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Saturday, April 12, 2014

K: Knowledge




This one's a huge catch-all.  The knowledge we need to write.  On one level, of course, all you need is to write.  (And if you don't write, no matter what you know, you aren't a writer.  See this brilliant summary by the ever-clever and profane Chuck Wendig).  So you need enough self-knowledge to know you want to write, and enough self-discipline to sit down and do it.

But it helps if you have some other kinds of knowledge: the mechanics of writing, grammar, proofing.  These things are pretty self-evident, and can be studied if you are weak in any of them.

And then there is the knowledge that I didn't even know I needed when I started this journey: knowledge of publishing and marketing and book design. .  . If you are starting out as an author-publisher, do better than I did and take time now to start learning about all of these.  Join the communities at Goodreads.com.  Start reading blogs (there are about a million that deal with all aspects of writing and publishing).  Start your own blog, do the A to Z Challenge, be a part of communities.

And get someone to make you an exceptional cover, and read my post on editing.


This is what I got when I did it myself

And this is what I got when I paid someone to do it right.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Rebecca,
    Knowledge is very essential in this century and we can obtain it thru many ways,
    This note is a very interesting, different kinds of knowledge. I too posted this time on this subject, under the title Knowledge is for sharing.
    Have a happy weekend.
    Best
    Philip Ariel

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    1. Always fun to look at things in different ways--and thinking about what we know that we didn't know at some earlier stage is a nice way to feel a bit less hopeless!

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  2. Oh, if only I'd known then what I know now... but then I wouldn't have started, and I'd never have met you... :D

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    1. Aw! You have definitely been one of the great pluses of this journey!

      I've totally neglected the blog this weekend, and my sad knowledge tonight is that I've written only 2 of 6 posts for the week!

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  3. I had no idea what I was doing when I began. My publisher told me to get my butt online, so I did. But there is a wealth of information available here!

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    1. That's for sure! I remember when I started, just googling how to market self-published books. What a boat-load of info, and I'm still gradually learning more. Maybe by my 10th book I'll get it right. Ha!

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