Today, I thought I'd share some lessons I've learned about what other things I should do while I am writing the book. I have several novels out now, and every book tour, I kick myself because I'm having to go back over memories that are years old to dredge up answers to questions, or I need to reread the book in order to cull it for marketing materials. This time, with Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco, I got smart and started on these while the book is fresh in my mind. I recommend them to anyone who is in the editing stages of their novel. It takes a few hours during the process, but it will save you many more later and make for better marketing.
1. Make and keep one copy that has commentary—who helped you
with this idea? Where did you get that
fact? How did you come up with this scene?
This will help you immensely when doing your acknowledgements page and
for interviews, etc.
2. If you even suspect that you will write more with these
characters make notes on the important characters, dates, and events. Create an entire story Bible if you can.
3. When you’re in the final editing stage, copy and paste
one-liners that might make good tweets.
Put them in a document with a hashtag on each line, so go less than 140
or cut them down later. Copy some longer
ones for Facebook or other venues that take more characters.
4. Pick out three short scenes and three long scenes that will
make good excerpts. Pick a couple that
will make good read-alouds.
5. Jot down the answers to these questions because they will be
asked during tours:
* What was the best part of writing this?* What was the worst?* Did you have any issues you had to research or rewrite?* Did you learn anything new?* Did anything/any character surprise you?* Any funny stories associated with writing this book?* Any lessons learned?
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