Of all the nonfiction books, memoirs are among the most difficult to market and sell. Unless you're a household name already, you have to give people a reason to read your story. That means everything from making sure you're focusing the story around a particular theme to finding the right places to market.

If you're writing an educational or informational nonfiction book, finding your audience can be difficult. It depends on the topic, the writing style, and so much more. But there are a few steps you can take to help narrow it down as part of your marketing efforts. We talk about the who, what, where, when, and why of marketing educational nonfiction in this episode.

When it comes to marketing any book, it's about reaching your audience where they are. For authors of speculative fiction, particularly fantasy, that means finding them often online and enticing them with gorgeous covers and thrilling adventures. Listen for more tips on the five W's of marketing your spec fic books.

We're tackling the topic of marketing once again this month, focusing on how to tailor your efforts depending on the genre of your story. We start this month by talking about the marketing recipe: who, what, where, when, and why. By understanding these five W's, you can adjust your efforts to meet your audience where they are in a way they are most likely to respond.

One piece of advice that you will encounter a lot in your writing journey, especially if you take any formal classes, is to avoid passive voice. It helps the characters take control of what is happening in their story. Active voice is more direct and often more clear. However, we believe passive voice is still a good tool to know, understand, and use under the right circumstances.

There are a lot of people out there giving advice about writing, sharing their opinions and experiences to help you in your journey. Unfortunately, some of that advice is not good. Not that the advice won't help someone, but no piece of advice is right for everyone. But it can be a confusing landscape for newer writers trying to get their start. If you try to listen to every piece of advice, you'll end up confused and bookless. In this episode, our hosts talk about the process of looking at writing advice and identifying signatures that indicate it might just be plain bad advice.

Perhaps it's an overcorrection from the extremely verbose fiction of the 1800s to early 1900s, but there has been a shift in writing advice to avoid detailed descriptions. Authors are constantly told to keep the story moving, only include relevant details, and don't chase away a reader with boring details. You might find yourself asking, "what about scene setting? What about immersing the reader in the world?" That's why we recommend breaking this rule, but in moderation. No one wants the unnecessary details of the Victorian Era, but we also need something to get us into the world you've crafted. Listen to this episode to learn why this rules exists and how to best break it.

One piece of good advice that is often applied too often is to "kill your darlings." It is good to approach the editing process with a sort of ruthlessness that can rival your story's villain, but removing your "darlings" simply because you like it is going to far. Applying this rule to anything you are attached to will remove the joy from the process. So instead of killing it, we recommend you analyze those pieces you enjoy and find a way to make it relevant.

This is another one of those contradictory rules you've probably heard: Only ever use "said" in your dialogue tags. Yet you've also probably heard "said is dead." So which is it? The real answer is found in breaking both of these and finding a balance. While using said is great for its invisible nature, other words can better describe the mood or volume you're trying to convey in fewer words than it would take to describe. As with most writing, it's about finding the right word rather than the one people say you should use, or not use.

When it comes to advice for starting your story, you've probably found lists of what not to do. Sometimes, those lists contradict themselves in ways that make it a confusing process to figure out exactly how a story is supposed to start. That's why we recommend breaking this rule. Before you can do that, you need to know why the rules for starting off a story exist in the first place so you can avoid the problems and make those beginnings intentional and compelling. First aired April 15, 2024.

Word counts are a rule for very good reasons. From audience expectation to publisher requirements, word counts are an established part of writing. For each time you've heard the standard for whatever genre, you've probably thought immediately of several exemptions. So why is there a rule in the first place if exceptions are so common? Listen for more about the rules of word count and how to break them.

If you've heard any writing advice or rules, you've heard "show, don't tell." While this is great advice that can help enrich a story and immerse the reader, creating a book of only "show" becomes tedious for the reader. Sometimes, telling is the right way to go. Like most writing rules, it's about finding the right ways to break it for the best story in the end.

When it comes to rules of writing, the rules regarding prologues is important for getting readers engaged and interested right away. Prologues have the power to either pull a reader into a world or to drive them away from the story entirely. The audience has expectations that you need to understand if you choose to write a prologue. We discuss the rules and how to break them in the best ways for an effective prologue in this episode.

For a podcast all about helping you learn how to write and craft your stories, we're not big fans of rules. Or, perhaps, we just like knowing that most so-called "writing rules" are there to be broken. Throughout April, we will be discussing some of the most common rules and how to best break them in order to tell a better story. In this episode, we talk about why these rules exist, and why they should be followed in most cases, especially if you're starting your journey.

One way to create unique and relatable characters is to make some that are neurodivergent in some way. The more common diagnoses associated with neurodivergent include ADHD and autism, both of which often suffer from extreme stereotyping when portrayed through story. There are plenty of examples of poorly written characters with traits of autism that have done nothing to help stigmas real people have to deal with daily. In this episode, our hosts discuss how to wriite ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia. Most importantly, remember that there is no one single way these present themselves. The best way to write accurate neurodivergent representation is to find a sensitivity reader who can share their experience and give advice from their perspective.

Along with that moment of hope mentioned earlier this month, characters will often have a moment of getting a second wind. First, you have to show them exhausted. Not just tired or sleepy, but exhausted to the point where they want to give up. This can be more than just a physical exhaustion as well. Listen for tips on how to write exhaustion and the burst of energy that can help drive a character beyond what they thought was possible.

Everyone is unique, but portraying it on the page is difficult. Among new writers, we often see the concern that their story - whether plot, characters or world - isn't unique enough. In this episode, we address each of these, including how a character's loneliness can help support being unique within the world.

There will come a time in your story where your characters don't feel up to the task ahead. Though there are a myriad of reason why this could be, the most common is inferiority. They do not feel good enough, strong enough or powerful enough to take on that final task. Inferiority can also be laced into a character from the beginning. Perhaps they've been bullied for a long time, or perhaps they've turned to bullying as an outlet for their own feelings of inferiority. Whatever it is, you can use it in your story to create depth in your characters.

In the darkest times, your characters need something to give them a spark of hope. Something to get them back on their feet and willing to continue the fight. That is why as an author, you need to know how to write the emotions of hope and inspiration. From rallying speeches to the physical appearance of a character gaining hope again, we discuss how to represent these key emotions in your story.

Though not exactly an emotion, hunger does have a huge impact on people as they move through their daily lives. Different levels of hunger come with their own emotions. Food can also play a strong role in building companionship and community. If you're struggling with how to get two characters to work together, food may be your answer. In this episode, our hosts talk about the different emotions that can come with hunger, how food plays a role in society, and how you can use this to your advantage in storytelling.