You would like to write some fiction or nonfiction. The issue is whether you can add that to your plate, or if next year would be better. There’s always next year, right? Next year always comes, but not with more than 24 hours in each day.
You may be able to rethink your activities and pare down some responsibilities or hobbies. Perhaps you want to go through this book to get a better sense of time involved in writing blogs or books (or anything else). Then you can figure out what to cut or reprioritize.
One thing is definite. If you allocate a certain time of the day or given day to writing, you are more likely to make progress. If you let those most close to you know you plan to write a few hours per week, youc can more easily designate time to do so. What you don’t want is to reach a certain age and say, “If only I’d started earlier.”
This book will help you figure out It’s not about turning your life upside down. It could be about two more hours per week. If you can find it, I can show you how to go from rough draft to published author -- whether you do all the work yourself or work with a publisher. Check out the chapters:
1 Thinking Through the Writing Option
2 Setting Aside Time & Resources to Write
3 The Publishing Environment
4 Options for Types of Writing
5 Feedback and Proofing
6 Types of Publishers and Questions for Them
7 If You Do Decide to Self-Publish
8 Preparing to Publish: Ebook Formatting
9 Paperbacks with Amazon KDP
10 Paperbacks with Barnes and Noble and Ingram Spark
11 Online Tools To Create Book Covers
12 Business Basics of Retail Accounts
13 How Retail Sales Sites Differ
14 Loading Ebooks to Online Retailers
15 Producing Audiobooks
16 Selling What You Write
17 BONUS CHAPTER!
Articles, Short Stories, and Blogs: Brief Can be Mighty
Why should you read a book written by Elaine L. Orr? For years she wrote in bits and pieces because she had busy jobs. Most of those early products will never see daylight, but they did teach her a lot about writing. She kept reading books on writing, taking classes and...writing. Finally, she was ready to publish -- and put out 25 book in 7 years. Your path may be different, but the route doesn't start until you make the time to write.
BIOGRAPHY Elaine L. Orr writes four mystery series, the thirteen-book Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series, the three-book River's Edge series, the three-book Logland series, and the four-book Family History Mystery series.
The Jolie Gentil series is set at the Jersey shore. Behind the Walls was a finalist for the 2014 Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Awards.
The first book in Elaine's River's Edge cozy mystery series, From Newsprint to Footprints, debuted in late fall 2015, followed by Demise of a Devious Neighbor. The latter was a Chanticleer finalist in 2017. The fictional South County sits along the Des Moines River in Southeast Iowa.
In 2016, Elaine issued Tip a Hat to Murder, first in the Logland mystery series. Set in small-town Illinois, its protagonist is a police chief rather than an amateur sleuth. The third book, Final Cycle, was published in June 2019.
Finally, a series set in her native Maryland! The Family History series in the Western Maryland mountains examines crimes of the past with a sleuth in the present. Add a ghost only Digger can see, and you get a great mix of humor and insight of the region.
Nonfiction includes Writing When Time is Scares -- and Getting the Work Published, and many family history books. In 2019, she published Fitting in After Fifty -- to Your New Town. The guide to breaking into a community at a 'mature' age is practical and adds a touch of humor.
Elaine also writes plays and novellas, including Falling Into Place and In the Shadow of Light. Biding Time was one of five finalists in the National Press Club's first fiction contest, in 1993, and her play, Permission to Hope, was part of the Bethesda, MD Plays in Progress series in 1989. The one-act, Common Ground, is a story of three couples planning big moves -- with a twist.
Elaine conducts presentations on electronic publishing and other writing-related topics. Nonfiction includes Words to Write By: Getting Your Thoughts on Paper and Writing in Retirement: Putting New Year’s Resolutions to Work. She also conducts online courses on writing and publishing on the TabletWise and Teachable platforms.
Thought her degrees are in government, Elaine studied writing at the University of Maryland, Georgetown University School of Continuing Education, the Writer's Center of Bethesda, Maryland, and the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival. A member of Sisters in Crime and the Indiana Writers’ Center, Elaine grew up in Maryland and moved to the Midwest in 1994.