Digital Dose - Conference Buzz

This past week the Writer's Digest conference in New York generated a tsunami of comments and "a-ha" moments for those who attended. 


A recent post by The Write Runner's Andrew Rosenberg got the attention of Writer's Digest's Beth Friedman in her Best Tweets for Writers post.  His thoughts on the "Whoa" factor really hit home with a lot of authors. He talks about refining your pitch and wowing your intended audience. Check it out for details.


James Scott Bell, author of the Art of War for Writers, posted a great list of Opening No-No's. Some of his suggestions to chuck? Starting your cop drama with your MC cringing over his hangover...so done before.  If you've ever seen a Die Hard movie, you understand the reason.


For those of you that missed it, counselor Jeannie Campbell had an awesome post over at her blog, The Character Therapist on The Sympathetic Antagonist. So excited because the character she analyzed was my own bad guy from my current WIP.  Check her out. She's an amazing resource for writers.


That has been your Digital Dose for this Monday.  Until next time...Go Write!


***I will have a guest blogger, Social Media Marketing expert, Phyllis Zimbler Miller here on Monday, February 7th. Drop by for some important things to know about Marketing and the Writer.***

Photograph by Vancouver Film School.

Digital Dose

First lets start off with some freebies. Who doesn't love free books, right? The folks over at Family Fiction.com post titles of books available for FREE download on Amazon. 

You don't have to have a Kindle to do this. I download them to my DROID. You can get the app for your iPhone or even your PC.  If you follow them on Twitter, then you get updates...also free.  Of the fifteen newly released books on my DROID...all of them were free.

Next up is a relatively new site called Quora.com. It seems to me like Yahoo Answers on steroids. A bit better put together though. I've seen some great answers to technical questions and as the person who answers has to post their qualifications...its less likely to result in dumb answers by bored kids in study hall. Check out Media Bistro's article on how publishers and writers can use Quora to their advantage.

Janet Reid, Literary Agent, posted a warning to those looking to enter this writing contest on Twitter and her blog. The contest rules are mind boggling in their blatant grab for rights to your work. "In perpetuity and without compensation" Wow...AND its $150 bucks to enter.  Steer Clear.

Finally, I leave you with a link to Digital Book World's article on agents and the changing landscape of eBooks. Things that had never crossed my mind...apps and book trailers...reversion rights and the like.

This has been your weekly Digital Dose...Now Go Write!

Photograph by Vancouver Film School.