I’m pleased to announced the launch of Novelocity.net. This new site highlights easy-to-use Internet promotion strategies for writers. Learn how to boost your name recognition, find readers and sell more books using the popularity and inexpensive nature of the Internet.

The traditional publishing world is struggling with the increasing popularity of electronic books. Their profit margins are shrinking. That means less money for the promotion of mid-list and first-time author books. Without promotion, book sales will be dismal and the writer’s career as an author, short-lived.

To survive and thrive as a writer these days, you need to do your own promotion to get your books noticed and increase sales.

Enter the Internet – the world-wide information net that is now the go-to location when you want to find out anything.

Like what book you should read next.

Writers can take advantage of the Internet’s far reach:

• to locate readers that may never walk into a bookstore
• to find readers for great books that maybe didn’t get a huge publicity campaign from the publisher
• to find fans who will buy, love and rave about their books to other readers

And using the Internet for promotion is super inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising. That’s good news for writers who don’t have a lot of money to spend on promotion.

At Novelocity you’ll:

• get tips on using your website effectively to impress editors and readers
• learn how to use social media to find and build relationships with readers
• discover the secrets of successful strategies that other authors have used to increase their readership and sell a lot more books
• learn how to put together a marketing plan that fits you and your book

There are 1,733,993,741 people on the Internet (as of September 2009 – probably lots more now).

That’s a lot of potential readers.

Let’s go find them.

I’m getting this list out early as some classes close registration before the end of the preceding month. Another great list of classes available at low-cost prices. Sign up early if you’re interested.

Action Sequences: Writing Heart-Pounding Fight Scenes, Chases and Climaxes with Angela Knight – Learn how to create heroes and villains who are a good match for each other, how to choreograph fight scenes, and how to build a plotline that rises to a climax that makes readers eager for your next book. $15/CRW and HCRW members, $25/non-members

Scene CPR: Breathing Life into an Ailing Scene with Laurin Wittig – Discover a simple but powerful way to turn your ailing scene into a robust part of your story along with the power of the four stage sequel and how to combine it with your scenes to create a story that keeps your readers turning the pages long into the night. $10/CRW and HCRW members, $15/non-members

Goal Hunters: Revealing The Real Story Stakes And Motives with Raquel Rodriguez – Hook your reader by creating page-turning conflicts based in realism with a believable GMC, viable stakes, and a firm plot foundation. $15/Savvy Author members, $25/non-members

Foreshadowing with June Diehl – Explore the purpose of this technique and how to effectively use it in fiction. Free/Savvy Author members, $5/non-members

How, When and Why to Change Point Of View Mid-Scene with Laurie Saunders – Explore the many situations when changing viewpoint mid-scene is exactly what you need to do. Free/Savvy Author members, $5/non-members

Before Copy Editing with Claudia Suzanne – Discover how to Chart & restructure nonfiction, Map & characterize plots, Convert passive voice & static phrasing to active prose, Convert tell into show. Free/Savvy Author members, Free/non-members

How To Promote When You Don’t Know How with Jamieson Wolf – Learn how to promote your novel using new media to get yourself known and to establish a brand! Free/Savvy Author members, Free/non-members

Editing & Book Design: After the Writing Is Done with Jill Ronsley – Get answers to your questions about what happens after your manuscript is done. Free/Savvy Author members, $5/non-members

Crash Revisions with Holly Lisle – Learn how to do an editor’s revision in seven days. And how YOU become the pro who doesn’t blow deadlines. Free/Savvy Author members, $5/non-members

Promoting with Social Media with Theresa Meyers – Learn the ins and outs of how sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook work, how to maximize your followers and use social media as a relationship building method to create your own platform and national audience. Free/Savvy Author members, $5/non-members

The Power Of the Senses; Enhancing Author’s Voice, Characterization, and Conflict with Bill Haggart – Learn which senses you favor in experiencing the world and how that shapes your voice, characters, and conflicts. $9/Elements members, $15/non-members

Critiquing with Camy Tang – Learn common things to look for in your own manuscript, and learn tricks for critiquing others, as well. $10/FF&P members, $20/non-members

The Synopsis Queen Tells All with Kara Lennox – Uncover how to break down the synopsis-writing process into a foolproof formula that will have maximum impact for minimum words. $10/FF&P members, $20/non-members

The Ins and Outs of ePublishing with Dara Edmondson – Discover what to write, how to submit, the inevitable pitfalls to avoid and the resources available. $10/FF&P members, $20/non-members

What a Wicked Web We Weave: A Spider’s Approach to Subplots in Storytelling with Theresa Meyers – Learn how to write big by adding multiple layers to your stories. $10/FF&P members, $20/non-members

Get Grammar with Kat Duncan – Learn simple sentence patterns and how to blend different grammar constructions to make action, emotion and tension come through. $10/FF&P members, $20/non-members

