Feb blogfests and comps I heart

Hey there writer friends!

This is just a quick post to let you know about some fun and exciting blogfests and comps I've come across and am participating, and I thought you might like to know about them too! (I've come across these from a few different sources, but one I've just discovered is Sharon's blog The Blue Word. She does a monthly post on blogfests and comps in the writing realm.)

There's the Valentines Blog Event being hosted by Brodie at Eleusinian Mysteries and Lisa from Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me. It's a month long event with all sorts of fun games and AMAZING book prizes. Seriously. Check them out.

Operation Awesome is hosting their monthly Mystery Agent contest. I don't think I'm going to enter this one because I'm not quite ready, but hey, there's always next month!

The I'm Hearing Voices blogfest, hosted by Angela at Live to Write and Cassie at Reading, Writing and Loving It, is a great character study done in three parts. A very good way to get to know your characters a little better (especially the elusive ones that don't like to talk to you) and there are also some great prizes on offer.

And of course there's the Get Fired Up blogfest, which I've already talked about here. Don't forget, if you're a new blogger in need of a little guidance, I (and all the others who have signed up for this blogfest) are always happy to help.

Have you found any awesome comps or blogfests this month? I'd love to hear about them. Will you be participating in any of these?

Blogfests and competitions

The lovely Sarah Ketley at The Precocious Scribe is hosting a blog hop competition, and she's been kind enough to put me on the list (thanks Sarah!). If you head on over, all you have to do is put your blog on the linky to be in to win an Amazon voucher, and if you follow some of the people on the list then you can win even more prizes. Go check it out!

I also came across this blogfest (via Sarah's blog hop), called the Power of Tension, which is being hosted by Rachel Morgan and Cally Jackson. You can win prizes, and you can get feedback on 300 words of tension filled scene.

And last, I just came across this query contest to get an MS critiqued by agent Rosanne Wells via Query Tracker. I think there's only 5 hours left to submit (the time zones confuse me) but if you get there fast you might get in.

Has anyone else come across any cool blogfests or competitions lately? I'd love to hear about them.

Sharing genius

I've just been catching up on my blog reading, something I haven't had much time for lately and which I have missed.

I came across this post by one of my awesome critique partners, Maggie the Genius (my new name for her).

You should go read it, but to sum it up, she had a middle of the night epiphany (something I'm sure all you writers are familiar with):

Make the awesome parts of the book awesomer, and get rid of all the parts that aren’t awesome.

I'm going to frame that and put it on my wall. Seriously.

What writing gems has your subconscious brain given you while you sleep?

My favourite things I learnt last week from the writing bloggerverse... aka weekly mashup

I have a list saved to My Favourites in my browser called the Daily Clicks. As the name suggests, every day I go through the daily clicks and see what's new. Most people would use a feed reader to do this, but I prefer to actually go to the blog or web page and see all the pretty shiny things that the creator has put there.

So I thought I'd do a post on my favourite things learnt this week in my exploration of the writing webs.


1.  Janet Reid and Writer Beware both posted on the dangers of competition clauses, and one competition in particular. Long story short, if you are considering entering any sort of writing comp, read the fine print in full. And if you see anything like this:

By submitting an entry, all entrants grant Sponsor the absolute and unconditional right and authority to copy, edit, publish, promote, broadcast, or otherwise use, in whole or in part, their entries, in perpetuity, in any manner without further permission, notice or compensation.

Run. Run away fast and far. And don't part with your hard earned dollars to enter a competition that basically means you've granted the competition holder the right to use your work in any way without notifying or compensating you. Not. Good.


2.   Shallee McArthur came up with the idea to do a What's Your Writing Process Blogfest. In her words:

...blog about ANY part of your writing process-- how you create characters, how you plot your novel, how you organize your rewrites, your whole writing process from start to finish, anything.

The blogfest is scheduled for Tuesday the 18th, which for me is now, but for most of the participants is tomorrow, so I thought I'd compromise by posting tonight.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up. Share your process so we can learn from you.

Aplogies to the guys,
couldn't help myself.



3.   The discovery of Kristen Lamb's blog. She's a writer and social media guru, and blogs about both. I only came across her blog a couple of days ago (via Twitter) and I've already discovered so much good information. My favourite so far is how to take on the Procrastination Pixie. Excellent advice. I've been practicing using the word 'No' every time my mouse wanders toward the facebook/twitter/gratuitous pictures of Ben Barnes button when writing, and so far with good results.

If you're a blogger she also has this awesome series of posts on getting started and staying in the game. More great advice and worth checking out. And yes I'm trying to take that advice. I will blog more regularly. Promise.


4.   Ok, this one's on a more serious note. I've been meaning to blog about this all week, so now's as good a time as any. Author Saundra Mitchell tackles the topic of illegal ebook downloads in her post '"Free" Books Aren't Free'. A quick quote:

I’ve told you before that I made a $15,000 advance on SHADOWED SUMMER. In two years, I’ve managed to earn back $12,000 of that.

It’s going out of print in hardcover because demand for it has dwindled to 10 or so copies a month. This means I will never get a royalty check for this book. By all appearances, nobody wants it anymore.

But those appearances are deceiving. According to one download site’s stats, people are downloading SHADOWED SUMMER at a rate of 800 copies a week. When the book first came out, it topped out at 3000+ downloads a week.

If even HALF of those people who downloaded my book that week had bought it, I would have hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

If the 800+ downloads a week of my book were only HALF converted into sales, I would earn out in one more month. But I’m never going to earn out.

I would recommend reading the whole thing. It really.. sucks (for want of a better word) reading stuff like this. I know no one reading this post would download an ebook, because we're all writers, but we can all help to educate. There are plenty of people out there who don't realise the damage they're doing by downloading an ebook, and they could be our friends or family. So let them know. I'm sure they'll be want to spend a few dollars on books in future.


5.   Not really blogging, but favourite Twitter hashtags this week: #YALitChat, #AskAgent and #AmWriting. Great places for advice, encouragement, and finding like-minded people. Twitter is an invaluable resource for writers, so if you're not there, go to it.


And that's that. My list of favourite (and not so favourite in some cases) things learned and heard this week.

What have you learnt this week? What gems have made a difference to your writing day? Or just your day in general?