get your own book in bookstores, advances aren’t normally very big anyways, and not many people care whether a book is…[Read more]

To get a good publisher, generally you need to first get a good literary agent, which means learning how to write a great query letter, along with a great book. Generally-speaking, if you’re a skilled writer, publishers and literary agents will want to publish/represent you, but there is an element of luck to it. If you’re looking for good blogs…[Read more]

@Ethryndal oh boy, I hadn’t even thought of that angle. 😛 Thanks a lot. XD The LotR films had their share of problems and didn’t come anywhere close to the books, but I still loved them, and I’m still trying to figure out how the same man directed the Hobbit films. Maybe we should start a rant thread just for that. 😛

@Daeus ah, okay. Got it. *tries to remember where she got her information**fails*

My pleasure, @Dragon-Snapper! Glad it was helpful. 🙂

I don’t think anyone on here has traditionally published, so I may as well go ahead and say something. First off, you don’t need a literary agent, but from what I understand it is normally very helpful to have one. Also, it is generally accepted that you won’t be able to get with any sort of large publisher until you have already done well with at…[Read more]

Ok, here’s what Wikipedia says.

An alpha reader or beta reader, also pre-reader or critiquer, is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such as grammar and spelling, as well as suggestions to improve the story, its characters, or its setting.…[Read more]

I have not traditionally published yet, though I want to at some point. So I really don’t have experience with how hard it is, though I don’t think it is particularly easy. I do know one thing they look at now is an author’s platform. Even traditionally published authors are expected to market most of their own work, so the better platform you…[Read more]

@Charisetter what they said, but YOU’VE READ EAGLE OF THE NINTH!??? *high fives you* Nobody’s read that! Congratulations on your impeccable taste! 😀 Have you read the other two?

Also one tip for your original question— since this is fantasy, your worldbuilding and cultural development will go a long way to making your story unique. Not as…[Read more]

@Aysia-Serene @Daeus I could be wrong, but I think a beta-reader is more specifically a READER, not a writer— not to give you feedback as a writer or editor would, but as a reader would. Which means technically, everyone on KP who exchanges reads for each other, is a critique partner, not a beta-reader. Beta-readers are specifically to sound out…[Read more]

@aysia-serene It’s someone who reads your story after it is written and give you critique on it. Basically, they’re editors, only normally not professional and you normally have them in addition to an editor.

@charisetter I wouldn’t worry too much about being cliche. The most important thing is that your character’s journey is very real and intense. It’s ok to copy genres, you just want to display something powerful. Now, that said, you shouldn’t copy people too much. It’s good to use unusual plot twists and other story elements.

@hannah-krynicki
So I had a post typed out to respond to you earlier, and somehow my computer lost it. And then I forgot to respond. My apologies. 🙂
Anyway, here are some of your questions answered:

-If you want to meet with someone to have a good chat, do you go to a coffee shop or some other place?

I’m sure there are coffee shops in England,…[Read more]

@audrey-caylin Great thoughts! I absolutely agree–bad experiences are absolutely motivational in forcing us to change. It reminds me a lot of what Peter says in his first epistle about how God uses suffering to refine us.

And that’s a great example of a “real life character arc” so to speak. Honestly, I’ve found that understanding experiments in…[Read more]

@kate-flournoy That looks great! I could see the transitory Experiments being either full-fledged Experiments, or just part of the middle Venn diagram section of the two opposing Experiments in Living. Kind of depends on how marked his change is. But yeah, that looks like a great way of handling the disillusionment arc.

@audrey-caylin Oh,…[Read more]

@aella Haha! We’ve certainly had pretty much everything thrown out there at this point so that’s definitely fine! Is there any answer in particular that rings particularly true for you?

Great question @dragon-snapper! Looks like you’ve already got a bounty of information on this, but I’ll just throw in there that if you want to read more about this topic, my best recommendation would be to read up on what K.M. Weiland has written about the topic. You can read her original 21-part series here, or read her expanded book on it here.