Each week, Friday Finds brings you a round-up of helpful writing, editing, and book marketing tips right here... or in your inbox.
Happy Friday!
With today's finds, we're back to the fun and educational side of things, from book marketing on a budget to differentiating between types of editors. There's even a tech-based productivity hack that explains the cryptic title.
Enjoy these links and enjoy your weekend,
Jessica Hatch
Marketing a Book on $200 or Less
If you don’t think it’s possible to market, publicize, and promote your book without an advertising budget, think again, says Publishers Weekly’s BookLife.com.
I tend to agree. If you’re an indie writer with a budget of $200 or less, you can still promote your book and get it in front of readers. Absolutely.
You’ll just have to use a bit more elbow grease than the guys throwing money at Facebook and Google. Click here to learn where to get and how to use said grease.
By the way, I’m writing a Stress-Free Book Publicity Guide, which will be available on this website soon.
If you want to learn more,
What to Expect from a Fiction Editor
If you’re on this website, reading this article, then you likely know your novel can benefit from the help of an editor. What you may not know is the difference between the types of editing available to you as a writer.
This helpful article from Reedsy Marketplace breaks it down for you, explaining the difference between developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading.* Of course, all editors are different. For instance, on this website, I describe my developmental editing services as Manuscript Critique.
Full disclosure: I have a profile on Reedsy Marketplace, which has put in me in touch with several of my fantastic clients. I hope you’ll check Reedsy out, if only because you can get professional design help for your book cover and layout, too!
Grayscale is Best for Increased Writing Productivity
And finally, dialing it in from the weird news desk…
If you find yourself distracted by your phone, consider switching to visual output to grayscale.
According to Greatist.com, the human brain is stimulated by color, especially vibrant colors with positive associations, like that red circle that notifies you of an alert or new message on an iPhone app.
By this logic, if you switch your phone to grayscale just before you sit down to write, you’re less likely to want to check Instagram, Facebook, or any other visually stimulating time wasters.
Though the linked article says this is only for iPhone users with iOS 8 or higher, those of us with older iPhones can opt for grayscale under Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters.
I hear there’s a similar setting for Android devices called 5.0 Lollipop, too, so none of us will have to resort to the good, old-fashioned “Keep Your Phone in a Locked Safe across the Room” productivity method. Happy writing!