Is that Hollywood Calling? with Cindy Carroll – Learn the differences between writing books and writing scripts. And how writing a screenplay can help improve your novel writing. $16

Beyond Fangs: Creating New and Interesting Paranormal Characters with Deborah Blake – Explore the alternatives to over-used supernatural stereotypes and help you to create your own unique paranormal character. $16

Prose And Contests: Everything You Wanted To Know About Writing Contests But Were Afraid To Ask with Amy Atwell – Get an overview of the contest process, sources for researching contests, help in identifying your motive for entering a contest and tips on preparing your contest entry. $16

12 Stages of the Writer’s Adventure: You are the Hero of Your Book Writing Adventure with Beth Barany – Learn tips and tools for keeping an eye on your inner landscape so you can achieve your goal of writing a book. $16

Pitch Perfect with Kerri Nelson – Learn the secrets to nailing your pitch, how to score a home run with editors, and how not to stop short of getting the results you want. $20/RWA members, $25/non-members

May The Force Be With You (Adding Realistic Law Enforcement & Legal System Elements Into Your Novel) with Kerri Nelson – Learn “cop talk”, criminal evidence procedures, anatomy of a lawsuit, and more! $15/Yellow Rose members, $25/non-members

The Regency Woman with Nancy Mayer – Learn the roles, expectations, rights, and power of a Regency woman, including common myths and mistakes writers make in their stories. $20/OCC members, $30/non-members

Down, Dirty and Quick Plotting Bootcamp with Raquel Rodriguez – Discover this bare bones, no-frills plotting nitty-gritty approach to getting the story outline done takes a different look at how to accomplish the exact same objectives as other plotting courses without the extra details. Free/FTHRW members, $20/non-members

Mastering Point of View with Diane O’Connell – Learn how understanding and mastering point of view can fix an ailing manuscript and turn a decent but lackluster novel into a page-turner. $15/NEORWA members, $20/non-members

Paranormal Forensics with Katherine Ramsland – Explore the factual background of several crimes and their investigations, as well as the reports of paranormal events involved. $15/KOD members, $30/non-members

The 4 C’s: Building Characters and Plot with Sue Viders and Becky Martinez – Discover how the Four C’s help to define a character’s role in a book, even as it assists the writer in beginning to construct a fast-paced plot. $15/KOD members, $30/non-members

No Matter How Busy You Are, You Can Find TIME TO WRITE! with Kelly L. Stone – Discuss finding time to write, seven professional writing schedules, develop your writing action plan and learn how to deal with distractions and resistance to writing. $20/MWV members, $25/non-members

Once More with Feeling: Getting Your Book on Keeper Shelves with Cheryl St. John – Learn how to convey emotion in your stories that will connect so vividly with readers that your books will become favorites. $25

In my newsletter, I do a lot of case studies on writers. I like to study the writing process of other writers. Even though we’re all unique and we have our own unique process for writing, there is sometimes overlap.

For example, I prefer to outline my plot before I write. So do a lot of other writers.

But we don’t outline exactly the same and that’s the fun part. What technique or tip can I pick up from another writer that makes my plotting better? I’m always looking for what I can steal and incorporate into my own process.

Here are some interesting variations on plotting.

Robert Crais

Robert starts a book with approximately three months of outlining and general notes. He uses the time to develop the characters and then the story line. “The story requires the most work. I have to live with the story for months. I’m not one of those writers who can just begin typing on paper. I couldn’t keep all the clues straight if I didn’t plan it all out.”

Janet Evanovich

Janet generally creates a brief outline before beginning a new book, with one or two sentences about what will happen in each chapter.

She also uses storyboarding to map out the action in her stories. “I have a huge white dry-erase board that hangs on the wall in my office. I’ve already decided who the villain is going to be; I’ve decided what the crime is, and how the book is going to end. So now I map out in a couple of sentences what the physical action is going to be– that is, the action that is going to promote the crime line of the book. Every now and then, I’ll add what is going to happen in Stephanie’s romantic relationship and sketch in the secondary plot information as well.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois makes a broad section outline, what she calls “the event horizon”, which is how far she can see to write until she has to stop and make up some more. This is usually between one and three chapters. She gets mental pictures of what scenes should go in the next chapter and she pushes them around until they slot into sequence. She then pulls out the next scene and outlines it closely, as a kind of messy first draft. She choreographs dialogue especially carefully.

She takes her notes to the computer and types up the actual scene. She continues this process until she gets to the end of the chapter and her brain is out of ideas. Then it is back to the outlining for the next scene. Each scene she writes has the potential of changing what comes next in the story, so she re-outlines constantly.

It’s All Plotting, But…

Robert outlines meticulously so that every clue and detail is known before he starts writing.

Janet jots down a couple of sentences for each chapter, using a storyboard to track the action.

Lois plots just enough for a couple of chapters at a time.

Three successful writers. Three different variations on outlining and plotting.

Your Turn

Do you outline your novel before you start writing? What’s your process like?