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Blurb writing stinks.

There, I said it. It’s hard. It makes us miserable.

And yet it’s so incredibly important to get it right.

I recently launched a new service, Blurb Writing 1:1, to help authors with this vital bit of writing.

Mustang Rabbit, YA fantasy author and one of my clients, has kindly allowed me to share the result of a session we had about the blurb of Adelaide and the Dragon Castle, a novel to be published on the 31st of March.

A little behind the scenes might just give you the pointers you need to write a good blurb yourself.

Here goes.Read More →

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Happy February!

I’ve been doing so much this past month, I couldn’t even tell you whether January felt longer or not. It might have been though, looking at everything I got out of the way!

I hadn’t planned for these two to be up and running yet, but here we are: I finished the Get Out of Your Own Way Starter Kit, which you can get for free when subscribing to my newsletter (there, on the right).

I also managed to launch a new author service: Blurb Writing 1:1. I’ve spent the last two years as a copywriter for an independent publishing house and I now feel ready to share my skills with all of you.

How about you? Did you survive January the way you intended?

How are your goals doing thus far? Are you on it or have you given up already (in which case, get back on that horse!)?

If you’re still feeling those January blues, I have a great interview lined up for you. Anna and Lucinda are the hosts of Diving into Writing, and their podcast might just be what you need to get that inspiration back.Read More →

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Failure is the mother of success, someone once said.

Yes, I’m all for giving credit where credit is due, but it looks like too many people have said it. And they’re all right. Failure is the mother of success.

There is no creative process without failure. You can’t innovate without making mistakes. It’s all trial and error, and hoping something eventually sticks.

But that’s not really how we do things these days, do we?Read More →

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Hiring an editor seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? You wrote some words, and now you need a professional to tell you what needs fixing.

You open a new tab, type in ‘Editor needed’, and hit ‘enter’. And that’s when it hits you.

  • There are an awful lot of editors out there,
  • who offer an awful lot of different things,
  • for wildly different rates.

I won’t go into the third one today, but the first two are partly related. One of the reasons there are an awful lot of editors out there is because editing is an umbrella term for different kinds and levels of editing.

That, however, is not what makes the process complicated. So, what does?Read More →

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Happy 2020, everyone! May this year bring you everything you need, including the ability to receive it.

I’ve set many goals and intentions for 2020, and one of them is to overhaul this blog. I’ve tried quite a few approaches over the past years, none of which really stuck, so new year, new way of doing things. Or organising things, rather.

The aim for 2020 is to have three posts a month: an interview with someone providing author services; a post with editing tips; and a more personal blogpost about all I’ve learned over the past month/period when it comes to writing, publishing, marketing, and so on.

We’re starting 2020 with an interview 🙂

Bethany Tucker lives in the Puget Sound Area, near Seattle in the U.S.A. Previously, she has lived and worked in China, South Korea, and Japan, as well as Ohio, California, and Chicago. She writes fantasy under two pen names and offers editing services to other creative professionals and hobbyists.

As a kid, she was the weird one reading grammar texts and studying character arcs with books written for adults. She draws inspiration from traveling, studying history, and her varied experiences among the communities she has been fortunate enough to meet. Her personal writing mantra is to leave figurative blood on the page and her readers sometimes hate or love her for what she makes them feel. If I can’t feel it, she says, then my readers won’t either.Read More →